An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at El Dorado County Office of Education, Placerville, CA on 24 Jan. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 18:12 UTC.

The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over the west coast of the U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

The El Dorado County Office of Education (EDCOE) provides leadership through quality service to our 15 school districts, students, parents and community while promoting educational excellence for all learners. Our role is to be the intermediate education unit between the state and federal government and districts, provider of student programs and services, coordination and collaboration convener, and public education advocate. The geographic area served covers all of El Dorado County in the State of California. It is a diverse county, covering metropolitan suburbs of Sacramento to rural foothill communities on up the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to beautiful Lake Tahoe. We serve a total student population of 28,900.

Working with EDCOE is the Cameron Park Rotary Community Observatory. The observatory was conceived by the Rotary Club of Cameron Park as a community service project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Rotary International.

The Rotary Club members raised all of the funds and donated time and materials to build the observatory on land owned by the El Dorado County Office of Education adjacent to the El Dorado Center of Folsom Lake College.

Since its opening in 2006, the observatory has had over 23,000 visitors.

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

1. Were you able to see the lunar eclipse, and what was it like?

2. What does the Earth look like from space?

3. Can you use the internet in space and how do you sleep without the bed

floating away?

4. Do you have to have a lot of patience to be an astronaut?

5. Have you ever had any type of animal in the space station?

6. What kind of food do you have in space and what do you like best?

7. How long can you live in space until and still be healthy?

8. Does your body feel different when you are in space than when you are

down here on earth?

9. How many years were you in college?

10. What are some of the jobs you have to do to keep the space station

running?

11. Does the Giant coral reef and the oceans still look as beautiful in space

as they do here on earth?

12. What does floating in space feel like? Is it fun?

13. What is the most beautiful sight you have seen while staying on the space

station?

14. What is your favorite thing to do when you have free time?

15. What is the weirdest thing that happened to you in space?

16. What type of foods do you eat?

17. Is it hard to leave your family while you are on this fun space

adventure?

18. Have you ever found life on another planet?

19. How do you get electricity, food, and water to the space station?

20. Have you ever had an emergency in space?

21. How often do meteors come by the space station?

22. Has anyone ever died or been injured on the space station?

23. Does it ever get boring aboard the space ship?

24. Do you ever get nervous or afraid in space?

25. How do you drive the ISS?

26. What tools do you use to fix the satellites?

27. How do you dispose of waste and what happens when you do? Do you launch

it into the atmosphere and it burns up before it hits?

28. How do you know when it's day and night?

29. What is the hardest thing to do in space?

30. How cold is it in space?

Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact.

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