ARISS News Release No. 20-19
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org
FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISSContact is Scheduled with
McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA
October06, 2020—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 Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio between the ISS and students fromMcConnell Middle School in Loganville, Georgia. Students will take turns askingtheir questions of ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR,during the ARISS radio contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 437.525 MHz.
ARISS team member Jan Poppeliers, using call signON4ISS (from an AMSAT amateur radio clubstation in Aartselaar, Belgium), will serve as therelay amateur radio station. Each student asking a question of Cassidy on the ARISS radiowill be teleconferenced in from home or social-distancedat school. Youth and faculty and the publiccan watch the livestreamed action from home.
TheARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 7, 2020 at 10:18 am EDT (Georgia) (14:18UTC, 9:18 am CDT, 8:18 am MDT, 07:18 am PDT).
McConnellMiddle School (about 2,300students ages 11 to 15) is a Gwinnett County public school near Atlanta.The district’s career-planningcurriculum group integrated lessons into established science, math and languagearts classes before the contact in order to increase student interest andawareness related to space science, expand student experience with researchmethodologies, and inspire them to pursue studies and careers inscience-related fields. The school’s McConnell Radio Club, in its 6th year,is mentored by members of the Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society who provide radioclasses and equipment for student use, and guided the ARISS project, a part of thefaculty’s efforts toward becoming a STEM-certified school.
ARISS invites the public to view thelivestream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at:
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Astime allows, students will ask these questions:
1. Are there specialactivities designed for you to help relieve the stress of living and working inspace?
2. Describe whatsurprised you about earth when you got to the ISS.
3. Do you seeevidence of the recent West Coast wildfires or other environmental situations?
4. As a middle schoolstudent what can we do to prepare ourselves for the job you do today as anastronaut?
5. In the movie TheMartian, Mark was trained as a botanist. What is your area of interest and whatexperiments are you doing in your field?
6. How long is yourmission and how do you expect it might impact your body?
7. What was thehardest part of training prior to going to space?
8. How often do youneed to do repairs on the outside of the ISS?
9. Describe yourmedical training that would help if an astronaut becomes ill or seriouslyinjured while on the space station.
10. Standard airpressure on earth is 1 atmosphere. What air pressure do they try to maintain onthe ISS?
11. Whatqualifications do you have that enable you to be assigned to more than onemission or similar?
12. Have you evertried growing carrots or root vegetables in space?
13. Are there anytimes where any shipments of food or drinks are running late, or have spaceflight troubles, and you run out of food or water for the time?
14. How does foodtaste when you don't get to smell it?
15. How is the ISSdesigned in case of a collision with space junk or a meteoroid?
16. What is theprocedure if spills, liquid or solid, occur during experiments?
17. How do youmaintain clean hygiene while in space?
18. What is yournormal schedule on the ISS?
ARISS– Celebrating 20 Years of Amateur Radio Continuous Operations on the 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
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MediaContact:
DaveJordan, AA4KN
ARISSPR
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David Jordan