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

May 29, 2012

1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for St. Mary's Catholic Primary School in Hay, NSW, Australia on Friday, June 1 at 10:44 UTC via Australian telebridge station VK6MJ. Students are learning about space and are involved in creative writing projects using the "My Life as an Astronaut" theme. Older students are working on informational reports focused on life in space and the occupation of astronauts.

2. Northland Preparatory Academy Calls ISS

On Thursday, May 24, students from Northland Preparatory Academy in Flagstaff, Arizona participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Joe Acaba, KE5DAR on the ISS. Approximately 550 students, staff and administrators, as well as Dr. Jeffrey Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory, and the mayor were in attendance. The contact complemented a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum. Video of the event, including Dr. Hall's presentation, has been posted on-line. See: http://spacescienceteaching.blogspot.com/

The Arizona Daily Sun ran an article on the event which may be found here: http://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/voice-from-the-final-frontier-at- npa/article_2a397493-3985-58b5-a833-7f3780a66479.html

3. Burbank Debrief Scheduled

Astronaut Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX will participate in a debrief session with ARISS members on May 30. Burbank participated in many ARISS contacts during his Expedition 29/30 mission which ended on April 27.

4. AMSAT News Service on ARISS

The AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service bulletin (ANS-148) posted on May 27 has an article titled, "ARISS Call For Volunteers." It talks about the Dayton presentations given by Mark Hammond, N8MH on ARISS mentor and ARISS ground station opportunities and provides the ARRL Web site link (http://www.arrl.org/ariss-volunteers) which details those opportunities. See: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2012/000622.html

5. Amateur Radio Newsline Covers ARISS

The May 25 Amateur Radio Newsline report #1815 included an article about some Penn State Behrend students who "developed a super capacitor based energy storage

device designed to replace the silver-zinc battery on ARISSat type satellites." To view, "Ham Radio in Space: Student Project May Fly in Space," go to:

http://www.arnewsline.org/storage/scripts/nsln1815.txt