ARISS News Release                                                                                                   No.   22-01

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact Scheduled for Participants at Scouts Victoria (Radio and Electronics Team), Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia

January 3, 2022—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).

This will be a telebridge contact via amateur radio and students will take turns asking their questions of Astronaut Mark Vande Hei, amateur radio call sign KG5GNP. 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 telebridge station.

ARISS team member Fred Kemmerer, using his call sign AB1OC in New Hampshire, will serve as the ARISS relay amateur radio station.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for January 4, 2022 at 10:27 pm AEDT (Mt Waverley, AU), (11:27 UTC, 6:27 am EST, 5:27 am CST, 4:27 am MST and 3:27 am PST).

The Victorian Scout Jamboree is a week-long event that has enabled over 4000 scouts, venturers, rovers and leaders to travel to Elmore in Central Victoria for 10 days of excitement and fun. The scout organizers’ goal is to provide an adventurous, fun, challenging and inclusive program for youth, teaching them life skills and leadership. During the event, the Radio and Electronics Team will be providing radio and electronics related support and activities for scouts of all ages and abilities, which include STEM-related activities while also promoting amateur radio training (radio participation and license qualification).

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. What 3 things do you miss from Earth?  My Mum worked on a ship and missed; sleeping with the window open, the smell of cut grass and the sound of rain on the roof.

2. What do you have to do to become an astronaut?

3. What would happen if someone were seriously ill on the ISS, and what would you do?

4. How do you prepare and eat your meals while up in the space station?

5. What is it like to float around in no gravity without friction?

6. How does it feel going from zero gravity in space back to earth's gravity? Does it hurt??

7. What is the scariest thing to happen to you whilst you have been in space?

8. How do you shower and go to the toilet in space?

9. After being in the space station for so many months, how does it feel to experience planet Earth and nature again with all your senses, especially smell?

10. How do the seasons affect the veggie production system on the ISS? How often do you get to eat fresh food?

11. Did you always want to be an astronaut and how did you make it happen?

12. Why do people go into space and how long is an average mission?

13. If you only had the chance to go to into space 1 time but only live till 30 or not going into space at all/not being able to see the stars or the milky way and live to over 70, which would you choose?

14. Can you share some of the science that was worked on in space that we can now see on earth?

15. Is there sound or much noise in space?

16. Multiple nations have had space stations each bestowed with a specific name - Russia had Mir, NASA had Skylab and China Tiangong-1. As a truly international effort and the largest man-made object in space, does the ISS have a nickname or is there a name that the astronauts use for the individual components?

17. What energy supply do you use to power the station. If nuclear, what type of reactor do you use? If solar, how many solar panels do you use, and what are their power density?

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, 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.

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

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