An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Lycée Polyvalent Anatole France, Cedex, France on 09 March. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 11:42 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and F4KIS. The contact should be audible over France 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.

Anatole France is a French high school located in Lillers, a small town in the center of the Pas-de-Calais department. There are about 850 students aged between 15 and 20 years old. The science teachers and the local amateur radio club F6KIS, which became in 2010 the "Artois Lys Radio Club", have developed a partnership since 2007 collaborating on projects to send sounding balloons into the stratosphere. This year, they are working with a group of students to contact the ISS. The students are preparing the TPE project for their final exam. They need to define the subject of their research, find information about it and run experiments over a period of six months in order to give an oral presentation of their work in front of a jury. Ten students have chosen to join the ARISS project for their TPE and are divided into three groups working on:

- Recycling in space.

- Travelling to space and back: taking off, putting a shuttle into orbit and landing it.

- The effects of weightlessness on the human body

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

1. Have you ever been space sick?

2. Do you sort your rubbish? If you do, what do you recycle?

3. What do you feel when the shuttle is launched?

4. Do you have the same notion of time as on Earth?

5. How do you get supplies?

6. What is required to be part of the ISS crew?

7. Is it easier to move from zero gravity state to gravity state or vice

versa?

8. What system do you use to recycle water?

9. Do you have free time and how do you spend it?

10. What is the best time to exercise?

11. On average, how long do you stay aboard the ISS?

12. How long is it safe to stay in space?

13. Do you get tired faster than on Earth?

14. Why did you want to be an astronaut?

15. How long did you study to become an astronaut?

16. How many hours a day do you sleep?

17. What experiments are you currently working on in the station?

18. How do you treat your wounds?

19. How often do you communicate with planet Earth?

20. How does the space shuttle dock the ISS?

Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be obtained by subscribing to the SAREX maillist. To subscribe, go to http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/ and choose "How to Subscribe".

Next planned event(s):

1. Valley Manor School, Martensville, SK, Canada, direct via VE5RAC

Mon, 11Mar2013, 19:23 UTC

2. Mt. Ousley Public School, Fairy Meadow, NSW, Australia, telebridge via

IK1SLD

Tue, 12Mar2013, 07:35 UTC

Due to continuing Space X operations, the above times are subject to last

minute changes or cancellations.

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