ARISS News Release                                                                                                    No.23-52

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Belgian Defence (KSOO), Koninklijke School voor Onderofficieren, Sint-Truiden, Belgium, and IEPS of Colfontaine, Colfontaine, Belgium

 

October 8, 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 two schools in two cities in Belgium, Sint-Truiden and Colfontaine.  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.

 

The Royal School for Non-Commissioned Officers (KSOO/ERSO), situated in Sint-Truiden, in the east of Belgium, is Belgium’s main military training establishment for non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and serves as a military training institution dedicated to educating and training NCOs within the Belgian Armed Forces. IEPS of Colfontaine is located about 50 miles west of Sint-Truiden. IEPS is a lifelong learning school for students ages 15 and older and provides training courses in the fields of mining, beauty care, the hotel industry, IT, construction, industrial design and HVAC technology. 

 

KSOO/ERSO is providing ham radio equipment for a direct ARISS contact using their radio club’s

callsign (ON4BAF). Members of the radio club of the Union of Belgian Radioamateurs (UBA), represented by its local section RST Radio Section of the city of Sint-Truiden will coordinate this contact while also establishing a telebridge with students at IEPS of Colfontaine.

 

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask 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 near Sint-Truiden, Belgium. Amateur radio operators using call sign ON4BAF, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection and provide a telebridge contact with students at IEPS of Colfontaine, Belgium.

 

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 10, 2023 at 1:36:20 pm CEST (Belgium) (11:36:29 UTC, 7:36 am EDT, 6:36 am CDT, 5:36 am MDT, 4:36 am PDT).

 

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. How can you tell time? Does day and night exist in the space station?

2. What was your motivation to become an astronaut?

3. Which kind of pollution (air pollution, plastics in the sea...) is visible from space?

4. How does the ISS maintain its orbit?

5. How did it feel when you took off?

6. How did you feel the first time you realized you were in space?

7. What convinced you to go to space?

8. How does the ISS protect its crew from electromagnetic radiation from space?

9. In February 2018 Elon Musk launched a Tesla (car) in space. Have you already been able to spot it in space?

10. What are the requirements to be an astronaut?

11. Who does the laundry on board of the ISS?

12. What was the most impressive or breathtaking sight you have witnessed in space?

13. Do you ever change course and how fast can the spaceship change its course?

14. What are the means of survival in the ship?

15. How many of you can exit the ISS to do work outside? Is there a minimum and/or a maximum?

16. Can you describe the psychological and emotional impact of living in a confined space for an extended period?

17. How many hours of sleep do you have daily? And is that sleep the same as in your bed at home?

18. Are your clothes comfortable?

19. How is the inside temperature of ISS managed in space?

20. Is there a smell in space?

 

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

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Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

                                                                              

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