Email Detail

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/A5P6WWRSAPTIDBSRFTTE5E66FVDSEAI4/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "001f01ca1e14$ff0494f0$fd0dbed0$@net",
    "message_id_hash": "A5P6WWRSAPTIDBSRFTTE5E66FVDSEAI4",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/A5P6WWRSAPTIDBSRFTTE5E66FVDSEAI4/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "ka3hdo (a) comcast.net",
        "mailman_id": "fa8edbc3567d4116ab189c93e04bdde1",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/fa8edbc3567d4116ab189c93e04bdde1/emails/?format=api"
    },
    "sender_name": "Frank H. Bauer",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb]  FW: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 4, Issue 401",
    "date": "2009-08-16T01:57:59Z",
    "parent": null,
    "children": [
        "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/XQHLUE3INQQCVL6UYH6NA7CAIBMDAAOW/?format=api"
    ],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": "Miles,\n\nI find it really sad that you have stooped this low.....character\nassassination and the like.  This e-mail is filled with so many inaccuracies\nand wrong statements that it would be a disservice to the amateur community\nto go through this and challenge each of your statements.  \n\nWhile I am no longer part of the ARISS team, I think it would be best for me\nto respond to this e-mail as I think some clarifications are worthy of a\nresponse.  And given the fact that I led the ARISS team for 13 years.\n\nYour main gripe was that you were not invited to the ARISS meeting at ESA\nEstec a few months ago.  It should be noted that AMSAT did not make this\nfinal decision.  Specifically, it was your (Miles) actions that caused you\nto be not invited.  Not some  \"closed\" organization as you (Miles)\nstipulate.  The crux of the issue is that if one disregards verbal or\nwritten direction from space agencies and, as a result, you violate space\nagency policy or company/agency proprietary rules, then a significant\nelement of distrust is built up.  ARISS cannot let this happen.  And Miles,\nthrough your actions, you did this.  And as a result, you did this to\nyourself.\n\nLet me also be clear that MAREX as a team was not singled out.  Only Miles.\nSo if MAREX had thoughts or proposals, they were and are welcome to share\nthem with the ARISS team.  And, if there are other members of MAREX, besides\nMiles, that wanted to attend future meetings, I would expect that they\nprobably would be allowed to attend.  As long as they abide by the space\nagency rules.  (But remember, I don't make those decisions)\n\nARISS is an international working group consisting of National Amateur Radio\nSocieties, AMSAT organizations and the international space agencies from the\n5 ISS regions (Europe, Japan, Russia, Canada and the USA).  This working\ngroup works hand-in-hand to develop and operate the amateur radio system on\nISS.  ARISS cannot do this without the space agencies and the crew on-board.\nARISS has and continues to do its best to be as transparent (open) as\npossible.  International meetings are open to the public, as long as an\nelement of trust is not violated.  While the ARISS model is not perfect,\nnothing is.  But I must say that the international participation and support\nthat comes from the ARISS team is some of the best I have ever seen\nanywhere.  To say that ARISS is a failure is ludicrous.\n\nIt is my personal opinion that the national radio society model (e.g. in the\nUS ARRL and AMSAT) is the right model for ARISS.  It has worked well and\nprovides an outstanding educational outreach program that gives students and\ncommunities a very positive view of ham radio.  ARISS has not excluded\nuniversities from participating.  For example, the Kursk University in\nRussia is currently building an experiment for SuitSat-2.  The Santa Rosa\nJunior College in the US is an ARISS telebridge station.  Students at the\nCollege of New Jersey in the US participated in the testing of the SuitSat-2\nSDX.  And the Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland built the L/S band\nARISS antennas that are installed on the Columbus module.  \n\nIn summary, I think we should stop the whining.  And recognize that we need\nto work hand-in-glove with the international space agencies if we want to\nsustain a ham radio program on human spaceflight vehicles.  This may mean\nthat our pet project might not fly now (or ever).  That there will be times\nwhen the crew does not get on the ham radio.  And that there will be give\nand take within the international ARISS and international space agency team\non how hardware gets developed, who develops it and when it gets tested,\nrepaired or operated.\n\nWith sincere interest in ARISS Program Success,\n\nFrank H. Bauer, KA3HDO\n\n\n--------------------------------------------------\nMessage: 9\nDate: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:20:38 -0700 (PDT)\nFrom: MM <[email protected]>\nSubject: [amsat-bb]  Lets Fix ISS, Replace ARISS\nTo: [email protected]\nMessage-ID: <[email protected]>\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n\nMarex \n\nMiles Mann WF1F\n\nMarex\n\[email protected]\n\n\n\nAugust 25, 2009\n\nDear ARISS supporters:\n\nI am writing to you because of the extremely poor track record that ARISS\nhas accumulated over the past 12 years regarding ISS hardware projects.\n\nThe only way to correct the problem and fix the Amateur Radio educational\nprogram is to completely reorganization the current ARISS hardware\nstructure.\n\nUnder the new ARISS Closed Door policy, only selected members from AMSAT-NA\nare allowed to participate.\n\nThis new policy has turned the once open ARISS into a closed door Monopoly\ncontrolled by the AMSAT Corporation.\n\nBased on the current actions of ARISS and their very poor performance with\nin-flight hardware I would like to propose a complete reorganization of the\nARISS hardware process.\n\nPlease review the enclosed information.\n\nI look forward to discussing the proposal with you are your earliest\nopportunity.\n\nSincerely\n\nG. Miles Mann\n\n \n\n \n\nMemo from ARISS April 2009\n\n>From Gaston Bertels ARISS Chairman\n\nHi Miles,\n\nBy decision of the ARISS Board, participation to ARISS-i meetings is limited\nto delegates from the Member Societies and observers nominated by these\nsocieties.\n\nUSA member societies are the ARRL and AMSAT NA.\n\nOnly these societies can nominate participants to the ARISS-i meetings.\n\nBest regards\n\n73\n\nGaston Bertels, ON4WF\n\nARISS Chairman\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nARISS Reorganization Proposal\n\nBy Miles Mann\n\nJune 17, 2009\n\nRev 1.01\n\n \n\nWhat is ARISS?\n\nThe goal of ARISS was to create an organization to select, control and\ncoordinate Amateur Radio projects designed for the International Space\nStation (ISS).\n\nThe ARISS program would then assist the 16 countries (Russia, Canada, Japan,\nBrazil, USA, member nations of ESA, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,\nItaly, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United\nKingdom), which are supporting the ISS to help choose the best educational\nAmateur Radio projects for ISS.\n\nEach county would have delegate-voting privileges on ARISS and project\nselection activities.\n\n \n\nSummary:\n\nWhen Dave Larsen and Miles Mann (MAREX) helped form ARISS in August 1996,\none of our goals was to keep Space open for the public and not turn the ISS,\ninto a monopoly controlled by the AMSAT Corporation.\n\nWe were partially successful. Unfortunately most of the ARISS voting\ndelegation came from AMSAT Corporation representatives from different\ncounties and a few other radio clubs. The newly formed ARISS agreed to allow\ncompeting clubs to submit proposals. The MAREX team helped create ARISS,\nhowever since the majority of people present were from the AMSAT\nCorporation, MAREX was not allowed to have any voting privileges.\n\nPrior to 2009, ARISS would say that its meetings were open to the public and\nother clubs were welcome to observer. In 2009 ARISS changed its open door\npolicy to a closed-door policy. The public is no longer allowed to attend\nany of the meetings.\n\nNow, only selected members of the AMSAT Corporation are allowed to present\nAmateur radio project proposals to ARISS for International Space Station.\n\nThe AMSAT Corporation has full control over the voting and the hardware\nselection process, thus creating a monopoly on the International Space\nstation for Amateur Radio projects.\n\n \n\nARISS Reorganization Proposal:\n\nThere are two main reasons to reorganize the ARISS delegate voting\nstructure.\n\n1) The AMSAT Corporation has a monopolistic control over ARISS and has\nroutinely blocked competitive Educational Amateur radio projects from being\nsubmitted. The new closed-door policy and \"Selected AMSAT Members only\"\npolicy are part of the struggling AMSAT Corporations attempt to make the\nInternational Space Station their private Space Station monopoly.\n\n \n\nThe actions of the AMSAT Corporation remind me of a fictional movie Quote\n\"Star Wars, A New Hope\" Princess Leia, says to Governor Wilhuff Tarkin:\n\n\"The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through\nyour fingers\"\n\n2) Over the past 12 years AMSAT Corporation has demonstrated its inability\nto Select, Manage and Maintain Educational Amateur Radio hardware projects\nfor the International Space Station. The hardware track record of the AMSAT\nCorporation control over ARISS projects on ISS has been very poor.\n\nIn a separate document I will go over the hardware failures and the success\nwe have had in the ARISS project. You will clearly see a pattern of\nextremely poor hardware management, including:\n\nPoor project selection (even when there is ample evidence to reject a\nproject, the AMSAT Corporation would approve a project) \nInability to maintain projects in flight. When problems were discovered\nin-flight, the AMSAT Corporation would either deny the problem existed or\ntake 3 or 4 plus years to correct the problem. \nFailure to provide NASA and ESA valid project status information. The AMSAT\nCorporation would routinely deny there are problems with equipment, even\nwhen ISS crewmembers in-flight reported the problems with the ARISS\nprojects. \nAMSAT Corporations refusal to perform basic compatibly and usability testing\non projects has led to some embarrassing failures. The lack of testing has\nbeen a reoccurring team throughout the ARISS projects. \n \n\nReorganization Solution:\n\nChange the current voting delegate structure from an AMSAT Corporation\ncontrolled formation to a new structure in which corporations do not control\nthe Hardware project selection and voting. The best way to manage ARISS\nfairly is to select representatives from Universities from around the wold\nto take over the delegate voting positions in ARISS hardware projects.\n\nWhat I proposed is that representative from 16+ ISS countries each select\ntwo Universities to act as voting ARISS delegates. The new University\ndelegates would take the place of the existing ARISS delegates.\n\nThe supporting corporations would still be welcome to participate in ARISS\nprojects, however the corporations would not have Voting rights.\n\nI also envision that most of the existing duties current performed by the\nexisting ARISS volunteers wold still continue with the same volunteers and\nsupporting agencies. The majority of changes will be focused on the\nUniversity providing an independent view on which projects make the best\nsense.\n\nThe ARISS team claims to provide educational opportunities for the world.\nHowever during the 12 years of ARISS existence, no school or university has\never built a project for ARISS. The new University Delegate plan would now\nopen the doors for Universities and other schools to participate in future\nARISS projects.\n\nNote: the Military funded PC-Sat-2 project by the US Naval Academy may have\nhad some student involvement.\n\n \n\nWho should choose the University Delegates?\n\nThe Space Agency representatives from each supporting ISS nation will be\nasked to contact qualifying universities in their countries. Our goal is to\nhave two universities, with educational programs related to RF technologies\nor Space exploration / satellite programs participate as delegates for\nARISS.\n\nThe universities will be asked to participate in the ARISS program as a\nvoting delegate for 4-year terms, with the option to renew.\n\n \n\nUniversity Delegate responsibilities:\n\nThe responsibilities of the university delegates will be similar to the\nexisting ARISS tasks, including:\n\nHardware Guild Lines \nProject Selection \nHardware meetings and conferences \nWork with ESA, NASA and other agencies for the proper approvals and\nadditional guidelines. \nIn-flight Project Management \nExisting ARISS supporting corporations:\n\nThe existing corporations and clubs such as, ARRL, AMSAT, IARU, MAREX and\nothers will still be allowed to act as technical consultants and manage\ndifferent aspects of ARISS. However these corporations will not have voting\nprivileges in the hardware selection process.\n\n \n\nAdditional Benefits:\n\nTBD\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nThis section contains a brief over view of example of common ARISS/AMSAT\nCorporation failures.\n\nPoor project selection:\n\nWhen ample evidence is presented to ARISS to reject a hardware project, the\nARISS team will still peruse projects that have little benefit for the\nAmateur Radio community based on the amount of effort required to fly a\nproject to ISS.\n\nToss-Satellites:\n\nToss-Satellites are usually small projects which are literally tossed out\nthe hatch of the Space Station. Several of these projects were successfully\nlaunched from the Space Station Mir during its 15-year flight.\nToss-Satellites will only run for a few months. Due to the orbit of ISS/Mir\nthe orbit decay will cause these satellites to re-enter the earth\nastmothsphere in 6-18 months.\n\nWith ISS scheduled to be retired in 2015, it is very important for ARISS to\nselect projects that have a short development time and a great return on the\neffort.\n\nEarly on during the ISS project, Frank Bauer (ARISS Chairman and VP of AMSAT\nCorporation) said he did not want to waste our valuable resources on\nbuilding Toss-Satellites. The MAREX team supported Frank Bauer?s position on\nToss-Satellites. A few years later Frank Bauer and ARISS approved the\nSuit-Sat1 Toss-Satellite project.\n\nThe Suit-Sat1 project incorporated a \"Expired\" spacesuit that was scheduled\nto be disposed of in an incinerating Progress module. Instead, the spacesuit\nwas stuffed with an Amateur Radio beacon and released as a free flying\nproject.\n\nThe original plan called for the \"off-the-shelf-hardware\" to be partially\npressurized inside the spacesuit. At the last minute the plans changed and\nthe equipment was exposed to the full vacuum of space. The transmitter for\nthe project failed and only a handful of stations were able to hear its\nextremely weak signal.\n\n \n\nThe project was partially successful in that it generated worldwide\nattention to ISS and Amateur Radio.