ARISS News Release                                                                                                      No. 21-03

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Maine Regional School Unit #21, Kennebunk, Maine, USA

 

January 19, 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 Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio between the ISS and students from Maine Regional School Unit #21 (MRSU21). Students will take turns asking their questions of ISS astronaut Mike Hopkins, amateur radio call sign KF5LJG, during the ARISS radio contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz.  

 

The ARISS team in Casale Monferrato, Italy will use call sign IK1SLD to serve as the ARISS relay amateur radio ground station. Each student asking a question will be conferenced in from home or social-distanced at school.

 

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for January 21, 2021 at 1:27 pm EST (Kennebunk, ME) (18:27 UTC, 12:27 pm CST, 11:27 am MST, 10:27 am PST).

ARISS invites the public to view the live stream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at: https://youtu.be/LN70OpJFMgs. 

 

The MRSU21 includes three elementary schools (with about 512 students, ages 8 – 11) on the southern coast of Maine. These are the Sea Road School in Kennebunk (hosting the ARISS contact), Mildred L. Day School in Arundel and Kennebunkport Consolidated School in Kennebunkport. During the year prior to this contact, MRSU21 implemented cross-curriculum courses (for grades 3-5) that highlighted space-related subjects developed under various STEM field of studies. Students also explored aspects of space travel through various courses and activities in the subject categories of Art, Music, Physical Education (astronaut training), Food and Nutrition (space food favorites), and Library studies. All students in the district, starting at pre-Kindergarten, are immersed in STEM class and methodology. This ARISS contact project came into being due to a collaboration with Sea Road School’s STEM team and members of the local Amateur Radio club (New England Radio Discussion Society) who offered to do a free course in electronics and radio fundamentals, radio demonstrations, and electronics project-building.   

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

 

1.  How do you communicate with your family at home?

2. What do you miss the most from home?

3. How did you feel when you looked back and saw earth for the first time?

4. What are your favorite scientific experiments on the ISS right now?

5. Do magnets behave the same way in space as they do on Earth?

6. What is the most dangerous part of being in space?

7. What does it smell like in the space station?

8. How do you stay in shape on the ISS?

9. What happens if someone gets hurt in space?

10. How long and hard did you train to be an astronaut?

11. What are the side effects of being in space?

12. How do you conquer your fear in space?

13. What does a day in an astronaut's life look like?

14. Have you seen any super rare and awesome things in space?

15. Do stars look closer when you're in space?

16. What's your favorite part of being an astronaut?

17. Does the food you eat taste different than it does on earth?

18. Do you think we are the only intelligent life forms in the universe?

19. What classes in school helped you the most as an astronaut?

20. What surprised you most about being in space or on the ISS?

 

ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Amateur Radio Continuous 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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