ARISS International Monthly Meeting Teleconference
September 15, 2020 – 1100 UTC
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski
Emanuele D’Andria
Francesco De Paolis
Stefan Dombrowski
Shizuo Endo
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
John Kludt
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Martha Muir
Ken Nichols
Jan Poppeliers
Kenneth Ransom
Dave Taylor
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Gianpietro Ferrario
Peter Kofler
Keigo Komuro
Eric Oosterbaan
Sergey Samburov
Gordon Scannell
Graham Shirville
Mark Steiner
Meeting Agenda
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
All team members were welcomed to the meeting by Frank Bauer, and Gaston Bertels was wished a Happy Birthday.
Frank Bauer said ARISS is seeing the dawn of a new era with installation of the new radio system on the ISS and that this achievement is due to everyone’s hard work. He thanked the Ops team, and for those, Claudio Ariotti, Jan Poppeliers, Tony Hutchison and Shane Lynd, who stayed up through the night to test the new system to validate it was working well.
ARISS is nearing the major milestone of 20 years of continuous operations. For the near future, SpaceX Crew 1 will be launched and three of the astronauts are interested in ARISS operations.
1. Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO & Rosalie White, K1STO
[Decisional]
Summary: For the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on August 18, 2020, Rosalie White took the minutes and forwarded the document on August 19, 2020 to the other ARISS-International Officers, Frank Bauer and Oliver Amend for review. This was completed on August 30. The following day Rosalie White distributed the finalized document to ARISS Delegates.
Discussion: Rosalie White said that after the minutes were distributed to the ARISS-International email list, everyone had an opportunity to review them and no one replied with a request for a change. Frank Bauer asked for a motion to approve the document. Gaston Bertels moved to accept, and Ciaran Morgan seconded the motion. There were no objections; the minutes were accepted and Carol Jackson will post them.
2. Report, InterOperable Radio System (IORS)—Lou McFadin, W5DID
[Informational]
Summary: Lou McFadin will report on all of the things that have taken place recently in regard to the InterOperable Radio System (IORS) now being on the air. Comments from the team and congratulations to the team from users will be related.
Discussion: Lou McFadin reminded team members that the idea for the IORS was first discussed in 2015. Through the next five years, team members designed every part of the system. This included such things as the complexities of the power supply to operate on several voltages, special sheathing for the cables, to support ISS flammability requirements, and ensuring temperatures are within safe limits even when many hams have been operating through the IORS cross-band repeater many hours at a time. Shin Iota, Bob Bruninga and Dve Taylor implemented a great design of the JVC Kenwood radio interface for on-orbit operations so that the radio is very easy to switch between modes and needed frequencies.
A discussion continued about the major interest in the IORS by so many hams and the IORS FM radio exhibiting the capture effect. Lou McFadin added that the team has been monitoring the IORS during cross-band repeater operations and all is well.
He was asked about the L-band uplink project; he said progress is being made.
Emanuele D’Andria asked if there was a document with the IORS’s specifications such as downlink information. Dave Taylor gave the downlinks—145.800 for voice, 437.800 for cross-band repeater, and 145.825 for packet. These can be found on the ariss.org web site
3. Committee Updates for:
ARISS-International ToR Sub-committee—Graham Shirville, G3VZV
ARISS-International Operations 2.0 Sub-committee—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO & John Kludt, K4SQC
[Informational]
Summary:
· Graham Shirville will present a report on the ARISS-International ToR Sub-committee and committee members’ inputs.
· Frank Bauer and John Kludt will give an update on progress and all activities related to moving forward with Operations 2.0.
Discussion:
Graham Shirville reported yesterday that he would not able to attend the meeting. He will lead the discussion of his committee at the October meeting.
John Kludt and Frank Bauer gave a presentation on the Operations 2.0 work. They reported the work by team members to identify the most affordable server, content management system, and required tools that meet all of the technical and IT security requirements. Another factor studied was a server and tools that would not require a great amount of time of the team members who will work with the tools and also would not take a lot of time to learn to use. The server will need to host ARISS web sites and support ARISS reflectors. These tools will need to help with the consistent branding of ARISS.
The team plans to leave the ARISS web site where it is for now while a transition would be made in the near future to a new server. The transition could begin with constructing a new website with limited pages for ARISS-USA and the team could practice using its features. During that time, each ARISS Region would be asked what tools they will need. Then work could begin on the Operations 2.0 replacement web-based tools, web-based user interface and ARISS-I reflectors.
4. Commemorating the ARISS 20th Anniversary—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
[Informational]
Summary: Frank Bauer will share that both NASA and the ISS National Lab are highly interested in hearing what activities ARISS plans to support for the 20th anniversary. He did not receive names from ARISS Delegates by the September 2 deadline for who will be on the committee. There is a two-part plan to commemorate the anniversary. The first part, in early November, will be tied to the space agency/ISS 20th anniversary celebrations—ARISS was the very first payload on the ISS. The second part of the celebration, starting in mid-November (when the radio first operated) will focus on ARISS operations.