\n\nThe Suit-Sat1 version of the project used a combination of existing ARISS\nhardware and \"off-the-shelf-hardware\". The project was completed in a\nrelatively short periods of time (less than 2 years) primary because it used\nmostly existing hardware. The Suit-Sat1 project did consume resources that\ncould have been used for longer duration projects.\n\nIn 2006, AMSAT Corporation director and ARISS Hardware Manager Lou McFadin\nproposed building another project called Suit-Sat2. For this project, rather\nthan using affordable and easy to deliver \"off-the-Shelf\" hardware, McFadin\ndecided to custom build a new transceiver from scratch, using new technology\ncalled \"Software Defined Radio\".\n\nThe Suit-Sat2 project required over 4 years to develop and will not be ready\nfor flight until 2010. The Suit-Sat2 project will have a flight life\nexpectancy of 4-12 months.\n\nThe effort placed into Suit-Sat2 has caused other long term projects to be\nignored.\n\n\nSummary:\n\nThe Suit-Sat1 transmitter failed immediately. \nDesign called for a pressurized suit, was changed to full vacuum, without\nany testing. \nAMAST Corporation is continuing to push for more short duration projects. \nLonger duration projects are being ignored \n \n\nUniversity Charter proposal changes:\n\nUnder the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that we cancel all\nToss Satellite projects for the duration of the remaining ISS mission and\nfocus our attention on longer duration projects that reach more users.\n\n \n\nInability to Maintain projects in flight\n\nKenwood TM-D700 Project:\n\nThe Kenwood TM-D700 Transceiver, is a very good product. It is unique it\nthat is has a built in Data modem and mailbox. The downside to this\ntransceiver is that it gives the users too much control over the \"User\nEditable Software\". It is possible to modify the software in a way that\nmakes the transceiver too difficult to operate, and that is exactly what\nhappened on this ARISS project.\n\nThe MAREX team encouraged the AMSAT Corporation to keep the software setup\nsimple. The MAREX team had used a similar transceiver on Mir and quickly\ndiscovered the Mir cosmonauts were easily confused by the Kenwood PM buttons\n(a PM button is a Function button that have the ability to reboot the radio\ninto a completely new configuration).\n\nFor the sake of brevity, the software complexity failed in many ways, I will\nhighlight one of the significant failures caused by the complex \"User\nEditable Software\" TM-D700 software.\n\nThe first thing we noticed in December 2003 when the Kenwood TM-700 was\nactivated from the International Space Station, was that the Packet Mailbox\nwas practically unusable. Only a very experienced operator, with thousands\nof watts of power could access the TM-D700 mailbox. The Data delays caused\nby the \"User Editable Software\" reduced the Mailbox data throughput from 300\nbits per second to less than 50 bits per second (See Data Test note #1).\nEven very experienced Satellite packet mailbox users had extreme difficulty\naccess the TM-D700 mailbox. By comparison, entry level users could easily\naccess the Mailbox that MAREX installed on Mir.\n\nARISS was immediately notified of the problem, however ARISS did not put any\neffort into analyzing or correcting the problem. The MAREX team researched\nthe problem independently of ARISS and discovered that stock terrestrial\nversions of the TM-700 had a working Packet Mailbox. The MAREX team soon\ndiscovered the problem was caused by the Criss-Cross software configured\nthat ARISS had used on the ISS version of the TM-D700. It took MAREX 4 years\nof actively lobbying ARISS to fix the problem.\n\n \n\nIn the spring of 2008 (4+ years after the problem was first discovered) the\nARISS team finally had a new version of software that appeared to work. The\nMAREX team tested a subset of this software that was manually configured on\nboard ISS. The TM-D700 Mailbox began to work for the first time 4 years,\nwith a normal data throughput. Unfortunately, due to a lack of coordination,\na Replacement TM-D700 was sent to ISS in the summer of 2008. The Replacement\nTM-D700 was not loaded with the new software and we are back where we were\nin December 2003, running the bad software.\n\nAs of spring 2009 the working \"User Editable Software\" software has NOT been\nloaded on to the ISS version of the TM-D700. The packet mailbox is still\nbroken on ISS TM-D700.\n\nSummary:\n\nThe ARISS / AMSAT Corporation never performed any type of functionality\ntesting of the TM-D700 project before flight. \nThe ARISS team accepted the project from Bob Brurunga team at face value and\nnever attempted to verify if the project meet the original operational\ngoals. \nThe ARISS team took no action to research or fix the problem. After 5 years\nof flight, the easily fixable mailbox feature is still broken on ISS. \nUniversity Charter proposal changes:\n\nUnder the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that the university\nform a monitoring team to periodically review the status of all Amateur\nRadio projects on board ISS and other satellites sharing the same\nfrequencies. The Review team will provide the NASA and ESA representatives\nthe status of the On board projects. These reports will include the health\nof the projects and what adjustments if any may be required for the safe\noperation of the equipment.