Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report April 18, 2011

1. Upcoming School Contacts

Toyota Children's Scientific Expedition, Toyota, Aichi, Japan has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, April 18 at 10:05 UTC. The Toyota Children's Scientific Expedition was established in 2009 to teach children about science and engineering through the various experiments it offers. It hopes that youth will be inspired by this exciting amateur radio communication with the ISS.

Primary School "Dante Alighieri" De Neuquen, located in Neuquen - Patagonia, Argentina, has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, April 18 at 12:25 UTC. The contact will be performed with support from CETRA (Science Education and Technology united by Ham Radio), a delegation of AMSAT-Argentina which promotes space activities and amateur radio in schools, using station LU8YY. This activity has been integrated into science and technology lessons and plans have been made for students to visit the local observatory to research the history of space exploration and space shuttles.

Istituto Comprensivo Dedalo 2000 - Scuola secondaria di Cingia de' Botti in Solarolo Rainerio, Italy has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, April 23 at 09:13 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California. Students participating in this ARISS activity have been learning about astronomy, physics of radio waves, the history of space flights and the history of radio communications.

2. Recent ARISS Contacts

Students from John XXIII College, Perth, Western Australia experienced an ARISS contact on Monday, April 11. Telebridge station W6SRJ in California provided the radio connection. On-orbit astronaut Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH fielded 13 questions from the students who were interested in how missions on the ISS benefit life on Earth as well as future missions to Mars.

On Wednesday, April 13, Hopewell Ave Public School, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada took part in an ARISS contact via telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. Six hundred students gathered in the gym for the event and listened to astronaut Paolo Nespoli answer 16 questions posed by the youth. ARISS mentors took large screens to the school and showed the students videos of space and the ISS construction along with some special effect videos. The school and community were thrilled with the ARISS contact and the opportunity for their young students to take part in this event. Talk Radio CFRA ran a story about the contact: http://www.cfra.com/?cat=1&nid=78953

An ARISS contact was held between middle school students attending Istituto Sociale, a Catholic school in Turin, Italy and ISS astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA on Thursday, April 14. The radio connection was made possible via telebridge station K6DUE in Maryland. Students asked 19 questions concerning things such as mission training and the daily routine and tasks performed on the ISS. Over 200 students, teachers and guests turned out for the event. The ARISS contact was highly appreciated, since many modules of the ISS have been built in Turin by Thales Alenia Space. Regional and local media covered the event.

3. ARRL Article on ARISS Telebridge Station

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran in its April 14 ARRL Letter the NASA story covering the Sacred Hearts School in Hawaii that houses ARISS telebridge station WH6PN. ARISS's Dick Flagg and Nancy Rocheleau are mentioned in the article, as well as the girls who assist with the contacts. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/from-the-hearts-providing-a-way-for-others-to-commu...

4. AMSAT Update on ARISSat-1

On April 14, AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service put out a special bulletin (ANS-104) that gave an update on ARISSat-1, which was to have been activated over April 11 - 13 for the Gagarin Commemorative Event. The ARISSat team is trying to determine why the activation was not successful. See: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2011/000505.html

5. Amateur Radio Newsline on ARISS

On April 15, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1757 included an item, "Ham Radio in Space: Three Retiring Space Shuttles to have New Homes." The story talked about Owen Garriott's flight with ham radio that lead to the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) program and later to Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. See: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt

6. Astronaut Training Status

Astronaut Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP (Expedition 36) is scheduled for an ARISS basic operations session on Monday, April 25.

Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX is scheduled for a preflight session in early May. He is slated to fly with Expedition 29 in September 2011.