ARISS News Release                                                                                                    No.23-16

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISSContact is Scheduled with Students at

West Michigan Aviation Academy, High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

April18, 2023—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 West MichiganAviation Academy, High School located in Grand Rapids, MI.  ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateurradio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew memberswith ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.

West Michigan Aviation Academy (WMAA) is a tuition-free publiccharter high school that is STEM-focused specializing in aviation andengineering programs for grades 9 through 12. WMAA opened in 2010 and is located on the campus of the Gerald R. FordInternational Airport in Grand Rapids, MI.

Part of WMAA’s curriculum includes a pathway to earn a private pilotlicense, as well as qualifying to take the FAA Licensing Test after completing theirUnmanned Aerial Systems (“drone”) courses. Other classes include studies inspace exploration and principles of radio communication and include theiryear-long Aerospace Engineering course. Members of the Lowell Amateur RadioClub are supporting this ARISS contact by helping with radio equipment setup,Amateur satellite practice contacts, and a ham licensing event.

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions ofAstronaut Sultan AlNeyadi, amateur radio call sign KI5VTV. The downlinkfrequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners thatare within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relay ground station.

The amateur radio ground station for this contactis in Grand Rapids, MI. Amateur radio operators using call sign W8ISS, willoperate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

TheARISS radio contact is scheduled for April 20, 2023 at 2:20:54 pm EDT (GrandRapids) (18:20:54 UTC, 1:20 pm CDT, 12:20 pm MDT, 11:20 am PDT).

_______________________________

Astime allows, students will ask these questions:

1.How did you build and maintain the motivation to become an astronaut?

2.What type of clothes and personal belongings do you bring to space and why?

3.What kind of training do you get as an astronaut to mentally prepare you forthe challenges of missions in space?

4.What are the hardest adjustments to living in space for long periods of time?

5.How has travelling to space affected your perspective on life and of theplanet?

6.Is it possible to get stuck in an open area of the space station where youcannot grab or push against anything to generate a force? If so, how do you getunstuck?

7.Does electricity behave differently in orbit on the space station and does itrequire any special precautions?

8.How do you deal with human waste and garbage on the space station?

9.What kinds of plant or animal research is being done on the space station?

10.How does the lack of sunlight and gravity affect plant growth on the spacestation?

11.How do you prevent or respond to serious injuries in space?

12.What personality or leadership traits is the space program looking for inastronaut candidates to be best prepared to go on space missions?

13.How is the mental health of the space station crew monitored?

14.What subjects or lessons from your high school or college education do youapply most often on the space station?

15.What are some things I can do now, as a high school student, to prepare tobecome an astronaut?

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, sponsors are the Radio Amateur SatelliteCorporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS NationalLab-Space Station Explorers, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) andNASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN). The primary goal ofARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts,and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts viaamateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before andduring these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities takepart in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, andamateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org

MediaContact:

DaveJordan, AA4KN

ARISSPR

Findus on social media at:

Twitter:ARISS_Intl

Facebook:facebook.com/ARISSIntl

Instagram:ariss_intl

Mastodon:ariss_intl@mastodon.hams.social

Checkout ARISS on Youtube.com.