An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the Delta Researchers Schools 2008, Space Expo, Noordwijk, the Netherlands on 23 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:59 UTC.
The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and WH6PN. The contact should be audible over Hawaii. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Audio from the QSO is planned to be fed into the EchoLink *AMSAT* (101 377) and *JK1ZRW* (277 208) servers during the contact.
We are at Space Expo in Noordwijk, in the west of the Netherlands today with twelve Dutch primary schools. The schools all participate in the Delta-project. This project is a cooperation of the Dutch ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the European Space Agency ESA and NASA. The schools participating in the project use the themes of space and space exploration to teach science and technology. There are 3 children of each school present, they are between 7 and 12 years old. The children thought of questions for the astronaut as part of the project.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
1. If you are in space for a long time and you can't take a shower or open a window, does the space station start to smell bad? 2. What happens with steam from boiled water in space? 3. Where do you get water from? 4. I have braces because my teeth are crooked. I have to wear them for nearly one year. If you had braces in space, would they straighten your teeth faster? 5. Is your voice different in space? 6. What do you do if a fire breaks out in the space station? 7. What do you have to do to stay strong? 8. If an astronaut becomes seriously ill in space, what happens? 9. Do magnets work in space? 10. What do you eat in space, what is your favourite food and how do you eat? 11. What is the temperature outside the space station like? 12. Has it always been your dream to become an astronaut? 13. When orbiting the earth, you can see where it is day and night. Do you notice a difference between day and night on the space station? To which time on earth does a clock on the space station correspond? 14. Does the sun shine more strongly in space and do the stars look different from the space station? 15. Do you notice that you are moving very fast on board the space station? And during a space walk, do you notice it then? 16. Do things grow faster in space than on earth? (e.g. children, plants, hair, nails?). 17. Can you see atmospheric pollution and the hole in the ozone layer from space? 18. Do you miss your family very much?
Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact . Packet is transmitted on 145.825 simplex.
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.rac.ca/ariss (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).
Thank you & 73, Kenneth - N5VHO