ARISS News Release                                                                                                                                                    No.22-18                Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Space Hardware Club, Huntsville, Alabama, USA

 

April 4, 2022—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and U.S. students at the Space Hardware Club in Huntsville, Alabama. ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.

 

Space Hardware Club (SHC) is a student organization at the University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville. Within SHC, students at UAH get the chance to gain hands-on experience with designing, building, and flying numerous types of aerospace payloads. The club’s Outreach Program activities includes high- altitude ballooning, payload design, low powered ESTES rockets, and the launching of high-altitude model rockets. SHC will host this ARISS contact for the following rural/suburban public schools: Buckhorn Middle School, Mountain Gap Middle School, New Hope Elementary School, and Sparkman Middle School. SHC Outreach members have been helping about 800 students from these schools to learn more about rocketry, high-altitude ballooning, amateur radio technology, and the research being conducted on the ISS. Leading up to the ARISS radio contact, SHC outreach members helped the students with hands-on amateur radio activities such as circuit building and antenna construction.

 

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut Thomas Marshburn, amateur radio call sign KE5HOC. Local Covid-19 protocols are adhered to as applicable for each ARISS contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relay ground station.

 

Amateur radio operators in Huntsville, Alabama using call sign K4UAH will operate the amateur radio ground station

 

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for April 7, 2022 at 12:07 pm CDT (Huntsville, AL) (17:07:39 UTC, 1:07 pm EDT, 11:07 am MDT, 10:07 am PDT).

 

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://uah-uasystem.zoom.us/j/87179587580

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

 

1. How hard was it to adjust your regular activities so you can survive with zero gravity?

2. When you heard you were going to the ISS, were you terrified? Because I know I would be.

3. What made you want to go to space? Who inspired you?

4. Is it hard to communicate with astronauts from other countries?

5. What do you think is the most interesting thing you do on the ISS?

6. How well does life (plants, bacteria, fungi) grow in space compared to Earth?

7. What do you believe is in the future of space exploration and is it promising or not?

8. Is there a type of food you are just absolutely sick of eating because you’ve had it so much?

9. What do you do for fun to pass the time when you aren’t doing experiments?

10. When you go into space do you see everything like planets, asteroids or the Milky Way?

11. What shocked you the most when you got to space?

12. What is the hardest challenge you have faced while living in space?

13. What was your training like before you got to space and your favorite/least favorite part?

14. Do you hydrofarm? If not, could you start one?

15. Do you enjoy it when people from other countries join the ISS?

16. What belongings can you bring up to space with you?

 

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, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) 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. ARISS does this 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 take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org

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Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

                                                                              

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