Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report August 10, 2009

1. Upcoming School Contacts

Ottawa South United Sports Club in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Tuesday, August 11 at 14:26 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Euro Space Center, Night of Stars in Transinne, Belgium on Thursday, August 13 at 20:05 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP:3D) Academy in Houston, Texas on Thursday, August 20 at 18:16 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Girl and Boy Scouts of Maur "Pfadimuur," in Forch, Switzerland on Saturday, August 22 at 08:20 UTC. Scouts will focus on the theme, "Year of Astronomy," and will earn qualifications in astronomy/space technology, communications, public relations or journalism.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Nova East Star Party, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Halifax Center in Nova Scotia, Canada on Saturday, August 22 at 12:54 UTC.

2. Michael Barratt Participated in ARISS Contact with United Space School

On Wednesday, August 5, students attending United Space School at the University of Houston experienced an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Michael Barratt, KD5MIJ on the ISS. Twelve students asked the 18 questions they had prepared and with time left over, asked an additional three. United Space School is a session of high school students that meets annually in the NASA/Clear Lake Area. Students come from around the world for a two week session, during which they stay with local host families while being mentored by astronauts, engineers, and scientists, to design a mission to Mars as their team project.

3. Astronaut Training Status

A simulated contact between Euro Space Camp (ESC) and Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA took place on Thursday, August 6. Audio was available on EchoLink and IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project). The training session was a terrestrial-based amateur radio contact using Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) equivalent equipment.

4. SSTV Images Received by Ground Stations

MAI-75 (Moscow Aviation Institute) experiments were run on August 3 and 4. The VC-H1 unit ran in auto mode (Robot-36 and transmitting once every 3 minutes). Some Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images were received by ground stations. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/