Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report October 17, 2011

1. Upcoming School Contacts

Seiryo Elementary School, Seto, Aichi, Japan has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Tuesday, October 18 at 08:33 UTC. The school was established in 1975 and has an enrollment of 667 students. The contact will highlight the science curriculum which covers electricity, space and technology.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Zespol Szkol Technicznych in Rybnicka, Slask, Poland on Friday, October 21 at 16:38 UTC. SP9PKS radio club members have been working with the school to prepare for the contact. Lesson plans have covered construction of radio equipment, contacts via LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites and meteorites.

2. Italian Students Hook Up with Astronaut Mike Fossum via ARISS

Students from Istituto Superiore "G. Curcio," Ispica, Italy participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Friday, October 14 via telebridge station W6SRJ in California. Mike Fossum, KF5AQG answered 14 questions posed to him by the youth. He talked about what it is like to live in space, the problems encountered while working in microgravity and the experiments being conducted on the Space Station. The contact was integrated into the science curriculum covering astronomy.

3. Amateur Radio Club Contacts ISS

On Saturday, October 15, an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held between the Amateur Radio Morioka Club located in Morioka, Japan and Satoshi Furukawa, KE5DAW on the ISS. Seventeen students were able to ask questions of the astronaut during the radio connection. Student participants were those who went through difficult times after the tsunami devastation on March 11.

4. Astronaut Participates in JOTA

Astronaut Mike Fossum, KF5AQG participated in the Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) event. Fossum, a scoutmaster, spoke with scouts from several states on Saturday, October 15.

5. Kiroli -ARISS Contact Participants Interviewed

The first Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact to be held in Louisiana took place between students attending Kiroli Elementary School in West Monroe and on-orbit Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, KE5DAW on September 22, 2011. On Thursday, October 6, an educator and two students involved with the contact were interviewed by Jay Curtis from KEDM, a local public radio station, about the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) Amateur Radio Club and Kiroli Elementary School's ARISS contact. A short write-up and audio of the interview is available at this URL: http://www.kedm.org/audio/amateur-radio-club-teams-kiroli-elementary-space-s...

6. ARRL Newsletter on Simulated ARISS Contact

The Indiana ARRL Section Newsletter carried a story about the September 21 simulated ARISS contact that took place between Astronaut Tom Marshburn, KE5HOC and students visiting the Indianapolis Challenger Learning Center. The contact was a training session for the astronaut in which he used ARISS equivalent equipment at JSC to prepare him for participation in ARISS contacts during his upcoming mission on the ISS. Marshburn is scheduled to fly with Expedition 34 in November 2012.

7. ARRL Letter Covers ARISS

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a couple of ARISS stories in its October 13 ARRL Letter. The first item talks about Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) over the October 15-16 weekend and Astronaut Mike Fossum's plans to participate in the event. The second story covers the ARISSat-1 CW Contest where participants can copy and submit any 6 of the over 200 call signs transmitted by the satellite. To view the articles, "On the Air: ISS to Be On the Air for JOTA This Weekend" and "Amateur Radio in Space: ARISSat-1 Team Announces Morse Code Contest," see: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2011-10-13#toc02

8. ARRL QST Posts ARISS News

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) November 2011 QST coverage of ARISS items are:

On page 83 is an article about NASA astronauts and current ISS crew members. There is a large photo of the Expedition 29 crew and their call signs. The caption mentions the cosmonaut who deployed ARISSat-1.

Also, in the "Media Hits" column is a short item about national-level media venues (technology venues) that carried PR about ARISSat-1 and its education potential and capability.

9. Amateur Radio Newsline Covers McFadin Interview

On October 14, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1783 included a story about an interview with Lou McFadin, W5DID in which he talks about his work at NASA, amateur radio and ham radio experiments in space. "Names in the News: Lew McFadin W5DID Interviewed by DXCoffee" may be viewed here: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt

10. Astronaut Training Status

Two astronaut training sessions are planned for October 18. Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX will take part in a refresher course and Joe Acaba, KE5DAR is scheduled for a preflight session. Burbank is slated to fly with Expedition 29 in November 2011 and Acaba plans to fly with Expedition 31 in March 2012.