ARISS and the COVID-19 Virus
ARISS Team Members, Sponsors and Educational Institutions,
The ARISS team would like to share with you how we are transforming our activities for the health and safety of our students, host educational institutions and our team in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Our primary objective, in these challenging times, is to protect all the students, faculty, astronauts and our volunteer team in all we do. ARISS is international in scope, like space station. Each one of us, around the globe, are dealing with the COVID-19 virus in one way or another. Each area of the globe is unique in the virus spread as well as in the government policy to protect their people. And the situation in each location is changing rapidly. In some areas, there is a total lockdown. In other areas, it is much more open. Also, the COVID-19 challenge will not end in the short term (weeks). ARISS needs to be prepared for a longer term effect (months). As a result, we have instituted an immediate respoanse effort followed by a more strategic (longer term) initiative to protect all. ARISS leadership, working with a physician on the leadership team, is carefully reviewing all of our procedures in light of the evolving COVID-19 recommendation. We will continue to monitor the local and global situations and will modify our local and global planning, as these situations change.
In the short term, our ARISS mentors are working with each school institution in the queue to determine the way forward. Since each selected ARISS contact “belongs to” the educational institution, and they know best their local government’s COVID policy, we are relying on them for their decision to either cancel, postpone, or modify their contact effort. But in each case we are encouraging all to put health and safety first. And each contact decision is being carefully scrutinized by the senior ARISS International leadership team.
In the long term, we have several initiatives underway to transform how we interact with students and host educational institutions in light of COVID-19. To paraphrase the virus infection mitigation ideal--we will do these with “infinite” social distancing. In other words, engaging with each student and educational institution in their home (even quarantined) virtually.
We have two primary initiatives underway and several others being discussed. One is to develop what we term ARISS “virtual school” contacts. To do this, we will be employing our telebridge amateur radio ground stations around the world to link each student in their home through this telebridge station. We will do this with audio connections with each student and streaming video. ARISS plans to transition into this model in the next couple of weeks. Secondly, we are planning several ARISS SSTV (Picture Downlink) sessions where pictures from ISS can be sent down and received by all in their homes. These can be received directly, if a student has a radio or indirectly, if a student connects to a remote station via internet or goes to the ARISS SSTV Gallery where all downloaded images can be posted and reviewed.
The above long-term approach Is a huge pivot for ARISS, but, we feel, is a great strategic move for the future. It should be noted that one reason we were allowed to set up ARISS on ISS was to help astronauts improve their psychological well-being by allowing them to freely talk to students, friends and ham radio operators on the ground. We are now at a juncture, with COVID-19, to help do the same for students. In other words, providing a psychological well-being STEAM motivation to students, faculty and the local community through ARISS on-orbit connections—virus free! So…let’s do it!
I am sure you all have received lots of information on protecting your family, friends and yourselves, through social distancing and good hygiene (wash your hands frequently!!). Please take all this seriously. The ARISS team cares about your health and well-being!
On behalf of the ARISS team, let us extend to you our thoughts and prayers for good health during these challenging times.
Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO
ARISS International Chair
The ARISS team would like to share with you how we are transforming our activities for the health and safety of our students, host educational institutions and our team in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Our primary objective, in these challenging times, is to protect all the students, faculty, astronauts and our volunteer team in all we do. ARISS is international in scope, like space station. Each one of us, around the globe, are dealing with the COVID-19 virus in one way or another. Each area of the globe is unique in the virus spread as well as in the government policy to protect their people. And the situation in each location is changing rapidly. In some areas, there is a total lockdown. In other areas, it is much more open. Also, the COVID-19 challenge will not end in the short term (weeks). ARISS needs to be prepared for a longer term effect (months). As a result, we have instituted an immediate respoanse effort followed by a more strategic (longer term) initiative to protect all. ARISS leadership, working with a physician on the leadership team, is carefully reviewing all of our procedures in light of the evolving COVID-19 recommendation. We will continue to monitor the local and global situations and will modify our local and global planning, as these situations change.
In the short term, our ARISS mentors are working with each school institution in the queue to determine the way forward. Since each selected ARISS contact “belongs to” the educational institution, and they know best their local government’s COVID policy, we are relying on them for their decision to either cancel, postpone, or modify their contact effort. But in each case we are encouraging all to put health and safety first. And each contact decision is being carefully scrutinized by the senior ARISS International leadership team.
In the long term, we have several initiatives underway to transform how we interact with students and host educational institutions in light of COVID-19. To paraphrase the virus infection mitigation ideal--we will do these with “infinite” social distancing. In other words, engaging with each student and educational institution in their home (even quarantined) virtually.
We have two primary initiatives underway and several others being discussed. One is to develop what we term ARISS “virtual school” contacts. To do this, we will be employing our telebridge amateur radio ground stations around the world to link each student in their home through this telebridge station. We will do this with audio connections with each student and streaming video. ARISS plans to transition into this model in the next couple of weeks. Secondly, we are planning several ARISS SSTV (Picture Downlink) sessions where pictures from ISS can be sent down and received by all in their homes. These can be received directly, if a student has a radio or indirectly, if a student connects to a remote station via internet or goes to the ARISS SSTV Gallery where all downloaded images can be posted and reviewed.
The above long-term approach Is a huge pivot for ARISS, but, we feel, is a great strategic move for the future. It should be noted that one reason we were allowed to set up ARISS on ISS was to help astronauts improve their psychological well-being by allowing them to freely talk to students, friends and ham radio operators on the ground. We are now at a juncture, with COVID-19, to help do the same for students. In other words, providing a psychological well-being STEAM motivation to students, faculty and the local community through ARISS on-orbit connections—virus free! So…let’s do it!
I am sure you all have received lots of information on protecting your family, friends and yourselves, through social distancing and good hygiene (wash your hands frequently!!). Please take all this seriously. The ARISS team cares about your health and well-being!
On behalf of the ARISS team, let us extend to you our thoughts and prayers for good health during these challenging times.
Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO
ARISS International Chair
