ARISS News Release                                                                                                    No.22-25

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Bellefontaine High School, Bellefontaine, Ohio, USA

 

April 19, 2022—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and U.S. students at the Bellefontaine High School in Bellefontaine, OH.  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.

 

Bellefontaine High School (BHS), is a rural, public high school (about 900 students, ages 13-18years) about 50 miles northwest of Columbus, Ohio, in Logan County. BHS’s STEM curriculum supports the school’s various academic extracurriculars and clubs which include Envirothon, TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science), Robotics and their newly formed Bellefontaine High School Amateur Radio Club, call sign W8BCS. Members of the local amateur radio club (W8BCS), the Champaign Logan Amateur Radio Club (CLARC), are providing technological aid and promoting amateur radio to the students as a co-sponsor for radio license classes and license testing. During the school year student activities have used the ARRL curriculum resources, which allow teachers to introduce space-related technology to the classroom. Students also participated in their ‘Design Challenges’ – a program that allows students the opportunity to design various “contraptions” to achieve a task under certain constraints (as would occur in aerospace engineering) to further their understanding of space technology.

 

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut Kayla Barron, amateur radio call sign KI5LAL. 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 Bellefontaine, OH. Amateur radio operators will use call sign W8BCS to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

 

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for April 21, 2022 at 1:13 pm EDT (Bellefontaine, OH) (17:13UTC, 12:13 pm CDT, 11:13 am MDT, 10:13 am PDT).

 

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://youtu.be/6t5ZQOw2j68

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

 

1. How long does it take to get used to gravity after being in space?

2. Can you throw objects, like a football, on the ISS?

3. How close are you to the moon, sun, or earth right now?

4. How do you train to keep healthy in space?

5. What is the weirdest thing you have ever encountered in space?

6. How long can you stay in space?

7. What is the protocol if depressurization occurs on the ISS?

8. Who inspired you to go to space?

9. What happens if someone breaks a bone or gets injured in another way on the ISS?

10. Aside from a clock, how do you know if it is day or night in space?

11. Do you have a tracking device in case an asteroid hits the ISS or another planet?

12. What does the earth look like from the ISS?

13. How does space affect our motor skills?

14. What are some of the side effects of spending long durations in space?

15. What is your favorite part of being in space?

16. What resources do you have available on the ISS if something breaks?

17. What is the hardest thing about going to space?

18. How long and how hard did you have to train in order to be able to go to 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 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

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Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

                                                                              

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