ARISS News Release                                                                                          No.   20-22    
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
ARISS Contact is Scheduled for
Ramona Lutheran Christian School, Ramona, CA
 
October 13, 2020—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).
 
This will be a direct contact via amateur radio between students at the Ramona Lutheran Christian School (RLCS) in Ramona, CA and ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR. The Ramona Outback Amateur Radio Society (ROARS) ham operators using call sign N6ROR will operate the ground station for this contact. Students will take turns asking Cassidy their questions.
 
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 14, 2020 at 9:26 am PDT (Ramona) (16:26 UTC, 12:26 pm EDT, 11:26 am CDT and 10:26 am MDT).
 
RLCS (with students in preschool through sixth grade) is located in an unincorporated mountain community approximately 40 miles northeast of San Diego. In addition to the school’s classical course curriculum, RLCS also involves students in STEM-enrichment club activities that include robotics, coding, physics, space-related sciences, and radio theory. In 2019, the Amateur Radio Relay League awarded RLCS an Icom IC-9700 radio built and designed for communications with amateur radio satellites—resulting in the first school radio station in Ramona, and one solar-powered thanks to equipment provided by ROARS. The ARISS contact will utilize this set-up. ROARS members have helped students prepare for their ARISS contact and mentored them on amateur radio operating protocol including emergency communications and Morse code practice.
 
ARISS invites the public to view the ARISS radio contact at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7t7tYq7WQo&feature=youtu.be.
_____________________________
 
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
 
1. How has Expedition 63 changed your outlook on life?
2. What is your favorite thing to look at in space?
3. What is most difficult when you are recovering from returning to Earth?
4. What does it feel like when you are on a spacewalk?
5. What was the strangest thing that's happened to you while you were in space?
6. What is your favorite activity when you have free time on the ISS?
7. How likely do you think it is that I will visit outer space in my lifetime, even if I never become an astronaut?
8. What does it feel like to sleep on the ISS?
9. What mission were you most scared of?
10. What are your favorite experiences of Expedition 63?
11. What has been your favorite experiment on the ISS?
12. About how many repairs are made each week aboard the ISS?
13. What is your favorite game to play in space?
14. What are your 3 favorite foods to eat while on the ISS?
15. What language has been the most challenging to communicate aboard the ISS?
16. What food are you most looking forward to eating when you get home?
17. What fear have you had regarding space?
18. What surprises you the most about how the ISS is today than when you were part of the assembly mission?
19. Which holidays have you enjoyed celebrating on the ISS?
20. What's your favorite number of people aboard the ISS at one time?
21. Who was your favorite astronaut that you have met from another country?
22. What way(s) could we utilize space to help manage our problems with waste disposal on Earth?
23. Do you hope to go back to space or the moon in a commercial space suit via a commercial vehicle?
24. How do you use ham radio on the ISS and after you return to Earth?
 
ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Amateur Radio Operations on the ISS
 
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS).  In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.
 
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
                                                                              
Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and @ARISS_status.

ARISS News Release                                                                                No.   20-19   
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
ARISS Contact is Scheduled with McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA
 
October 06, 2020—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).
 
This will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio between the ISS and students from McConnell Middle School in Loganville, Georgia. Students will take turns asking their questions of ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR, during the ARISS radio contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 437.525 MHz.  
 
ARISS team member Jan Poppeliers, using call sign ON4ISS (from an AMSAT amateur radio club station in Aartselaar, Belgium), will serve as the relay amateur radio station. Each student asking a question of Cassidy on the ARISS radio will be teleconferenced in from home or social-distanced at school. Youth and faculty and the public can watch the livestreamed action from home.  
 
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 7, 2020 at 10:18 am EDT (Georgia) (14:18 UTC, 9:18 am CDT, 8:18 am MDT, 07:18 am PDT).
 
McConnell Middle School (about 2,300 students ages 11 to 15) is a Gwinnett County public school near Atlanta. The district’s career-planning curriculum group integrated lessons into established science, math and language arts classes before the contact in order to increase student interest and awareness related to space science, expand student experience with research methodologies, and inspire them to pursue studies and careers in science-related fields. The school’s McConnell Radio Club, in its 6th year, is mentored by members of the Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society who provide radio classes and equipment for student use, and guided the ARISS project, a part of the faculty’s efforts toward becoming a STEM-certified school.
 
ARISS invites the public to view the livestream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at:
https://youtu.be/pHOM15BLRSo .
_______________________________
 
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
 
1. Are there special activities designed for you to help relieve the stress of living and working in space?
2. Describe what surprised you about earth when you got to the ISS.
3. Do you see evidence of the recent West Coast wildfires or other environmental situations?
4. As a middle school student what can we do to prepare ourselves for the job you do today as an astronaut?
5. In the movie The Martian, Mark was trained as a botanist. What is your area of interest and what experiments are you doing in your field?
6. How long is your mission and how do you expect it might impact your body?
7. What was the hardest part of training prior to going to space?
8. How often do you need to do repairs on the outside of the ISS?
9. Describe your medical training that would help if an astronaut becomes ill or seriously injured while on the space station.
10. Standard air pressure on earth is 1 atmosphere. What air pressure do they try to maintain on the ISS?
11. What qualifications do you have that enable you to be assigned to more than one mission or similar?
12. Have you ever tried growing carrots or root vegetables in space?
13. Are there any times where any shipments of food or drinks are running late, or have space flight troubles, and you run out of food or water for the time?
14. How does food taste when you don't get to smell it?
15. How is the ISS designed in case of a collision with space junk or a meteoroid?
16. What is the procedure if spills, liquid or solid, occur during experiments?
17. How do you maintain clean hygiene while in space?
18. What is your normal schedule on the ISS?
 
ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Amateur Radio Continuous Operations on the ISS
 
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS).  In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.
 
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
                                                                              
Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and @ARISS_status.

ARISS News Release                                                                                  No.   20-21      
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
ARISS SSTV Event Scheduled for early October
 
October 02, 2020 — An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for early October. The event is scheduled to begin on October 4 at 14:00 UTC for setup and operation and will continue until October 8 ending at 19:15 UTC. Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments
 
Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme of this collection of images will be Satellites. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ .
 
After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image.
 
 
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS).  In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.
 
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
                                                                              
Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and @ARISS_status.