An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski Junior High School, Swietajno, Poland on 08 Dec. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:19 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time.The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and LU1CGB. The contact should be audible over Argentina and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski Junior High School in Swietajno, attended by approximately 170 pupils (aged 13-15), is situated in a picturesque Land of a Thousand Lakes in Szczytno County (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in the northeastern part of Poland). The school consists of seven forms and it employs twenty well-qualified teachers. Mazurian Amateur Radio Club SP4YWM has been established here and it functions with the number of seventeen school members (among which there are three primary school pupils and one pre-school girl, all from Swietajno).
In preparations for the amateur radio contact with the ISS, the students with the guidance of their teachers improved their English, got familiar with the life and work on the ISS. They had a great opportunity to learn everyday English in order to ask an astronaut questions during the ISS contact as well as the specialized language of science to visit space agencies pages. The students learned geography with the use of modern technologies and photographed the Earth from the board of the ISS (EarthKAM). The school cooperated with the Olsztyn Planetarium to organize an observation. The planetarium visited Swietajno to accompany one of the school events. Consequently, the Astronomical Mobile Laboratory called Astrolabium was at the school's disposal. Last year the ARISS participants from Swietajno attended the 4th Polish-Wide Conference of Contributors and Sympathisers in ARISS held in the central part of Poland, where they focused on interesting topics concerning the ISS and learned how other Polish schools had prepared for ARISS contacts in the past.
The pupils also performed an experiment in the near space as a part of the miniSAT project. They sent peas, bubble wrap and a watch to the near space to the altitude of about 30 000 meters above the Earth. The conditions differ significantly between the near space and the surface of the Earth: the pressure is much smaller, UV radiation is higher and the temperature is below zero degrees Celsius. People from all over Poland, including the pupils from Swietajno, took part in it. The balloon used in the event was marked "CP26". The experiment in the near space was possible thanks to HAM radio operators and other volunteers from a non-governmental organization called Copernicus Project Foundation (near Torun, Poland). Their two flagship projects are MiniSAT and Near Space Program in Poland and they have organized above 30 balloon flies to the near space since 2005.
In March 2013 the school started public relations activities connected with the HAM radio contact between an astronaut on the International Space Station and the students from Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski School. An official inauguration of the ARISS program in Swietajno had been prepared. TVP Olsztyn, Radio Olsztyn and other local mass media were present there and took part in an inaugural lecture on ARISS. As a continuation of EarthKAM program an exhibition of the photographs taken by the students was organized during the inauguration. Before that, Swietajno primary school pupils (between the ages of 5 and 12) had been invited to participate in the preparations to the ARISS contact. As a result, some of them are going to ask the astronaut their questions, together with their older friends from the junior high school.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
1. Can you eat ice cream on the ISS?
2. How often do you observe the Earth and try to find your house?
3. How long can an astronaut stay on the ISS?
4. How old must be a person to become an astronaut?
5. Can you stop or change the direction of the ISS flight?
6. How do you spend your free time in space?
7. What time zone is used on the International Space Station?
8. Do you sometimes have a party on the ISS?
9. Can an astronaut catch a cold or flu on the ISS?
10. What was your most difficult task in space?
11. What is the most impressive thing you've seen from space?
12. Can you see New Year's Eve fireworks from space?
13. How long does it take to get from Earth to the space station?
14. What do you miss most from Earth you don't have in space?
15. Do you do the laundry on the ISS to clean your clothes?
16. Have you ever seen any unidentified flying objects?
17. Can you take your pet to the International Space Station?
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Next planned event(s):
TBD
ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the volunteer support and leadership from AMSAT and IARU societies around the world with the ISS space agencies partners: NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA.
ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program visit the ARISS website at ariss.org.
Thank you & 73,
David - AA4KN
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