ARISS News Release                                                                                                    No.22-57

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Canterbury School of Fort Myers, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

 

October 23, 2022—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 Canterbury School of Fort Myers located in Fort Myers, FL.  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.

 

Canterbury School is a private, pre-K3 through 12, college preparatory school (about 700 students, ages 3-19 years) in Fort Myers, Florida. Beginning in the fall of the 2021-2022 school year, students in every class, club, and activity have been studying topics of space, rockets, radios, and the ISS. Students in Upper School astronomy, engineering, and robotics have built a satellite tracking antenna that will be used during this contact. And members of Fort Myers Amateur Radio Club (W4LX) are supporting the school by providing students with technical instruction, radio equipment setup and radio operation during the ARISS contact. Then, during the summer of 2022, as students were in the midst of designing and building rover models for Mars and the Moon, they saw the first pictures of Hurricane Ian, as seen from the ISS, bearing down on the coast of Florida. Evacuations were ordered in advance of the catastrophic winds and storm surges, which eventually affected many of the homes of students, faculty, and staff. In the wake of this destruction, it was uncertain whether this ARISS contact could occur. However, if only for a moment of reprieve from their loss and destruction, the entire Canterbury school community, including the school’s staff/faculty, amateur radio operators, students and students’ families, decided to pull together to support this ARISS contact and thereby renew their sense of hope and inspiration in human space exploration.

 

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut Josh Cassada, amateur radio call sign KI5CRH. 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 relay ground station.

 

The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Fort Myers, FL, USA. Amateur radio operators using call sign W4LX, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

 

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 24, 2022 at 1:36 pm EDT (Fort Myers, FL) (17:36UTC, 12:36 pm CDT, 11:36 am MDT, 10:36 am PDT).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://vimeo.com/762320321

_______________________________

 

As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. Can you make cupcakes in space?

2. How do you not get lost in space?

3. Does the sun look different from the ISS compared to Earth?

4. If you could travel to any planet, which one would you go to?

5. What is your favorite meal in space?

6. Are more women astronauts training to go to the moon?

7. What is the most extraordinary thing you have seen in space?

8. How does space debris affect satellites and the ISS?

9. How old were you when you decided that you wanted to go on the International Space Station?

10. Is it hard to get used to Earth’s gravity after spending so much time on the ISS?

11. What would you say or show to people who are convinced that space and the ISS is a hoax? 

12. What kind of research are you currently working on?

13. Would you be willing to live on the new moon base once it is built?

14. What does it feel like to experience that many g’s of acceleration when taking off from Earth?

15. What do you enjoy doing during your free time on the ISS?

16. What went through your head while blasting off from Earth?

 

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, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) 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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