An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Central Square Middle School Amateur Radio Club, Central Square, NY on 03 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 14:05 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and KC2ILA. The contact should be audible over the portions of 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 Central Square Middle School (CSMS) has approximately 1000 students in grades 6, 7, and 8. CSMS is actually 3 schools within a school that function on their own. Each school has grades 6, 7, and 8 and is identified as House 1, House 2, or House 3. Students are assigned to a grade-level team within a house.

Students in grades 7 and 8 can participate in interscholastic athletics of many types. There are also many clubs that all grade levels can participate in throughout the year including (to name a few) Leadership (Student Government), Fishing Club, Chess Club and Amateur Radio Club.

Amateur Radio Club, KC2ILA, has been active at CSMS for more than two decades. We acquired our call sign in 2001, but used our club advisor's call sign before that. Over the years we have been involved in various electronic construction projects, KC2ILA is always a presence on the air during School Club Roundup in February, and we are always tracking spacecraft carrying Amateur Radios.

Over the years several students have spoken with astronauts on space shuttles and students at CSMS spoke with 5 of the 7 NASA astronauts and several cosmonauts, who resided on the Mir Space Station. In September 1994 CSMS organized a scheduled contact between astronauts on Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-64) and students from 8 school districts in Central New York. The radios for the contact were located at the Museum of Science and Technology (MoST) in Syracuse, NY.

In the spring of 2013 several club members worked on preparing the application for another scheduled contact, this time with the International Space Station. We are hoping this conversation goes as well as our first scheduled contact!

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

1. Are you going to be taking part in the Quantum Entanglement Experiment

and if so what equipment will you be using?

2. Can you tell us of any direct, recent benefits that have come from

research on the ISS that could not be done on Earth?

3. Are there any experiments being performed for private companies on ISS?

4. Do you think the ECLSS being used on ISS will be similar to the one that

will be used when humans travel to Mars? Will it solve our water problem

when traveling to Mars?

5. Have any of the algorithms from the NASA SPHERES Competition been used on

ISS?

6. Is it hard to control the space station as it orbits Earth?

7. What experience on Earth is most comparable to the feeling of

weightlessness?

8. What do you do to prepare for a spacewalk and how long do preparations

take?

9. How often do you receive supplies and what sort of items do you get?

10. Has the space station ever been hit by debris and if so is there a way

to avoid this?

11. Where does all the waste from ISS go?

12. What occurred to make you want to work on the space station or even be up

in space?

13. Is it different or harder to sleep in microgravity?

14. What was your biggest shock when you got to space?

15. Is it crowded on ISS?

16. What do stars look like in space?

17. Does it feel like you are at home when you are on the space station?

18. How do you exercise in space?

19. Are you able to take showers in space?

20. What is your favorite thing to do for fun in space?

PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:

Sign up for the SAREX maillist at

http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/sarex

Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the

International Space Station (ARISS).

To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status

Next planned event(s):

1. Rock Bridge Elementary School, Columbia, MO, direct via KMØR

Wed, 05Mar2014, 14:00 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

--- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com