Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report November 21, 2011
1. Upcoming School Contacts
New crew members docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, November 16. School contacts will resume in a few weeks after the crew has had a chance to get oriented and settled into their new surroundings.
2. Fourteen Year Old Coordinates ARISS Contact for her School
On Monday, November 14, students from A.S.J. Memorial High School in Thetford Mines, Québec, Canada participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Astronaut Mike Fossum, KF5AQG on the ISS. A 14 year old girl coordinated the contact with some help from her father and support from her math teacher. She also acted as radio operator during the event, which was attended by approximately 350 people, including local and regional media. After the contact, she received a standing ovation from her fellow students and senior provincial members of parliament have asked her, along with her team, to attend the provincial legislature to be recognized for her efforts. CBC Radio Canada conducted an interview with the student and her teacher. The audio is available at this URL: http://www.cbc.ca/breakaway/thetford-mines/2011/11/17/students-in-thetford-m...
3. JSC Students Contact ISS Via Radio
Interns and co-ops from Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas participated in a successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Tuesday, November 15 via radio station VK5ZAI in Australia. Teaching From Space (TFS), a NASA Education Office, helped to facilitate the event. TFS promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program. The students that participated in the contact came from the Space Grant Program, the University Research Centers Program, the Undergraduate Student Research Project, and JSC's internal co-op program operated through the JSC Human Resources Department. Each of these programs provides students the opportunity to have hands-on, real-life, career-related experiences that challenge, inspire, and provide practical application that complements and expands upon the students' academic education.
4. New Proposal Cycle for ARISS-US Contacts
NASA Teaching From Space (TFS) office has announced a new proposal cycle for ARISS-US contacts. The deadline for submitting proposals is January 30, 2012 for contacts to be held in the July 15, 2012 - January 15, 2013 timeframe. A NASA Express message which included an item on ARISS contact opportunities for U.S. schools using the proposal process was sent to 18,480 EXPRESS subscribers and to 1,608,969 NASA Twitter followers on November 17. The message may be viewed on the NASA blog: http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/newui/blog/viewpostlist.jsp?blogname=educationexpre...
Inquiries about the U.S. proposal process should be sent to [email protected] or may be made by calling 281-244-1919. For more information, visit the TFS Web site: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/teachingfromspace/students/ariss.h...
5. ARISS International Team Meeting Held
On Tuesday, November 15, the ARISS International Team held its monthly teleconference. A recap was given on the ARISS face-to-face meeting held in October, and status updates were given on HamTV and ARISSat-1. Minutes have been posted. See: http://ariss.rac.ca/arisstel2011-11-15.htm
6. UHF Station in ISS Columbus Module The amateur radio station located in the Columbus module is currently operational with the UHF Ericsson transceiver and packet system using the frequency of 437.550 MHz. To utilize the the packet system, operators need to set the UNPROTO path to ARISS (the id is RS0ISS) for digi relay or they may connect to the BBS using the callsign RS0ISS-1. The packet beacon is set for 2 minute intervals so it may not appear to be active over many parts of the world but keep listening and mind the Doppler shift (+ or - 10 KHz). 7. Astronaut Training Status
Astronaut Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA was given an ARISS refresher course this past week. He plans to fly with Expedition 38/39 in November 2013
8. ARISS in ARRL Letter
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) covered three ARISS-related stories in its November 17 issue of the ARRL Letter under "Amateur Radio in Space."
The new crew members that flew to the ISS this week are discussed in the article, "New Space Station Crew Members Launch from Kazakhstan."
"ARISSat-1 May De-Orbit in April 2012" talks about Mineo Wakita's predictions of when ARISSat may re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
"Apply Now to Host a Real-Time Conversation with Crewmembers Onboard the ISS" talks about the opportunity for U.S. schools to apply for an ARISS contact to be held during the second half of 2012.
To view the stories in their entirety, see: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2011-11-17
9. AMSAT News Service Covers ARISS
On Sunday, November 20, AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) included a few items in its News Service bulletin (ANS-324) related to ARISS. "Radio Ham Blasts Off to Space Station" is about Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX who arrived at the ISS this past week. The Shadow Experiment and the Fox-1 satellite proposal submitted to NASA were also discussed in the following reports, respectively: "Amateur Radio Assistance Requested: ISS Plasma Thrust Shadow Experiment" and "AMSAT Submits Proposal to NASA for Fox-1 Satellite." To view the ANS-324 bulletin, see: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2011/000568.html
10. Amateur Radio Newsline on ARISS
On November 18, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1788 posted two stories concerning ARISS under the heading, "Ham Radio in Space." The first item, "KC5ZSX Now on the ISS," talks about the new crew members/licensed hams now aboard the Space Station. The second piece, "Researcher Says ARISSAT-1 will Deorbit in April" gives a prediction on ARISSat's re-entry date. Both stories may be viewed at: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt