An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Scuola Europea Varese, Varese Italy on 23 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 14:50 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and VK4KHZ. The contact should be audible in portions of eastern and central Australia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Additional listening options are listed below.

_________________________________ IRLP - Connect to the IRLP reflector 9010. You may also connect via the IRLP Discovery website at http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/listen.htm.

EchoLink - The audio from this contact will be available on the EchoLink *AMSAT* (node 101 377) and the *JK1ZRW* (node 277 208) conference rooms. Please connect to the *JK1ZRW* server to keep the load light on the *AMSAT* server. This will ensure good audio quality for all listeners.

AUDIO STREAMING AND AUDIO REPLAY PARTICIPANT INFORMATION:

To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 6963425 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO

To access the Audio Replay of this call, all parties can: 1. Go to the URL listed above. 2. Choose Audio Streaming under Join Events. 3. Enter the conference number and passcode. (Note that if this is a recurring event, multiple dates may be listed.) Replays are available for 30 days after the live event. _________________________________

Varese is located about 50 km northwest of Milan, close to the Lake Maggiore and the Swiss border. The Scuola Europea Varese is an international co-educational day school for students from pre-school at age 4 to graduation at age 18. The school has more than 1300 students from all over Europe. The aims of the European School Varese are to give pupils confidence in their own cultural identity and the bedrock for their development as European citizens, to develop skills in foreign languages such as Italian, French, English, German and Dutch, and to encourage a European and global perspective overall and particularly in the study of the human sciences. Students of different ages have been involved at different level and in different ways in the programming of the ARISS event. Drawings, plays, researches and multimedia products have been produced and collected and will be on show the day the contact will be realized; the main topics are the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, the natural forces such as gravity, etc.

Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What is your location at this moment in time with respect to the Earth? 2. At what speed does the ISS travel? 3. Is the air you breathe aboard the ISS the same as that which we breathe on the Earth? 4. What are the minimum and maximum temperatures inside and outside the ISS? 5. Is the energy produced by the solar panels sufficient to maintain the energy requirement on the ISS? 6. What is your spacesuit made of? Is it light and comfortable? 7. How much water is stored on the ISS? How long will it last? 8. Do you have showers on board? 9. Are your meals tasty? Are there any raw vegetables in your diet? 10. Could you cultivate vegetables in a specially designed area on board the ISS? 11. Do you experiment on board with algae and bacteria? 12. Is there a place where the organic waste is stored? 13. Are astronauts also medical doctors? Have you been trained to deal with medical emergencies? 14. Does microgravity affects your blood vessel system? 15. Are all the members of the team required to go on space walks or are some of them required to stay on board at all times? 16. At the speed the ISS travel, is it possible to detect objects such as meteors crossing its orbit? Is there a radar station on board? 17. What are the security features that could be activated in case of a meteor impact? 18. If a landing with the emergency shuttle was required, how long would it take to reach the Earth? 19. Do you think it will be possible to inhabit the Moon? If yes, when? 20. Is there any danger for the human life?

Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS is not functioning in the automatic modes properly and may be silent more than usual. Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact .

Next planned event(s): Kingston Elementary School, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA , Mon 2007-04-23 18:43 UTC via KN4KL Christian Life Elementary School, Rockford, Illinois, USA , Wed 2007-04-25 19:21 UTC via N9SH Samuel-von-Pufendorf Gymnasium, Floeha, Germany, Sat 2007-04-28 14:19 UTC via DL0GYM

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