ARISS News Release                                                                                                    No.   21-16

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISSContact is Scheduled for

Students at Avoca State School,Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia

March9, 2021—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has receivedschedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is thegroup that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students aroundthe globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).

This will be a direct contact via amateur radio between students at Avoca State School,Bundaberg, Australia, and Astronaut Mike Hopkins, amateur radio call sign KF5LJG. Students will take turns asking their questions. English is the language expected to be used during the contact. The downlinkfrequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ.

Amateur radio operators, using the BundabergAmateur Radio Club (BARC) call sign, VK4BW and the club’s equipment, will operatethe ham radio ground station for this contact.

The ARISS radio contact isscheduled for March 11, 2021 at 5:56 pm AEST (Bundaberg, Australia), (07:56 UTC, 2:56am EST, 1:56 am CST, 12:56 am MST and March 10, 11:56 pm PST).

Avoca State School(about 300 students) is a member of the West Bundaberg Cluster of schoolsserving communities in nearby Avoca, Millbank, Branyan and the surrounding rural/residentialareas. Prior to this ARISS contact, students’ science curriculum contained acourse of study on rocket propulsion. Student activities included model rocketconstruction and launching of these models using a pneumatic energy source. Theschool has partnered with members of BARC who will be key in assisting thestudents with this ARISS contact. In recent years, the BARC invited youngpeople to participate in a high-altitude balloon launch carrying an amateurradio repeater enabling contacts between hams throughout Queensland andNorthern New South Wales.

Astime allows, students will ask these questions:

1. Have any experiments in the ISSproduced evidence of other life forms in space?

2. How long is a typical mission on theISS?

3. How long did you have to train to becomean astronaut?

4. When people built the ISS, how didthey send it up into space?

5. Why don’t meteors hit the spacestation?

6. What is your favourite thing aboutbeing an astronaut?

7. If you could make a time capsule torepresent your stay on the ISS, what would you put in it?

8. Would walking on the moon be thesame as space walking outside of the ISS?

9. Once you return to Earth, whatprocess do you have to follow?

10. How do you get oxygen to breathe inthe Space Station?

11. Why is the Space Station split intodifferent sections for different nations?

12. What do you struggle with most onthe Space Station?

13. What do you do for recreation inyour spare time on the ISS?

14. What types of experiments are youcurrently running and how does zero gravity affect them?

15. What kind of food do you eat inspace?

16. How many people can be in the SpaceStation at the one time?

17. What is your main job on theInternational Space Station?

18. What job would you have if youweren’t an astronaut?

19. Do astronauts play pranks on eachother and what’s the best prank you’ve seen or done?

20. What is your favourite thing tolook at on Earth from the International Space Station?

21. How long from take-off does it taketo reach the International Space Station?

22. Do you need more sleep-in spacethan you do on Earth?

23. The space station is exposed toextreme heat and cold. How is the temperature regulated?

24. How have Science experiments on thespace station affected life back on Earth?

ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Amateur Radio Operations onthe ISS

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the InternationalSpace Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radiosocieties and the space agencies that support the International Space Station(ISS).  In the United States, sponsorsare the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio RelayLeague (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s SpaceCommunications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promoteexploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematicstopics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew membersaboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students,educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, andamateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org

.

MediaContact:

DaveJordan, AA4KN

ARISSPR

Likeus on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and@ARISS_status.