Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report

June 11, 2012

1. Upcoming School Contacts

An ARISS contact with ESA-ESTEC in the Netherlands has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Tuesday, June 12 at 09:25 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California. This activity is part of an educational program around André Kuipers’ Mission: Spaceship Earth. Part of this program consists of mission assignments Kuipers gives to Dutch school children. The winners of each challenge are then invited to the radio contact. Other program activities include lessons and experiments.

St. Anne’s Primary School, Strathfield South, NSW, Australia has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday, June 13 at 10:31 UTC via telebridge station LU8YY in Argentina. The contact will be incorporated into the curriculum across all grades and a contest held to choose the questions to ask of the astronaut. A Science Fair with a focus on space will be held the day of the contact. Each class is responsible for investigating one aspect of space/space exploration and for creating information banks, posters, displays, interactive activities and games for other classes to engage in. The creation of the activities and games includes knowledge of basic circuitry and the use of SMART Board technology. Parents and community members have been invited.

2. Japanese Contact Successful

On Wednesday, June 6, students attending Kawatinagano Higashi Junior High School in Kawatinagano, Osaka, Japan took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with André Kuipers, PI9ISS on ISS. At the beginning of the contact the school was experiencing a power blackout, but recovered in time so that all children were able to ask their questions. The event supplemented lessons about space and the ISS.

3. AMSAT News Service on ARISS

On June 10, AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service bulletin (ANS-162) ran an article titled, “Status of ISS Ham Radio Operations.” The item gives an update on packet operations that were moved to the Columbus Module UHF radio in order to accommodate the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) which is using the same power outlet the Kenwood radio uses in the Service Module. The ATV will remain docked to the ISS until September. See: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2012/000625.html

4. Astronaut Training Status

Astronaut Jeannette Epps took and passed her amateur radio license exam last week and was given the callsign KF5QNU. She is not assigned to any future ISS expedition crews at this time.