SuitSat-1 A Unique Satellite By Gould SmithWA4SXM By Gould Smith, WA4SXM
SuitSat was proposed by Sergey Samburov at the International ARISS meeting in Washington, DC October 2004 to honor the 175 th Anniversary of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University
ARISS is an international group promoting Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
SuitSat is an out of service Russian Orlan space suit with an Amateur Radio transmitter
The US ARISS group designed and built the SuitSat controller, voice generator and switch box in a month.
SuitSat was adapted to the spacesuit and tested in Russia
SuitSat Flight Hardware ready to send to the ISS
The flight hardware was sent to the ISS aboard a Progress supply craft in September 2005
Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev installs the hardware on the Orlan space suit
Mounting the antenna and switch box to the helmet
SuitSat will be launched from the International Space Station (ISS) February 3, 2006
The Expedition 12 crew of Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev will manually launch SuitSat during a spacewalk (EVA)
SuitSat is ready for launch
Close-up of the handmade patch and CD with pictures
The CD on SuitSat contains over 300 pieces of international student art, pictures, poems and signatures.
Before release the switches will be flipped to ON.
After release SuitSat will drift away from the ISS
SuitSat will orbit the earth every 90 minutes at a height of 360 km (223 mi), but continually losing altitude
The orbit will cover most of the populated areas of the earth. So, many people can listen to the SuitSat signal, during its’ short lifetime.
Messages from SuitSat Voice telemetry (mission time, temperature, battery voltage) Russian message Europe student message (Spanish & German) Bauman Institute message in Russian Canada student message in French Mr. Alexandrov message in English Japan student message in Japanese USA student message in English
SSTV picture transmission SuitSat will transmit a picture using different tones to represent the colors. The transmission is in Robot 36 format and it will take about 36 seconds to transmit the entire picture.
Listening to SuitSat SuitSat transmissions will be weak and are on a frequency of MHz. Schools copying the transmissions from SuitSat can apply for a special certificate.
Additional Information send contact reports ARISS web site AMSAT web site
Enjoy SuitSat, a unique satellite. “This is SuitSat-1 RS0RS!”