ARISSat 1 (RadioSkaf-V, Kedr)

Spacecraft nr:

Russian spacecraft nr:

Launch data: Designation  37772 / 98067CK Launch date  28 Jan 2011 - 01:31:39 UTC Deployment date  03 Aug 2011 - 18:43 UT Launch site  Baikonur, LC-1/5 - EVA, ISS Launch vehicle  Soyuz-U Mission  Amateur communication Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  350 x 355 km Eccentricity   Inclination  51.65 deg Period  91.59 min

Spacecraft data: Prime contractor  Energia Platform   Operator  ARISS Mass at launch  30 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape  box Dimension (m)  55 x 55 x 40 cm Equipment   Solar array   Stabilization   Propulsion   DC power   Design lifetime

The boxy Radioskaf-V satellite, with just one of its two antennas deployed, prior to launch during a spacewalk Wednesday. (Photo: NASA TV)

A computer graphic showing the planned trajectory (in brown) of an amateur radio satellite that will be manually released by a spacewalking cosmonaut. (Photo: NASA)

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Description:

• ARISSat-1/KEDR is a satellite designed and built by amateur radio operators to specifically interest students in scientific and technological careers. Through the use of ham radio equipment, students and teachers should be able to access and utilize the satellite from a classroom environment with minimal set up. ARISSat-1/KEDR is a cooperative effort between AMSAT, ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station,) RSC-Energia (The Russian Space Agency) and NASA. The design, development and construction of the satellite was done by AMSAT volunteers. Original plans called for the satellite to be housed inside an old Russian spacesuit, but when the suit became unavailable, a spaceframe was developed to house the radio equipment and solar panels. The new satellite was named ARISSat-1/KEDR. Another name for the spacecraft is RadioSkaf-V. The transmitted callsign will be RS01S. The mission was specifically designed as an education-based satellite. Some of its broadcast features include a voice identification, voice, digital and morse code telemetry, stored image and on-board camera transmissions via Slow Scan TV and digital telemetry from a Russian science experiment that will measure vacuum in earth's lower atmosphere. Other aspects of the mission include CW (Morse code) and voice message contests to interest students in participating along with stored images submitted by students all over the world as part of its payload.

Mission details:

• Originally planned to be based on an Orlan spacesuit like RadioSkaf (SuitSat 1), but was later reconfigured to be a boxlike structure to fly on its own, as due to storage considerations.
• The two surplus Orlan space suits in storage on the ISS were discarded via the Progress Cargo Vessel earlier this year. The project team was moving ahead, using the same hardware that was to fly in the Russian Orlan suit. Russia will continue to call the satellite Radioskaf-2, so ARISS is designating it ARISSat-1/Radioskaf-2.
• Progress M-09M was launched from Baikonur on Jan 28, 2011. The cargo ship carries Energia's 30 kg Kedr amateur radio minisatellite. It docked with Pirs on Jan 30 at 0239 UTC.
• Kedr will be deployed from the ISS by a cosmonaut performing an extra-vehicular activity. This was originally expected to have occurred on 16 February 2011, however as of 27 April 2010 it is still aboard the ISS.
• The ARISSat-1 satellite, presently still inside the ISS, will be turned on and use an external antenna to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight. The transmissions will begin on Monday 11 April 2011 at 14:30 UTC and continue until 10:30 UTC on 13 April 2011.
  Due to the fact that the solar panels are covered, the satellite will be powered only by the onboard battery. The satellite will run in low power mode. This means that the transmissions will cycle ON/OFF. They will be ON for 40-60 seconds and OFF for 2 minutes.
  The satellite will downlink live SSTV images from four onboard cameras, live telemetry and messages on the CW, FM voice, and BPSK downlinks, as well as provide a 16kHz wide transponder for two-way contacts. All the uplinks and downlinks are based on software defined radio systems.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• On Aug 3, 2011 astronauts Volkov and Samokutyaev (Exp. 28) conducted spacewalk Russian VKD-29 from the Pirs module. The airlock was depressurized at 1435 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1450 UTC. The astronauts deployed the RadioSkaf-V amateur radio satellite.
• Cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, assisted by Alexander Samokutyaev, manually launched a small 57-pound amateur radio satellite Wednesday after a delay to assess the potential impact of a missing antenna. It appears the antenna in question, one of two on the Radioskaf-V satellite, somehow broke off, although it was not clear when that might have occurred. But mission managers decided to press ahead with the deployment anyway and Volkov released the satellite at 2:43 p.m. EDT.
• The missing antenna will reduce the satellite's performance by about 50 percent, a NASA official said. About the size of a kitchen toaster oven, the Radioskaf-V spacecraft was designed to transmit still images of Earth, along with recorded greetings from students around the world and a Morse code tracking beacon for "ham" radio operators around the world. A student experiment is on board to precisely measure the vacuum of space. (Ref: CBSnews)