Espace

Deux astronautes lancent un satellite

Deux astronautes, un Américain et un Russe, ont effectué une sortie dans l'espace de près de six heures.

Ils ont lancé un satellite construit à partir d'un ancien modèle de scaphandre russe.

Le satelitte a été construit par des étudiants de Moscou et doit retransmettre sur Terre des images de la station ainsi que des salutations aux enfants du monde en cinq langues.

L'astronaute américain William MacArthur et le cosmonaute russe Valeri Tokarev font partie de l'équipage de la station spatiale internationale.

Les deux hommes ont regagné la station après avoir réalisé une séries de tâches scientifiques et effectué divers ajustements mineurs sur des sections de la station.

An Empty Spacesuit Becomes an Orbital Experiment

02.01.06

Using a simple police scanner or ham radio, you can listen to a disembodied spacesuit circling Earth.

One of the strangest satellites in the history of the space age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 3rd. That's when astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard.
ISS astronaut Mike Finke spacewalks in a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

The spacesuit is the satellite -- "SuitSat" for short.

"SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm," explains Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program, mainly a group led by Sergey Samburov, had an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites." SuitSat is a first test of that idea.

Right: ISS astronaut Mike Finke spacewalks in a Russian Orlan spacesuit in 2004. SuitSat will have no one inside. [More]

"We've equipped a Russian Orlan spacesuit with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power," says Bauer. "As SuitSat circles Earth, it will transmit its condition to the ground."

Unlike a normal spacewalk, with a human inside the suit, SuitSat's temperature controls will be turned off to conserve power. The suit, arms and legs akimbo, possibly spinning, will be exposed to the fierce rays of the sun with no way to regulate its internal temperature.

"Will the suit overheat? How long will the batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission if the suit tumbles?" wonders Bauer. These are some of the questions SuitSat will answer, laying the groundwork for SuitSats of the future.

SuitSat can be heard by anyone on the ground. "All you need is an antenna (the bigger the better) and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM," says Bauer. "A police band scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work just fine." He encourages students, scouts, teachers and ham radio operators to tune in.

For years, Bauer and colleagues at Goddard have been connecting kids on Earth with astronauts on the ISS through the ARISS program (Amateur Radio on International Space Station). "There's a ham rig on the ISS, and the astronauts love talking to students when they pass over schools," Bauer explains. ARISS is co-sponsoring SuitSat along with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Russian Space Agency and NASA.
FM radio tuned to 145.990 MHz

Right: Tune your FM radio to 145.990 MHz.

When will SuitSat orbit over your home town?

You can find out by using "Skywatch 2.0," found on the station sightings page. After entering your zip code here, click the "Next Pass" button to see when the station passes over your area. You can continue using this button to see additional passes, and use the "SkyTrack" button to create a map of the station's path through the night sky.

Because the ISS and SuitSat share similar orbits, predictions for one will serve for the other. For observers in the United States, SuitSat passes overhead once or twice a day, usually between midnight and 4 o'clock in the morning. At that time of day, SuitSat and the ISS will be in Earth's shadow and, thus, too dark to see with the naked eye. You'll need a radio to detect them. (You can also track the Station's orbit in realtime here.)

"Point your antenna to the sky during the 5-to-10 minute flyby," advises Bauer, and this is what you'll hear:

SuitSat transmits for 30 seconds, pauses for 30 seconds, and then repeats. "This is SuitSat-1, RS0RS," the transmission begins, followed by a prerecorded greeting in five languages. The greeting contains "special words" in English, French, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish for students to record and decipher. (Awards will be given to students who do this. Scroll to the "more information" area at the end of this story for details.)

Next comes telemetry: temperature, battery power, mission elapsed time. "The telemetry is stated in plain language--in English," says Bauer. Everyone will be privy to SuitSat's condition. Bauer adds, "Suitsat 'talks' using a voice synthesizer. It's pretty amazing."
SuitSat in a laboratory at Goddard showing the antenna and control box.

The transmission ends with a Slow Scan TV picture. Of what? "We're not telling," laughs Bauer. "It's a mystery picture." (More awards will be given to students who figure out what it is.)

Right: In a laboratory at Goddard, SuitSat bends over to display its antenna and control box. [More]

Students and teachers who want to try this, but have no clue how to begin, should contact their local ham radio club. There are thousands of them around the country. Click here to find a club near you. "Hams are notoriously outgoing; most would be delighted to help students tune in to SuitSat," believes Bauer.

Bauer expects SuitSat's batteries to last 2 to 4 days. "Although longer is possible," he allows. After that, SuitSat will begin a slow silent spiral into Earth's atmosphere. Weeks or months later, no one knows exactly when, it will become a brilliant fireball over some part of Earth--a fitting end for a trailblazer.
More Information

Students and teachers: How do you get your Suitsat awards? Frank Bauer explains: "Those that hear SuitSat should send their signal reports with a large (9x12 inch) self-addressed stamped envelope to one of the addresses listed below."

* USA: ARRL Headquarters SuitSat QSL 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA
* Canada: Radio Amateurs of Canada SuitSat QSL 720 Belfast Road, Suite 217 Ottawa Ontario K1G 0Z5
* Europe: F1MOJ - Mr CANDEBAT Christophe SuitSat Europe QSL Manager 7 Rue Roger Bernard 30470 AIMARGUES FRANCE
* Japan: SuitSat Japan QSL JARL International Section Tokyo 170-8073 JAPAN
* Russia: Alexander Davydov, RN3DK Novo - Mytishchinsky prospekt 52 - 111 Mytishchi 18, Moskovskaya obl. 141018, RUSSIA
* Other countries, please use the US or Canadian address above.

"Students will get a certificate commemorating their reception. Those that receive the picture or copy the special words will get a special endorsement on their certificate." [More]

Ham Radios in Space -- (Science@NASA) Students and ham radio operators are talking to astronauts in Earth orbit. See also: Students make first contact with ISS.