astralavista

Don't get alarmed tomorrow night if you look up at the sky (with a suffiently powerful telescope) and see a man drifting between the stars. Blame it on the Russians. For Feb. 3 is the launch date of one of the strangest experiments in the history of space science. Cosmonauts flying the International Space Station will throw overboard an empty Russian space suit rigged with batteries, a radio transmitter, and an array of thermal and other sensors to monitor the impact of cosmic radiation, solar rays, and temperature on the empty shell. "SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm," said Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Some of our Russian partners ... had an idea: Maybe we can turn old space suits into useful satellites."
SuitSat, as the project is called, is the first test of that idea.Transmissions from the suit will be beamed to Earth and anybody with a police scanner can listen in by tuning to the FM frequency of 145.990 MHz. It should remain in range for 5-10 minutes per orbit.(Check on NASA's JPass when the suit will be flying over your house. Use the same coordinates as for the ISS to find it.) The suit will stay in orbit for about 6 weeks before it tumbles and burns in the atmosphere. Go here for more info on SuitSat.

Image: Oleg Kulik, Cosmonaut (2003) at the Venice Biennale