Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report
April 9, 2012
1. Upcoming School Contacts
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Academia Cotopaxi, located in Quito, Ecuador on Friday, April 13 at 17:52 UTC via station IK1SLD in Italy. Cotopaxi is an international American school with 600 students in grades K-12. Students are learning about space technologies that revolve around the International Space Station as well as amateur radio fundamentals using the educator and student portions of the NASA Web site. The school already uses interactive technology such as SMART Boards and Document Cameras and using the ISS interactive on the NASA Web site helps make connections between curriculum objectives and real-life learning. NASA's Digital Learning Network (DLN) regarding ham radios may also be used in the classroom.
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Troop 2nd & 3rd Iruma Group, Saitama Scout Council Scout Association of Japan, Iruma, Japan, on Saturday, April 14 at 09:15 UTC. The Scouts have a ham radio club, JQ1YWJ and will learn about space through this activity.
2. Australian Students Radio ISS
On Tuesday, April 3, St. Anthony's Parish Primary School in Canberra, Australia established an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX on the ISS via Australian telebridge station VK5ZAI. The contact was integrated into the school space curriculum. In addition to the contact, students participated in hands-on activities such as creating space-related posters and designing their own space stations.
3. Astronaut Training Status
An introductory/basic operations session is planned for Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO on Wednesday, May 9. Gerst is scheduled to fly with Expedition 40 in May 2014.
4. Amateur Radio Newsline Covers ARISS
On April 6, Amateur Radio Newsline report #1808 included a story about the sessions that will be held at Dayton Hamvention to recruit ARISS mentors. The article, "Ham Radio in Space: ARISS Mentor Introduction at Dayton 2012" may be found at: http://www.arnewsline.org/storage/scripts/nsln1808.txt