Marex News, ISS Amateur Radio Status: January 24, 2002 12 Antennas Installed for Amateur Radio SpaceCam1 ISS Visible Space Tourists and Contests By Miles Mann WF1F, MAREX-NA News Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division New ISS Crew: Current Members of the ISS Expedition Four: Commander Yuri Onufrienko RK3DUO of Rosaviakosmos (formally called RSA Russian Space Agency) American Flight Engineers Carl Walz KC5TIE Dan Bursch KD5PNU Antenna Space Walk: Last week the ISS crew installed one of the new multiple-band Amateur radio antennas on the Zvezda Service Module module. This Friday, the ISS crew will install the remaining three additional multiple band Amateur radio antennas on the hull of the Zvezda Service Module. Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch will conduct the space walk (EVA) this Friday at 15:35 GMT. In Flight Antennas and hardware: By the end of January, there will be a total of (12) twelve externally mounted antennas on ISS which can be used for Amateur Radio experimentation. Some of the antennas in the Zvezda Service Module will be shared with other experiments including the commercial helmet mounted TV camera project. The helmet TV cameras will send live TV signals back to mission control during spacewalks to allow mission control to help monitor the Spacewalking crews progress. The new ARISS antenna systems are designed so that 2 or 3 projects can share a single antenna system at the same time. The NASA TV channel has been showing several move clips of the ISS crew preparing the new Amateur Radio antennas for the spacewalk. If you watch this week you may be able to get a good look at the systems. Also, check the MAREX web page for additional pictures of the new ARISS antenna systems. Current and Pending antennas systems (1) Mono band 2-meter (147 mc) (Cirrus antenna system mounted on the Zarya module, This antenna is currently connected to the Amateur Radio Erickson 2-meter Voice/Packet station ) (3) 2-meter (145 mc) antennas (ARISS Multi antenna platforms wa-1, wa-2 and wa-3, Zvezda module) (3) 70-cm (435 mc) antennas (ARISS Multi antenna platforms wa-1, wa-2 and wa-3, Zvezda module) (1) 10-meter (28 mc) antenna (ARISS Multi antenna platforms wa-4 Zvezda module) (4) Patch antennas for 1.2-2.4 gc (ARISS Multi antenna platforms wa-1, wa-2, wa-3 and wa-4, Zvezda module) One of the reasons we are so excited about the new ARISS antennas system is because of the fact, that without antennas, you will not have a Radio project. This antenna project actually began in 1995, a year before ARISS existed. At that time, ARISS was an informal group of clubs who were trying to plan the-out a future wish list of educational amateur radio related projects for ISS. During the first ARISS meeting in November 1996, we heard several antenna proposals for ISS. The RSA team which then became the AIRSS-Russian team proceeded with the difficult task of getting 4 holes drilled in the side of the Zvezda module. The other ARISS teams began the process of designing and building the new antenna systems. And now thanks to the hard work from everyone, we now have 12 antenna ports available for experimentation. SpaceCam1: The joint MAREX/ARISS Slow Scan TV project, is currently being tested on both sides of the pond. During a MAREX telecon with RSA, the Russian engineers came up with several suggestions for the proposed Slow Scan TV project for ISS. All of the proposed changes are being review by the MAREX team. For more information, check out the MAREX web page. ISS Visible: The ISS should be Visible in the evening skies, over North America during the next few weeks. Check your tracking programs. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/ If you do not have a tracking program, please check the NASA web pages for tracking and Visibility data. There have been several good reports of very bright reflections from ISS. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/index.html http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/SightingDatai /sghting_index.html Space Tourists and Contests: Do you remember last years ISS tourist, Denis Tito? We'll, it seems there is another Space Tourist training for a mission during the Summer of 2002. The Rumors are that he is a South African and he will be flown to ISS for a short mission via a Soyuze Rocket. There are also at least (3) Three Television Contests in the works to send a winner into Space. One of the projects called Space Commander was open to European citizens (no more applications being accepted). Space Commander accepted 6000 applications (you had to call in via Premium Service phone line and spend an hour on the Premium Service line and pay a FEE to apply, I don't think that would be legal in the USA). The other contests are still in development, if you find any specific details please pass it on to MAREX, thanks. 73 Miles WF1F MAREX-NA www.marex-na.org Copyright 2001 Miles Mann, All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers),Usenet, and World-Wide-Web. It may not be reproduced for profit including, but notlimited to, CD ROMs, books, and/or other commercial outlets without Prior written consent from the author. Until we meet again DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F