Radio amateur and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF has put the final touches to the official crew poster for the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 42. It is now available to download.
Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF
The poster parodies the popular The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and is without doubt the best ISS crew poster yet released.
USA’s Terry Virts and Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov portray the two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox, Russia’s Alexander Samokutyaev is Humma Kavula, USA’s Butch Wilmore is Arthur Dent, Russia’s Elena Serova is Ford Prefect with Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti as Trillian. NASA’s Robonaut 2 guest-stars as Marvin the Paranoid Android.
Samantha should launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on November 23, 2014 at 2059 UT (3:59pm EST) also flying with her in the Soyuz will be Anton Shkaplerov and Terry Virts. She is expected to return to Earth in May 2015.
TubeSat in space – Image credit Interorbital Systems
The TuPOD 3U mission will allow the in-orbit deployment of the first TubeSats – Tancredo 1, from Brazil and Ulises 1, from Mexico.
Both satellites are educational satellites and involve young students in the projects. TuPOD will integrate the two satellites inside a 3U CubeSat Structure designed to allow the coupling between TubeSat and the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) launch mechanism.
The TuPOD will release the two satellites after 2 days, in accordance with NASA safety requirements. After the TubeSat deployment, the TuPOD will start is own mission receiving and sending data to amateur radio ground stations.
The TuPOD electronics have been designed by students at Morehead State University and is an updated version of $50SAT PocketQube electronics and Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TT&C) system.
Proposing a 1k2 GMSK UHF downlink and now expected to be deployed fom the ISS in spring 2015.
The POSTPONEMENT of this contact was announced on September 21 at 19:55
ARISS Contact Tuesday POSTPONED Due to the one day delay of the Space X launch, berthing day now falls on Tuesday and has resulted in the cancellation of the Winter Gardens Primary School, Canvey Island and Pilton Bluecoat School, Barnstaple, United Kingdom
73, John – AG9D ARISS Audio
Please join us in listening to the International Space Station (ISS) contact with participants at the Winter Gardens Primary School, Canvey Island, Essex, United Kingdom and Pilton Bluecoat School, Barnstaple, Devon, United Kingdom, on Tuesday, September 23. The students will be talking to astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO on the ISS who will be using the callsign NA1SS. Acquisition Of Signal (AOS) is anticipated at 1137 BST (1037 UT).
The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK7KHZ in Australia. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
Audio from this contact will be fed into the:
EchoLink *AMSAT* Node 101377 and IRLP Node 9010 Discovery Reflector
Audio on Echolink and web stream is generally transmitted around 20 minutes prior to the contact taking place so that you can hear some of the preparation that occurs. IRLP will begin just prior to the ground station call to the ISS.
Please note that on Echolink due to server issues the usual automatic breaks will be done manually. Computer based listeners should after opening Echolink click on tools – setup – timing set receive time limit and inactivity timeout to 0, this should keep you from disconnecting. Echolink introduction guide
* Contact times are approximate. If the ISS executes a reboost or other manoeuvre, the AOS (Acquisition Of Signal) time may alter by a few minutes
Dave G4UVJ reports that on September 23 there will be an ARISS contact between students at Winter Gardens Primary School, Canvey, Essex and astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO on the International Space Station (ISS).
Just confirming that our ARISS contact has been scheduled with Alexander Gerst KF5ONO, the ESA Astronaut on board the ISS for Tuesday, September 23, 2014 at 1037 UT which is 1137 BST.
For information, the ISS will actually be over Australia at the time and we will be making use of one of the amateur radio Australian Telebridge Ground Stations to actually make the link to the Space Station.
As you all know we have been in progress of organizing another Contact with the International Space Station as we did in 2005, this time its Winter Gardens Primary School , Canvey Island the day now been confirmed it will be the September 23, 2014 contact time is 11:37 BST. We will start 1 hour before contact time and finish 30mins after , changes may still occur if there are any emergencies on the station.
On Saturday, September 6, at 1000 GMT Paulo PV8DX emailed the news that the International Space Station (ISS) Slow Scan Television (SSTV) on 145.800 MHz FM had been active again.
At the end of the passage (ISS) in northern Brazil where I live. I heard the sound of early SSTV. So I went to the WEBSDR in your area [the SUWS WebSDR near London, UK] and I got two images.
The ISS has been transmitting photographs devoted to the life and work of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. They were sent in the PD180 SSTV mode with additional voice commentary.
On August 27, 2014 a test of the ISS Slow Scan Television (SSTV) experiment MAI-75 using the Kenwood TM-D710 transceiver and a new cable took place. Although a carrier was successfully transmitted on 145.800 MHz no SSTV audio tones were heard. It appears that the earlier problem has now been rectified. https://amsat-uk.org/2014/08/23/iss-sstv-august-27/
ISS SSTV received by Jan van Gils PE0SAT Sept 26. 2014 at 1402 GMT
The Kenwood TM-D710 was delivered to the ISS in the summer of 2012. The original TM-D700 in the Russian ISS Service Module had been experiencing problems with the PA after giving many years service in space, see ARISS minutes for March 2013. It is thought the Kenwood TM-D710 is set to run at just 5 watts output because convection cooling doesn’t work in zero gravity. http://www.ariss.org/meeting-minutes/archives/03-2013
David Barber G8OQW received some good images in Chelmsford, Essex which can be seen on the AMSAT-UK Facebook page.
Paul Turner G4IJE, co-developer of the SSTV PD modes, says regarding the 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.”
Tony Falla VK3KKP commented “I received a good picture from ISS on my iPad mid-Saturday evening [AEDT] on 145.800 MHz just using the microphone next to the rig.”
The APRS digipeater in the European Space Agency ISS Columbus module continued to be in operation on 145.825 MHz during the SSTV transmissions.
Watch a video of ISS SSTV reception by Dmitry Pashkov R4UAB
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.
ISS SSTV received by Fabiano Moser CT7ABD on Sept 6, 2014 at 0910 GMT
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. The ISS Fan Club website will show you when the space station is in range.
Private Spacefarer Sarah Brightman Undergoes Medical Tests
Sarah Brightman hopes to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 10 day mission in September 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.
TASS reports the soprano singer Sarah Brightman would begin pre-flight training for her journey to the International Space Station (ISS) as a private spacefarer early next year, instead of this autumn, Yuri Lonchakov, the head of the Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, said on Wednesday. “She will begin training in the Star City in January of 2015 and therefore we are all waiting for her,” Lonchakov said adding that he believed “her training will be a success.”
She 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.
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.
AMSAT-UK 
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