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Sept. 5 - The international space station also happens to be the worlds highest radio station and now the groundwork is being laid for direct transmission of pictures as well as sound between Earth and outer space. The SpaceCam1 project could be up and running as soon as next year, amateur-radio volunteers say.
THE RADIO system would be separate from the multibillion-dollar satellite network that NASA uses to communicate with the station. Although its called a slow-scan television system, SpaceCam1 can send only stills, and not full-motion video. But unlike NASAs system, the SpaceCam1 feed would be freely accessible to schools and radio users around the world, said Miles Mann, one of the projects managers.
Anybody with a police scanner and a simple outdoor antenna will be able to receive images directly from the space station when we put them on the air, Mann told MSNBC.com.
The project was developed jointly by Manns MAREX-MG club and by Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, the volunteer effort that manages the orbital outposts ham operation.
With NASAs blessing, space station astronauts use the amateur-radio equipment as an unofficial channel to chat with family, friends, operators and particularly school students. Just last week, a remote-controlled Progress cargo ship delivered new ham equipment to the station, and the SpaceCam1 equipment could go up on a similar Progress flight next January.
Frank Bauer, ARISS international chairman, said the slow-scan television system represents a significant step toward turning the space station into a full-fledged broadcast TV station.
Some of the plans are to have a video capability several years down the road a live video uplink and downlink, he told MSNBC.com. Thats some of the vision of where were going. I think weve got the foundation now.
HYBRID MEDIUM
Slow-scan television, or SSTV, is a hybrid of audio, imagery and data thats been around since the late 1950s. Shuttle astronauts traded the first ham-TV images back and forth in 1985, and Mann helped get Russias Mir space station wired for SSTV in 1998.
SpaceCam1 will be a whole generation different, Mann said: A standard-looking Webcam plugs into one of the astronauts laptops, and software translates the Webcam imagery into audio data. Those signals then pass through cables to the ham-radio equipment, which transmits the screech of data down to Earth. On the ground, radio receivers pick up the signals and pass them to a computer for conversion back into on-screen images.
Radio operators can use the same system to send imagery up to the space station. The signal range should be about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers), Mann said. SpaceCam1 transmissions will be compatible with SSTV software that is already being sold for terrestrial use, and Mann said a free receive-only version of the SpaceCam1 software would be made available over the Web.
SMALL PACKAGE, BIG CAPABILITY
Bauer said the only pieces of equipment that need to go up on the Progress are the cables and a hardware conversion device thats smaller than a computer mouse.
Once the system is up and running, space station astronauts could point their Webcam out the window and set the software to send down the equivalent of a 2-by-3-inch (5-by-7.5-centimeter) image automatically every 2 minutes. They could send and receive snapshots, or beam down pictures of themselves while theyre chatting with schoolchildren on another ham frequency. Earthbound amateur-radio users could even use the space station as a relay station.
Somebody in California could send a picture to somebody in New England just by communicating through the space station, Bauer said.
If you include the value of all the volunteer labor, the cost of developing SpaceCam1 would be on the order of $50,000, Mann said. The components are currently being tested for spaceworthiness, and theyre due to be shipped to Russia in November. Mann had high praise for Bauer and the ARISS team, which built the hardware: They did all the tons of paperwork. ... We could not get to space today without his teams help.
Bauer cautioned that the delivery of the equipment in January isnt absolutely, positively guaranteed, since its up to space station managers to determine what supplies go on which flight. But whether SpaceCam1 goes live sooner or later, the system should give the general public better access to the view from space.
The infrastructure thats required to do a contact through the space agency channels is very expensive, and whats done in the ham-radio community is very inexpensive, with a lot of volunteers, he said.
The system also will give students more of a learning experience, Bauer said:
The students are making the contact, the students are involved, the students are tracking the space station. ... It produces an element of teamwork, and as anybody knows, the only way you really learn is by doing it yourself.
