SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS007
ARLS007 ARISSat-1 Finally Deployed from ISS
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Space Bulletin 007 ARLS007
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT August 4, 2011
To all radio amateurs
SB SPACE ARL ARLS007
ARLS007 ARISSat-1 Finally Deployed from ISS
After a delay of almost four hours, cosmonauts Sergei Volkov,
RU3DIS, and Alexander Samokutyaev, successfully deployed Amateur
Radio's newest satellite: ARISSat-1/KEDR. The deployment --
originally scheduled to occur at 1457 UTC on Wednesday, August 3 --
was delayed due to antenna concerns.
According to US Mission Control in Houston, ARISSat-1 was supposed
to have two antennas -- one 70 cm antenna and one 2 meter antenna --
but Volkov and Samokutyaev expressed concern when they saw only one
antenna. After discussions between the cosmonauts, the payload
manager and the ground teams in Houston and Moscow, it was decided
to delay the deployment. At the time, it was uncertain if the
satellite would even be deployed during this spacewalk. If ARISSat-1
was not deployed during today's spacewalk, the next opportunity for
its deployment would be February 2012. "Instead of taking chances on
the satellite not working properly once deployed, it has been
decided to secure it for the time being," US Mission Control
reported when the decision to delay was made.
After much consultation, Mission Control in Moscow told the
cosmonauts that they were going to go ahead and deploy the
satellite. At 1843 UTC, Volkov jettisoned ARISSat-1 from his
position on the Pirs docking compartment on the ISS.
The loss of the UHF antenna means that the 435 MHz/145 MHz linear
transponder may not be operational. According to US Mission Control,
it can also mean that there may be loss in the data that can be
downloaded from ARISSat-1, as well as a loss of control capability
from the ground. Even so, radio amateurs will be able to copy voice,
BPSK and SSTV messages.
According to ARISSat-1/KEDR Project Manager Gould Smith, WA4SXM,
ARISSat-1 will be in high power mode (continuous transmission) when
in the Sun. It will go into low power (intermittent) mode when in
eclipse.
ARISSat-1 will be active on the following frequencies and modes:
* 145.950 MHz FM Downlink: FM transmissions will cycle between a
voice ID as RS01S, select telemetry values, 24 international
greeting messages in 15 languages, as well as SSTV images. If you
successfully receive the SSTV transmissions, you are invited to
upload your picture to the ARISS SSTV Gallery at,
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/.
* 435 MHz - 145 MHz Linear Transponder: The linear transponder will
operate in Mode U/V (70 cm up, 2 meters down). It is a 16 kHz wide
inverting passband and the convention will be to transmit LSB on the
435 MHz uplink and receive USB on the 145 MHz downlink.
* 145.919 MHz/145.939 MHz CW Beacons: The CW transmissions will be
call sign ID RS01S, select telemetry and call signs of people
actively involved with the ARISS program.
* 145.920 MHz SSB BPSK-1000 Telemetry: The BPSK transmissions will
feature a new 1kBPSK protocol developed by Phil Karn, KA9Q. When the
CW2 beacon on 145.919 MHz is active, this indicates that the
BPSK-1000 format is being transmitted. If the CW1 beacon on 145.939
MHz is active, the backup of BPSK-400 format is being transmitted.
AMSAT needs your telemetry from ARISSat-1/KEDR after deployment from
the International Space Station. Since there are no "Whole Orbit
Data" storage mechanisms onboard ARISSat-1/KEDR, listener
submissions are the only way for AMSAT to collect the spacecraft
telemetry and KURSK experiment results. Here's how you can help:
* Recorded ARISSat-1/KEDR and Kursk telemetry CSV files (in the
ARISSatTLM folder) can be sent as via e-mail as an attachment to,
telemetry@arissattlm.org.
* If you are running ARISSatTLM and receiving the signal "live" from
ARISSat-1/KEDR, please enable the telemetry forwarding option.
* The latest telemetry can be seen live on your computer or cell
phone at, http://www.arissattlm.org/mobile.
AMSAT has also posted an ARISSat-1/KEDR "How To" page on their
website with pointers concerning digital aspects, such as BPSK
telemetry reception, SSTV reception and more. The web site is,
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ARISSat/ARISSatHowTo.php.
On this spacewalk, Volkov and Samokutyaev also installed laser
communications equipment and replaced experiments on the Zvezda
service module and retrieved a rendezvous antenna. They were unable
to perform the major job of the spacewalk -- relocating a boom
structure to aid future spacewalks -- due to time constraints. This
spacewalk was the third for Volkov, who performed two spacewalks as
Expedition 17 commander in 2008. This was the first spacewalk for
Samokutyaev.
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/EX
