An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Forest Knolls Elementary School, Silver Spring, MD on 20 March. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 14:38 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and KB3WOA. The contact should be audible over the eastern U.S 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.

Forest Knolls Elementary School is a PreK-5 school in Silver Spring, MD, about 8 miles outside of Washington, DC. We are also only a few miles away from NASA Goddard Space Center in Beltsville, MD. The school has over 700 students with a very diverse ethnic population with students from 18 countries. There are 16 different languages spoken, and about one-third of the students are Hispanic. It has an inclusion program for physically disabled students. We also have a Communication Arts program, in which the students focus on Research, Written Communication and Media Production. Susan Michal, magnet coordinator, integrates this program into all classrooms at all grade levels.

There is a school amateur radio station, KB3WOA, which holds an afterschool club under the direction of one of the teachers, Melissa Happ-KB3VEX and her husband, Tom Happ-KJ4YFH. There are about 15 students involved in the afterschool club. The radio station is also used with classes, at various grade levels, as part of the curriculum in Social Studies and Communication.

The students are very excited to participate in the ARISS contact!

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

1. How many days of food, water, and air do you have aboard the ISS?

2. From the space station do space and the stars look different than from Earth?

3. What surprised you most when you went to space for the first time?

4. Has being in space affected your metabolism?

5. Does each astronaut need to know everything about the ISS or just specific things for your job?

6. How do you all communicate since you?re from different countries?

7. What is your favorite thing to do for fun in space?

8. How many missions have you been on in the ISS?

9. How do you contact your family while you?re in space?

10. Do you have a medical doctor on board in case someone gets sick?

11. Do you see storms on Earth or any other interesting activity?

12. Do you worry about glitches happening on the ISS?

13. How does it feel when you are traveling 4.791 miles per second?

14. What is the most interesting thing you?ve done during this mission?

15. Do you find that some things are difficult to do on the ISS?

16. What kind of training helped prepare you for life in space?

17. If you weren?t an astronaut, what would you be and why?

18. How does the day/night cycle affect your body?

19. Does the ISS interfere with other orbiting satellites?

20. Do you apply to work on the ISS or does NASA/JAXA choose you?

21. What do you do for exercise when you are in space?

22. How do you conserve water on the ISS?

23. How do you handle emergencies on the ISS?

24. Have you ever lost contact with Earth? If so, what did you do?

PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:

Sign up for the SAREX maillist at

http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/sarex

Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS).

To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status

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

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