Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report December 14, 2009

1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Istituto Comprensivo di Govone -Scuola Secondaria di primo grado "Nino Costa" di Priocca in Priocca, Cuneo, Italy on Monday, December 14 at 08:30 UTC. Students have been working on a mission to Mars project which has engaged them in technology, engineering and problem solving. The contact will be integrated into this project through which students will learn more about the effects of space travel and microgravity.

2. Astronaut Training Status - Simulated Contact Successful

A simulated contact took place on Tuesday, December 8 between Deer Creek Elementary School in Bailey, Colorado and astronaut Tracy Caldwell, KF5DBF at Johnson Space Center. This training session was a terrestrial-based amateur radio contact using Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) equivalent equipment. Deer Creek enjoyed its session so much that it plans to apply for a contact with an on-orbit astronaut.

3. Maxim Suraev Participates in ARISS Contact

Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev was scheduled to participate in two Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts with Russian schools this past week. The first contact was held with Noginsk High School students on Thursday, December 10 and was successful. The second session was scheduled with schoolchildren from Zvezdniy Gorodok in Star City, Russia, on Friday, December 11. Its status is unknown at this time.

4. Italian School Contact to be Rescheduled

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was scheduled for students from Scuola Primaria De Gasperi in Noicattaro, Bari, Italy on Saturday, December 12. Due to technical difficulties, the contact was not successful. The school will be rescheduled for another session in the near future.

5. Moscow Aviation Institute Experiment Activated

Cosmonaut Maxim Suraev activated the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI-75) experiment onboard the ISS on Wednesday - Friday, December 9 - 11 from approximately 07:00 to 11:00 UTC. Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images of Earth were downlinked to ground stations. Images received were archived to the ARISS SSTV Gallery: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/

6. CQ VHF Magazine Runs ARISS Article

The Fall issue of CQ VHF magazine contained an article about the ARISS International Meeting that was held this year in the Netherlands on June 18 - 19. The story was written by ARISS mentor Keith Pugh, W5IU.