ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 12:15 UTC (7:15 am ET)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Rosalie White

Mark Steiner

Larry Agabekov

Keigo Komuro

Ken Nichols

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Graham Shirville

Ken Pulfer

Carol Jackson

Tom Clark

Fabiano Moser

Will Marchant

Daniel Lamoureux

Kenneth Ransom

Mark Severance

Bill Boston

Sheila Bass

Interpreter, Angelique Brice

Not present:

Robin Haighton

Tadeu Fernandes

Gaston Bertels

Masanobu Tsuji

Sergey Samburov

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. Next ARISS-I face to face meeting – Canada or Europe? Spring 2009? Presenter: F. Bauer

Danielle Lamoureux stated that the Canadian team will not be able support a meeting in Canada in that time frame.

Frank would like to set the venue at the next teleconference. Fabiano noted that the AMRAD meeting is being held in Portugal next week and that they would consider hosting the next ARISS-I meeting.

2. Proposed ARISS-Ops team face to face meeting, Fall 2009, Washington, DC, Presenter: F. Bauer

Much like the value gained from the face to face international team meetings, Frank feels that the international ARISS-Ops team would benefit from a face to face meeting and is proposing that it be held in concert with the AMSAT-NA meeting in Washington, DC in the fall of 2009. Note that AMSAT will be celebrating its 40th anniversary next year at that meeting. The dates of that meeting have not been set.

3. On orbit hardware, status, Presenters: S. Samburov/F. Bauer

Kenwood radio - Spare Kenwood radio plans - SSTV (Sergey was not in attendance, so Kenneth provided the status). The backup Kenwood D700 was successfully swapped out with the primary unit, although the backup is still at Rev. F. The US and Russian teams are finalizing Rev. I to be uploaded to the unit. One possible use of the now-backup radio would be as a dedicated cross-band repeater.

Although SSTV was successful during Richard’s flight, there were some problems noted that would make regular operations problematic. Plans are being developed to bring SSTV operations online in the relatively near future.

4. New business (administrative only)

A) Early December marks the 25th anniversary of the first human ham radio operations in space by Owen Garriott. Plans are being worked for special operations from ISS to commemorate this event. New variations on operating modes are under consideration.

B) Plans to fly additional antennas on Node 3 did not pan out due to schedules and funding. We are making good progress on V/U antennas for the Columbus module and should be able to provide a definitive answer on this around the end of the year.

General Session

5. SuitSat-2 status, Presenter: L. McFadin

The second revision of the circuit boards is underway. The RF system prototype has been integrated and is about to be tested. Interfaces with the Russian experiment are being worked. Great progress is being made.

6. New business

None.

The next international partners meeting will be December 16 at 12:15 UTC.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team