Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report July 25, 2011
1. Upcoming School Contact
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for United Space School, Seabrook, Texas on Saturday, July 30 at 17:01 UTC via station W6SRJ in California. The United Space School is a once a year session of high school students that meets annually in the NASA/Clear Lake Area. These students come from around the world for a two week session, during which they stay with local host families while being mentored by astronauts, engineers, and scientists to design a mission to Mars as their team project. Class sessions are held at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. Students will be given lessons on amateur radio and through the ARISS contact opportunity they will learn firsthand what the experience of spaceflight is like. They will use this knowledge in putting together their team project presentation, which they will present to the Houston space community at the end of their session.
2. Successful ARISS Contacts
Youth attending the University of Alberta - ISSET Space Academy (Institute for Space Science, Exploration and Technology) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday, July 20. Over 130 people attended the event and listened as the campers put 18 questions to on-orbit Astronaut Mike Fossum, KF5AQG. The Academy, designed for children in grades 7 - 9 who are interested in space exploration, provides them the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities such as launching model rockets, building interactive robots and on this day, speaking with an astronaut in space. Representatives from 5 television stations, 1 radio station and 2 newspapers covered the event. To view the Edmonton Journal story, see: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Kids+launch+questions+into+space+connect...
On Saturday, July 23, an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held with the children of European Space Agency (ESA) employees attending the ESA Space Camp 2011 in San Rossore (Pisa), Italy. Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA was on hand to introduce the ARISS event and greeted his fellow astronaut Mike Fossum on the ISS. Fossum then fielded 20 questions posed to him by the youth as an audience of approximately 200 looked on. The camp offers a program of sports, nature and science activities during its two week session.
3. ARISS International Team Teleconference Held
The ARISS International Team monthly teleconference was held on Tuesday, July 19. Among agenda items discussed were the upcoming ARISS face to face meeting and the plans for ARISSat-1/Kedr deployment. Minutes have been posted. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel2011-07-19.htm
4. ARISSat-1, Upcoming Test and Deployment
The AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service July 24 bulletin (ANS-205) has several items covering ARISSat-1. The battery will be charged July 27-28 to prepare for the test that will be conducted on the ISS over the weekend of July 30-31 and its deployment, currently scheduled for August 3. AMSAT-UK members plan to be active on GB4FUN during the ARISSat test. These stories, "EVA for ARISSat-1/KEDR Deployment Planned for August 3," "ARRISat-1 PCSAT32 Doppler info," and "AMSAT-UK Colloquium Activity," may be viewed at: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2011/000534.html
The American Radio Relay League also reported on ARISSat news. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/arissat-1-test-and-launch
5. Amateur Radio Newsline on SAREX
On July 22, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1771 covered the history of Owen Garriott's first amateur radio contacts on STS-9 and the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) program that followed. The story, "Ham Radio in Space: A Look Back at the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment" may be viewed here: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt