ARISS News Release No.23-57
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at
A. L. Burruss Elementary School, Marietta, Georgia, USA
October 21, 2023 — 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 A. L. Burruss Elementary School in Marietta, GA. ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
A.L. Burruss Elementary School is an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program World School and National School of Excellence serving K-5 students. The school’s curriculum includes relevant STEM topics across all grade levels and disciplines.
Burruss students have been busy preparing for this event by studying concepts related to outer space, radio waves, communication, and the International Space Station. In the Learning Garden and Stem Labs, they have been participating in the Tomatosphere™ project to study tomato seeds that have been exposed to space or space-simulated environments in comparison to seed with no exposure. In the media center, the students have been tracking and monitoring the location of the ISS using a Geochron monitor. In September, a representative from GOT Space and the Georgia Space Grant Consortium assisted students in using a VR headset to “tour” the ISS to learn more about it and, just before the scheduled contact, they will participate in the Amateur Radio School Club Round Up to get hands-on experience with amateur radio before the contact. Members of the North Fulton Amateur Radio League (NFARL) are supporting the school’s curriculum and assisting with the technical aspects involved in facilitating this ARISS radio contact.
This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio and students will take turns asking their questions of Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, amateur radio call sign KI5WSL. 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 Marietta, GA. Amateur radio operators using call sign K4RGK, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 24, 2023 at 12:14:50 pm EDT (GA) (16:14:50 UTC, 11:14 am CDT, 10:14 am MDT, 9:14 am PDT).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCuI4sKDBpERtEFs9bFrRMFA/live
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. How do you brush your teeth and take showers in space?
2. How do you stay in touch with your family?
3. Do you have internet or TV in space so that you can contact people, find out the news, or watch live sports?
4. Can you see the solar system?
5. Did you see anything during the recent solar eclipse? Could you tell it was happening?
6. Why did you decide to go into space and how did you get selected for the ISS? Did you dream of it when you were a kid?
7. What do you do all day? Do you have free time and what do you do for entertainment or for exercise?
8. How do you drink water if there is no gravity?
9. How do you get more food or supplies when you run out?
10. Is the food good and what is your favorite meal?
11. How do you know if it is day or night?
12. How do you get to and from the ISS? How long does it take? What is that travel like?
13. What did you think when Astronaut Frank Rubio and the cosmonauts had to stay there when the Soyuz MS22 was damaged? Did it cause problems to have extra people there?
14. Can you catch germs in space and what happens if someone gets sick up there?
15. How do you sleep in zero gravity? Do you lie down or stand up or just float?
16. Do you go outside of the space station and if you do how do you stay connected?
17. What do you see from up there and what is your favorite thing to see?
18. What is the first thing you will do when you get back home?
19. Do you have to do any math?
20. Is it scary up there?
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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