© 2003 MSNBC Interactive
Sept. 5 - The international space station also happens to be the worlds highest radio station and now the groundwork is being laid for direct transmission of pictures as well as sound between Earth and outer space. The SpaceCam1 project could be up and running as soon as next year, amateur-radio volunteers say.
THE RADIO system would be separate from the multibillion-dollar satellite network that NASA uses to communicate with the station. Although its called a slow-scan television system, SpaceCam1 can send only stills, and not full-motion video. But unlike NASAs system, the SpaceCam1 feed would be freely accessible to schools and radio users around the world, said Miles Mann, one of the projects managers.
Anybody with a police scanner and a simple outdoor antenna will be able to receive images directly from the space station when we put them on the air, Mann told MSNBC.com.
The project was developed jointly by Manns MAREX-MG club and by Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, the volunteer effort that manages the orbital outposts ham operation.
With NASAs blessing, space station astronauts use the amateur-radio equipment as an unofficial channel to chat with family, friends, operators and particularly school students. Just last week, a remote-controlled Progress cargo ship delivered new ham equipment to the station, and the SpaceCam1 equipment could go up on a similar Progress flight next January.
Frank Bauer, ARISS international chairman, said the slow-scan television system represents a significant step toward turning the space station into a full-fledged broadcast TV station.
Some of the plans are to have a video capability several years down the road a live video uplink and downlink, he told MSNBC.com. Thats some of the vision of where were going. I think weve got the foundation now.
HYBRID MEDIUM
Slow-scan television, or SSTV, is a hybrid of audio, imagery and data thats been around since the late 1950s. Shuttle astronauts traded the first ham-TV images back and forth in 1985, and Mann helped get Russias Mir space station wired for SSTV in 1998.
SpaceCam1 will be a whole generation different, Mann said: A standard-looking Webcam plugs into one of the astronauts laptops, and software translates the Webcam imagery into audio data. Those signals then pass through cables to the ham-radio equipment, which transmits the screech of data down to Earth. On the ground, radio receivers pick up the signals and pass them to a computer for conversion back into on-screen images.
Radio operators can use the same system to send imagery up to the space station. The signal range should be about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers), Mann said. SpaceCam1 transmissions will be compatible with SSTV software that is already being sold for terrestrial use, and Mann said a free receive-only version of the SpaceCam1 software would be made available over the Web.
SMALL PACKAGE, BIG CAPABILITY
Bauer said the only pieces of equipment that need to go up on the Progress are the cables and a hardware conversion device thats smaller than a computer mouse.
Once the system is up and running, space station astronauts could point their Webcam out the window and set the software to send down the equivalent of a 2-by-3-inch (5-by-7.5-centimeter) image automatically every 2 minutes. They could send and receive snapshots, or beam down pictures of themselves while theyre chatting with schoolchildren on another ham frequency. Earthbound amateur-radio users could even use the space station as a relay station.
Somebody in California could send a picture to somebody in New England just by communicating through the space station, Bauer said.
If you include the value of all the volunteer labor, the cost of developing SpaceCam1 would be on the order of $50,000, Mann said. The components are currently being tested for spaceworthiness, and theyre due to be shipped to Russia in November. Mann had high praise for Bauer and the ARISS team, which built the hardware: They did all the tons of paperwork. ... We could not get to space today without his teams help.
Bauer cautioned that the delivery of the equipment in January isnt absolutely, positively guaranteed, since its up to space station managers to determine what supplies go on which flight. But whether SpaceCam1 goes live sooner or later, the system should give the general public better access to the view from space.
The infrastructure thats required to do a contact through the space agency channels is very expensive, and whats done in the ham-radio community is very inexpensive, with a lot of volunteers, he said.
The system also will give students more of a learning experience, Bauer said:
The students are making the contact, the students are involved, the students are tracking the space station. ... It produces an element of teamwork, and as anybody knows, the only way you really learn is by doing it yourself.
© 2003 MSNBC Interactive