\n\nIt is normal for projects to require simple periodic maintenance to ensure\nproper operation. The Amateur Radio projects are often used for dedicated\nSchool two-way radio links. It would be a simple procedure to have a basic\nsafety check worked into each school schedule to verify basic aspects of the\nAmateur Radio project being used.\n\nIf at any time an Amateur Radio project on ISS appears to be unstable or\npossibly on the verge of an unsafe condition, the Review team will notify\nNASA and ESA immediately and request the project be shutdown until it can be\nreevaluated for safety.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nFailure to provide NASA and ESA valid project status information\n\nThe AMSAT Corporation would routinely deny there are problems with\nequipment, even when ISS crewmembers in-flight reported the problems with\nthe ARISS projects.\n\nOne example, Kenwood TM-D700 Fan.\n\nThe TM-D700 transceiver has a built in Cooling Fan that operates when the\ntransmitter is active. None of us really paid much attention to the cooling\nfan, nor did anyone bother to research the Duty cycle of the fan or its life\nspan. Instead we did focus on trying to keep the radio cool by not using the\nHigh power mode and \"Hard Wiring\" the radio so that it would never\ntransmitter with more than 25 watts, (the terrestrial of the TM-D700 version\nis capable of operating at 45 watts transmitter output).\n\nWhen the packet Radio options were being discussed, one of the features of\npacket is called the Beacon Mode. With this option the packet station would\nsend out a short 1-2 second bust of data every few minutes.\n\nExample:\n\nRS0ISS>CQ [07/21/02 05:19:44]: <<UI>>:ARISS - INNTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION\n\nThe purpose of the beacon is to signal stations on Earth that the ISS packet\nstation is in range of their location. Normally the window of access\nopportunity to ISS is a small 10-minute window. By setting the beacon\ncorrectly we could ensue that most stations would hear the beacon at least\nonce during their access window. If the beacon were set too frequently, it\nwould waist power and increase the heat load on the transmitter.\n\nThe MAREX team requested a beacon set for 3-4 minutes at a power setting of\n5 watts. ARISS wanted a beacon set for 2 minutes at 10 watts transmitter\npower. ARISS got their way. The beacon option may seem trivial, however it\ndid have a big effect on the status of the cooling fan.\n\nNo one knew at that time, how the fan worked and what controlled the fans\nOn/Off cycle.\n\nThe way it works, is when the transmitter is ON, the Fan is ON. When the\ntransmitter turns OFF, a timer is set and the fan keeps running for 2 more\nminutes after the transmitter turns OFF.\n\n \n\nHad we known this early, it would have influenced the beacon decision. Since\nthe beacon was set to Broadcast every two minutes. And the Cooling fan would\nrun for 2 minutes after the transmitter stopped, it meant that the fan was\nrunning continuously 24 hours a day 7 days a week, whenever the TM-D700 was\nturned on.\n\nThe Packet software was designed to be on at all times (except during\nRepeater mode). Even when the radio was in Voice mode, the packet system was\nstill running on a different pair of frequencies. And every two minutes the\npacket system would send out another beacon, which kept the cooling fan\nrunning all of the time.\n\nIn August 2006 after 2.5 years of TM-D700 operations in flight, Cosmonaut\nCommander Pavel Vinogradov reported the TM-D700 fan did not seem to be\nworking, \"I blow on it, the fan moves and then stops\". The day before the\nRadio had over heated and locked up due to a problem with the Laptop\ntransmitter Vox-Box control cable (I will cover Vox-Box control cable in a\nseparate section).\n\nI was in the Tele-conference with ARISS when our Energia representative\nrepeated the conversation he had with Commander Pavel Vinogradov. ARISS\nimmediately went into denial mode and refused to believe the comments made\nby Commander Pavel Vinogradov. The MAREX team requested on several occasions\nthat ARISS should perform a routine check out of the TM-700 on during one of\nthe weekly School schedule link days. It would be easy to add a few new\n\"check list\" items to the school schedule checklist to examine the operation\nof the fan to verify its status. ARISS flat-out refused to perform any\nexamination of the fan on the TM-D700.\n\nFrank Bauer said \"I do not want to bring any attention to NASA that we may\nbe having a problem with fan\".\n\nIn August 2007 I talked to ISS crewmember Clayton Anderson on board ISS. I\nasked Clayton the question that ARISS had been refusing to ask, \"Is the fan\non the TM-D700 working\". Clayton responded, \"It?s hard to tell, I do not\nthink the fan is working\".\n\nThe statements made by Clayton Anderson and Commander Pavel Vinogradov while\nusing the TM-D700 on board ISS do not confirm the fan is actually broken,\nhowever there is substantial information present for ARISS to at least start\nan investigation. ARISS still refused to investigate the problem.\n\nFortunately the Russian engineering team frequently ignores ARISS and\ndecided that there was sufficient information and decided to send a\nreplacement TM-D700 and Vox-Box to ISS in 2008.\n\n \n\nSummary:\n\nARISS / AMSAT Corporation knew there was a possibility the critical cooling\nfan on the TM-D700 may have failed and took no action. \nARISS / AMSAT Corporation went out of their way to deny there was any\nproblem with the suspected cooling fan and continued to allow the\ntransceiver to operate in unattended modes. \nARISS / AMSAT Corporation refused to investigate the problem which had been\nreported by 2 ISS crewmembers in-flight. \nUniversity Charter proposal changes:\n\nUnder the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that the university\nassign an independent team to perform a complete safety and functionality\ncheck on every project approved by ARISS for ISS.\n\nThe safety check will included the following:\n\nComplete review of all technical documentation. \nHardware compatibility testing. Including full End-to-End testing at least a\nyear before flight. \nRFI emissions testing \nHuman Interface testing (Is the project too complex for the ISS crew to\noperate?) \nProject delivery schedule (If the project can not be completed in 2-years or\nless, it should be canceled) \nHardware Donation to ARISS:\n\nThe Kenwood Company donated (15) Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver to ARISS\n(around the year 2000) for the ISS projects. Very early on in the project\nTM- D700, MAREX asked Frank Bauer if we could to borrow one of the TM-D700\nto evaluate the performance of the TM-D700 Software, Packet Mail system and\nover all functionality. Frank agreed and promised to let MAREX borrow one of\nthe (15) TM-D700?s. MAREX made the request several time and was always give\nthe same response, \"Yes we will send you one when they are available\".\n\nARISS never came through with their promise and as a result the TM-D700\nnever received the planned crosscheck evaluation of the project as had been\nplanned. This critical missing Quality Assurance check allowed many\ncorrectable problems to slip through and resulted in an over all very poor\nperforming and embarrassing project for ARISS and ISS.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nFailure to test projects:\n\nAMSAT Corporations refusal to perform basic compatibly and usability testing\non projects has led to some embarrassing failures. The lack of testing has\nbeen a reoccurring team throughout the ARISS projects.\n\nThere are many example of the \"Failure to test\", however I will only\nhighlight one of the best document cases.\n\nSlow Scan TV project (SpaceCam1 SSTV):\n\nThe SSTV project consisted for 5 parts:\n\nSSTV Software, provided by MAREX and Silicon-Pixels \nMAREX Delivered the Beta software in 1999.\n\nLaptop Computer \nARISS took the responsibility of acquiring an approved Laptop to be used for\nAmateur Radio project including Packet and Slow Scan TV. ARISS began the\nacquisition in 1999 and was finally able to secure a Laptop in 2008. The\nLaptop portion of the project only required 9 years to complete.\nOccasionally the ISS crew would borrow the \"Tourist\" Laptops from other\nprojects that would be used intermittently with Amateur Radio projects.\n\nErickson Transceiver \nThe original SAREX team had some leftover hardware from previous Shuttle\nMissions. This hardware was flight qualified for ISS and delivered to ISS in\n2000.\n\nVox-Box adapter \nAn interface needed to be built to allow a Laptop computer to connect to the\nErickson transceiver. AMSAT Corporation directory Lou McFadin (ARISS\nHardware Manager) volunteered to build the interface cable. This cable would\nbe used for SSTV and other Amateur radio projects. The Vox-Box cable design\nbegan in 1999.\n\nAntenna System (Team effort from multiple agencies) \nA total of 5 cable feed-throughs, with antennas were made available to\nAmateur Radio project in the Russian modules.\n\n \n\nLack of End-to-End Testing:\n\nIn the summer of 2000, AMSAT had sufficient hardware and software to start\nperforming End-to-end testing of the SpaceCam1 project. The ARISS/AMSAT\nhardware team had the Antennas, Flight-Laptop (IBM-760XD), SpaceCam1\nsoftware, VOX-Box hardware and the Erickson Transceivers.\n\nThe AMSAT hardware team never performed any End-to-end testing until August\n2003. At a meeting with ARISS in 2003, I was finally given access to the\nErickson hardware for the first time. To my utter amazement, no one on the\nAMSAT hardware team had ever connected all of this equipment together prior\nto this meeting. The ARISS hardware team had only tested individual parts\nseparately.\n\nI discovered numerous problems that should have been discovered years\nearlier. The SpaceCam1 project was scheduled to fly to ISS in 2004 and we\nhad to perform qualifications testing in Moscow in November 2003.\n\n#1 Erickson Transceiver could not receive SSTV images.\n\nThe first big problem was that the Erickson transceiver was not able to\nreceive SSTV images.