Will the suit overheat? How long will the batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission if the suit tumbles?

This will allow us to understand how well we can utilize these suits to perform scientific and engineering measurements and, at the same time, capture the imagination of students around the world.

All you need is an antenna (the bigger the better) and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM. A police band scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work just fine.

Pioneering efforts are challenging. Risk is high. But the future payoff is tremendous. As you have seen, we have not had total success. But we have captured the imagination of the students and the general public. And we have already learned a lot from this activity. This will help us and others grow from this experience.

If the transmitter is running at full power, we would expect the suit to have ended operations after a few days to a week. If it is transmitting at lower power, then it will operate much longer.

There's a ham rig on the ISS, and the astronauts love talking to students when they pass over schools.