An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME on 23 Apr. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 14:38 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between OR4ISS and IK1SLD. The contact should be audible over Italy 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.

In an arrangement proposed by the Bates College Museum of Art in conjunction with our 2012 exhibition Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography, local 8th Grade students are preparing to talk with astronauts on the International Space Station in April through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program (ARISS). Please keep up-to-date on contact details through bates.edu/museum/events/Students from the Auburn and Lewiston middle schools will take part in the live radio communication. Members of ARISS were excited by how our project brought the world of art and creativity into a program aimed at science, technology, engineering and math classrooms. To prepare for the contact, students visited the exhibition as part of their space science unit, researched comets and geomagnetic storms, modeled the solar system, explored citizen-science projects like Galaxy Zoo, and, using NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day as a model, researched Starstruck images and wrote paragraphs explaining their significance. It is gratifying to see an art exhibition ignite so much interest in such a wide variety of subjects, and especially to see a reunification of art and science achieved through this exhibition and the ARISS program.

Senators Angus King and Susan Collins and Congressman Michael Michaud have been invited to attend the event.

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

1. What are the biggest struggles of living on the Space Station?

2. What would you like to see NASA accomplish soon such as a manned mission

to Mars to extensive zero-gravity experiments?

3. In your opinion, what are the most beneficial or useful experiments in

space?

4. Does all of the electricity come from the solar panels or is there

another natural resource that the ISS uses?

5. How will determining the accuracy of the MRI help doctors here on Earth?

6. After all of your training, what was your hardest task in space, and

whats your greatest achievement?

7. Have any of the algorithms made by students to operate the spheres

satellite on board the space station been successful?

8. Explain the training that takes place underwater and its similarity with

the feeling in space.

9. Has there ever been a surprise illness or emergency, what happened?

10. If I wanted to become an astronaut when I grew up, what advice would you

give me?

11. Can any diseases or disabilities be caused by going to space?

12. Are there ISS experiments that deal with the psychological stresses of

being in space or away from loved ones for extended periods?

13. What would be the challenges to having a baby or doing surgery in space?

14. What does everything look like outside of the space station? What do the

planets, sun and stars look like?

15. What animals are allowed on the ISS?

16. When you launched into space, how many "G"s did you experience on the

way up? What does it feel like?

17. How is working in limited gravity interesting and challenging?

18. What is your biggest fear in space?

19. How do you keep the ISS clean?

20. How exactly would you describe the sensation of suddenly going

weightless from passing through Earth's atmosphere?

21. What kinds of disagreements happen on the ISS and how do you resolve

them?

22. How difficult is it to sleep in space?

Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be obtained by subscribing to the SAREX mail list. To subscribe, go to http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/ and choose "How to Subscribe".

Next planned event(s):

1. Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik (MUI), Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada,

telebridge

via IK1SLD

Thu, 25Apr2013, 14:34 UTC

2. Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore Euclide, Bari, Italy, telebridge via

IZ7RTN

Sat, 27Apr2013, 11:17 UTC

Watch for live video stream at

http://www.cittadellamediterraneascienza.it/webtv.php

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