\n\nThe Erickson Transceivers had an audio port connection, which would be\nconnected to the Laptop through the Vox-Box adapter. The Audio voltage level\ncoming out of the Erickson connection was approximately 10 volts p-p. The\nLaptop microphone input port requires a voltage level of 1-2 volt p-p.\n\nSince the Erickson was running a voltage much higher than the requirements\nof the Laptop, the images displayed on the laptop were completely distorted\nand unusable.\n\nThe fix for this problem was never implemented by ARISS and thus the\nErickson Transceiver could not be used for SSTV or any other type of Laptop\nproject.\n\n \n\n#2 Vox-Box oscillations\n\nThe Vox-Box is an adapter cable that takes the audio from the Laptop and\nsends it to the Radio. The Vox-Box is also responsible to telling the Radio,\nwhen to \"Transmit\". When the Vox-Box detects audio from the Laptop, it will\nthen tell the radio to \"Transmit\". When the audio stops, the Vox-Box will\ntell the radio to switch back into receiving mode.\n\nDuring the Houston testing in August 2003, we noticed the Vox-Box adapter\nwould intermittently go into an uncontrolled Oscillation. The Oscillation\nwould then scramble any images being sent to the radio.\n\nEventually a specific hardware configuration was found that seem to reduce\nthe Oscillations. The Kenwood TM-D700 and the IBM-760XD seemed to be\ncompatible. The AMSAT team that built the Vox-Box did not perform any\nadditional circuit modifications to understand or eliminate the Oscillation\nproblem.\n\nThe two Vox-Box cables used on board ISS are both having problems\ncontrolling the transmitter. When the Laptop signals the Vox-Box to start\ntransmit, the transmitter is activated correctly. When the Laptop signals\nthe Vox-Box to Stop transmitter, the Transmitter gets stuck ON.\n\n#3 Wiener Laptop\n\nThe Wiener Laptop (166 MHz CPU, Windows 2000) was a backup Laptop provided\nby the Russian team. This was the first time anyone at ARISS had seen this\nLaptop. The Russians said, there was a spare Wiener Laptop on ISS and we\nwere welcome to use this computer for our Amateur Radio projects.\n\nThe main problem with this computer was also associated with the Audio\noutput voltage levels. This Laptop was designed to run either low voltage\nheadsets (1-2 volts p-p) or higher voltage external speakers (15-20 volts\np-p). The Windows 2000 operating Systems was all in Russian and we had very\nlimited access to a Russian translator to assist with the settings. As a\nresult we were not able to fully document the changes required to keep the\nLaptop running in the low voltage-operating mode. All images transmitted\nfrom the Wiener Laptop while in the default Speaker setting came out\nscrambled.\n\n \n\nMoscow KIS testing November 2003\n\nDuring the months before the trip to Russia, the ARISS and MAREX team linked\nup frequently by conference call. One of the goals requested by MAREX was\nthat we have a pre-test staging day set aside so that we could retest all of\nthe hardware, before going to the KIS testing facility. The pre-test staging\nwas very important because of the poor results we had during the August 2003\nHouston testing session. Frank Bauer and the ARISS team agreed and plans\nwere made to set aside a day to stage all of the hardware before taking the\nhardware to the KIS facility.\n\nShortly after we arrived in Moscow, Frank Bauer told me that we would not\nhave a Staging test day and that we wold not have access to the hardware\nuntil the morning of the KIS flight certification testing. A disaster was\nlooming.\n\nOn the testing day, a good portion of the morning was taken up by going\nthrough the required security processes. When we finally arrived in our\ntesting office with all of our hardware, we only had 1 hour to unpack and\nget ready for the testing, inside the mockup module of the ISS service\nmodule.\n\nAll of the problems we had in Houston came back and then some. The first\nstumbling block was that we did not have our translator with us. During the\nprevious 2 days of meetings, we had full access to a qualified translator.\nHowever, in the KIS facility we did not have a translator, which would have\nreally been useful.\n\nThe Wiener Laptop was installed in the Service module first. Unfortunately\nthe settings I made to the Wiener Laptop in August 2003 had been changed and\nthe Laptop was now sending speaker audio out at 20 volts p-p. The high\nvoltages caused all SSTV images sent from the service module to become\ncompletely scrambled.\n\nThe IBM 760XD and TM-D700 combination in the Office overlooking the Service\nmodule was also having problems sending images to the Service Module.\n\nOur Back up Kenwood HT with a SSTV microphone (VCH1-Communicator) was out of\nservice because the battery had not been charged. Fortunately we had the 220\nVolt power cube for the HT, unfortunately the plug pins were too short to\nreach inside the Russian AC power outlet or Power strips.