ARISS News Release No. 24-61

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Jaanimmarik Ilinniarvik School, Jaanimmarik Iliniavik, Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Canada

October 9, 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 Jaanimmarik Ilinniarvik School located in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Canada. 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.

Jaanimmarik School has about 400 students from Grade 4 to Secondary 5 (grade 11). The school teaches three languages, Inuktitut (offered to all indigenous students), and either English or French as a second language. Kuujjuaq is the regional center for Inuit homeland in Quebec, which is called Nunavik 2. None of the villages that are part of Nunavik have road or rail service to southern Canada and can only be accessed by aircraft, or by boats in the summer.

This will be a telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Nick Hague, amateur radio call sign KG5TMV. 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 telebridge station.

The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Casale Monferrato, Italy. The amateur radio volunteer team at the ground station will use the call sign, IK1SLD to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 11, 2024 at 9:11:27 am EDT (Quebec) (13:11:27 UTC, 8:11 am CDT, 7:11 am MDT, 6:11 am PDT).

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. How many years of school to become an astronaut?

2. Do you follow normal time like we do on Earth?

3. How do you go to the bathroom in space?

4. How does it feel to float in zero gravity? How does take-off feel?

5. How will the 2 Starliner astronauts return to Earth?

6. What was your scariest moment in space? Have you brought any souvenirs from space? Does space smell?

7. What do you do if you run out of food? Do you grow plants up there or do you stock up for a whole year or months?

8. What keeps you entertained up there?

9. Do you believe that the universe is infinite?

10. Will we still see the evidence of the moon landings when we go back to the moon?

11. How does it feel to come back to Earth after being in space for a long time and are you sick or does your body feel heavy? Can you walk as soon as you are back?

12. How are you tested to become an astronaut, and does it involve a lot of math and science?

13. Have you come across a portal in space that could possibly lead to another universe?

14. Have you ever seen a black hole from ISS?

15. What do you most like to do in your free time?

16. Why, since the Apollo missions, have we not returned to the moon?

17. Do you want to go to the moon someday?

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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