Orbiting Space Suit Transmitting on 2 meters!

It's funny, it seems everytime somebody wants to inform the radio community on QRZ there's always an argument on the topic. That's the 1 problem with radio, you get many people with many different views on things together the crap hits the fan. It's not just this thread, it's the vast majority. I can see why they say don't talk about religion on the radio, I mean theres an argument over stupid stuff on here regularly. If it ever changed to religion the debate would move mountains. I think it's pretty neat and thanks for the information N2KZ.

73 - Brian

 

I will be listening for the signal.

Click Here For Info On Suit Sat

 

Will someone explain the value to having a satellite like this last 2-4 days?

This I also don't get.

 

now that i got the jpass site to work all i need now is the sstv stuff that is if techs are allowed to veiw/transmit sstv? :0 and what all it take...

 

Of course techs are allowed to view SSTV You are always allowed to "view" or "listen" to anything (well except Cell Signals). And yes, Techs can also transmit SSTV. But aside from that, get some software on your computer to decode SSTV.

Hopefully the signal will make it to earth.. I guess we'll find out!

 

Between the International Space Station, SuitSat and the Peter l DXpedition, my students are really enthusiastic about all aspects of Amateur Radio!

Thank You!

Phil Leonelli, WF6L
Teacher
Iowa Street School K- 8
ARRL "Big Project" Pilot School
http://iss.fuesd.k12.ca.us

 

The suit provides some protection for the radios inside. If you tossed a radio with a battery in space, It would not last very long. The heat and cold of space will ruin the equipment in short order.
AD5JN

 

Why didn't they put the transmitter and battery into an old Chevy? Those things last a long time (you can find them on farms behind the barns) especially with the engine running and the heater on.

K2WH

 

Hmmm, I suspect there are a lot of things you don't get.

 

I explained this neat experiment to my 8 year old granddaughter and she came up with an interesting question:

"If some ET finds the spacesuit floating around, and they open it up, and find a little radio, will they think we (earthlings) are just little radios instead of people?"

hmmmmm

keep smiling!! and of course...73!

Mike KM1R

 

This is certainly true.

Here's a heady example.

The LTE temperature is probably 270K in sunlight and perhaps 50K in shadow. Therefore the huge swing in temperature is a valid concern--especially for the batteries.

However, what one really does is find ways of mitigating the heating rates and cooling rates so that the differential is a slowly varying function with a smaller extreme. In other words, the diurnal variation is far smaller.

I went into  MATLAB and modeled some heating and cooling functions. Based upon this, I still get a 150K+ variation in the un-controlled suit in the course of a 3 hour 'day'. This appears to exceed the battery norms.

Perhaps your better knowledge on this problem, Jack, can set this poor  Cornell Ph.D. astrophysicist straight? As far as I can tell, this is just on the verge of failing within a few hours.

Any help? I beg your personal insight and assistance.

73,
Chip N1IR

 

The HT is NOT inside the suit.

Apparently the batteries are inside. The suit is basically a leaky thermos bottle for the batteries, as far as I can see.

 

Gee Chip ole' boy, you using MATLAB 6? Did you include the temp. gradiant for the material and the function of a delta T? Do you know the exact type of batteries used? How about rotation of the suit or if the orbit may be in darkness for long periods of time? A lot of variables to consider here old man. I'll send you a Heat and Thermo book to brush up a bit on some of the math if you like.
Nothing lasts forever.

 

In the absence of specific knowledge, one must go with guestimates and test for sensitivity.

Why would I possibly need a thermo book? I've got plenty, and I used to teach it.

Since this was an OTS project, I suspect the probability for failure within 24 hours is high, based on the temperature differential. However, as you point out, the uncertainty places some fairly generous error bars.

My point: you cannot exclude a failure in the first day.

I will be fascinated to see which side of the 2 to 4 days it survives, based on the published guestimates..

Still waiting for Jack (Cedurn) to fill me in....

 

My sentiments exactly.

When NASA gets to pulling stunts like this off, especially when related to another failed attempt at space exploration like ISS has turned out to be, it makes me wonder if our tax dollars wouldn't be better spent by pulling the plug on NASA altogether.

Is this the height of science that is being performed on ISS? Of course, it just might be ...

Chuck, AA1MN