An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Ecole Francaise Jacques Prevert, Saly, Senegal on 14 Oct. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:31 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and 6V7SPACE. The contact should be audible over Senegal and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
Jacques Prévert, a private mixed French Primary and Secondary school (aged 3 to 18) located in Saly, Senegal, is now destined to become the biggest French Lycée outside of Dakar due to the remarkable growth and development of both the school and the region during the past 10 years. Located in West Africa's largest and best known tourist resort, the school's fast expanding catchment area extends out and beyond to the site of the future international airport in the country's new economic development zone which has recently been linked up by motorway with the capital.
The ambitious teaching and achievement levels coupled with an open-school cultural policy targeting both Senegalese and international partnerships within the framework of the French overseas network of schools (AEFE), combine to enrich and enhance the quality of the school's educational offer. During the past school year of 2012-2013, the amateur radio contact project has already afforded a major opportunity for trans-disciplinary preparation and topical research and learning about Space and the ISS for each class in the school.
Indeed, this teaching project belongs to one of the priority guidelines of the Current General School Project « Opening up to the outside world » founded upon the aim to encourage pupils to discover and open up to other people and more generally to the realities of the outside world. The project originally intended for Secondary school pupils (6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade) has involved practically all the classes at Jacques Prévert, due to the numerous exhibitions and projects developed and presented by pupils and actions carried out with the Primary school.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
1. How do you control your body movements in weightlessness?
2. How are you able to keep your sense of time without the rhythm of
daylight and night-time?
3. What made you decide to become an astronaut?
4. Has your body grown longer since you arrived on board the ISS?
5. Can solar wind expose astronauts to any specific dangers when they
operate outside the station?
6. In case of illness or injury, can the astronauts receive medical
treatment or be evacuated?
7. Can weightlessness become tiresome in the long run?
8. Do you have time to relax with any leisure activities?
9. Has your outlook on the world changed since you have been in space?
10. How long will it take you to be able to walk properly again once back on
the earth?
11. What would you do if a comet or a meteorite was heading directly towards
the ISS?
12. What influence does your state of mind have upon social behavior on board
the ISS?
13. What are the most common and most worrying problems that can occur on
board the ISS?
14. When you get back to earth, do you think your view towards life will have
changed?
15. Can you transmit warning messages if your instruments predict the
formation of a natural disaster somewhere on the Earth?
16. What are the requirements to become an astronaut?
17. Is your diet appetizing or difficult to follow? What food on earth do you
miss the most?
18. How are you able to venture out of the station while it is orbiting the
earth at a speed of 17000 miles an hour?
19. Do you miss your family?
20. How long is the training to become an astronaut?
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Next planned event(s):
1. Istituto Comprensivo, Marzocchino Di Seravezza, Italy and Comprensivo
Camaiore 3, Camaiore, Italy, direct via IQ5VR
Contact is a go for: Sat 2013-10-19 15:54:53 UTC 33 deg
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,
David - AA4KN