April 29: Students at Istituto Comprensivo 1 Chieti in Abruzzo, Italy conducted an ARISS contact with Samantha Cristoforetti, who answered 15 of their questions. As the ISS pass ended, the principal and the school gave Cristoforetti greetings and best wishes.  300 students in their classrooms watched the action via livestream (within a week, viewers of the recording totaled 715). After the contact, an ARISS Technical Mentor presented a talk to everyone about the ARISS program.  TV stations RAI3 and RETE8 covered the activities. A few ARISS Italy team members who were on standby at their ARISS ground station, livestreamed that activity with the contact’s audio; they garnered 47 views. Other European space-enthusiast hams provided YouTube videos of the ARISS radio transmissions for 88 viewers. A practice session before the contact gave students a lesson on radio communications and that session was livestreamed with 278 watching. This urban school enrolls 1,000 students ages 4-14. STEAM lessons and projects offered at every grade level cover things such as robotics and coding. Students participated in ESA’s "Zero Mission-Astro Pi" project, and in 2021 met Astronaut Luca Parmitano. Members of the amateur radio team from Pescara instructed students on the installation and types of ham radio equipment and antennas they would be using to make the ARISS radio contact.
 
April 21: Ben Davis Aerospace Technical High School (DATHS) in Detroit, MI hosted an ARISS Watch Party for students at Coleman Young International Airport. Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club members brought and set up a ham radio station so youth could listen to Kayla Barron answering Bellefontaine (OH) High School students’ questions during an ARISS contact. ARISS Technical Mentor Larry Koziel brought monitors so DATHS students could watch the Ohio livestream.  The mix of attendees included the DATHS Advisory Board and principal, a teacher, members of the area Tuskegee Airmen Chapter, and airport administrators. DATHS has an ARISS contact in the second half of 2022.
 
April 30: Istituto Comprensivo Tolfa in Lazio, Italy hosted an ARISS radio contact with Samantha Cristoforetti; she replied to 17 student questions.  24 students, a number of staff, TV representatives (RAI3, RAI Gulp, TGR Lazio, Canale10) and an Il Messaggero newspaper reporter were in the room.  2,036 others in school classrooms watched the livestream, which is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKlOwjvTpt8—begin viewing at 37 minutes 10 seconds (you could’ve heard a pin drop!).  Within a week, 3,709 viewers had watched the recording. This urban primary and middle school’s curriculum focuses on language skills and STEM. Students have taken part in ESA’s “Send your Drawing into space with Cheops,” Italian Space Agency’s “Send ARTEMIS-inspired Drawings to the Moon,” Institute of National Astrophysics’ “Learning about Light Pollution,” and NASA lessons on space exploration and the ISS. The area amateur radio club led student activities on radio science and demos of the radio equipment needed for the ARISS contact. 
 
May 3: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic presented a talk titled “Space—the Ultimate Frontier” to 80 engineering students at Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy.  She covered a little space history, Meteo weather satellites, and the ARISS Program.  Ivancic is a 5th grade teacher and this was her first talk to a university audience; she was thrilled to be invited to do so.
 
 
ARISS Social Media for April 2022

ARISS Facebook – April

Twitter: On April 30, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,580, a gain of 1.6% over March.
Facebook: Followers for April 2022 increased to 7,517.
Instagram: Followers at the end of April 2022 grew to 421.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of April, subscribers increased to 1.66k.

