An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Lake Silver Elementary, Orlando, FL on 10 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:51 UTC.

The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and LU8YY. The contact should be audible over southern areas of South America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

Lake Silver Elementary is nestled right outside of downtown Orlando, Florida in a charming neighborhood called College Park. Being over fifty years old, the school as well the surrounding neighborhood is rich in history. Currently, the school has a student body of 641 and contains grade levels ranging from pre-K to fifth grade. Their age ranges from three to thirteen years old. The school's contact person is Eric Yuhasz. He is a math/science lab teacher.

The preparations are proceeding quite well at this point. The students and parents are excited. In their math/science lab, the students are doing numerous activities to get familiar with the ISS such as going outside and measuring the length of the space station. Additionally, the contact mentor is scheduled to come out to the school and educate the students on how the contact will work and allow the students to see and use a ham radio. They competed to be chosen as one of the twelve "askers" by submitting their two questions to their homeroom teachers. Mr. Yuhasz worked with their homeroom teachers to choose the best questions based on relevance and the students ability to speak in front of a large audience. The 12 students have been chosen and their parents have been contacted. Mr. Yuhasz has met with the contact mentor to go over any more last minute details. The students will begin doing practice runs of the contact starting next week. Multiple invitation letters will and have been sent home to the parents of all the students to get more parental involvement in the contact. Also, a press release will be sent out to the local four major television stations as well as the Orlando Sentinel. Also, there will be coverage on hand for the local College Park newspaper.

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

1. How is energy collected and stored on the ISS?

2. What does it feel like to walk or be in space?

3. What fun activities do you do up in space?

4. What are you working on in space?

5. How do you keep yourself clean?

6. How do you exercise in space?

7. What is a space suit made out of to withstand that kind of pressure?

8. How do you eat in space without choking?

9. What protects you from the suns thermal energy or the suns heat in the

ISS?

10. When you are in outer space and the earth looks peaceful, what do you

think about when you realize it is not as peaceful as it looks?

11. How do you sleep in space?

12. What training did it take to become an astronaut?

13. How are the astronauts able to attach the new parts of the ISS when they

are orbiting the earth very, very fast?

14. With astronauts being in space, how is it making our world a better

place?

15. What space foods do you eat?

16. What inspired you to become an astronaut?

17. How do you cook food up there?

18. How does being in space affect your body after a long period of time?

19. How do you prepare for going into space?

20. How fast do you lose bone and muscle mass in space, if you don't

exercise?

21. Would you describe for me what it feels like to blast off? What do you

hear, feel, and for how long?

22. What do you think would happen if you had a can of soda and shook it up

and then opened it in space?

23. How do you go to the bathroom in space?

NOTE: This contact is scheduled to be carried over Echolink on AMSAT at 101377 and JK1ZRW is 277208.

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

Next planned event(s):

1. Lillestrøm videregående skole, Lillestrøm, N-2001, Norway, telebridge

via W5RRR.

Fri, 11 Feb. 2011 12:48 UTC

2. National Institute for Astrophysics - Astronomical Observatory of

Bologna, Bologna, Italy, telebridge via LU8YY

Sat, 12 Feb. 2011 15:07 UTC

Watch for live simulcast at http://www.media.inaf.it/

3. Istituto di Istruzione Superiore "Claudio Varalli", Milano, I-20142,

Italy, telebridge via W5RRR

Watch for simulcast on www.livestream.com/iz2shs

Thu, 17 Feb. 2011 10:33 UTC

4. Experiencing Learning "Imparare Sperimentando", San Quirino, Italy,

telebridge via LU8YY

Sat, 19 Feb. 2011 11:43 UTC

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