The Elser-Mathes Cup, sitting idle for more than 75 years, is intended to mark the occasion of the first two-way Amateur Radio contact between Earth and Mars. That day may be moving closer. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Team will contemplate ham radio’s role as NASA–in response to a recent presidential initiative–seeks to expand the horizons of human spaceflight to the moon, Mars and beyond.
During an International Team meeting March 25-26 in the Netherlands, ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said that NASA’s Education Office has asked ARISS to consider endorsing the initiative and start laying some groundwork for an Amateur Radio presence. That makes perfect sense to ARISS Secretary-Treasurer Rosalie White, K1STO, of ARRL.
“Our space agencies are going to Mars now, so it’s natural we should think about it and do initial planning now,” said White, who was among the more than two dozen ARISS delegates on hand at the European Space Research and Technology Center in Noordwijk. “We could start by targeting our educational materials on exploration beyond the International Space Station.” The ISS–the home of the first permanent Amateur Radio station in space–is scheduled for completion in 2010 using the space shuttle fleet, which then would be mothballed.
Some ideas Bauer floated during the gathering included an Amateur Radio payload on the Red Planet as well as a Mars telecommunications satellite, remotely controlled Amateur TV and a repeater on the moon. The long-range planning will get further discussion when the ARISS International Team meets again in October.
In other matters, the ARISS team learned that a planned slow-scan television (SSTV) system will not launch to the ISS this year. With just two crew members aboard the space station and a need to make the most use of space aboard Russian Progress supply rockets, NASA has suggested that ARISS hold up the SSTV payload for a Progress rocket flight closer to the space shuttle’s return to flight, when the ISS again will have a crew of three.
The two-person crews have not had much time to install and test ARISS projects, including the Phase II gear put into place earlier this year. While it’s on the air for RS0ISS packet operations, the Phase II gear will not see routine FM voice use for school group contacts and casual QSOs until it gets a full on-the-air checkout. The SSTV gear needs additional preflight testing as well as work on the associated software.
AMSAT-Russia’s Karen Tadevosyan, RA3APW, is completing modifications to a Yaesu FT-100 HF/VHF/UHF transceiver. That equipment could go up to the ISS on a Progress rocket flight this fall. Other projects still in the discussion stage include an external digital ATV transponder and beacon. ARISS also is considering a project to use Amateur Radio via IRLP and/or EchoLink to link to the ISS via the Internet.
The ISS could gain a third ham station once the European Space Agency’s Columbus module goes into space. Through-hull fittings, “feedthroughs,” are being installed for as many as eight coaxial cable runs, although funding remains an issue. The feedthroughs would permit the module to accommodate UHF, L and S-band operations possibly using patch-type antennas being designed by ARISS volunteers.
ARISS delegates also recognized the achievements and contributions of Roy Neal, K6DUE (SK), toward making the ARISS program a reality. Neal, a former NBC News science correspondent and executive, died last August 15.