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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."
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.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Aliens will be deterred thinking that they are cops orbitting around earth!!!
hilarious
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..."
The spacesuit is already onboard the ISS and has been declared as surplus.
quarter inch steel plate has the disadvantage of sitting on Earth, and would take up valuable space on a supply rocket.
They might as well use the suit for something.
liqbase
Perhaps to keep the whole thing together and provide minimal protection, in case it bumps into another amateur radio space-suit?
"The preamp has landed on the moon. End of transmission."
If I was one of those students, whether it's being transmitted or not, I'd think it's much more awesome that my art is orbiting space rather than just hanging on the class wall or in the hallways or even on the fridge (which they may also be). Can you say that your schoolwork got to hitch a ride on a spaceship then got to float in orbit in a spacesuit for a while? It's not necessarily important, but for a few kids, on a scale from 1 to Cool Shit: I'd say it ranks, Cool Shit.
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
Didn't the oxygen supply fail on the ISS? They might want to keep those "surplus" suits around.
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
Yeah, so instead of coming up with an innovative way of delivering mass to orbit we achieve that through accounting. It's declared as surplus, written off, and then it appears it got there *for free* - Ta-Da!
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.