ARISS Upcoming Events 
May 12 Scuola Secondaria G Leopardi & Macherio, Lombardia Italy ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe team
May 19-20 Hamvention, a US-wide big amateur radio convention: booth, forum, ARISS-US team
May 20 Forum Accademico Italiano eV, Koln Germany  ARISS school contact, ARISS-Europe team

April 21:  Bellefontaine (OH) High School hosted an ARISS contact with Kayla Barron for all students enrolled in the city’s elementary, intermediate, middle, and high schools. A 9th grader who had earned his amateur radio license, sounded like an adult handling the introduction and managing the mic for students from all 4 schools asking the questions. Two of the high school’s graduates gave inspiring talks on studying hard and their engineering careers at SpaceX and NASA Glenn Research Center.  2,316 K-12 students, 234 educators, and 49 administrators, parents and professionals watched the livestream. From Michigan, ARISS Technical Mentor Gordon Scannell and ARRL Great Lakes Director Dale Williams drove to Ohio for the day. Other VIPs attending were the mayor and school superintendent, school board members, a rep from Armstrong Air & Space Museum, and ARISS Education Ambassador Diane Warner. 315 members of the public and a Michigan school class of 30 watched live via a YouTube video; see https://youtu.be/6t5ZQOw2j68.  In a week’s time, 1,538 had watched the recording.
 
The Bellefontaine School District posted this teacher comment:  "It [ARISS lessons] plants a seed in students. It's creating experiences for students so they can find their path in life. Even with needing to lead a year of lessons on space and communications, I would do it all again.”  A high school math teacher wrote, “Ms. Barron’s answers were so well phrased. She restated students' names, showing she loved talking to them. I truly thank her for showing so much compassion to our youth!”  A fourth grade teacher said: "My whole class is inspired to become astronauts!"
 
Last year, students established the Bellefontaine High School Amateur Radio Club and through the months, classes took part in lessons on wireless communication and space communication.
 
Media--pre-contact:

1. Springfield News Sun   

https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/bellefontaine-school-students-to-talk-to-astronaut-at-international-space-station/NDZMBXWJSFDNBIWFQHDVKZI4QM/ 

1. Peak of Ohio 

https://www.peakofohio.com/news/details.cfm?clientid=5&id=339129  

1. Bellefontaine Examiner 

https://www.examiner.org/bhs-amateur-radio-club-prepping-for-international-space-station-contact-thursday/ 
 
Media—post-contact:

1. WHIO-TV  
   https://www.whio.com/news/local/local-school-set-talk-with-astronauts-later-this-month/6VDGG4VLYNC4NIKFSFWYIAZERE/
   
2. Peak of Ohio
   https://www.peakofohio.com/news/details.cfm?clientid=5&id=339305
   

 
April 14: An ARISS contact held for students at the Rakia-Herzliya Science Center (HSC) in Herzliya, Israel was supported by Axiom crew member Etyan Stibbe. He answered 9 questions. 341 people attended the event and 315 viewers watched the livestream, which is at https://youtu.be/pCf-Spm5R6c?t=2013. In a week’s time, the recording had 1,339 views. Stibbe collaborated with HSC and is aligned with The Rakia Mission, which inspires the Israeli population about space and its opportunities. HSC is an educational institute promoting STEM to 1,500 K-12 students. Its enrichment programs cover technology and science including space, robotics, physics, computer sciences, and life sciences. One of those programs included their ARISS project, which gave 200 high school students a variety of related educational activities over several months on how to operate HSC’s amateur radio satellite station in its Space Laboratory. The Israel Amateur Radio Club helped students track and operate through LEO satellites and learn how to handle radio communications for the ARISS contact.  
 
April 5-6: Engineering students and radio enthusiasts gathered at Pandit Deendayal Energy University in Gandhinagar, India for the “Two Day Workshop on Amateur Radio Technologies.” Rajesh Vagadia, who had assisted as an ARISS volunteer for 2012 and 2019 ARISS contacts in India, conducted sessions with help from ham radio leaders—six men and one woman. 40 students took part in the workshop for eight hours each day; some of the university’s faculty attended. Sessions provided many demos of the newest technologies used in ham radio, some educational aspects of ARISS, and basic radio concepts, i.e., signal propagation and modulation. Students enjoyed the demo on how to receive ARISS SSTV transmissions (picture downlinks) using a simple software-defined radio dongle and a home-built handheld antenna. Also, leaders set up two ham radio stations for students to do ham radio SSTV contacts with one other from room to room—students enjoyed transmitting and receiving their own images and audio to each other. A YouTube summarizing workshop events is at: https://youtu.be/lFf4g4Ubm1k and 160 people have viewed it.  Vagadia wrote: “For several years, I’ve run an ARISS awareness campaign for Gujarat schools—top-class metro ones to small underprivileged-village ones. I believe knowledge should be for all, equally. Right now, I’m assisting a school in a very tiny village with their ARISS education proposal.”
 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
 
