ARISS News Release No. 24-66

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

TEACH-NW Charter School, Springfield, Oregon, USA

October 16, 2024—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the TEACH-NW Charter School located in Springfield, OR. 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.

TEACH-NW, is a K-12 virtual school serving 650 students. In advance of this ARISS contact, students have been involved in hands-on workshop allowing them to construct a high-gain antenna that will be used for this radio contact with the ISS. Through STEM studies and virtual talks about NASA’s Artemis program and Mars Rover missions, students have been learning about space travel and the scientific principles behind space technology and experiments conducted in space. Additionally, English Language Arts teachers have introduced modules on Mars and space travel, utilizing both scientific texts and science fiction to spark imagination and deepen their understanding.

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Sunita Williams, amateur radio call sign KD5PLB. 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 relay ground station.

The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Springfield, OR. Amateur radio operators using call sign KJ7NLL, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 18, 2024 at 11:27 am PDT (Springfield, OR) (18:27 UTC, 2:27 pm EDT, 1:27 pm CDT, 12:27 pm MDT).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/@KJ7NLL/streams

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. Does the International Space Station make its own oxygen for the astronauts?

2. What kind of plant experiments happen on the International Space Station?

3. Are there any projects you have worked on that make travel to other planets a possibility?

4. How do you communicate with the other astronauts if everyone speaks different languages?

5. What is your mission while you are up there?

6. What does your day-to-day look like at the International Space Station?

7. How has spending time in space changed your perspective on life on Earth?

8. What is your favorite astronomical sight that you've gotten to see that is not the Earth?

9. Do astronauts ever get bored in space?

10. Is your favorite food from Earth something they were able to dehydrate and send to space?

11. What is your favorite study that you have been a part of?

12. What is the most challenging thing about being an astronaut?

13. Throughout your whole experience of becoming and being an astronaut, if there were to be one thing you could change, what would that be?

14. Why did you decide to become an astronaut?

15. Have you seen the Aurora Borealis from space?

16. How does it feel to be weightless?

17. Who is the youngest person up there?

18. Have any astronauts brought a pet to the ISS?

19. If you eat or drink something, does your body digest it the same way as it would on Earth?

20. What is your favorite part of being an astronaut?

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 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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