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Using an Old Space-Suit as a Satellite
Andrew-Unit writes "The ARRL has an interesting article about an amateur satellite project where some amateur radio electronics will be crammed into an old spacesuit and chucked out of the window of the International Space Station."
It's only radio machinery.
btw, is this FP?
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
... and so the 1st Inglewood satellite is launched...
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What does a spacesuit have that a box of quarter inch steel plate doesn't? I bet the suit weighs alot more and I KNOW the electronics dont need a human atmosphere.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
Is that an antenna in your pocket...?
In space, one doesn't 'chuck' - one 'deploys' ie:
Space: "Then we will deploy the space suit..."
Earth: "Vern chucked his fast food container out the window of his car"
Other permutations do not work ie:
Officer: "What do you think you are doing?"
Vern: "Hey officer, just deploying my garbage..."
AT&ROFLMAO
I find it amazing (and heartening) that in this world of money, and greed, that some people will build satellites, and get them launched into space, purely so Amateur Radio hams can bounce off them and talk all around the world. I've never done it myself, but I've watched someone going in on 2 metres, and hearing their output on 10. You only get a few minutes before the satellite disappears below the horizon again, but it's still cool.
You could also listen to Mir on 143.625.
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Aliens will be deterred thinking that they are cops orbitting around earth!!!
hilarious
It seems the only 'amateur radio' equipment to be included is a single transmitter - everything else is going to be a bunch of CDs with school artwork on them - it's not clear whether the contents of the CDs are to be transmitted, or just, rather pointlessly, IMHO, held in orbit....
But throwing it out of thewindow of the ISS? come on, this must be a joke. why would you want to do that? It costs (hundreds of) thousands of dollars to get a few kilo's in that orbit. If you are able to spend such an amount of money, surely you can make/buy something better than that? If this is real, then maybe the russians don't have such a crisis with paying for their progress supply ships after all. I propose reducing ESA's budget by the estimated worth of this frivolous spacesuit in orbit.
On the other hand, if the spacesuit is already up there and needs to replaced anyhow, then I'd say go for it. It certenly tickles the imagination as the following discussions will prove..
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Assuming it will be facing in the correct direction it should give the first point of view of a person stranded in space re-entering earth's atmosphere.
"Here's you in space... here's you coming home..."
In case it gets hot, perhaps?
Oh...polluting the atmosphere. That's MUCH better. What kinds of toxic substances make up a space suit and radio gear?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Contacts made from/to the ISS
Official NASA ISS Amateur Radio Page
ARRL ISS Page
It's incredibly easy to talk to the ISS from the earth... you don't need a particularily high-powered radio to do it. In fact, the radio on the ISS is a plain jane, Kenwood dual-band radio.
Thousands of tons of crap enters the atmosphere every day. You could probably make a suit out of ,say, plutonium and still have negligible effect considering:
One spacesuit+electronics - 50kg, tops.
Atmosphere - 5,000,000,000,000,000,000kg (by most estimates).
Even guesstimating that it might incinerate and cover an area 1/8th the size of the globe during re-entry, that's still pretty much SFA. Even with plutonium being the nasty thing that it is.
Of course, the associated problems of dealing with 50kg of plutonium in one place at the same time is left as an exercise for the reader.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
"I think I can get him before he gets there... he's almost in range."
"That's no satellite! It's a space suit!"
"It's too small to be a space suit."
"I have a very bad feeling about this."
Exactly, besides it looks better than duct tape.
--Residential Interior Design
Be a great joke to play on the new guys. The first ghost story in space. And they say old Bob still orbits around these parts, forever relaying ham radio signals.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
That would seem to indicate that if the ISS didnt make any prograde burns, it too would be entering the atmosphere in several weeks.
I say wierd because I had presumed that ISS, like Mir would take a few months to reach an unrecoverable orbit which would lead to a re-entry.
SO, they throw it downwards when they launch the suit? Well, Im no physicist - and this is only what I remember from my school days; if you were to throw something downwards with the maximum force available to a human from the ISS, then the object would return to you hours or days later because its angular velocity in relation to the orbit wouldnt have changed.
In order to actually alter the continous orbit of the suit as you launch it, you would have to either throw the suit out ahead of the ISS (To make it go higher) or throw it backwards along the ISS orbit to make it go lower.
However, I would rather suspect that an overhand throw of a spacesuit wouldnt make any siginificant difference in the time taken for re-entry to occur.
Come to think of it. - Every force has an equal and opposite. which indicates that the ISS crew are going to have to fashion some sort of rocket to get the suit going. - A small compresses air cylinder would come to mind but would be hard to aim. You could of course blow it from the airlock but youd have to correct the ISS orbit using Progress afterwards.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
I like the part about the schools being allowed to supply one 8-1/2 by 11 inch picture, make absolutely sure it is in jpeg format because they burn up better, to be included on a CD, in order to be burned up with the suit.
....
Teacher: Mary, your artwork is so good, were going to burn it. And it's not going to be a normal "throw it in the incinerator" type of burn; we are going to burn it in the most incredible heat possible, and spread the ashes all over the planet so there is no possibility of recovery.
Mary:
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.