ARISS News Release                                                                                                    No.21-52

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at Various Schools in the

Prescott Unified School District, Prescott, AZ, USA

 

October 4, 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 a number of schools in the Prescott Unified School District based in Prescott, AZ. Students will take turns asking their questions of ISS Astronaut Mark Vande Hei, amateur radio call sign KG5GNP, during the ARISS radio contact. Appropriate local Covid-19 protocols are adhered to as applicable for each ARISS contact. 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 ARISS radio telebridge station.

 

ARISS team member Fred Kemmerer, using his call sign AB1OC in New Hampshire, will serve as the ARISS relay amateur radio station.

 

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 5, 2021 at 11:08 am MST (Prescott, AZ) (18:08 UTC, 2:08 pm EDT, 1:08 pm CDT, 12:08 pm MDT, 11:08 am PDT).

 

The Prescott Unified School District is the host of this ARISS contact for students (about 4,500, grades K-12) in seven public schools in rural and suburban areas of the District. During the school year prior to this ARSS contact, the students studied various STEAM subjects and engaged in various learning activities that followed lesson plans developed by NASA, the ARRL, and ARISS. This year-long event, referred to as “Prescott Radio & Space Science 2021” incorporated 10 linked programs, including 8 programs in the District’s class curriculum and two special community activities.  The two activities, “Community Radio Science Day” and the “ARISS Contact Day,” were supported by many community organizations and agencies. Other supporting organizations include: World Genesis Foundation (coordinator of special activities), and the Yavapai Amateur Radio Club (YARC). Members of the YARC helped introduce amateur radio to students in addition to leading student study-groups for FCC ham license testing, and providing technical assistance in setting up an HF radio station. YARC members will also provide continued education in amateur radio to the students.

 

View the live stream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjieZD0zdvMt-k6Lf17dOkQ

      

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1) What do you do in your free time?

2) Why did you choose to be an astronaut?

3) My favorite thing to read about in outer space is solar tsunamis caused by solar flares. Have you ever studied or seen them and how they affect planet Earth?

4) After being in space with no gravity, what does it feel like to return to Earth with gravity?

5) Is this your first mission? What has been the best part of it so far?

6) Is your job hard? 

7) Is it hard to sleep in space and how do you sleep? 

8) Are there any games or activities that you do for fun in space?

9) Do you think you can apply what you’ve learned from living on the ISS to living long-term on the moon or Mars?

10) Can you describe the launch process and what is the best and worst part?

11) What kind of schooling/career path prep do you have to do to become an astronaut in space?

12) Have you ever cooked for your crew in space?

13) When you went up into space, were you scared?

14) What types of problems do you have to fix on the space station?

15) What are you studying right now or what experiments are you doing on the space station?

16) Do you get viruses (flu, cold) in space and what do you do when one of you gets sick?

17) Do you think there is another life form in space?

18) How far away are you from the earth?

19) What changes do you notice in your body when you arrive on the ISS and when you return home to Earth?

20) Do you ever feel homesick, scared, or nervous in space? If so, what do you do?

21) How much living space is there in the Space Station and do you have any privacy?

22) I am wondering about the five senses. Are there unique smells? What is the temperature in the station? What does the food taste like?

 

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. 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 www.ariss.org.

 

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

                                                                              

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