ARISS News Release                                                                                               No.24-07

DaveJordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISSContact is Scheduled with Students at

Alabama School of Cyber Technology andEngineering (ASCTE), Huntsville, Alabama USA

January 30,2024—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has receivedschedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboardthe International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering(ASCTE) in Huntsville, AL.  ARISSconducts 60 - 100 of these special amateur radio contacts each year betweenstudents around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard theISS.

TheASCTE is a statewide, residential magnet high school that began operating in 2020in its temporary home on the campus of Oakwood University, and since 2022 isnow in its permanent home in the middle of Cummings Research Park inHuntsville. For the 2023-24 school year ASCTE has 334 enrolled with 112students living on campus. In 2023, ASCTE signed a Memorandum of Understandingwith Marshall Space Flight Center, creating a partnership with NASA.

TheASCTE Amateur Radio Club (N4CTE) was formed in the fall of 2022 and has thrivedwith generous support from the ARRL and assistance from the Huntsville AmateurRadio Club. Student interest in the school ham radio club led to offering anelective course in RF Engineering during the 2023-24 school year. Students inthis class have been learning about radio communications and gaining hands-onexperience with amateur radio equipment. Several departments (from science tothe humanities to cybersecurity) have also incorporated space-related lessonsin preparation for this ARISS contact. Members of the Huntsville Amateur RadioClub will be assisting ASCTE in the technical aspects of this ARISS contact andhave been preparing the students for this contact.

This will be adirect contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask theirquestions of astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, amateur radio call sign KI5WSL. Thedownlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard bylisteners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relayground station.

The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Huntsville,AL. Amateur radio operators using call sign N4CTE, will operate the groundstation to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radiocontact is scheduled for February 1, 2024 at 11:34:50 am CST (Huntsville, AL) (17:34:50UTC, 12:34 pm EST, 10:34 am MST, 9:34 am PST).

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As time allows,students will ask these questions:

1. What do youand the others up there do for fun?

2. Are youworried about cyber vulnerabilities on the space station, and if you are, whatplans are in place to counteract them?

3. How is thestation protected from micro debris?

4. How if atall has 3D printing been used lately on the station?

5. What sparkedyour interest in becoming an astronaut and how old were you when you figured itout?

6. Did you goto college and pick a major with the intention of being an astronaut?

7. Have youever broken anything on the ISS?

8. How is theISS actually maneuvered?

9. What wasyour scariest experience as an astronaut?

10. Do you faceany unique physiological changes afterspending a lot of time in space?

11. Whatsoftware tools like Excel and Matlab do you use?

12. What mentalhealth support do you have on the station?

13. If you wereto start over would you still choose to be an astronaut and if not what wouldyou choose instead?

14. What kindof exercise do you do in space to stay fit?

15. Whatexperiments or research projects are you currently working on in the uniquemicrogravity environment of the space station?

16. Is solarpower the only form of energy on the station?

17. What shouldI do if I want to become an astronaut?

18. If there isan emergency on the station what do you do first?

19. How do youmanage daily activities like eating, sleeping, and exercising in the confinedspace of the space station, and how does it differ from life on Earth?

20. What doesthe ISS smell like?

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) isa cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the spaceagencies that support the ISS. In the United States, sponsors are the AmericanRadio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), RadioAmateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications andNavigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. Theprimary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology,engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduledcontacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students.Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, andcommunities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, spacetechnologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org

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Media Contact:

Dave Jordan,AA4KN

ARISS PR

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