[amsat-bb] Re: ARISSat-1 update

[Burns Fisher]

Thank you for keeping us up to date, Lou.

Is it a surprise that the battery was low?  It appears (from Wikipedia) that
silver zinc batteries have a negligible self-discharge rate.  If the
ARISSat-1 switches are off, should there be any drain?  (I know from
previous updates that it is so far unknown whether the battery was actually
disconnected during storage).

Thanks again,

73, Burns W2BFJ

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:56 AM, <G0MRF at aol.com> wrote:

> This is an update on the ARISSat activities.
> We had a telecon with the  ARISSat team in Russia. Here is the situation as
> described by them. The Russian  suit battery that was intended to be used
> on ARISSat was used during testing  both on the ground and onboard ISS when
> it first arrived. When it was tested  prior to the planned April 12
> operation, it was discovered that the battery was  low on charge.
> The suit battery's are specified for only five cycles of  charge.
> It was decided to not recharge the battery at this time in order to  keep
> the number of cycles as low as possible and thus saving the battery for the
> actual mission. That deployment is currently scheduled for July 26. We are
> still  trying to get more information on the storage status and the battery
> health from  the Russian team. We will keep you informed as we prepare for
> the eventual  deployment of ARISSat.
>
>
> Lou McFadin
> W5DID
> ARISS US Hardware  manager
>
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