Now on the Drawing Board: SuitSat-2 to Have Ham Radio Transponders

SuitSat-1 was launched into space from the ISS in February 2006. [NASA Photo]

ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, reviews the SuitSat-1 experience during the 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium.

ARISS Hardware Team Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID (left), and Bauer display a flexible solar array at the AMSAT Space Symposium. Plans now call for using much smaller panels on SuitSat-2.

ARISS-Russia's Sergei Samburov, RV3DR, came up with the SuitSat concept two years ago. Translator Olga Frumkin is on the left.

ISS Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, regaled the AMSAT Space Symposium banquet. "I enjoyed more than I can possibly tell you talking to so many of you," McArthur told the audience. Among all crew members ever to live aboard the ISS, McArthur was the most active on Amateur Radio. He said the tremendous enthusiasm of the radio amateurs and students he talked with via ham radio helped him to focus on why he was aboard the ISS.

NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 9, 2006 -- Plans to launch a second "SuitSat" spacesuit-turned-satellite were the subject of discussions and presentations at the recent AMSAT Space Symposium and Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Delegates' meeting near San Francisco. Despite a weaker-than-anticipated 2-meter signal, SuitSat-1 -- a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit fitted with an Amateur Radio transmitter -- sparked the imagination of students and the general public and turned into a public relations bonanza for Amateur Radio. ARISS now hopes to capitalize on the concept by building an even better SuitSat that will include ham radio transponders.

"The whole science fiction aspect" of SuitSat-1 made it attractive, ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, told the AMSAT Space Symposium in early October. "From our perspective it was a tremendous success." Bauer said the experience gained through SuitSat-1 "will provide the stepping stone to get to the next level."

The ISS Expedition 12 crew of Bill McArthur, KC5ACR -- who was the AMSAT Space Symposium's banquet speaker -- and Valery Tokarev released SuitSat-1 into orbit. SuitSat-1 transmitted its voice message -- "This is SuitSat-1 RS0RS!" -- in several languages plus telemetry and an SSTV image on an eight-minute cycle as it orbited Earth. The unusual spacecraft's radio signal was heard around the globe, although only the best-equipped Earth stations could copy it.

The SuitSat.org Web site attracted nearly 10 million hits during the mission. Designated by AMSAT as AO-54, SuitSat-1 remained in operation for more than two weeks, easily outlasting initial predictions that it would transmit for about a week. SuitSat-1 re-entered and burned up in Earth's atmosphere September 7.

Bauer said ARISS learned a great deal from SuitSat-1 that it hopes to apply to the next-generation model, which will re-use another surplus Orlan spacesuit. Demonstrating safety interlock systems to space agencies was perhaps the most important, he said. Telemetry also indicated that SuitSat's thermal environment was not hostile to the onboard experimental equipment. Dispelling at least one SuitSat-1 "myth," Bauer said the satellite's battery never froze, as some had speculated as the cause for the extremely weak downlink signal. Also, he said, SuitSat-1 never stopped transmitting during its active lifetime as other reports stated.

Lou McFadin, W5DID, who headed the team that developed SuitSat-1's hardware, told the AMSAT Space Symposium that SuitSat-2 will incorporate some features his team didn't have the chance to accomplish the first time around. For starters, the second SuitSat will have an onboard Amateur Radio transponder using digital signal processing (DSP) techniques, in part to cut down on the "number of boxes" inside and on the spacesuit. McFadin says the SuitSat team is looking at SuitSat-2 as a test bed for the satellite hardware that AMSAT plans to launch on its Phase 3E "Eagle Project" satellite, which will employ software defined radio (SDR) technology.

"With DSP, we can do more than one thing at once," he said. Among them are an SSB Mode U/V transponder, an FM crossband transponder, a CW ID that offers a contest for listeners to copy as many of the call signs as possible -- possibly sparking more interest in Morse code, a digipeater and four slow-scan TV (SSTV) cameras -- Earth stations could select from among the images. Other experiments are yet to be determined. The SDR transponder's passband will be on the order of 40 to 50 kHz wide.

"We're going to have so much fun with this," McFadin predicted, adding that one goal of SuitSat-2 will be to attract newcomers to Amateur Radio.

Solar panels -- something SuitSat-1 did not have -- will energize the hardware and recharge SuitSat-2's 28 V batteries. "The solar panels we are planning on using will be obsolete surplus solar panels from a previous satellite program," McFadin told ARRL this week. "These panels, while only about as large as a legal-size sheet of paper, supply almost the same power as the larger flexible panels we displayed at the AMSAT Space Symposium." Those could supply 30 W.

An ISS crew could launch SuitSat-2 during a spacewalk as early as next fall. "We're talking about October of next year, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Sputnik-1," McFadin said. Other possible commemorative occasions could include the 125th birth anniversary of Robert Goddard, considered the father of modern rocketry, and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He was the grandfather of ARISS-Russia's Sergei Samburov, RV3DR, who came up with the idea for the original SuitSat at the 2004 ARISS International delegates meeting.

Whether it flies or not, "there are benefits to all along the path to SuitSat-2," McFadin added. He predicted the second SuitSat could have an operational lifetime of six months or longer.

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