Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report January 9, 2012

1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Atheneum Borgloon in Borgloon, Belgium on Friday, January 13 at 12:35 UTC via telebridge station K6DUE in Greenbelt, Maryland. The contact will be integrated into science lessons covering the history of space travel, the solar system and the ISS, including the Columbus module. ESA ISS Education kits will be utilized. Students will take a trip to the Eurospace Center in Transinne and will participate in space workshops and other hands-on activities. The radio talk is planned with on-orbit Astronaut Andre Kuipers and Astronaut Frank DeWinne has also been invited to speak with the children.

2. Poland Contact Successful

A successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held on Monday, January 2 between Zespól Szkól nr 2 in Zuromin, Poland and Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX on the ISS. Students asked questions to learn what an ordinary day on the ISS is like. Over 300 students and guests gathered for the event including several distinguished visitors: Head of Zuromin District, Mayor of Zuromin City, Head of Education Department Municipal Office of the City of Zuromin, Headmaster of junior grammar school in Biezun, Headmaster of Polish secondary school in Zuromin, Headmaster of ZS nr 2 in Zuromin and Headmaster of SSP in Kliczewo. Another 140 people watched streaming video of the event on the internet. The contact highlighted the curriculum at the school covering modeling, telecommunications and robotics.

3. ARISSat-1 Re-enters Earth's Atmosphere

The ARISSat-1 satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere sometime early on January 4. The last telemetry reported was from stations in Japan at 06:02:14 UTC with telemetry indicating high temperatures.

AMSAT reported the news in a special report on January 4 and in the January 8 AMSAT News Service weekly bulletin (ANS-008). See: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2012/000582.html

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) covered the news in its January 5 ARRL Letter: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2012-01-05#toc03

Amateur Radio Newsline also picked up the story in its article, "Ham Radio in Space: ARISSat One Mission Comes to a Close." It may be viewed in the January 6 report #1795: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt

4. New Proposal Cycle for ARISS-US Contacts

NASA Teaching From Space (TFS) office is accepting proposals for ARISS-U.S. contacts to be held in the July 15, 2012 - January 15, 2013 timeframe. The deadline for submitting proposals is January 30, 2012. The last informational session will be held on Wednesday, January 11 at 3 pm CST to answer any questions concerning the proposal process. To attend the session or to have questions answered, contact TFS at JSC-TFS-ARISS@mail.nasa.gov or call 281-244-1919.

For more information, see the TFS Web site: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/teachingfromspace/students/ariss.h...