By Miles Mann WF1F, MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division)
Who will push the Button?
I spoke with the engineers at Russians Missioncontrol today about the end of Mir. Tomorrow morning around 8am Moscow time(0600 UTC) many of the engineers and cosmonauts who were responsible for Mirwill gather in Mission control to bid farewell to a fine space station.Cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyov, who was a flight engineer on the very first Mirmission (March 13, 1986) will also be present. Solovyov, who helped bring Miralive in 1986, will be responsible for bringing the Mir project to an end. Atapproximately 0600 UTC Vladimir Solovyov will issue the command to fire the Mirengines for one last time. Then approximately 30-45 minutes later, Mir willsplash down Pacific Ocean.
The MAREX-NA SPACECAM-1 System is an entry-level PC based Slow Scan Television system designed to be used on board the International Space Station. The SPACECAM-1 system will support multiple common SSTV transmission modes. And has been specifically designed to be accessible to as many stations as possible around the world. The original proof-of-concept system was built by the MAREX-NA team and successfully flown on the Russian Space Station Mir (December 1998 till present). The proof-of-concept system has proven the ability of the hardware design a
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SSTV for the ISS (International Space Station) is being made possible by the very generous efforts of several Amateur Radio Operators. There is no funding presently available for Amateur Radio Projects aboard the ISS. The SSTV System for the ISS is called SpaceCam1.
The SSTV developments for ISS are being carried on by the same MAREX group that contributed and gained much valuable experience in the very successful Mir SSSTV System. Additional personnel have volunteered and have been added to the MAREX-NA group.
The Mir SSTV System consisted of a hardware package. The ISS SSTV System is a software concept utilizing a laptop computer presently aboard the ISS. The software and interface will be added to the existing Ericsson HT radio aboard the station which is presently being used for packet and voice communications to Earth.
Those who are sponsoring the SSTV development and supplying the interconnect hardware include:
