ARISS News Release No.24-06
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at
Bilingual Montessori School of Lund (Stiftelsen BMSL), Lund, Sweden
January 30, 2024—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an Axiom Mission (Ax-3) astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Stiftelsen BMSL located in Lund, Sweden. 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.
BMSL was established in 2003 for children aged 1 to 16, using the National Swedish Curriculum. The school employs Montessori-inspired pedagogy and language immersion teaching English and French from preschool and starting in grade 6, teaching Spanish.
This will be a telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Marcus Wandt, amateur radio call sign KJ5COO. Wandt has over 20 years of aviation experience with the Swedish Air Force as a fighter pilot, squadron commander, wing commander, and chief test pilot. He will be the second ESA astronaut of Swedish nationality to ever go to the International Space Station and will serve as a mission specialist during
Axiom Space’s Ax-3 mission.
Wandt is honored to have this opportunity to not only achieve one of his greatest life’s dreams, but also to use the Ax-3 mission to ignite a passion for STEM education in teachers and students worldwide to each pursue their ambitions. 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 telebridge station.
The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Glenden, Australia. The amateur radio volunteer team at the ground station will use the call sign VK4KHZ, to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for January 31, 2024 at 1:50:25 pm CET(Sweden) (12:50:25 UTC, 7:50 am EST, 6:50 am CST, 5:50 am MST, 4:50 am PST).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G72VqFDlh0g
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
Translation (from Swedish):
1. What does a typical day look like on the ISS?
2. How do you eat in space, and does the food taste different?
3. What kind of research are you conducting?
4. Which of your experiments can improve our lives on Earth?
5. How does it feel to be weightless, can it be compared to any other sensation?
6. What does the moon look like from the ISS?
7. Would you like to be the first human landing on Mars?
8. How do you poop in space?
9. How do you shower, Marcus? The water should be flying in all directions, right?
10. How does being in space affect your body?
11. How do you manage conflicts between crew members?
12. Do you think your values will change now that you have been in space?
13. What did you feel during the rocket liftoff?
14. Can you use your Smartphone with the Starlink satellites to contact your family from the ISS?
15. How did you prepare for weightlessness?
16. How can the fire stay on the rocket in space?
17. How does the cockpit of the Dragon module look like?
18. How do you know you won't get lost in space?
19. Does life in space have effects on your body and your mood?
20. What does the education look like to become an astronaut?
Translation (English to Swedish for questions that will be asked in English):
3*. Class 8A (14-15): Vilken typ av forskning bedriver du?
4*. Class 9A (15-16): Vilka av dina experiment kan förbättra vårt liv på jorden?
7*. Class 8B (14-15): Skulle du vilja vara den första människan som landar på Mars?
11*. Class 9B (15-16): Hur hanterar du konflikter mellan besättningsmedlemmar?
14*. Class 7A (13:14): Kan du använda din smartphone med Startlink-satelliterna för att kontakta din familj från ISS?
About Axiom Mission 3:
As the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to the ISS, Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) redefines the pathway to low-Earth orbit for nations around the globe. This mission marks a new era of opportunity for countries to join the international space community and access low-Earth orbit to advance exploration and research in microgravity.
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 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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