ARISS News Release No. 21-24

Dave Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR aa4kn@amsat.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS Contact Scheduled for Students at St Margaret’s School Melbourne, Australia

April 22, 2021—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 Shannon Walker, amateur radio call sign KD5DXB. English is the language that will be used for this contact. Both onsite and remote access will be provided to the student body at the time of the contact per Covid-19 guidelines. 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 ARISS radio telebridge station.

The ARISS team in Casale Monferrato, Italy will use call sign IK1SLD to serve as the ARISS relay amateur radio ground station.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for April 26, 2021 at 8:12 pm AEST (Melbourne), (10:12 UTC, 6:12 am EDT, 5:12 am CDT, 4:12 am MDT and 3:12 am PDT).

St. Margaret’s School (host school) and Berwick Grammar School serve about 900 students from Preparatory to Year 12. St Margaret’s School includes a curriculum on Space and Astronomy for students in Year 8 and 9. Year 9 students are also learning basic electric circuits. Students have also participated in NASA’s Girl’s School Alliance, which included a trip to NASA facilities. Both schools include in their STEM program class activities that are a part of their G’Day Space Program enabling participating students to visit the Kennedy Space Center (and watch a rocket launch). Their STEM program also enables students (Physics class) in Year 11 to work with Arduinos, and build electrical circuits. The School has also added recent courses on amateur radio communication and foxhunting (radio directional finding) activities.

The public is invited to watch the livestream at: www.ariotti.com.

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As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1. Is the atmosphere in space hot or cold?

2. I wonder what space food tastes like?

3. What minerals and gases do you study in space?

4. How is water recycled in the ISS?

5. Are there unexpected laws of physics that do or don’t remain the same in space?

6. How many countries are involved in the International Space Station?

7. When you come back to Earth do you still feel like you are floating?

8. Do you think you can use what you have learned in space to help us with our life on Earth?

9. What thing in space stunned you the most?

10. What is your space suit made of and what features does the space suit have in it?

11. How big of an issue is space junk for the International Space Station? Is there much junk around the station and has the Station ever been damaged by space junk?

12. Do you hope to live on Mars one day?

13. Do medical operations occur on the ISS? If so, how do the astronauts prevent body fluids (such as blood) from being released due to low gravity?

14. Can you see weather from space such as rain or lightning from above the Earth?

15. How long does it take to orbit the Earth?

16. What noises do you hear in space?

ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Amateur Radio Continuous Operations on the ISS

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 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 learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Media Contact: Dave Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR

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