SuitSat (also known as SuitSat-1, Mr. Smith, Ivan Ivanovich, RadioSkaf, Radio Sputnik, and AMSAT-OSCAR 54) was a retired Russian

Orlan space suit 270px, Cosmonaut Maksim Surayev next to two Orlan-MK models on the International Space Station image:Sharipov one.jpg, 270px, Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, next to the Orlan-M spacesuit. The Orlan space suit (russian: Орлан, lit=Sea eagle (b ...

with a

radio transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

mounted on its helmet, used as a hand-launched

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

. First devised around 2004, SuitSat-1 was deployed in an

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

around the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

on February 3, 2006. Contact from SuitSat-1 was lost by February 18, and the satellite burned up on reentry in Earth's atmosphere on September 7. A similar hand-launched satellite,

Kedr Kedr (russian: кедр meaning ''Siberian pine''; Yuri Gagarin's callsign during the Vostok 1 mission), also known as ARISSat 1 and RadioSkaf-2 (formerly known as SuitSat 2), was an amateur radio minisatellite operated by RKK Energia as part o ...

, was released in 2011 and was initially named SuitSat-2, despite not using a space suit.

SuitSat-1

The idea for this

OSCAR Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

satellite was first formally discussed at an

AMSAT AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) with headquarters at Washington, D.C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then opera ...

symposium in October 2004, although the

ARISS Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), operating in the Amateur-satellite service, is a project sponsored by various entities and carried out by astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station who also have an a ...

-Russia team is credited with coming up with the idea as a commemorative gesture for the 175th anniversary of the

Moscow State Technical University The Bauman Moscow State Technical University, BMSTU (russian: link=no, Московский государственный технический университет им. Н. Э. Баумана (МГТУ им. Н. Э. Баумана)), some ...

. According to Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, a group of Russian researchers led by Sergey Samburov devised the idea of converting disused space suits into satellites. In a move originally planned for December 6, 2005, SuitSat-1 entered its own independent orbit just after 23:05 UTC on February 3, 2006, when it was released from the International Space Station by

Valeri Tokarev Valeri Ivanovich Tokarev (russian: Валерий Иванович Токарев; born 29 October 1952) is a Russian Air Force Colonel and test cosmonaut at the Yuri A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Tokarev traveled to space twice, and has p ...

and Bill McArthur as part of an unrelated spacewalk. Voice messages recorded by the teams involved, and by students from around the globe, were continuously broadcast in a number of languages from the SuitSat, along with telemetry data. The signal began transmission approximately 15 minutes after SuitSat-1 was jettisoned and was relayed by equipment on board the ISS. Anyone receiving the transmission could log an entry on the tracker at suitsat.org, detailing when and where they heard it. The SuitSat-1 mission was not a total success. There were very few reports that actually confirmed the receiving of the transmission.

NASA TV The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...

later announced that SuitSat ceased functioning after only two orbits due to battery failure, but there were reports suggesting that SuitSat-1 continued transmitting, albeit far weaker than expected. The official designation for SuitSat is AMSAT-OSCAR 54, though it was nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich" or "Mr. Smith". The radio transmitter used a frequency of 145.990 MHz. The last confirmed signal report from SuitSat-1 was the report of KC7GZC on February 18, 2006. All later reports indicate that no signal was received when SuitSat-1 was due to pass over. On September 7, 2006, at 16:00 GMT, SuitSat reentered the Earth's atmosphere over the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

at 110.4° East longitude and 46.3° South latitude. It was over a point some 1,400 km south-southwest of

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders ...

, Australia.

ARISSat-1 (formerly SuitSat-2)

ARISSat-1, formerly SuitSat-2 and also known as Kedr, was another ISS hand-launched satellite. It contained experiments built by students and a software-defined radio capable of supporting a U/v linear transponder, FM telemetry, voice recordings and live SSTV imagery. Unlike SuitSat-1, batteries on ARISSat-1 were charged by solar panels, and had a predicted lifetime of up to six months (an interval during which it was expected to deorbit). Kedr was deployed from the ISS by Sergey Volkov on 3 August 2011, and re-entered Earth's atmosphere in January 2012, having spent 154 days in orbit.

In popular culture

Decommissioned
a 2021 short film, depicts SuitSat as a haunted entity that gains sentience and attacks the ISS. The short won a finalist position at a filmmaking competition using the

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of g ...

References

External links

Microchip in Space - NASA Releases SuitSat-1 with PIC18 Microcontroller

AMSAT satellite detail

suitsat.org

Russian site about SuitSat satellite series

SuitSat Audio Recordings and Updates - AJ3U.com
* NASA press release

* ttp://www.microcontroller.com/news/microchip_SuitSat1_NASA.asp ''NASA Releases SuitSat 1'' includes video and technical details
"SuitSat-2 Now Called ARISSat-1"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suitsat Amateur radio satellites 2005 in spaceflight Spacecraft which reentered in 2006 Spacecraft launched in 2005 Satellites deployed from the International Space Station