Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report December 7, 2009

1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled with Scuola Primaria De Gasperi in Noicattaro, Bari, Italy on Saturday, December 12 at 09:11 UTC. Lesson plans have covered amateur radio communications and space missions. Newspapers, radio and television, both local and regional, will report on the event.

2. Astronaut Training Status - Simulated Contact Scheduled

A simulated Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact is planned for Tuesday, December 8 at approximately 14:45 UTC. The contact will take place between Deer Creek Elementary School in Bailey, Colorado and astronaut Tracy Caldwell, KF5DBF. Audio should be available on IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project). The training session is a terrestrial-based amateur radio contact using ARISS equivalent equipment.

3. Successful ARISS Contact with Utah School

On Wednesday, December 2, students from Midvalley Elementary School in Midvale, Utah participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Jeffrey Williams, KD5TVQ. The school prepared for the contact using NASA lesson plan resources and integrated the ARISS activity into the school curriculum at many grade levels. Children learned about amateur radio, electromagnetic waves and the ISS and even viewed IMAX Space Station video. Nineteen questions were answered during the nine minute pass. Approximately 200 students were present for the contact and others listened in from their classrooms. Dr. David Doty (the school district superintendent), school board members and district directors were also present. Two major Salt Lake City newspapers, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News as well as Channel 4 (ABC) television, Fox 13 and the local community newspaper all covered the event. This was the first ARISS contact for Utah.

4. ARISS-Brazil on Twitter

ARISS-Brazil is promoting ARISS events on its new Twitter site. It provides an excellent opportunity to better understand what the ARISS education program is. The site is in Portuguese: http://twitter.com/arissbrazil

An ARISS-US member has also been posting ISS amateur radio related items to a Twitter site. See: http://twitter.com/RF2Space