All,

You all were asking about the ARISS new hardware status. I sent the missive below to the ARISS team this morning, so here you go.

We greatly appreciate the substantial donation from JVC Kenwood of hardware and engineering to realize the next ARISS station. As Dan Cussen noted in an earlier post, the costs and effort to develop and certify equipment for human spaceflight missions is very high. The bulk of this cost is for safety certification testing and hazard reporting expertise. We are estimating that from beginning to end (3 year development cycle), the costs for the new hardware system will be in the $200k range. Note that we are aggressively pursuing real dollar and in-kind donations to address this. But, as you know, every bit of funding helps. That is why we started the ARISS Challenge Coin Donation Campaign this year at the Dayton Hamvention.

If anyone has ideas on garnering funds to support the ARISS hardware initiative, please contact me directly at my ka3hdo@amsat.org mailto:ka3hdo@amsat.org address.

Thanks for all your interest and support to ARISS.

73, Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO

AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs

ARISS International Chair

*****

Yesterday, October 21, 2016, the ARISS hardware team accomplished a very major milestone-the successful completion of the Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) for the Interoperable Hardware System, which includes the JVC Kenwood D710 Radio and the Multi Voltage Power Supply.

The TIM was conducted as an ARISS hardware milestone from the Technical Evaluation and Support (TES) Committee (TES) and our international members from TES were present. The TIM also had subject matter experts from NASA attending and providing advice as well as a former (retired) chief engineer from the NASA Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) organization. All in all, ARISS received great advice and suggestions on how to move forward with the hardware development. I am most proud that we have completed this first major milestone in the development of the next ARISS hardware upgrade to fly on ISS.

On behalf of the ARISS International team, I would like to thank TES co-leads Mark Steiner and Lou McFadin for their leadership in getting the important milestone accomplished. I would also like to thank Kerry Banke, the Multi Voltage Power Supply developer, Bob Davis who is developing the mechanical enclosure for the system, and Bob Bruninga and Dave Taylor for their help on the D710 programming modes. And, of course, special thanks goes to JVC Kenwood and Aota Shin and Phil Parton for their support, equipment and engineering that will serve ARISS and the ham community for years to come.

With this milestone completed, we will move forward with the design process and finalize the design with a TIM in the next few months. Our next hurdle will be the Phase 0 safety review which we hope to complete before the end of this year. While aggressive, we are still working with NASA towards an October 2017 launch of the hardware system.

As you communicate this important milestone to your friends, please remind them that we cannot complete this effort without funding. Human spaceflight hardware developments are always expensive. They are most welcome to donate towards the hardware development by pushing the "ARISS Donate" button at www.amsat.org http://www.amsat.org . Those that donate $100 or more will receive a special ARISS Commemorative Coin.

I thank all of you for all your sustained support and efforts to our ARISS cause over the years. It is hard to believe that we are nearing 20 years of being a team.

73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO