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CX2SA > ISS 28.01.06 02:49l 82 Lines 4154 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 24979_CX2SA
Read: GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: Spacesuit to become makeshift
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<OK0PPL<DB0RES<ON0AR<I0TVL<CX2SA
Sent: 060128/0044Z @:CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA #:24979 [Minas] FBB7.00e $:24979_CX2SA
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA
To : ISS@WW
Spacesuit to become makeshift satellite beacon
==============================================
Perhaps the weirdest satellite ever devised will soon be in orbit around the
Earth.
On 3 February, two astronauts will venture outside the International Space
Station (ISS) to move a cargo boom from one module to another, perform routine
maintenance and retrieve external experiments. But cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov
and astronaut Jeffrey Williams will then hurl a battered - and empty - Russian
spacesuit into space.
But this will be no act of mindless cosmic littering. The Orlon cosmonaut suit
has been modified to act as a crude, improvised, radio satellite dubbed
"SuitSat".
"SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm," says Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Maryland, US. "Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program
had an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites."
The tattered Russian spacesuit will gradually fall towards Earth and should
disintegrate in the planet's atmosphere within a few weeks. How long it lasts
will depend on how much drag it experiences, which is difficult to predict
because of its irregular shape. It should, however, be possible to track the
satellite's flight by radar.
Blaze of glory
--------------
As it circles the Earth at thousands of kilometres per hour, SuitSat will
transmit information about its condition back to the ground. "Will the suit
overheat? How long will the batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission if
the suit tumbles?" Bauer asks.
The suit has been fitted with two boxes - a radio transmitter and electronic
microcontroller - and an antenna has been attached to the outside. It had
already reached the end of its useful life and would have been discarded from
the ISS anyway. But now it will provide potentially useful information during
its final days and go out in a blaze of glory.
SuitSat will also broadcast a recorded greeting to those below. The radio
signal will be transmitted for 30 seconds, once per minute, on 145.990 MHz FM.
Amateur radio enthusiasts will be able to listen to the suit's disembodied
broadcast using an FM receiver and an antenna. It will start with the message
"This is SuitSat-1, RS0RS," followed by greetings in English, French, Japanese,
Russian, German and Spanish. The transmission will then state the suit's
temperature, battery power and elapsed mission time.
Lost astronaut
--------------
Those in the US will also be able to track the suit, and possibly catch a
glimpse as it passes overhead, using a NASA website called J-Pass. This
automatically calculates a satellite's path across the visible sky based on a
visitor's latitude and longitude, or ZIP code.
Max Meerman of UK company Surrey Satellites says the project is mainly designed
to stir public interest in NASA's human space programme. But he concedes that
it could provide some useful information.
"It will be interesting to see how much the drag varies," he told New
Scientist. Meerman says this could help NASA work out how to recapture an
astronaut who becomes detached and drifts far from the station during a
spacewalk.
The transmission from SuitSat will conclude with the transmission of a still TV
image, although NASA is keeping quiet on just what it will be. "We're not
telling," Bauer says. "It's a mystery picture."
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