An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at National Electronics Museum, Linthicum, MD on 01 Sept. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:09 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and K3CUJ. The contact should be audible over the eastern U.S. and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

The National Electronics Museum is located just outside Baltimore, Maryland. NEM is home to the country's largest collection of historic defense electronics, including radar, radios, electronic countermeasures, sonar, and space sensors. The museum also has objects derived from defense electronics like the Apollo XI camera and early GPS equipment.

The students are Junior and Senior schoolers from the local Baltimore area. They have completed a six-week amateur radio course and are now licensed hams. As part of their training, they used an AMSAT satellite to make a contact. Their first contact as hams is with the ISS.

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

1. What was the scariest part about being in space?

2. How does solar activity affect you while you're in the space station?

3. What's the smallest object on earth you can identify from space?

4. When you look at Earth what do you see?

5. Is the food all freeze dried? Do you have Twinkies?

6. Are you required to have a ham license to go to space?

7. Is Ham Radio fun?

8. How do you contact your family from space?

9. How far does your radio reach?

10. Did you ever experience anything that no amount of training could have

prepared you for?

11. Is the experience of space what you expected?

12. Does being up in space get boring after a while?

13. How many times a day do you circle the earth?

14. What do you miss?

15. Do you speak on Ham Radio often?

16. Is it hard to move around without gravity?

17. Do you view the world differently now that you have seen it from space?

18. What do you have to major in college to start your career as an

astronaut?

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

Next planned event(s):

1. Iruma Junior Ham Club, Iruma, Japan, direct via JK1ZAM

Sun, 02Sept2012 08:32 UTC

2. Marcelino Canino Canino Middle School, Puerto Rico, telebridge via

K6DUE

Tue, 04Sept2012 14:17 UTC

3. Gymnasium Michelstadt, Michelstadt, Germany, direct via DKØDK

Fri, 07Sept2012 08:52 UTC

4. Tara Anglican School, North Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia,

telebridge via ON4ISS

Sun, 09Sept2012 08:50 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