Tag Archives: ISS

Jan 13 2015

UK’s Sarah Brightman starts space flight training

Private Spacefarer Sarah Brightman Undergoes Medical Tests

Private Spacefarer Sarah Brightman Undergoes Medical Tests

Sarah Brightman hopes to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 10 day mission on September 1, 2015. If the launch were to take place as expected she would become the UK’s second astronaut, the first was Helen Sharman GB1MIR on May 18, 1991. Tim Peake KG5BVI is expected to launch in November 2015.

The TASS news agency reported that the UK’s Sarah Brightman will start training for her ISS mission in January 2015.

Sarah Brightman will train in Russia’s Star City. “She will arrive here on Wednesday, January 14, and will start her training the following day,” the press service of the space training facility told TASS. UPDATE: start of training was postponed until January 19.

Her flight is scheduled for September 1-11, 2015 and she is expected to spend 10 days at the ISS.

Sarah Brightman is paying $52 million for the flight considerably more than the $20 million that Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari paid for her mission to the ISS in 2006, highlighting the dramatic escalation in launch charges in recent years.

Sarah Brightman - DreamchaserSarah started her singing career in the 1970’s and had hits such as “I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper” and “Love in a UFO”. She is now a classical crossover artist.

In 2012 in conjunction with Virgin Galactic, The Brightman STEM Scholarship program (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) was launched to help young women in the US pursue STEM education across their four year college careers.

Her album, “Dreamchaser” was released on January 22, 2013. She said “I don’t think of myself as a dreamer. Rather, I am a dream chaser, I hope that I can encourage others to take inspiration from my journey both to chase down their own dreams and to help fulfill the important UNESCO mandate to promote peace and sustainable development on Earth and from space. I am determined that this journey can reach out to be a force for good, a catalyst for some of the dreams and aims of others that resonate with me.” She intends to become the first professional musician to sing from space.

It is not yet known if she will make any amateur radio contacts while on the ISS. In 1991 the first UK astronaut Helen Sharman was issued with a special callsign GB1MIR by the Radiocommunications Division of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). She was then able to contact radio amateurs on Earth during her stay on the MIR space station. The RSGB has reported that the UK communications regulator Ofcom will make the callsign GB1SS available for issue to UK astronauts who wish to operate from the ISS.

Read the TASS story at http://itar-tass.com/en/non-political/770688

You can sign up to receive updates on Sarah’s mission at http://www.sarahbrightman.com/

Wiki – Sarah Brightman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Brightman

Space Adventures http://www.spaceadventures.com/

International Space Station - Image Credit NASA

International Space Station – Image Credit NASA

Dec 23 2014

Tweeting via the ISS

International Space Station - Image Credit NASA

International Space Station – Image Credit NASA

Harold Giddings KR0SIV describes how he Tweeted using amateur radio and the International Space Station.

He says: I sent a message to the International Space Station, it transmits it back down to groundstations in its view and those stations send the message to the APRS-IS network. My server then takes the message parses out useful data and posts it to Twitter as a tweet.

The ISS has two amateur radio stations. One is in the Russian Service Module and uses a Kenwood D710 and can do Slow Scan Television (SSTV) as well as FM voice. The other is in the Columbus Module and uses Ericsson handhelds for 145 and 435 MHz FM, the 2395 MHz HAM-TV system is also in this segment of the space station. In addition to voice contacts the 145 MHz Ericsson handheld is used to provide the APRS packet radio digipeater used by Harold.

Watch Twitter on the International Space Station

Ham Radio Tweets
http://hamradiotweets.com/
https://twitter.com/HamRadioTweets

How to hear the ISS https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-hear-the-iss/

How to work the ISS on APRS Packet Radio
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-the-iss-on-aprs-packet-radio/

Dec 21 2014

Russian ISS School Contacts

International Space Station - Image Credit NASA

International Space Station – Image Credit NASA

Both Dmitry Pashkov R4UAB and Michal Zawada SQ5KTM have released videos of ISS school contacts by cosmonaut Yelena Serov operating with the callsign RS0ISS which took place on Sunday, December 21, 2014.

Yelena Serova

Yelena Serova

The amateur radio station in the Russian Service Module was used and the Kenwood D710 operated on 145.800 MHz FM. The power setting used is not clear but may have been 25 watts. It is understood that ISS school contacts had been planned for Sunday with students at both Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.

In his blog Dmitry Pashkov R4UAB said of the first Chelyabinsk contact: Radio session of the crew of the International Space Station with a children’s art school in Chelyabinsk. With great difficulty they contacted. Questions answered by Yelena Serov.

Watch the first Chelyabinsk contact ARISS RS0ISS г. Челябинск (R4UAB)

Watch the second Chelyabinsk contact – ARISS RS0ISS г. Челябинск (виток № 2) (R4UAB)

Michal Zawada SQ5KTM also received a signal from a school contact today and produced the following video.

Watch ISS / RS0ISS 21.12.2014 contact with Russian station R8AM(?)

Dmitry Pashkov R4UAB Blog http://tinyurl.com/R4UAB-Blog

Dec 20 2014

ISS SSTV reception on a portable setup using RTL-SDR

Standing in a car park, I was able to successfully receive the images using a handheld 3 element 144 MHz Yagi antenna connected to a RTL-SDR USB dongle.

The dongle was connected to Windows-8 tablet using a USB OTG cable.
I was running SDR# to listen and record the FM audio on 145.800 MHz.
I had a LNA connected between the antenna and rtl-sdr but since the the downlink from the ISS was quite strong it was probably not required.

M0JJS

Watch ISS SSTV reception on a portable setup using RTL-SDR

ISS SSTV https://amsat-uk.org/2014/12/18/iss-sstv-success/

Dec 18 2014

ISS SSTV success – More transmissions Saturday, December 20

ISS SSTV image 9/12 received by Frank Heritage M0AEU at 19:21 UT on Dec 18, 2014

ISS SSTV image 4/12 received by Frank Heritage M0AEU at 19:21 UT on Dec 18, 2014

During Thursday, December 18 the Russian ARISS team members successfully activated the amateur radio Slow Scan TV (SSTV) experiment from the International Space Station (ISS) on 145.800 MHz FM. Further transmissions using the callsign RS0ISS are planned for Saturday, December 20, 2014.

ISS SSTV image 9/12 received by Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ using the SUWS WebSDR on Dec 18, 2014

ISS SSTV image 9/12 received by Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ using the SUWS WebSDR on Dec 18, 2014

Among the many radio amateurs receiving the pictures was Frank Heritage M0AEU. His station comprised a 5 element crossed Yagi on a Yaesu 5600B Az/Ele rotator, about 4 metres above the ground, interfaced with a LVB Tracker. Frank used the Ham Radio Deluxe satellite program (v5) for the tracking and a Yaesu FT736R feeding audio to the free MMSSTV software on a Dell laptop.

Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ used the online SUWS Web-based Software Defined Radio (WebSDR) located near London to receive a number of images during the day. Martin made the 144 and 430 MHz helix antennas for the WebSDR which are optimized for satellite reception. The SUWS WebSDR is available for anyone to use.

Other images received by amateurs world-wide can be seen at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

The next ISS SSTV transmissions on 145.800 MHz should start around 12:40 UT on Saturday, December 20 and end at 21:30 UT. It is expected the SSTV mode will be PD180 with 3 minute off periods between transmissions. A total of 12 different photos will be sent, each celebrating the 80th anniversary of the birth of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit Earth.

The transmission will be mode using the Kenwood D710 transceiver located in the Russian Service Module. It is thought the equipment may be producing about 25 watts output which should provide a very strong signal.

International Space Station - Image Credit NASA

International Space Station – Image Credit NASA

All you need to do to receive SSTV pictures direct from the space station is to connect the audio output of a scanner or amateur radio transceiver via a simple interface to the soundcard on a Windows PC or an Apple iOS device, and tune in to 145.800 MHz FM. You can even receive pictures by holding an iPhone next to the radio’s loudspeaker.

The ISS puts out a strong signal on 145.800 MHz FM and a 2m handheld with a 1/4 wave antenna will be enough to receive it. The FM transmission uses the 5 kHz deviation which is standard in much of the world.

Many FM rigs in the UK can be switched been wide and narrow deviation FM filters. For best results you should select the wider deviation filters. Handhelds all seem to have a single wide filter fitted as standard.

On Windows PC’s the free application MMSSTV can be used to decode the signal, on Apple iOS devices you can use the SSTV app for compatible modes. The ISS Fan Club website will show you when the space station is in range.

ISS SSTV image 12/12 received by Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ using the SUWS WebSDR Dec 18, 2014

ISS SSTV image 12/12 received by Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ using the SUWS WebSDR Dec 18, 2014

Paul Turner G4IJE, co-developer of the SSTV PD modes, says regarding the MMSSTV PD180 mode: “Don’t forget to either enable “Always show RX viewer” or use the “Picture viewer” (magnifying glass icon) to show the picture at its real resolution of 640 x 496. If you just view as normal you will only see 320 x 248 resolution, which kind of defeats the object of using a high resolution mode.”

On the AMSAT-BB Rick W2JAZ and Alan WA4SCA comment on the need to set the MMSSTV sound card setting to 48 kHz instead of the default 44.100 kHz
• Options
• Setup
• Misc
• Then the Clock section at the bottom of the page

The MMSSTV default setting may need to be set to 24000 (exactly half of the sound card setting). You then should get good clean images.

The sound card adjustments will vary slightly depending on the version of the OS you are running, but usually will be under the advanced properties for the device. You can probably use a higher sampling rate for the sound card so long as it is a power of 2 multiple (2,4,8, etc)  of the value in MMSSTV. For instance, 192k (8x) has no issues. The same applies to most similar software.

You can receive the SSTV transmissions online using the SUWS WebSDR remote receiver located near London along with the MMSSTV software https://amsat-uk.org/2014/08/15/suws-websdr-moves-to-new-site/

For more on Slow Scan Television SSTV, see this article SSTV – The Basics
http://www.essexham.co.uk/sstv-the-basics

How to be successful with the ISS Slow Scan Television (SSTV) imaging system
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtoisssstv.html

Free MMSSTV Slow Scan TV software http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php

iOS SSTV App https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sstv/id387910013

IZ8BLY Vox Recoder, enables you to record the signals from the ISS on 145.800 MHz while you’re away at work http://antoninoporcino.xoom.it/VoxRecorder/

ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) Blog and Gallery http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.co.uk/

Information on the MAI-75 SSTV experiment
http://www.energia.ru/eng/iss/researches/education-26.html

Video showing reception of SSTV using the FUNcube Dongle Pro SDR and SDR-RADIO going into Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) then to MMSSTV software https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6MOrX9iZCk

ISS SSTV received online with SUWS WebSDR
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/09/06/iss-sstv-on-suws-websdr/

ISS SSTV 1/12 received by Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ using the SUWS WebSDR Dec 18, 2014

ISS SSTV 1/12 received by Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ using the SUWS WebSDR Dec 18, 2014

Dec 16 2014

Astronaut’s first school contact from ISS

Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF using the amateur radio station in the ISS Columbus module

Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF using the amateur radio station in the ISS Columbus module

Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF has written about her first amateur radio school contact from the International Space Station.

20 students from “Elena di Savoia” in Bari and “Alessandro Volta” in Bitonto were able to ask her questions about space and the ISS.

Read her post at https://plus.google.com/+SamanthaCristoforetti/posts/do2vfeVgAw7

ARISS contact planned for two Italian schools
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2014/december/ariss_event_1512.htm