\n\nI went to a group of Russian engineers wearing white jackets and handed them\nthe Power Cube and a Power Strip and said in English, \"Fix\". The engineers\ntook the power cube and power strip and walked a way. A few minutes later\nthey came back. They had removed the protective cover to the power strip and\ntaped the Power Cube on to the exposed 220-Volt brass contact bars. The\nengineer said in English \"No Touch\". Wow that was fast and simple Russian\nengineering. I now had 1 working SSTV system. Unfortunately I needed two\nworking SSTV systems.\n\nI began working on the IBM-760XD in the lab and discovered the Audio levels\nwere set incorrectly, which was easy to correct. After a few minutes I was\nable to send and receive SSTV images to the Backup VCH1-Commander system in\nthe same lab. I was also able to send Frank Bauer SSTVimages in the Service\nmodule. Frank was still not able to Send images because of the audio level\nproblems with the Wiener Laptop.\n\nFrank ordered me into the Service Module to fix the Wiener computer.\nUnfortunately, without a Russian translator, I could not easily navigate the\nRussian version of Windows 2000 to find the correct audio settings. At one\npoint, a group of Cosmonauts squeezed into the Service model to see the new\nSSTV project. Everyone posed for pictures. One of the cosmonauts looked at\nthe scrambled SSTV images on the screen and said in English, \"Not working?\"\nI responded in poor Russian \"Little Problem\", I was very embarrassed.\n\nThen we got lucky, the battery on the Wiener computer died. We were not\nallowed to run the laptops on AC power, they had to run on batteries for\ntheir emission portion of the tests. The dead batter allowed us the blame\nthe battery for the problems and gave us the opportunity to swap over to the\nIBM-760XD and Kenwood TM-D700 configuration. Within a few minutes the\nworking IBM-760XD was moved from the lab, into the Service Module. Once\nsetup Frank and I were able to Send and receive good quality SSTV images to\nand from the Service Module and we were able to pass the emissions testing.\n\nChanges to the Vox-Box power source:\n\nA few weeks after the Moscow certification test, the power source for the\nVox-Box was changed from a 9-Volt battery to be able to receive power\ndirectly from inside the Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver. This modification was\nonly performed on the TM-D700 in Russia, one of which was flown to ISS in\nthe fall of 2003. None of the other TM-700 in the USA based ARISS Hardware\nteam made the same changes or confirmed their functionality.\n\nWhen the Vox-Box was used in-flight for SSTV in August 2006, the Vox-Box\nwould turn ON the transmitter, however the Vox-Box circuit would get stuck\nand would not turn the transmitter OFF.\n\nA new Vox-Box and TM-D700 were flown to ISS in the summer of 2008. When the\nSSTV was activated again, the same problem occurred, the transmitter would\nget stuck in the ON position. Flight participant Richard Garriott, tried two\ndifferent SSTV applications and both had the same problem. ARISS wants to\nblame the SpaceCam1 SSTV software, however, since the problem was seen with\ntwo completely different SSTV applications, we can assume that is its not a\nsoftware issue.\n\nThe cause of the stuck transmitter is most likely and RF interference on the\nDC power source feeding from the TM-D700 transmitter into the Vox-Box. I\nhave shown a few engineers the schematic for the ARISS Vox-Box and they all\nask the same questions, \"Where is the RF bypass filtering, there is none\".\nWithout proper RF bypass circuits, it would be easy for the Vox-Box switch\nto get stuck on the ON condition.\n\n \n\nSummary:\n\nLack of End-to-end testing left us poorly prepared with limited hardware\noptions. \nCanceling of the pre-test Staging resulted in an embarrassing and stressful\ntesting session. \nThe Vox-Box Oscillation problem was observed by oscilloscope in Moscow. \nChanges to Vox-Box power source were not fully tested and may be the cause\nof the two In-flight failures. \n \n\nUniversity Charter proposal changes:\n\nUnder the new ARISS Reorganization Charter, I propose that the university\nassign an independent team to perform a complete safety and functionality\ncheck on every project approved by ARISS for ISS.\n\nThe safety check will included the following:\n\nComplete review of all technical documentation. \nHardware compatibility testing. Including full End-to-End testing at least a\nyear before flight. \nRFI emissions testing \nHuman Interface testing (Is the project too complex for the ISS crew to\noperate?) \nProject delivery schedule (If the project can not be completed in 2-years or\nless, it should be canceled) \nLast minute changes will need to be verified before ARISS will signoff on a\nproblem. \n \n\n\n\n\n      \n\n\n\n------------------------------\n\n_______________________________________________\nSent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.\nNot an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!\nhttp://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb\n\n\nEnd of AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 4, Issue 401\n****************************************\n\n",
    "attachments": []
}