An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Padthaway Primary School, Padthaway, SA, Australia on 03 March. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 0832 UTC.
The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over western N. America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Audio from the contact should also be available via the AMSAT conference on EchoLink and via the 9010 Discovery reflector on IRLP. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.
Padthaway is a small town in the South East of South Australia 287 km from Adelaide with a population of 300. It is famous for its wines and agriculture. Our small school is a great school with 38 students in 3 classes. On behalf of the students, staff, parents and our community, Ithank you for this wonderful opportunity to talk to you.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What do you do if you get travel sickness? 2. What do you use the space station for? 3. What experiments are you doing in space? 4. What is your mission at the moment? 5. What has been the most drastic and important thing that has broken? 6. Is it possible to grow anything in space? 7. What kind of training did you do to go into space and how do you keep at your physical best in space? 8. How long have you been in space altogether? 9. What is your favourite food in space and do you ever get to eat ice cream, lollies or junk food? 10. Has there ever been a wind up in space and if so did it do any damage? 11. Did you want to be an astronaut when you were a kid? 12. What is the strangest thing you have seen in space? 13. Has being in space and doing your tests convinced you that aliens can exist? 14. Is it fun bouncing around in space? 15. Is it hard working outside the ISS without any gravity? 16. How do you land in the Space Shuttle? 17. Have you ever wished from a shooting star? 18. Why is the Space Shuttle the only spaceship that can be reused and not the others? 19. What is the Space Shuttle’s top speed? 20. How can we speak to outer space life forms? 21. What do you enjoy the most about being in space? 22. What do the stars look like and do you count them to go to sleep? 23. Has a comet, meteor or space junk ever hit the ISS? 24. What happens if you run out of fuel? 25. How hot and how cold does it get outside the ISS? 26. Are you scared if you lose contact with earth? 27. Do you miss your family when it gets boring?
Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact .
Next planned event(s): TBD
ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.
ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).
Thank you & 73, Kenneth - N5VHO