SuitSat is Missing!
After listening to the live broadcast of the launch of SuitSat late last night I had high hopes for this novel project.
Unfortunately it would seem that:
Reports have been received that SuitSat froze after two orbits and is no longer sending data. Radio amateurs around the world continue to monitor 145.990 MHz.
This is a real shame - the batteries were meant to last 2-4 days and then the recycled space suit would have burned up in the atmosphere after about 6 weeks.
Radio hams all around the world - or interested parties equipped with a scanner - would have been able to monitor SuitSat as it orbited the Earth - giving out telemetry readings for temperature, battery power and mission elapsed time.
Now it's gone - RIP SuitSat 1
I think that the low cost of this experiment coupled with the interest generated amongst radio hams and "space nerds" means that it won't be long before SuitSat 2 is launced.
The lessons learned from the telemetry data this time around will mean that SuitSat 2 will be better designed - it will last longer - and the lessons learned can be applied to SuitSat 3 and 4 and so on.
Meanwhile SuitSat 1 will continue to orbit the Earth until it's orbit decays and it burns up.
I guess if it's reflective enough you can see it under the right conditions - you'd need to go to one of the Satellite Spotting sites to get more info on this.