Huston We Have A Problem! - SuitSat is Dead

exactly kinda like thomas eddison he found over 1,000 ways not to make a lightbulb but it took him only once to find out the right way so maybe we learn from our/their mistakes

 

PLEASE DELETE THIS WHOLE THREAD. The Media has to retract incorrect postings, or should. Why shouldnt qrz.com?

 

I agree! Didn't the first CW key have problems? And the first ham radio wasn't perfect?! Lord knows the first computer wasn't perfect!! With everything, there is bound to be lessons learned. We will know about this issue the NEXT time we do this.

This is my personal opinion only, I feel this was a great first step leading to the second.

'73
Jude
KB8SPC

 

I posted a quote from ARRL in another thread: The batteries were mentioned in an article about this project, and it was stated that the batteries are stored in an external compartment during normal use of the suit, not within the environment maintained by a functioning suit. I don't doubt that there were battery problems, but it is not that they "froze" and no one thought of that. Remember, just about everything involved in making this satellite was going to be discarded anyway. I suspect (but could be wrong) that they did not use a new battery to begin with since that would be a relatively expensive station resource to just discard.

 

Nonetheless, it was poorly executed--which means it was poorly thought out.

On 29 Jan I predicted the batteries would fail: "within a few hours". You certainly didn't need a Ph.D. to figure it out. And being ticked off that someone told the truth,and then having some hams  project  it as 'negativity' makes the amateur radio service look like a group of pollyanna space cadets, IMO.

Please get GROUNDED in reality people!

This notion that doing 'experiments' will help you iterate to success is grand--but utterly stupid with respect to Suitsat. Read Ron's (AI4CB) trenchant point on Sputnik vs Suitsat.

--------------------------

"It's only a switch"--Dr. Nathan Cohen

 

I get tired of the poor spelling....

And learning from mistakes is fine, but being able to anticipate obvious ones, after 49 years in space, is a requirement of intelligence.

Or are we now supposed to diss intelligence here ALSO?

 

Come on naysayers. They experimented, it didn't work out as planned (kind of like antennas most of us have built or projects that didn't work out as planned either).
Get over it and move on.

 

I was excited to learn about SuitSat... so it failed... but I wonder how many people became interested in Amateur Radio because of this?? The story was on the mainstream press. So even if it was a failure... it was a success.

Eric

 

I disagree. It said that whatever we do fails. I don't like that message going out. Yes it was a good idea, and as such deserved a little more thought. But, I don't agree with Chuck that we need to burn the suit, blow up the ISS and remove all the families of the Astronauts from the face of the earth.

What we do need to remember is how much buzz this generated and try to do something else along these lines with forethought. Kids need something they can receive on a scanner and participate in. What a great idea this suit thing was to let it fail so badly.

 

I think it was more like a redneck experiment. 'Hey ya'll, lets see what happens if we take our last working space suit, put the only working radio in it, and kick it out the door'.

 

NO, this was not an experiment. It was some guys screwin' around, and not all that well.

 

Ok, so the use of a defunct space suit was a little strange, but it did prove the feasibility of constructing an inexpensive satellite and launching it by hand.  

If this were to be tried again, I'd suggest launching something more conventional.  How about issuing a challenge to schools to design and build their own satellites constructed from common, commercially available components?  Perhaps AMSAT could offer a basic satellite kit comprised of a metal project box, thermal insulation, transmitter circuit board and components, programmable controller, antenna material, etc. and let the kids have at it. The result would be small, hand-portable units that could be easily tossed out the air lock, one or more at a time during each spacewalk.  

-Dave, K3WQ

 

Everyone should cut them some slack! This was an impromptu "experiment". Someone had an idea of something to do that might be fun with some garbage that was going to be jettisoned anyway. It wasn't some OSCAR project, and there was not a lot of time to devote to designing and planning. At least I hope not, because for what that station costs to operate I sure hope they have better things to do than spend time designing and building amateur radio satellites!

 

Why?

 

The suit cost 2 million bucks (equiv.).

So...what's inexpensive about it?