Team members should be ready to share their ideas and initial thoughts on what historic information their ARISS Region will compile.
Discussion: Frank Bauer reminded the team that the celebration of ARISS’s anniversary begins in only six weeks! He said one of the first commemorative activities will be a panel discussion at the ISS R&D Conference in October. This is scheduled to feature the 20 years of successes on the ISS, and a presentation by our panelist will be given about ARISS’s 20 years.
The team hopes several special SSTV sessions can be sponsored. These SSTV session would commemorate the first ARISS operations on the ISS (in November), maybe highlight the first ARISS school contact held in each ARISS Region if the regions provide the needed images and text, and a session to feature exceptional achievements made by ARISS team members.
.
Sergey Samburov had shared that the cosmonauts had an interest in using the ARISS radios on the ISS to offer congratulatory greetings.
An ARISS committee of members from each ARISS Region need to coordinate the plans. Here are ideas for the committee to work on.
· Compile messages from youth who took part in ARISS, SAREX and MIREX activities and the youth who are now in STEM careers.
· Create a special anniversary video
· Compile an archive of historical interviews of team members.
· Compose a series of one-pagers with graphics on topics such as launches, hardware developments, operations, educational activities and experiments, and unique ARISS initiatives.
Frank Bauer said we need a committee now! He asked: does the team want anniversary activities or not? Gaston Bertels feels ARISS-International should move forward and focus first on the activities that commemorate ARISS operations that took place in November 2000. Then tackle other initiatives. He said Sergey Krikalev might speak over the air. Glenn MacDonell said celebrating ARISS’s 20 years is important to do. ARISS-Canada is considering the best people to have on the committee who can do the tasks.
Gaston Bertels asked the team to think of who the audiences are and an action for each, such as:
* the anniversary video and one-pagers would be good for politicians, the general public, IARU, AMSAT societies, hams and space agencies
* the special ARISS contacts with crew members could be to honor the ARISS team
* SSTV sessions are for the ham community, the general public, and educators and students.
Frank Bauer said the discussion should be continued by the new committee and he reminded delegates and team members that their Action Item is still open: each ARISS Region needs to name a person(s) to the committee. All team members should share what activity or event they are interested in helping to lead.
Ad hoc:
Francesco DePaolis commented that because the ARISS working group does not require a payment to become a member society, in some cases, it is not known what groups are member societies. He thinks each member society should be an IARU society or national AMSAT society. He asked Emanuele D’Andria to explain why, which is that they feel it is important to know their member societies since they choose ARISS-Europe delegates. Emanuele D’Andria asked if ARISS-International would change the ARISS-International Terms of Reference without naming ARISS-Europe member societies. Frank Bauer noted that there are choices. Delegates could vote on a new terms of reference after ARISS-Europe finalizes its terms of reference. Or, delegates could vote on a new terms of reference with the motion stating that at a later date, an addendum or one page listing member societies would be added. The latter choice would allow delegates to vote as needed to modify only the addendum or one-page, rather than voting on the entire terms of reference. ARISS Europe should determine how best to work with member societies in its region. Emanuele D’Andria asked if delegates on the team for many years still represent their member societies. Frank Bauer gave examples: delegates in ARISS-US and ARISS-Canada continue to be confirmed by their societies. Glenn MacDonell, a member of the ARISS-International ToR Sub-committee, said each region is a little different, each region selects its own delegates, and the ARISS-International Terms of Reference do not need to state how each region makes its decision on delegates, however, he feels a delegate should represent their region. Emanuele D’Andrea asked Gaston Bertels for his comments. He said an ARISS International meeting vote in 2001 gave ARISS-Europe four delegates to be nominated by members of ARISS-Europe, they can represent an IARU or AMSAT society from countries supporting the ISS, and these rules are being reviewed. Emanuele D’Andria said he is the AMSAT-Italia representative, he doesn’t know who other ARISS-Europe delegates represent, and some member societies are not listed. Frank Bauer said those are two different topics, the first is about a delegate who is named and the second is about a member society that may no longer exist. Gaston Bertels replied that when he was ARISS Chair, ARISS-Europe delegates were nominated and written agreement was requested from the society who nominated the delegate. This discussion was becoming lengthy and will continue, primarily in the ARISS Region where it resides—ARISS-Europe.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be October 20, 2020.
Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
September 19, 2020
September 15, 2020 – 1100 UTC
Oliver Amend
Frank Bauer
Gaston Bertels
Armand Budzianowski
Emanuele D’Andria
Francesco De Paolis
Stefan Dombrowski
Shizuo Endo
Bruce Hunter
Bertus Husken
Tony Hutchison
David Jordan
John Kludt
Chet Latawiec
Glenn MacDonell
Lou McFadin
Ciaran Morgan
Martha Muir
Ken Nichols
Jan Poppeliers
Kenneth Ransom
Dave Taylor
Rosalie White
Satoshi Yasuda
Unable to attend:
Fabio Azzarello
Kerry Banke
Jean-Pierre Courjaud
Darin Cowan
Gianpietro Ferrario
Peter Kofler
Keigo Komuro
Eric Oosterbaan
Sergey Samburov
Gordon Scannell
Graham Shirville
Mark Steiner
Meeting Agenda
Roll Call—Rosalie White, K1STO
Welcome—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
All team members were welcomed to the meeting by Frank Bauer, and Gaston Bertels was wished a Happy Birthday.
Frank Bauer said ARISS is seeing the dawn of a new era with installation of the new radio system on the ISS and that this achievement is due to everyone’s hard work. He thanked the Ops team, and for those, Claudio Ariotti, Jan Poppeliers, Tony Hutchison and Shane Lynd, who stayed up through the night to test the new system to validate it was working well.
ARISS is nearing the major milestone of 20 years of continuous operations. For the near future, SpaceX Crew 1 will be launched and three of the astronauts are interested in ARISS operations.
1. Call for Acceptance of Minutes—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO & Rosalie White, K1STO
[Decisional]
Summary: For the ARISS-International Monthly Meeting on August 18, 2020, Rosalie White took the minutes and forwarded the document on August 19, 2020 to the other ARISS-International Officers, Frank Bauer and Oliver Amend for review. This was completed on August 30. The following day Rosalie White distributed the finalized document to ARISS Delegates.
Discussion: Rosalie White said that after the minutes were distributed to the ARISS-International email list, everyone had an opportunity to review them and no one replied with a request for a change. Frank Bauer asked for a motion to approve the document. Gaston Bertels moved to accept, and Ciaran Morgan seconded the motion. There were no objections; the minutes were accepted and Carol Jackson will post them.
2. Report, InterOperable Radio System (IORS)—Lou McFadin, W5DID
[Informational]
Summary: Lou McFadin will report on all of the things that have taken place recently in regard to the InterOperable Radio System (IORS) now being on the air. Comments from the team and congratulations to the team from users will be related.
Discussion: Lou McFadin reminded team members that the idea for the IORS was first discussed in 2015. Through the next five years, team members designed every part of the system. This included such things as the complexities of the power supply to operate on several voltages, special sheathing for the cables, to support ISS flammability requirements, and ensuring temperatures are within safe limits even when many hams have been operating through the IORS cross-band repeater many hours at a time. Shin Iota, Bob Bruninga and Dve Taylor implemented a great design of the JVC Kenwood radio interface for on-orbit operations so that the radio is very easy to switch between modes and needed frequencies.
A discussion continued about the major interest in the IORS by so many hams and the IORS FM radio exhibiting the capture effect. Lou McFadin added that the team has been monitoring the IORS during cross-band repeater operations and all is well.
He was asked about the L-band uplink project; he said progress is being made.
Emanuele D’Andria asked if there was a document with the IORS’s specifications such as downlink information. Dave Taylor gave the downlinks—145.800 for voice, 437.800 for cross-band repeater, and 145.825 for packet. These can be found on the ariss.org web site
3. Committee Updates for:
ARISS-International ToR Sub-committee—Graham Shirville, G3VZV
ARISS-International Operations 2.0 Sub-committee—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO & John Kludt, K4SQC
[Informational]
Summary:
· Graham Shirville will present a report on the ARISS-International ToR Sub-committee and committee members’ inputs.
· Frank Bauer and John Kludt will give an update on progress and all activities related to moving forward with Operations 2.0.
Discussion:
Graham Shirville reported yesterday that he would not able to attend the meeting. He will lead the discussion of his committee at the October meeting.
John Kludt and Frank Bauer gave a presentation on the Operations 2.0 work. They reported the work by team members to identify the most affordable server, content management system, and required tools that meet all of the technical and IT security requirements. Another factor studied was a server and tools that would not require a great amount of time of the team members who will work with the tools and also would not take a lot of time to learn to use. The server will need to host ARISS web sites and support ARISS reflectors. These tools will need to help with the consistent branding of ARISS.
The team plans to leave the ARISS web site where it is for now while a transition would be made in the near future to a new server. The transition could begin with constructing a new website with limited pages for ARISS-USA and the team could practice using its features. During that time, each ARISS Region would be asked what tools they will need. Then work could begin on the Operations 2.0 replacement web-based tools, web-based user interface and ARISS-I reflectors.
4. Commemorating the ARISS 20th Anniversary—Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
[Informational]
Summary: Frank Bauer will share that both NASA and the ISS National Lab are highly interested in hearing what activities ARISS plans to support for the 20th anniversary. He did not receive names from ARISS Delegates by the September 2 deadline for who will be on the committee. There is a two-part plan to commemorate the anniversary. The first part, in early November, will be tied to the space agency/ISS 20th anniversary celebrations—ARISS was the very first payload on the ISS. The second part of the celebration, starting in mid-November (when the radio first operated) will focus on ARISS operations.
Team members should be ready to share their ideas and initial thoughts on what historic information their ARISS Region will compile.
Discussion: Frank Bauer reminded the team that the celebration of ARISS’s anniversary begins in only six weeks! He said one of the first commemorative activities will be a panel discussion at the ISS R&D Conference in October. This is scheduled to feature the 20 years of successes on the ISS, and a presentation by our panelist will be given about ARISS’s 20 years.
The team hopes several special SSTV sessions can be sponsored. These SSTV session would commemorate the first ARISS operations on the ISS (in November), maybe highlight the first ARISS school contact held in each ARISS Region if the regions provide the needed images and text, and a session to feature exceptional achievements made by ARISS team members.
.
Sergey Samburov had shared that the cosmonauts had an interest in using the ARISS radios on the ISS to offer congratulatory greetings.
An ARISS committee of members from each ARISS Region need to coordinate the plans. Here are ideas for the committee to work on.
· Compile messages from youth who took part in ARISS, SAREX and MIREX activities and the youth who are now in STEM careers.
· Create a special anniversary video
· Compile an archive of historical interviews of team members.
· Compose a series of one-pagers with graphics on topics such as launches, hardware developments, operations, educational activities and experiments, and unique ARISS initiatives.
Frank Bauer said we need a committee now! He asked: does the team want anniversary activities or not? Gaston Bertels feels ARISS-International should move forward and focus first on the activities that commemorate ARISS operations that took place in November 2000. Then tackle other initiatives. He said Sergey Krikalev might speak over the air. Glenn MacDonell said celebrating ARISS’s 20 years is important to do. ARISS-Canada is considering the best people to have on the committee who can do the tasks.
Gaston Bertels asked the team to think of who the audiences are and an action for each, such as:
* the anniversary video and one-pagers would be good for politicians, the general public, IARU, AMSAT societies, hams and space agencies
* the special ARISS contacts with crew members could be to honor the ARISS team
* SSTV sessions are for the ham community, the general public, and educators and students.
Frank Bauer said the discussion should be continued by the new committee and he reminded delegates and team members that their Action Item is still open: each ARISS Region needs to name a person(s) to the committee. All team members should share what activity or event they are interested in helping to lead.
Ad hoc:
Francesco DePaolis commented that because the ARISS working group does not require a payment to become a member society, in some cases, it is not known what groups are member societies. He thinks each member society should be an IARU society or national AMSAT society. He asked Emanuele D’Andria to explain why, which is that they feel it is important to know their member societies since they choose ARISS-Europe delegates. Emanuele D’Andria asked if ARISS-International would change the ARISS-International Terms of Reference without naming ARISS-Europe member societies. Frank Bauer noted that there are choices. Delegates could vote on a new terms of reference after ARISS-Europe finalizes its terms of reference. Or, delegates could vote on a new terms of reference with the motion stating that at a later date, an addendum or one page listing member societies would be added. The latter choice would allow delegates to vote as needed to modify only the addendum or one-page, rather than voting on the entire terms of reference. ARISS Europe should determine how best to work with member societies in its region. Emanuele D’Andria asked if delegates on the team for many years still represent their member societies. Frank Bauer gave examples: delegates in ARISS-US and ARISS-Canada continue to be confirmed by their societies. Glenn MacDonell, a member of the ARISS-International ToR Sub-committee, said each region is a little different, each region selects its own delegates, and the ARISS-International Terms of Reference do not need to state how each region makes its decision on delegates, however, he feels a delegate should represent their region. Emanuele D’Andrea asked Gaston Bertels for his comments. He said an ARISS International meeting vote in 2001 gave ARISS-Europe four delegates to be nominated by members of ARISS-Europe, they can represent an IARU or AMSAT society from countries supporting the ISS, and these rules are being reviewed. Emanuele D’Andria said he is the AMSAT-Italia representative, he doesn’t know who other ARISS-Europe delegates represent, and some member societies are not listed. Frank Bauer said those are two different topics, the first is about a delegate who is named and the second is about a member society that may no longer exist. Gaston Bertels replied that when he was ARISS Chair, ARISS-Europe delegates were nominated and written agreement was requested from the society who nominated the delegate. This discussion was becoming lengthy and will continue, primarily in the ARISS Region where it resides—ARISS-Europe.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be October 20, 2020.
Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer
September 19, 2020
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