Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report February 6, 2012

1. Upcoming School Contacts

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Inuksuk High School, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada on Wednesday, February 8 at 15:18 UTC via telebridge station AH6NM in Hawaii. The school has formed a space club through which students are learning about the ISS via videos, the internet and guest speakers. They are learning how to track the ISS and are completing space-related projects. Radio usage and protocol have been discussed. First Air and the Makivik Corporation are the sponsors that ensure ARISS contacts are supported in the remote areas of Northern Canada.

Soumuta Elementary School, located in Kagoshima, Japan has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, February 11 at 10:33 UTC. The school was established in 1972 and has a current enrollment of 479 students. Students are learning about the mission of the ISS and will experience amateur radio concepts through their contact.

2. Polish Students Experience Successful ARISS Contact

On Saturday, February 4, students attending the Zespol Szkol nr 8 in Walbrzych, Poland participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Don Pettit, KD5MDT on the ISS. Radio station W6SRJ in California provided the telebridge connection. Greetings were exchanged and students were able to get through all the space-related questions they had prepared. The contact was integrated into a curriculum covering electronics, microprocessor systems and English and drew interest from the school's robotics and amateur radio clubs. Contact audio was fed into EchoLink and IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project). Representatives from radio and television stations provided media coverage.

3. ARISS-U.S. to Review Proposals Submitted

The NASA Teaching From Space office received over 100 inquiries about the U.S. proposal process for ARISS contacts that will be scheduled during the July 2012 - January 2013 time frame. Twenty-three schools met the January 30 deadline and submitted proposals. The next step is for the U.S. Selection Committee to review the proposals and select the U.S. schools in about one month. Another window of opportunity for U.S. schools and organizations to submit proposals will open later in the year.

4. AMSAT News Service on ARISS

The February 5 AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service bulletin (ANS-036) included an item about the successful amateur radio satellite, SuitSat, titled, "Remembering Mr. Smith - SuitSat-1 February 3, 2006." Another piece covered the recent ARISS contact with El Dorado County students. To view the articles, see: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2012/000589.html

5. Amateur Radio Newsline Covers ARISS

On February 3, Amateur Radio Newsline posted the winners of the ARISSat Chicken Little Contest in its report #1799. To read, "Ham Radio in Space: Winners of ARISSat-1 Chicken Little Contest Announced," see: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt