An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Escola EBI/JI de Montenegro, Faro, Portugal on 23 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 12:36 UTC.

The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and CT1REP. The contact should be audible over Portugal 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 school EBI/JI de Montenegro is located at 3 kilometers from the capital of Algarve, Faro, near the beach and the airport. The school was built in 1990 and as 900 students, from 4 to 15/17 years old. This school has students from different economical status and foreign students from other countries. Most of the student population comes from rural and sea region. Near the school is located the Ria Formosa Natural Park, very rich and diversify in natural life and resources. This ARISS contact is the Physics and Chemistry teacher Patrícia Raposo project. The project involves Manuel Mil-Homens, the responsible teacher for the image and sound registers and Dina Ferreira, the English teacher. There are 20 students involved in the project, classroom representatives from grades 7th to 9th. Students´ representatives have met with the teacher in charge to talk about the questions and proceedings. The station and radio equipment is REP (Portuguese Radio Emitters) responsibility. A local radio amateur was contacted to do the radio communication. The school also prepared, with the local Radio amateur Club of Loulé, an opened session to the school community about radio amateurs. A press release was prepared and will be sent to the regional and national TV, radio stations and newspapers. Representatives from the city hall and the ministry of the education were also invited. Arrangements were made to have the event documented on video by the Photography and Digital Arts Club Students, supervised by teacher Manuel Mil-Homens. The ARISS contact is also available to the school community in live stream, in the official school page.

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

1. Is it true that during the time of your missions at space, you grow less

old than the same time spent on Earth?

2. What was your worst experience as an astronaut?

3. Does the spaceship have the equipment to catch all the radiowaves

broadcasted from Earth? How?

4. What is your daily routine?

5. What is the most difficult technical equipment to use in the ISS?

6. How do you take a shower in the ISS?

7. What do you eat on space?

8. What is the difference between living in normal gravity conditions and

without gravity?

9. Which are the essencial skills and training to become an astronaut?

10. I would like to ask you what is the sensation outside the spaceship?

11. What type of damage can a meteor shower cause to earth-orbiting

spacecraft like the ISS? How can you prevent that?

12. What are the side effects of gravity on your metabolism? What do you feel

different?

13. Are you scared when you fly? Are you thinking about the danger involved?

14. How is the sensation of seeing our planet from the space? What is it

like?

15. What are ISS perspectives for the future?

16. Do you think there is any change to men to land on Mars in the next ten

years?

17. What did you feel when you first entered the ISS?

18. How important is your task for humankind?

19. How do you feel in the first ten seconds of the flight?

20. What do you miss most about Earth when you are in the ISS?

Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact.

Next planned event(s):

TBD

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