ARISS News Release No.24-10
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at
School of Telecommunications Engineering, ETSIT Valencia (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia), Valencia, Spain
February 8, 2024 —Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the School of Telecommunications Engineering located in Valencia, Spain. ARISS conducts 60-100 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
The School of Telecommunications Engineering, ETSIT Valencia, of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), is coordinating this ARISS contact, which will be a milestone in the two-year course “Space for Kids, How to Design and Build a Nanosatellite” for teachers from 8 secondary and high schools. About 160 students, 14-17 years old, are also involved in this space hands-on project, which has been integrated into various courses such as; Access to space and space environment, Satellite communication, Satellite mission design, and Testing our mission in Earth (how to analyze data). The Earth station that will be used for this ARISS contact is located at UPV (School of Telecommunications) and has been built specifically for this contact providing the students technical experience in ham satellite communications. Members of the University’s Radio Club and school faculty will be supporting this contact and have been helping with activities for high school students such as antenna workshops and satellite receiver workshops.
This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Loral O’Hara, amateur radio call sign KI5TOM. 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.
The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Valencia, Spain. Amateur radio operators using call sign EA5RKP, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for February 9, 2024 at 9:12:46 am CET (Valencia, Spain) (8:12:46 UTC, 3:12 am EST, 2:12 am CST, 1:12 am MST, 12:12 am PST).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IMdKcM2Fw8
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. What experiment are you working on?
2. Has your perspective on life changed after being on the ISS?
3. What would you like to achieve by working as an astronaut?
4. How do you communicate and maintain contact with your loved ones on Earth?
5. If a biological virus is detected, what is the protocol to follow? Can a biological virus be detected on the spacecraft?
6. How do you maintain your fitness in space? How does the state of weightlessness mainly affect you?
7. What is your area of study and expertise? And how did you train for the space station program?
8. How did you feel when you experienced zero gravity for the first time?
9. What is the most complicated part of launching into space?
10. What are the safety measures implemented to protect the space station against possible space debris impacts?
11. Are the laws that govern the ISS like maritime laws or the laws of the country that owns the module?
12. What is day to day like on the ISS? Is there an established routine?
13. How do you manage the temperature in the space station?
14. What advice would you give to those who want to become astronauts?
15. How do you manage to navigate the ship so easily when all the modules appear uniform?
16. How does microgravity impact the effectiveness of the scientific experiments being carried out on the space station and what notable discoveries have emerged so far?
17. What are the best and worst aspects of your mission?
18. What was your motivation to be an astronaut? When was it clear?
19. What was the hardest part of your training?
20. What has been your most amazing moment in space?
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 ISS. In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. 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 http://www.ariss.org
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
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