An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at DaVinci Discovery Center of Science and Technology, Allentown, PA on 18 Aug. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:46 UTC.
Due to cooling problems on the ISS, this contact could be changed.
The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and LU8YY. The contact should be audible over portions of South America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
The Da Vinci Science Center offers hands-on science activities for youth and families out of its modern facility, opened in October of 2005 and located on the Campus of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Wednesday's ISS contact will be held during the Da Vinci Science Center's Summer Camp Program for 2010. We have an average of 650 campers who attend camp each year. This program will be offered as part of the Mission Milky Way science camp offered August 16th-20th, 2010. The campers are entering 1st and 2nd grades, but we will open up the event to other campers (entering 1st grade through 7th grade in the fall), and visitors/members that will be in our building the day of the contact.
Wednesday's upcoming contact will be held in the facility's modern auditorium and will feature monitors viewing real-time tracking of the ISS, prior to the contact via amateur radio station LU8YY in Argentina.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions (translated) as time allows:
1. How do they build a space satellite? 2. How long does it take to get to the moon? 3. How difficult is it to sleep standing up in weightlessness? 4. What is your favorite food to eat in space? 5. What is space like and can you take moon rocks home with you? 6. Can you see Jupiter and Saturn from the International Space Station? 7. How long can an astronaut stay up in space at one time? 8. How do you feel when you are floating in space in the middle of nothing
and stars? 9. What did you study in school to become astronaut? What degrees to you
have? 10. How did you decide that you wanted to live at the International Space
Station? 11. Do your ears pop when you go up into space? If so, how often? 12. What caused the recent cooling problem and how did you fix it? 13. How long do you think it will be until there are long-term living
quarters in space? 14. Does it feel any different in space than in under water training? 15. How do you keep oxygen on the space station since there isn't any in
space? 16. Do plants grow differently in space and how do you water them? 17. How much would a hundred pound astronaut weigh on the moon? 18. Will people who are not trained astronauts be able to go onto the
International Space Station? 19. Where do you go on the ISS when you write in your private journal? 20. How often do you think about the risks involved with being in space?
Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact.
Next planned event(s):
TBD
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