An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Scouting Burgemeester Welschen Meerhove, Eindhoven, The Netherlands on 28 Dec. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:08 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and PE6SBW. The contact should be audible over The Netherlands and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

Scouting Meerhoven has been set up in 2003. Our first official turnout was 10 years ago during the JOTA JOTI. During the last 10 years we have had several activities which were connected with transmitting (each year during the JOTA JOTI) and also with technic, air and space travel, as our scouts cabin is near Eindhoven airport.

Now, 10 years on, we celebrate our Jubilee. One of our Lustrum activities is the JOTA JOTI, by which we use FM frequency. For a whole weekend the scouting room has been transformed to a real radio station. The broadcasts' are made by our youth and staff members.

In the framework of the Jubilee we have made a request to NASA, because as a scouting group, we really like to have radio contact with one of the astronauts from the ISS. We are very supportive of space travel and during the coming period we have a couple of activities to prepare us for a possible contact with ISS.

The Friday evening group (cubs and scouts) will visit an observatory, they will make rockets from lemonade bottles and fire them off. The room of the beavers will be transformed to a cosmos with rockets and planets. The kids will make these themselves. The Saturday group (cubs and scouts) will rebuild a ISS station. During the coming weeks our activities will all be in the light of space travel. Our aim is that the children will make their acquaintance with the JOTA JOTI (transmission) as well as space travel.

It would be great to close of our Jubilee with contact with ISS.

Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. Do you float in the space outside of ISS?

2. Do you like it to be weightless all the time?

3. What skills do you need to have to become an astronaut and how do you

prepare a mission into space?

4. How do you sleep in space?

5. Do you have spare time to play computer games like Minecraft, and what

games?

6. Please name a top 3 of things you miss on earth, except your families.

7. Please share your most memorable experience as astronaut.

8. How do you use the toilet in ISS? Using the toilet, where does the pee or

poop remain?

9. How big is the space that you live in?

10. If there is fire on ISS, how do you extinguish this? Water and powder

also float and may damage the equipment.

11. I would like to know what the astronauts do when a comet is approaching

the space station.

12. Do you have a Christmas tree with decoration in ISS?

13. Can you see fireworks on January 1th?

14. How do you wash yourself and how do you change clothes?

15. Do you see a lot of debris in space?

16. What is the moon made of?

PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:

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Next planned event(s):

1. Ritsumeikan Moriyama Junior High School, Moriyama, Japan,

direct via 8N3RM

Sun, 29Dec.2013, 09:30 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,

David - AA4KN

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