Oddest Satellite Ever Set To Launch February 3

It's exceedingly weird, yet innovative and, above all, cost-effective. Is it any surprise that it's also Russian?

Following in the grand tradition of industrious cosmonauts who have learned to make due with less -- and who kept Mir in orbit with little more than duct tape and bailing wire -- Russian scientists are expected to send the first-ever 'SuitSat' into orbit this Friday. Astronauts onboard the International Space Station will toss out a Russian Orlan spacesuit outfitted with a radio transmitter inside.

It's an idea that strikes one as odd, at first... but upon further reflection, you must wonder why no one has ever tried this before.

"SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm," explains Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program, mainly a group led by Sergey Samburov, had an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites."

'SuitSat' will be the first test of that idea.

"We've equipped a Russian Orlan spacesuit with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power," says Bauer. "As SuitSat circles Earth, it will transmit its condition to the ground."

'SuitSat' won't be able to do very much -- in fact, it may not even work at all.

"Will the suit overheat? How long will the batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission if the suit tumbles?" said Bauer, asking a few of the questions surrounding the project.

Despite the possibility it may spin out of control -- or have its components fried by solar rays (SuitSat will not be equipped with an internal cooling system, unlike the suits used by astronauts) -- if SuitSat is able to carry out its mission, it will pave the way for other SuitSats to follow. And that may represent a new, far less expensive way of putting satellites into orbit.

Consider this: what happens to a spacesuit when the astronaut no longer needs it? Suits used for EVAs are heavy, after all, and take up space inside the ISS and the Soyuz capsule. They're usually tossed overboard with the rest of the garbage.

Now, instead of discarding the suit into orbit -- potentially creating dangerous debris before it eventually burns up in the atmosphere -- a SuitSat could serve important functions past its useful life as a spacesuit.

Much like when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, when the inaugural SuitSat is launched Friday, those on the ground will be able to listen for its signal.

"All you need is an antenna -- the bigger the better -- and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM," says Bauer. "A police band scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work just fine."

Those who tune in will hear SuitSat transmit for 30 seconds, pause for 30 seconds, and then repeat the signal. Students involved with NASA's Amateur Radio on International Space Station (ARISS) program will be listening, as well, for clues they can use to win prizes.

"This is SuitSat-1, RS0RS," the transmission will begin, followed by a prerecorded greeting in five languages. The greeting contains "special words" in English, French, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish for students to record and decipher. This is where those prizes come in.

After the greeting, SuitSat will present telemetry information -- internal temperature, battery power, and elapsed mission time -- using a voice synthesizer.

"The telemetry is stated in plain language -- in English," says Bauer. "It's pretty amazing."

Lastly, a surprise Slow Scan TV picture is displayed. "We're not telling [what the picture is]," laughs Bauer. "It's a mystery picture."

Students and Ham radio groups with the equipment to see the transmission will be able to send their guesses of what it is, to win more prizes.

To determine when SuitSat -- or the ISS, as both will be in approximately the same orbit -- will be in the skies over your house, you can click here to access NASA's J-Pass program. Enter your zip code, and a map of the skies for your area is displayed.

For most North American viewers, SuitSat should pass overhead at least once per day, usually between midnight at 4 am.

The batteries on SuitSat are only expected to last a few days. After that, the suit's orbit will begin to degrade, before it eventually falls into the atmosphere and burns up.

FMI: www.SuitSat.org