An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Cotswold School, Christchurch, New Zealand on 26 March. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 2352 UTC.
The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and VK5ZAI. The contact should be audible over eastern Australia. 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.
Cotswold School is located in Bishopdale, Christchurch, New Zealand. We provide quality education for children from Year 0 - Year 6. The current roll is 480 children, 19 classrooms and 23 teachers. The children asking the questions range in age from 5 - 10 years old.
We take pride in enriching our teaching of the New Zealand Curriculum with the following life long values: caring, community, communication, creativity and challenge.
During Term 2, 2008 throughout the school we learned about space. Each level of the school took on a lightly different slant - designing space suits, space travel, and general knowledge about our solar system were some of the aspects covered. During this time I applied to make contact with ISS. We saw this as an opportunity to create a memorable learning experience for the children at Cotswold.
Also during 2008 we started our own Low Power Fm Radio Station. The radio station DJs provide a brief location report each day using Orbitron - a satellite tracking software programme. This continues to be a daily aspect of our radio programme.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. How do you eat food in space? 2. How do you drink in space? 3. How do you exercise is space? 4. What can you do in your spare time in space? 5. How long do you stay in space for? 6. How do you have a shower and keep clean in space? 7. How big is the space station? 8. What can you see out the window right now? 9. What are you working on at the moment? 10. What do you wear in space? What do you wear inside the space station? How is it different from what you wear outside the space station? 11. What equipment do you have on the space station? 12. How do you prepare meals? 13. What equipment do you wish you had on the space station? Why? 14. How do you send notes or messages to your family? 15. Have you made any new discoveries so far? 16. How powerful is the rocket that launches you? How fast does it go up? 17. How many times have you been in space? 18. What do you miss most when you are in space? 19. What is the biggest thing you have seen in space? 20. Can you see meteors crashing into Earth's atmosphere? 21. Have you seen any garbage floating around in space? 22. What's your biggest accomplishment while you have been in space? 23. How many problems have you had to solve while you have been in space this time? How did you solve them? 24. How long did it take you to become an astronaut? 25. Do you have to be big to be an astronaut or can you be any size? 26. How much do you get paid? 27. When are you coming back to Earth? How do you get back to Earth?
Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact .
Next planned event(s): 1. Istituto Comprensivo Statale "Alessandro Volta", Mandello Del Lario, Lecco, Italy,Fri 2009-03-27 14:03 UTC 2. St. Joseph High School, Nepean, ON, Canada, via LU1CGB, Fri 2009-03-27 13:38 UTC
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