May 13 Scuola Secondaria G Leopardi & Macherio, Lombardia Italy ARISS contact, ARISS Europe team

April 13:  Students at École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville in St. Albert, AB, Canada held an ARISS radio contact Q&A session with Axiom crew member Mary Pathy on the ISS. He answered 12 questions and then thanked the students.  The YouTube livestream had 240 students viewing the action along with a team of 17 others.  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporters were on site and posted a story. After the contact, one teacher reported, “The ARISS contact was ‘all the talk’ in the hallways for the rest of the day.” The school provides education to grades 7-9 and its optional class program allows students to participate in STEAM-oriented activities including; robotics, multimedia, and enterprise and innovation.
 
April 13: Dr. David R. Williams School in Oakville, ON, Canada was the site of an ARISS radio contact with Axiom Astronaut Mark Pathy; he answered 13 students’ questions and one from a teacher. All 1000 students listened to the livestream and were excited that retired CSA Astronaut David R. Williams was online listening, too.  The school’s name comes from him, a Canadian physician and CEO who served as mission specialist on two space shuttle missions (1998 and 2007).  Viewers of the recording posted on the school Facebook page totaled 115. The faculty provides opportunities to over 1000 junior kindergarten through grade eight students who have a major interest in science. They learned about all Canadian astronauts and the contribution Canada makes to the international space effort. Through the year, the science curriculum led students in discovering ISS research conducted as related to humans’ response to Earth’s environmental conditions, living and working on the ISS, and social aspects of that.
 
April 11-13: ARISS sponsored another very popular Slow Scan Television (SSTV) session (picture downlink event), this one featuring women in space and recognizing Cosmonautics Day. For about 60 hours, 12 images were downlinked. Space and radio enthusiasts, students, educators, parents, and shortwave listeners throughout the world enjoyed trying to collect all 12 space history images.  1,182 participants posted 3,339 images to the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.  Nearly all enthusiasts requested the handsome ARISS SSTV diploma. Many left comments and here are two:

• 5th grade teacher: “I worked with my students to receive SSTV. They were very interested!” 
• “These SSTV images were received as part of our 4th grade science activity at Horizon Science Academy.”

 
 
April 14:  École Elementaire Ste. Jean D’Arc in London, ON, Canada held an ARISS contact for its students and Axiom Astronaut Mark Pathy, who answered 15 questions. Western University (WU) researcher Eric Pilles worked with the school and attended the ARISS contact. He reported: "When the radio kicked in, you could feel the energy in the room as everyone got excited to hear what the astronaut had to say.”  The school collaborated with WU’s outreach program at the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, which allowed students to participate in extra activities such as visits to an observatory. The EESJD faculty involved all 400 students (junior-kindergarten to 6th grade) throughout the year in studies related to the ARISS contact. For example, sixth graders focused on space-related sciences, effects on the body in space, and what impacts space exploration has on society and Earth’s environment. All students learned about Canadian astronauts and contributions of Canada to the international space effort. CBC posted an online story about the ARISS contact at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-students-over-the-moon-after-chat-with-astronau-aboard-the-iss-1.6420312
 
April 14:  Students at École Marie Poburan in St. Albert, AB, Canada held an ARISS contact with Axion Astronaut Mark Pathy; he answered 13 of the students’ questions. The school’s 300 students are in Kindergarten to 6th grade. In preparation for this ARISS contact, the faculty developed science program activities for all grades activities such as designing a space shuttle, planning a Mars outpost, learning to do orbital tracking of the ISS, and learning about basic electrical circuits. The 3rd graders found out things about sound and communications. The 5th graders tied together connections between Earth’s ecosystem and weather science. The 6th graders designed space-related inventions and discovered the impact Canadian innovations have had on space science.
 
April 21: Bellefontaine (OH) High School’s ARISS contact will be reported next week.
 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 

Next ARISS contacts -- TBD

April 7: Members of the Space Hardware Club (SHC) of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) sponsored an ARISS contact and related educational activities for 800 students in 4 of the region’s schools, Buckhorn Middle School, Mountain Gap Middle School, New Hope Elementary School, and Sparkman Middle School. Undergrads invited a few students from each school to come to UAH ask questions during the radio contact with Thomas Marshburn. People watching the day’s events totaled 108. The livestream is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyl-ekn612M&t=1603s. Undergrads are sending the recording to the four schools for all students to watch. WAAY-TV was on hand to record the event and broadcasted a video report in a newscast; it is at https://www.waaytv.com/community/uah-space-hardware-club-organizes-event-for-students-to-connect-with-the-international-space-station/article_29e8600c-b6be-11ec-abec-abd991289912.html. In preparation for the contact SHC engaged the 800 students in model rocket launches, high altitude balloon launches with radio payloads, and other hands-on STEM activities.  SHC Outreach Manager Rebekah Clark said, “All of the schools specifically requested the recording be sent to them to add to their curriculum.”   
 
April 11: École Secondaire St. Albert Catholic High School in St. Albert, AB, Canada hosted an ARISS contact with Axiom Astronaut Mark Pathy, who answered 13 student questions. 50 people came to watch students while all 758 students and staff watched the livestream. A second livestream connection was provided and it got a reported 67 views. The school’s Facebook page posted a YouTube video that garnered 244 views. The St. Albert Gazette ran an article on April 12 at https://www.stalberttoday.ca/local-news/sachs-students-call-spaceman-in-space-pathy-ariss-gabelmann-groves-5254868. Two other media outlets picked up the story, RMOToday.com (Rocky Mountain Outlook) and StAlbert TODAY.  100% of the latter’s readers rated the story as “important to their community.” The writer quoted a young lady student saying: “I feel like every kid has that dream of going into space. The opportunity to talk to someone who is not only an astronaut but currently in space was really cool.” Students had formed a space club, researched space science, and launched a weather balloon as STEM preparation before the ARISS contact.
 
This was the first of six ARISS contacts carried out by a civilian crew during this first Axiom Space mission to the ISS. More details on the other contacts will be in hand to provide in next week’s report.
 
April 7: Bellefontaine High School in Bellefontaine, OH, will host an ARISS contact on April 21 and invited students from the area elementary, intermediate, and middle schools to participate in related STEM activities and the upcoming ARISS contact.  Seventh graders created STEM-related artwork, designed a KWL table of facts about the ISS, and brainstormed on ways people communicate—from body language to computer coding. Fifth graders used math equations to investigate Aurora in space; analyzed items at NASA News Live, applying that knowledge to other areas; and made models of the Solar System, comparing and contrasting each planet and other galaxies. Lower grade students experimented with communications using cans and string, reporting the impact on sound quality when changing the size of cans and type of string. Students from the three lower-grade schools composed questions they want to ask Astronaut Kayla Barron during the ARISS contact that the high school is sponsoring. High school students have learned a variety of wireless radio lessons and some have earned their ham radio license. They will put that knowledge to use when they operate the ham station during the ARISS contact with the help of the area ham club.
 
April 11: Students at DLR School Lab TU Dresden in Dresden, Germany engaged in an ARISS contact with Matthias Maurer, who answered 18 student questions. 100 people were on hand for the event; they heard DLR Mission Manager Volker Schmid describe the students’ space- and technology-related educational activities and competitions that the youth enjoyed in preparation for the ARISS contact, including the German CanSat Competition 2020/21, a German-Polish summer science camp „Völlig Schwerelos“ 2021, and „Moon Camp Challenge“ 2022. The contact livestream is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LKjD2QlisM. Within 3 days, it garnered 726 views.
 
April 8: The NASA.gov’s YouTube online weekly news source, titled “Space to Ground,” highlighted ARISS in its video. A good chunk of the segment introduced viewers to the ARISS program, noting its accomplishments in providing two-way ham radio communication between students and astronauts on the ISS. The host of the show stated the ARISS mission, promoting STEM initiatives to students. Within a week, the video saw 4,079 views and is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IiWyrPygfA. NASA made the story into a Twitter post, as well, with it grabbing 20.9K views within 5 days.  Even better, NASA staff did the stories in Spanish and posted both the YouTube and the Tweet in Spanish.
 
April 15: The About Gagarin From Space program hosted an ARISS contact for students at Southwest State University in Kursk, Russia.  They spoke with Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. Students had built satellites that will be released during a spacewalk; they prepared circuit board diagrams of the satellites for other students who might want to get involved in similar projects.
 
April 8: ARISS Education Ambassador Martha Muir received an update from the teacher she worked with at Sussex County Charter School for Technology in Sparta, NJ.  The teacher reported that she is leading some of the STEM hands-on activities that she had not had time to finish prior to the school’s ARISS contact in late February.  The activities were listed in the ARISS Education Proposal, which is what school selections for ARISS contacts are based on. She invited a professor of astronomy to visit and do a demonstration titled, “Sunspots and Space Weather.”  The next guest speaker she scheduled is a fluid systems design engineer for Blue Origins. The teacher wrote: “Gotta keep inspiring these kids!” ARISS totally agrees.
 
April 7: ARISS Technical Mentor Dave Jordan gave a multimedia presentation on new ARISS initiatives to the Lake Monroe Amateur Radio Society club members in the Winter Springs, FL area. He related updates on many aspects of ARISS. Of the 42 listening, a few were informal educators;, a Q&A followed the talk.
 
April 7-8: A Slow Scan TV (SSTV) picture downlink event was sponsored by the Moscow Aviation Institute. Space enthusiasts, students, educators, members of the public, and amateur radio operators captured the images and many posted them for public viewing at the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.  Total number of images that fans posted as of April 14:  885 images from a total of 372 people.  The ARISS Facebook page post proved how popular the SSTV events are; the Reach was 15,287.
 
April 9: At the Tampa Amateur Radio Club TARCFest (a regional gathering of ham radio operators), ARISS Director of Public Engagement Rita DeHart and ARISS volunteers Lou McFadin and Elizabeth Mueller set up and staffed a table exhibit that featured the technical side of ARISS and a continuously running video about aspects of ARISS. The team had material for interested teachers and students, too.  Those stopping by included 3 youth, 1 of whom took material to give to his schoolteacher, and 15 adults, one of whom asked Rita to speak about ARISS at a future meeting of his ham club.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
 April 21: Bellefontaine High School, Bellefontaine OH ARISS contact,  ARISS-US team
 

April 6: For their ARISS radio contact, students from Leonardo Da Vinci-Nauen Campus in Nauen, Germany traveled to the German Aerospace Center (DLR). They talked via radio to Matthias Maurer who answered 20 questions and reminded them to study hard so they too can become astronauts. An audience following Covid guidelines consisted of 20 students, 3 teachers, and 10 community members including the amateur radio mentor team.  123 viewers watched the livestream; these youth, teachers, and community members used the Chat function to cheer on the student questioners. In 48 hours, views totaled 1,585. DLR said viewer numbers would climb as soon as its staff posted video and details about student STEM activities on its web site and social media and distributed releases to newspapers. In the hour before establishing the ARISS contact with Maurer, a Q&A session allowed students to pose questions to space agency experts. At the end of the day, the ARISS-Europe mentor said, “Students were very excited beforehand, and afterwards they were all the happier and content!”
 
April 5: The About Gagarin From Space program hosted an ARISS contact and sessions on space and amateur radio communications for Lyceum students at Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. Students spoke with Oleg Artemyev and the radio contact was coordinated by staff at the Mission Control Center-Moscow.
 
April 4:  ARISS Technical Mentor Dave Jordan learned of an article featuring the Space Hardware Club (SHC) at University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville, AL and its ARISS contact. The write-up ran in a UAH online web site; it was titled “UAH Space Hardware Club team will connect area students with the International Space Station.” SHC made the ARISS events a main part of its 2022 outreach initiative, engaging students at three schools (two middle schools, one elementary school). Some of these youths asked the questions during the ARISS contact. SHC Outreach Manager Rebekah Clark said, “During our educational visits to the schools, the UAH SHC ARISS team was able to teach approximately 800 students about STEM topics such as rocketry, high altitude ballooning, ham radio, and the ISS.” The article can be found  at:  https://www.uah.edu/news/items/uah-space-hardware-club-team-will-connect-area-students-with-international-space-station.
 
April 5: ARISS Director of Education Kathy Lamont told 12 educators attending the ARISS-US Education Committee about the campaign NASA is doing with Artemis I to publicize its launch this summer and the STEM Learning Pathway.  ARISS educators were interested in the STEM Learning Pathway add-on with its eight weeks of curated content for students. One teacher said he’d sign up as soon as the committee meeting ended and others were going to share the news with their school faculty.
 
April 5-6-7 ARISS team member Randy Berger attended the 37th Space Symposium Conference in Colorado Springs, CO and had time to network with SCaN Policy & Strategic Communications Specialist Angela Peura. Students came on one of the conference days and Angela had ARISS handouts and NASA materials for them—ARISS thanks her for this. 
 
April 5: ARISS Technical Mentor Charlie Sufana spoke via Zoom to 12 Metro Amateur Radio Club members in the Skokie, IL area.  His presentation included a video of Tim Peake talking about ARISS, some ARISS history, and how ARISS school contacts work. He showed a video of an ARISS school contact he had mentored. Then during the Q&A portion, Charlie answered questions for 30 minutes. 
 
April 7: The ARISS-US team supported an ARISS contact for area schools mentored by the Space Hardware Club at University of Alabama in Huntsville; details will be in next week’s report.
 
 
ARISS Social Media for March 2022
ARISS Facebook – March

Twitter: On March 31, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,327, a gain of 1.8% over the end of February.
Facebook: Followers for March 2022 increased to 7,365.
Instagram: Followers at the end of March 2022 grew to 410; Post Count is 29.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of March, subscribers increased to 1.65k.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
April 13 Dr. David R Williams School, Oakville ON, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 13 École Secondaire Ste. Marguerite d’Youville, St. Albert AB Canada, Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 14 Herzliya Science Center Israel, Herzliya, Israel, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 14 École Secondaire Ste. Jean D’Arc, London ON Canada, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 14 École Marie Poburan, St. Albert AB Canada, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
 

March 27: ARISS put on a strong presence at the 2022 ARRL Virginia State Convention in Annandale, setting up an exhibit table and providing guest speakers for an ARISS forum.   ARISS-USA Director of Education Kathy Lamont and ARISS-US Education Committee member Melissa Pore (the latter via Zoom) took turns giving a 50-minute presentation describing space and radio-related hands-on activities for elementary and high school students. Melissa spoke about her high schoolers’ STEM interests and a satellite she and elementary students at her previous school had built. Kathy explained the role wireless radio can play in elementary education and provided details on a variety of teaching activities that amateur radio operators use to enhance STEAM curriculum at various grade levels. 32 people came to the forum and another 138 tied in via Zoom including VIP ARRL Roanoke Division Director Jim Boehner in North Carolina. Zoom views jumped to 224 within a few days. At the exhibit table, 102 people stopped and learned about ARISS; several were George Mason University students and others were informal educators. Kathy, along with ARISS-USA Executive Director Frank Bauer, Associate Director Marty Schulman, and Janet Bauer staffed the booth. Two VIPs, ARRL Atlantic Division Director Tom Abernethy and ARRL Roanoke Division Vice Director Bill Morine sought out the ARISS table to shower compliments on the ARISS team.  
 
March 28: The ARISS team began plans for Hamvention, the world’s largest convention for amateur radio operators, which is held near Dayton, Ohio in May.  Hamvention officials honored ARISS, recently selecting the team for one of the coveted forum slots; this is the second year that has happened. Listeners will hear about current and future ARISS projects such as one involving student interaction with telerobotics.  ARISS team members will also set up and staff a booth, inviting wireless and space enthusiasts to learn about ARISS. The team will relate how formal and informal educators can engage in ARISS radio contacts. Passersby will be able to handle tools in the ARISS Radio Kit that can enhance science curriculum. They’ll learn that different versions of the kit are a main aspect of two new ARISS education initiatives.
 
March 31: The April issue of the QCWA Journal featured a cover story about ARISS penned by Rosalie White.  The Quarter Century Wireless Association, a US and Canadian organization, posts its journal every month. The three and a half page article highlighted the ARISS radio contact last December at the Savannah River Academy (SRA) in Grovetown, GA. The story’s focus covered SRA’s six months of wireless- and space-related hands-on student lessons along with ARISS’s new education initiatives.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
 
April 6  Leonardo Da Vinci Campus-Nauen, Nauen, Germany ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 7  Space Hardware Club with area schools, Huntsville AL ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
TBD Axiom Canada & Israel school contacts, ARISS-Canada & ARISS-Europe team

March 21: Toyonaka High School in Osaka, Japan hosted an ARISS contact for students to talk with Kayla Barron; she answered 20 student questions. People social-distanced on site totaled 75, including students, educators, parents, and a visiting professor. The school was named one of Japan’s Super Science High Schools and 30 students belong to the Toyonaka High School Science Club. Several times a year, the high school club members hold scientific labs for elementary school students—this year, the activities related to ARISS. The Kansai ARISS project team assisted the students.  These scientific labs for the younger students will continue through the school year.  SpaceRef.com posted in its March 21st ISS Status Report a paragraph that ARISS had prepared about the Toyonaka radio contact.
 
March 17: ARISS learned that ARISS educator Rachel Jones who mentored students at the Savannah River Academy (SRA) in Grovetown, GA, has won a national-level award.  The Radio Club of America (RCA) and the International Wireless Communications Expo selected Rachel as winner of the 2022 Young Professionals Award. It goes to individuals who “work in wireless, are under age 35, and execute some of the industry's most innovative ideas, showing creativity and influence.”  Rachel developed and executed a year of exciting hands-on lessons tied to wireless for grade 1-8 SRA students as preparation for their December ARISS contact. She got help from her ham club, Amateur Radio Club of Columbia County, to guide all 145 students in transmitter hunting, launching balloons with radio payloads, and operating various types of ham radio equipment. Rachel received her award at the 2022 International Wireless Communications Expo during the Radio Club of America Breakfast.
 
March 18:  ARISS Chair Frank Bauer and ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger prepared charts for a professional development workshop given by Frank at the 2022 5th Annual HamSCI Workshop. The talk covered recent ARISS research, such as the MarconISSta experiment, along with new ARISS educational programs that focus on research. Most of the 122 audience members were undergraduates and professors. A VIP, Esayas Shume, NASA Science Mission Directorate, Heliophysics Division attended and afterwards, wanted to talk to Frank about similar interests. Several professors and undergrads sought out Frank to discuss how to be involved in ARISS research.  He said, “This conference was a great event for allowing ARISS to network with people interested in research.”  
 
