SuitSat telemetry shows conditions in space

Amateur radio stations have continued to provide reception reports from SuitSat over the past week. The recorded voices along with the SSTV signal have been heard.

Richard, N2SPI has paid close attention to the telemetry voice on SuitSat and has provided notable data regarding the temperature inside the Orlan spacesuit and the battery voltage powering the electronics.

Richard's temperature data shows that the temperature has been rising at somewhat less than 1°C per day. The temperature was 12°C on February 8 and had risen up to 16°C by February 16. This is valuable data in light of an earlier hypothesis that SuitSat's batteries had frozen.

The battery voltage is based on a 28 volt scale. Richard's data captured on February 8 shows the battery at 26.7 volts. The voltage has slowly dropped over the past week with the batteries at 26.3 volts on February 16. This is only a drop of 0.4 volts during this period.

Lou, W5DID, one of SuitSat's builders, said, "The telemetry data becomes even more important as the mission nears it's end. As the battery voltage nears 12V, the regulator will no longer be able to maintain 12v output. At a battery voltage below 9V all transmissions will cease. The computer will continue to operate down to 3V although with no
transmissions, Suitsat will appear dead. I expect this drop off to occur very rapidly."

And the end may be near. Richard has continued his work on receiving SuitSat's telemetry and provides this analysis, "Between February 15 to February 16, the battery voltage dropped only 0.2 volts. In the time between February 16 to February the battery voltage dropped 1.1 volts.

As you can see, there is a noticeable acceleration in the rate of battery voltage change. This battery appears to have a "knee" in its discharge characteristic. If this is so, it appears we have now dropped over the "knee".

This data is important since SuitSat-1 is the first flight experiment using the discarded Orlan spacesuit as a low-cost platform to carry experiments in a short-term, low earth orbit. Well done, Richard!

Frank, KA3HDO, AMSAT-VP for Human Spaceflight Programs, and also is the ARISS International Chairman, said,
"Now, more than ever, we need to see how long SuitSat will stay in operation. The SuitSat team plans to provide special recognition to the person that copies the last SuitSat
telemetry, specifically the Mission Time and Battery Voltage."

Source: Richard, N2SPI, ARISS team

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