One of the strangest satellites is about to go into orbit

[bananas]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26jan_suitsat.htm

Using a simple police scanner or ham radio, you can listen to a disembodied spacesuit circling Earth.

January 26, 2006: One of the strangest satellites in the history of the space age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 3rd. That's when astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard.

The spacesuit is the satellite -- "SuitSat" for short.
...
SuitSat can be heard by anyone on the ground. "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." He encourages students, scouts, teachers and ham radio operators to tune in.
...
Students and teachers who want to try this, but have no clue how to begin, should contact their local ham radio club. There are thousands of them around the country. Click here to find a club near you. "Hams are notoriously outgoing; most would be delighted to help students tune in to SuitSat," believes Bauer.
...

[MatrixEscape]

1. Why?

What is the point here? I have far more than enough of that already -- within and without.

Yes, silence is deep and meaningful, but ...

Are we waiting for some alien to talk to the suit in the vacuum of space?

Or is this another extension of the idea of God thing where we follow an idea because there is some authority behind it?

I have a spacesuit. It is my organism/body. It is far beyond my own comprehension and thoughts. It has a multi-million year history and adaptation for both corpus and brain. My thoughts seem to be overriding it, commanding it, controlling it. Are they really qualified? Culture and society have told me that I must overcome them as a personal battle and reason for living. Should I? Is that harmony with nature? Is that the point and essence of my own nature as a phenomena?

[rfranklin]

2. It's the George W. Bush memorial orbiting monument...

The symbol of our Feckless Leader.

[acmejack]

3. LOL!

Perfect! How fitting!

[Orsino]

6. Hmm. An empty flight suit...

...traveling around the world, constantly repeating the same programmed message that has nothing to do with real-world politics? As a symbol for *?

I don't get it. :shrug:

[zbdent]

4. I get enough vacuous mental blatherings from freepturds

I don't need to be redundant and listen to an empty space suit in the vacuum of space . . .

[seriousstan]

5. I love it. They let my kids and I play along. GREAT!

1.This cost them nothing to carry into space. I bet they have a backup suit anyways.

2.They are doing science with it.......
"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 is a 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."

"Will the suit overheat? How long will the batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission if the suit tumbles?" wonders Bauer. These are some of the questions SuitSat will answer, laying the groundwork for SuitSats of the future.

3. It will nuture an interest in the sciences....space, radio, cool weird stuff.

I think it is a great idea........even if it is the Russian's. :toast:

[benburch]

7. It was past its lifetime...

And there have been design changes.

They were either going to do this with it or put it in the next garbage capsule to burn up en-route to a watery grave.