ARISS Value Proposition

ARISS provides significant primary and auxiliary benefits to spaceflight providers, including educational outreach and workforce development, an independent, platform-agnostic backup communications capability with global interoperability, psychological support for crews qualified to operate the equipment, and as a low-cost radio technology experimentation capability. ARISS supplies flight-certified hardware, pre-launch integration support and full engineering support.

Educational Outreach and Workforce Development

  • Demonstrated link between youth participation in contacts and careers in aerospace
  • Proven outreach metrics: On the ISS, ARISS engages more than 40,000 youth and more than 150,000 members of the public each year through 60-100 scheduled radio contacts per year

Backup Communications

  • ISS Ham Radio systems are independent of space station’s communications systems
  • ARISS provides a resilient contingency path for communications in the event of a primary system failure
  • In fact, ham radio was the primary communications link after a systems failure during a MIR mission until power and attitude were restored
  • Established ARISS ground stations can be activated to facilitate contact between the space station and Mission Control
  • ARISS ground stations that serve as telebridge stations for school contacts can also provide backup comms support.

Psychological Support for Crewmembers

  • ISS Ham Radio was first used as a tool for astronaut psych support
  • Astronauts find educational outreach to inspire students via ham radio very gratifying
  • Besides scheduled events, astronauts also have the fun opportunity to talk directly with hams on the ground
  • Hams are listening for the NA1SS (call sign for the ISS) voice repeater from all over the world

Examples of Radio Frequency Technology Experiments

ISS Ham Video (Ham TV)

  • Transmits an mpeg2 video test signal at 2.395 GHz using DVB-S protocol
  • Provides the option for youth to see and hear the astronaut during their communications via ham radio
  • Ham radio operators on the ground use default ops signal for testing and experimentation
  • Content is available for public dissemination

Slow Scan Television (SSTV)—Picture downlinks

  • Analog transmission of color or B&W images (like facsimile technology)
  • Engages ham enthusiasts, students, and educators; Gallery participation: >238K images, 45K customers, 25% youth, 25% educators

ISS Ham Video (Ham TV)

  • Transmits an mpeg2 video test signal at 2.395 GHz using DVB-S protocol
  • Option for youth to see and hear the astronaut during their communications via ham radio
  • Ham radio operators on the ground use default ops signal for testing and experimentation

NAVCOM Experiment

  • Installation and deployment in Spring of 2025
  • Objective: Test new PNT receiver algorithms on-board ISS with five ground-based PNT pseudosignals to demonstrate the feasibility of S-Band lunar PNT operations
  • Used Qascom GNSS* receiver upgraded to support lunar PNT** S-Band signals. First on-orbit data demonstration of this type.
  • Partnership between NASA, Italian Space Agency, Qascom, and ARISS
  • On-board hardware and software: Qascom receiver; Software-Designed Radio (SDR) technology coupled with algorithms to support S-band lunar PNT solutions; ARISS S-band antenna system
  • Successfully received and processed navigation signals simultaneously from five ground stations to compute real time position, nav and time data
  • Results lay a firm foundation for future lunar PNT architectures supporting NASA’s, ESA’s, and JAXA’s lunar PNT programs while sharing strong technical synergies with LuGRE on Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission in 2025

*Global Navigation Satellite System

**Positioning, Navigation, and Timing