Suitsat-2/Radioskaf-2: The second Amateur Radio Space Suit project and stepping stone to future small amateur satellites

摘要

This paper describes the plans for the second Suitsat satellite. The first Suitsatcaptured the attention of people the world over including many who were notradio amateurs. The second Suitsat will make many improvements as well asserving as a test bed for future satellite systems.SuitSat-1/Radioskaf-1 caught the attention and fascination of the world,garnering a large amount of newspaper, magazine, radio and TV reporting. Evenmore importantly, SuitSat-1 captured the imagination of students and schools!Amateur astronomers strained their eyes and cameras to get a glimpse of theeerie sight of SuitSat-1/Radioskaf-1 floating in space. Amateur radio operatorslistened for hours to hear its signals. Many sightings and signal reports wereposted to a special web site proving that sparks of excitement were coming fromthe public over the space program. SuitSat/Radioskaf-1 attracted nearly 10million hits to the suitsat website during its mission!The little satellite was such a success that plans were developed to produce asecond SuitSat/Radioskaf. To do this, the international Amateur Radio on theInternational Space Station (ARISS) team discussed it at their delegates meetingin October 2006. Architect of Suitsat-1/Radioskaf-1, Sergey Samburov, RV3DR,discussed this idea with the ARISS team and everyone was enthusiastic aboutthe potential of a second SuitSat/Radioskaf.SuitSat-1/Radioskaf-1 was a simple satellite made from a surplus Russian Orlanspacesuit fitted with a single beacon amateur radio transmitter that ran onRussian spacesuit batteries. It had no capability to receive commands and wasdestined to live only a short while because it had no solar panels to replenish itsbatteries.SuitSat-2/Radioskaf-2 is based on SuitSat-1 successes but there are manyenhancements, such as amateur radio transponders, being made.The intent is that a future ISS Expedition crew will release SuitSat-2/Radioskaf-2 during a space walk. The suit will have a voice ID in a number of languages plustelemetry and these will be transmitted along with images as it orbits Earth. Theunusual spacecraft's radio signal will be heard around the globe.It is hoped that SuitSat-2/Radioskaf-2 can be launched during a spacewalk topossibly commemorate an occasion such as the 125th birth anniversary ofRobert Goddard and the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous KonstantinTsiolkovsky, the great-grandfather of Sergey Samburov.