ARISS News Release No. 21-16
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled for
Students at Avoca State School, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
March 9, 2021—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).
This will be a direct contact via amateur radio between students at Avoca State School, Bundaberg, Australia, and Astronaut Mike Hopkins, amateur radio call sign KF5LJG. Students will take turns asking their questions. English is the language expected to be used during the contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ.
Amateur radio operators, using the Bundaberg Amateur Radio Club (BARC) call sign, VK4BW and the club’s equipment, will operate the ham radio ground station for this contact.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for March 11, 2021 at 5:56 pm AEST (Bundaberg, Australia), (07:56 UTC, 2:56 am EST, 1:56 am CST, 12:56 am MST and March 10, 11:56 pm PST).
Avoca State School (about 300 students) is a member of the West Bundaberg Cluster of schools serving communities in nearby Avoca, Millbank, Branyan and the surrounding rural/residential areas. Prior to this ARISS contact, students’ science curriculum contained a course of study on rocket propulsion. Student activities included model rocket construction and launching of these models using a pneumatic energy source. The school has partnered with members of BARC who will be key in assisting the students with this ARISS contact. In recent years, the BARC invited young people to participate in a high-altitude balloon launch carrying an amateur radio repeater enabling contacts between hams throughout Queensland and Northern New South Wales.
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. Have any experiments in the ISS produced evidence of other life forms in space?
2. How long is a typical mission on the ISS?
3. How long did you have to train to become an astronaut?
4. When people built the ISS, how did they send it up into space?
5. Why don’t meteors hit the space station?
6. What is your favourite thing about being an astronaut?
7. If you could make a time capsule to represent your stay on the ISS, what would you put in it?
8. Would walking on the moon be the same as space walking outside of the ISS?
9. Once you return to Earth, what process do you have to follow?
10. How do you get oxygen to breathe in the Space Station?
11. Why is the Space Station split into different sections for different nations?
12. What do you struggle with most on the Space Station?
13. What do you do for recreation in your spare time on the ISS?
14. What types of experiments are you currently running and how does zero gravity affect them?
15. What kind of food do you eat in space?
16. How many people can be in the Space Station at the one time?
17. What is your main job on the International Space Station?
18. What job would you have if you weren’t an astronaut?
19. Do astronauts play pranks on each other and what’s the best prank you’ve seen or done?
20. What is your favourite thing to look at on Earth from the International Space Station?
21. How long from take-off does it take to reach the International Space Station?
22. Do you need more sleep-in space than you do on Earth?
23. The space station is exposed to extreme heat and cold. How is the temperature regulated?
24. How have Science experiments on the space station affected life back on Earth?
ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Amateur Radio Operations on the ISS
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
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