An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Istituto Comprensivo "G.Manzi", Civitavecchia, Roma, Italy, and Istituzione Scolalstica "Saint-Roch", Aosta, I-11100, Italy on 26 March. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:53 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between IR0ISS and IK0WGF. The contact should be audible over Italy and adjacent regions. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Italian or English.

The "Manzi" middle school is located in the center city of Civitavecchia, a port city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, not too far from Rome. The school is the seat of the Presidency and Secretariat, includes 22 classes of middle school, 9 classes of primary school and 3 classes of kindergarten, and is attended by about 500 students and pupils aged 3 to 14. The school is equipped with computer lab and 6 classrooms connected to the Internet and Multimedia Interactive Blackboard. The school also offers a variety of elective courses in history, geography, mathematics, education road, computer and scientific laboratory, musical instrument and chorus, theater and cinema.

The School Institution "Saint Roch" in Aosta has started three years ago the bilingual project (French and Italian) "Saint-Roch Etoiles" (SRE). This is an educational project addressed to teachers, pupils and their families in Aosta Valley, Italy.

SRE is devoted to the study of astronomy and space sciences, which has until now involved about 600 students from different school levels (Infant, Primary and lower Secondary School). The project started in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, under the patronage of the Regional Board of Education of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, with the collaboration of the Fondazione Clément Fillietroz - ONLUS, managing the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) and the Planetarium of Lignan.

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

1. What did you feel to cross the atmosphere?

2. How did you feel staying huddled inside the Russian rocket?

3. How long does it take to organize a flight to the space?

4. What is the first experiment you did on the ISS?

5. What did your family tell you when you decided to become an astronaut?

6. How do you feel to be the first Italian to go into space for so

long?

7. Do you have difficulty performing normal daily activities on the ISS?

8. What future expects an astronaut after a long-duration mission in space?

9. Do you ever go out the spaceship?

10. Do you suffer from vertigo when watching the Earth from space?

11. When you go out and then go in to ISS, do you need to wait to take off

your space suit?

12. Do you do some housework?

13. How is a daily routine in the ISS?

14. Do the ISS solar panels get more energy from the Sun than on Earth?

15. How does the propulsion system on the ISS?

16. What personal items did you bring with you on the ISS?

17. When you eat chips, do they fly in the air like doves?

18. In what language do you speak with your friends on board the ISS?

19. Do you follow a particular diet on ISS?

20. What are the names of your fellow astronauts on the ISS?

21. How many hours you sleep on ISS?

22. Are colors observable in space?

23. How does it feel to look at the stars and planets from the ISS?

24. For you are there any life forms on other planets?

25. When you gone in the space you've not believed that was happening to you?

26. Is it easy to get along for six months with the other astronauts?

27. When you are on mission what's your precise job?

28. To avoid flying while you sleep, do you tie to the bed or do you fasten

in the sleeping bag?

29. How do you wash yourself without the gravity force?

30. How can you play in space?

31. Its true that in the absence of gravity, the bones become more fragile?

32. How important is working with the schools for you?

33. How is Christmas time on ISS?

34. Do you miss your family and your friends?

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

Next planned event(s):

1. Lehman High School, Kyle, Texas, direct via NN5RR

Tue 29 Mar 2011 17:40 UTC

2. Canterbury High School, Ottawa, ON, Canada, direct via VE3TBD

Wed 30 Mar 2011 14:56 UTC

3. Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale "Leonardo da Vinci", Pratola

Peligna, I-67035, Italy, and Istituto Comprensivo Scolastico "G.

Tedeschi", Pratola Peligna, I-67035, Italy direct via I6IBE

Sat 2 Apr 2011 08:34 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