An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Powys Secondary Schools, Mid Wales, UK on 05 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:53 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between GB1SS and GB4PCS. The contact should be audible over portions of the UK 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.
Powys Combined Schools represent all secondary schools across the county of Powys in Wales. With students from over 90 primary schools and 12 secondary schools, we represent students from the age of 4 up to 18. As Powys Combined Schools, we have a pool of some 7,700 students aged 11-18 and a similar number of 4-11 year olds in the primary schools.
Our goal is to leverage our existing relationships with the primaries in each secondary catchment area to organise a county wide event over the months leading up to the ARISS contact. During which time workshops, projects and activities aimed around STEM subjects would be run. Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), and a small part of Denbighshire - an area of 5,179 km² or 2,000 sq miles, making it the largest county in Wales by land area. Most of Powys is mountainous, with north-south transport being difficult. The majority of the Powys population lives in villages and small towns. The largest towns are Newtown, Ystradgynlais, Brecon, and Welshpool. Powys has the lowest population density of all the principal areas of Wales. Just under a third of the residents have Welsh linguistic skills: Welsh speakers are concentrated mainly in the rural areas both in and around Machynlleth, Llanfyllin and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (where William Morgan first translated the whole Bible into Welsh in 1588) in Montgomeryshire (Welsh: Sir Drefaldwyn), and the industrial area of Ystradgynlais in the extreme south-west of Brecknockshire (Welsh: Sir Frycheiniog).
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
1. What training regime did you have to undertake in order to prepare for
your mission to the space station?
2. What is your favourite study that you carrying out to show what life is
like in space?
3. What objects in space can you see more clearly with your eyes in space?
4. Can you describe the automatic systems on board the ISS to keep you in
your current orbit?
5. What research are you currently working on?
6. Do you ever feel sudden vertigo or claustrophobia whilst you are up in
space?
7. Do you feel your senses are any different in space compared to being on
the ground - for example is your sense of smell more acute?
8. On the Principia website, it says you are looking into a range of
research areas including 'novel materials'. Can you describe a new
material you are working on?
9. Can you describe what is meant by 'Fluid Physics' and describe any
experiments you are conducting using 'Fluid Physics'?
10. On one of your video reports, we can see you watching the 6 Nations
Rugby. How can you have a better picture in space compared to us here
on earth?
11. What inspires you to keep up the demanding physical exercise routines in
space?
12. How long do you expect it to take you to acclimatise when you
return to the earths surface?
13. Of the objects you said that you can see with your eyes, what specific
detail is better from space?
14. How do you assess your muscular strength in space?
15. Can you describe how you get into and leave the ISS without losing any
air?
16. What is your favourite discovery you and the team have made during your
time in space so far?
17. How long does it take to prepare for a spacewalk??
18. Picking one 'novel material', can you describe how it would be used on
earth?
19. Of all the experiments you are carrying out on the human body, which one
has given you the biggest surprise in terms of results?
20. Which of the communication systems that you use on the ISS to talk to
friends and family gives the clearest signal?
PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:
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Next planned event(s):
1. Slovanské Gymnázium Olomouc, Olomouc, Moravia, Czech Republic,
direct via
OK2KYJ
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS
The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI
Contact is a go for: Tue 2016-03-08 08:22:43 UTC
2. Atlanta Science Festival, Atlanta, Georgia, telebridge via K6DUE
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled astronaut is Tim Kopra KE5UDN
Contact is a go for: Tue 2016-03-08 16:11:05 UTC
3. North Dakota Space Grant Consortium (NDSGC), Grand Forks, North
Dakota, telebridge via W6SRJ the ISS callsign is presently
scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled astronaut is Tim Kopra KE5UDN
Contact is a go for: Thu 2016-03-10 19:08:55 UTC 56 deg
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), and the 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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