ARISS News Release No.23-19

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact is Scheduled with Students at

Council Rock High School South, Holland, Pennsylvania, USA

April 28, 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 the Council Rock High School South located in Holland, PA. 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.

Council Rock High School South (with about 2,000 students) is located in Lower Bucks County, PA. The school has extensive STEM-based clubs and activities that are preparing students for careers in Science and Mathematics. Two of these clubs will be heavily involved in this ARISS contact, the Council Rock South Radio Club (KC3JND) and HUNCH. HUNCH (High schools United with NASA to Create Hardware) is an effort to bring students new educational experiences by having them design products for NASA. The amateur radio club allows students to study for their ham license, and participate in club events including radio contacts with other high schools, Morse code battleship, foxhunting, and small electronic soldering projects.

The school’s Technology Club (of which HUNCH is a division) will help promote this ARISS contact by providing audio/video equipment for live streaming and recording the event as well as providing knowledge of the engineering aspect of the ISS and its communications systems. Many STEM-related activities prior to this contact will be a collaboration between Tech Club and Amateur Radio Club such as receiving data from a NOAA weather satellite. For this ARISS contact, students in the school’s amateur radio club are working with HAM radio engineers, (and members of the Warminster Amateur Radio Club, K3DN) who are helping students to prepare for this radio contact.

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut Steve Bowen, amateur radio call sign KI5BKB. 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 Holland, PA. Amateur radio operators using call sign KC3JND, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for May 1, 2023 at 8:43 am EDT (PA) (12:43 UTC, 7:43 am CDT, 6:43 am MDT, 5:43 am PDT).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: http://www.crsarc.org/live

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. How does your companionship and cooperation on the ISS serve as a lesson for how to solve problems in society?

2. Are there skills that you have learned from acquiring your amateur radio license that have helped you as an astronaut?

3. Do you think that living in space has given you a unique perspective on life on this planet and our role as stewards of it?

4. How has your education helped you become the astronaut that you are today and what advice would you give to someone looking to pursue that career?

5. How hard was it for you to adjust to experiencing night and day every 45 minutes?

6. In your experience in space, what stood out the most as being different compared to your training?

7. What experiments will you be conducting that you believe could have significant scientific impact?

8. What challenges if any did you encounter during this mission and how did you handle them?

9. Have language barriers presented any obstacles during your time on the ISS?

10. How does traveling in the Space X vehicle compare to the Soyuz spacecraft?

11. How has your wilderness training benefitted you during your tenure in space?

12. Has being an astronaut always been a dream of yours, or is it something that you learned you wanted to pursue along the way.

13. Who was most influential in helping you become an astronaut?

14. What is the best and worst experiences related to being in microgravity?

15. Working alongside astronauts from many countries, why do you think it is important for the advancement of science and space exploration to be an international effort.

16. How does the duration of exercise in microgravity compare to that on Earth in order to get the same results?

17. Are there any values or views that you’ve developed that you don’t think you would have without your experiences?

18. What is your favorite thing to do during your free time on the ISS?

19. Do you think living away from civilization has changed your outlook on life or relationships?

20. How has microgravity affected your sense of smell and taste?

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 (SCaN). 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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