An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Sterrenschool De Globetrotter, Rotterdam, The Netherlands on 31 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:58 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time.The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK4KHZ. The contact should be audible over Australia and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
Sterrenschool De Globetrotter, Rotterdam
Sterrenschool De Globetrotter is a primary school in Rotterdam located in the inner city neighborhood Afrikaanderwijk (Feijenoord). The Afrikaanderwijk was one of the first areas with an international background, primarily consisting families of Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese and Antillean descent.
Globetrotter focused this school year on a project group of students from all grades with a need for extra challenges and assignments. The theme this year has been space exploration. Two teachers have been carrying out and will carry out the project in weekly lessons in order to provide in depth knowledge of the galaxy, space exploration and radio communication. During the rest of the week the students has been and will work on these assignments after their regular schoolwork. Central to this approach is that the students extend their work based on their own interests and share their work with the other students, teachers and parents. The two weeks prior to the contact with ISS, the entire school will be working on projects that have to do with the universe and ISS.
Aloysius school, Maasland
It started with a pupil from our school who had a question about a solar eclipse from space. This way we were involved in the ARISS project. Stefan Nelwan took the initiative for the application. Our school loves challenges. So, the Aloysiusschool, a small village school in rural Maasland, was chosen to participate in a large project. Together with the Globetrotter, a city school in the heart of Rotterdam, we had several contacts about the course of events. We made a website with lots of information for the children and gave lessons about morse code, but also about all kinds of themes around it, such as technology, innovation, physics and more. In the period that Stephen Hawking died, more input was released. In class we spoke about ISS, about the universe, about the solar system, space debris and even about the meaning of life. The universe is fascinating and brings us to the essence of our lives for now but also in the future. Children can handle this flawlessly. We built little plastic bottle- missiles and launched them on a soccer field. We watched films and saw our national pioneers Wubbo Ockels and André Kuipers take an important step in our history. One question led to another and so we all became all, step by step, a little wiser.
We decided to ask the children of three regular classes (not only the children with a need for extra challenges and assignments) to put their questions on a digital bulletin board. Not every student put something on it, but eventually it filled with countless relevant and irrelevant questions. In the end we selected a number of relevant questions. We also looked at the fact that children experience things differently than adults. We hope that we have laid a foundation for further exploration and that the children will realize that we have to be careful with that piece of rock that rotates in an immeasurable universe, that we call Earth. It is remarkable to know that the Sun will swallow our planet in five billion years and eventually destroy everything we've built up. Space exploration can perhaps prevent humanity from ceasing to exist.
We were not able to realize everything we had in our minds, but we are satisfied with the proceeds of the project and thank the people who made this possible for us. We have experienced the cooperation with the Globetrotter as very pleasant and meaningful.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
1. Is it hard to walk with gravity once you've returned to earth?
2. Is someone's blood pressure different in space?
3. What kind of work in ISS do you find easy and what difficult?
4. Can you catch diseases in space that you won't catch on earth?
5. Do you miss having pets in space? Would it be possible to have pets in
ISS?
6. How do you see a solar eclipse from the ISS?
7. Do you have difficulties with the enclosed space?
8. You are conducting a lot of experiments in ISS, are there experiments that
are secret and you can't tell anything about.
9. What inspired you to become an astronaut?
10. Can one be afraid of heights in space?
11. Is it nice to sleep in space, do you find it comfortable?
12. Is space radiation dangerous for your body and how do you prevent cell
damage?
13. Do you miss your family, what do you miss that you didn't anticipate
beforehand?
14. If you are in space, what is your greatest fear?
15. You are growing plants in ISS, do they grow well and how do you water
them when there is no gravity
16. Does your body feel the same in space as on earth or are there
differences?
17. Does one ever experience physical pain or discomfort from being in space?
18. What do you do when space-debris is heading towards ISS?
19. Do you sometimes organize joint activities such as a game 'evening'?
20. What kind of experiments are you currently doing in ISS?
PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:
Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS).
To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status
Next planned event(s):
TBD
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 Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org.
Thank you & 73,
David - AA4KN
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