March 22: An ARISS contact took place for youth in the city of Aznakayevo in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The youth group participates in the About Gagarin From Space program. Anton Shkaplerov supported the ARISS contact.
 
March 21: A selection of ARISS team members studied a batch of student resumes and gave recommendations to Frank Bauer on NASA interns to consider inviting to work with ARISS. Two ARISS education programs will utilize students to assist with putting into motion the various aspects of the ARISS programs.
 
March 16: Rosalie White gave a half-hour presentation on the latest ARISS news at the ARRL-ARISS Board Committee meeting. She presented what’s new in regard to hardware plans, operations, recent accomplishments, and education programs.  ARRL (American Radio Relay League), a major sponsor of ARISS, re-named Rosalie as the ARISS Delegate representing ARRL to the ARISS teams for 2022. This was the board committee’s first meeting of the year.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
 
April 5  Leonardo Da Vinci Campus-Nauen, Nauen, Germany ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 7  Space Hardware Club with area schools, Huntsville AL ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
TBD Axiom Canada & Israel school contacts, ARISS-Canada & ARISS-Europe team                                     

March 17: Members of the Kids Star Club in Sayama, Japan had a chance to talk with Mark Vande Hei during an ARISS contact; he answered 17 students’ questions. Prior to the contact, elementary school students in the Sayama area had been recruited for their interest in learning about space and earning an amateur radio license. They took part in virtual lessons on space exploration, electricity, radio waves, and operating the club’s amateur radio ground station. The youth who passed their ham radio license exams got to generate the questions that all the students asked during the radio contact. The club livestreamed the action and streamed it also over YouTube with a reported 170 viewers watching. A TV and FM radio station covered the event.
 
March 11: ARISS technical team volunteer Kerry Banke was chosen to receive the prestigious 2022 Hamvention Special Achievement Award for his outstanding dedication and talents devoted to the Multi-Voltage Power Supply, part of the ARISS InterOperable Radio System (IORS). For several years, he spent hours nearly every day on ARISS’ custom-built power supply (needed because ISS modules don't operate on the same voltages) that was launched in March 2020 on SpaceX-20. Astronauts utilize the IORS for all Columbus module ARISS radio operations. Banke volunteered for a number of ARISS activities over the years and also as a SAREX Technical Mentor (Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment, ARISS’ predecessor) for schools. Award ceremonies will be at the 2022 Hamvention (usually over 30,000 attendees come from around the globe to this convention) held May 20-22 in Xenia, Ohio. Hamvention produced a news video about Banke and his award (730 viewers). The American Radio Relay League posted a story about the award for its web pages and its e-letter, The ARRL Letter, which goes to 107,000 subscribers.
 
March 16: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic reported that a young lady in the region of Rome, Italy, is earning her engineering degree this week and that two ARISS Italian volunteers assisted her. The young lady did her thesis on analyzing ARISS packet radio transmissions using different types of radio antennas, including a yagi antenna, which she built. Her thesis acknowledged Micol and Fabrizio Fava for their guidance, but Micol says she was the one who was honored to assist.
 
February 20: The ARISS SSTV (Slow Scan TV) Team made up of 10 volunteers performed an experiment in an effort to expand ARISS capabilities by testing a variety of different SSTV modes to download images downlinked from the ISS. The team utilized ARISS-Europe approved ground stations, and then downloaded 32 images. This first in a series of SSTV experiments to be carried out using the ARISS InterOperable Radio System in the Columbus module, this test used voice repeater mode. Images were downlinked while the ISS was over Europe, Australia, and Indonesia. All interested ham operators and other radio enthusiasts in the ISS footprint during the transmissions were encouraged to try receiving and decoding the special downlinked signals and email reports to ARISS. Over 570 participants, some in Hawaii and North American, sent reports! Each person received an acknowledgement message with a thank you.
 
March 18: ARISS Mentor Gordon Scannell learned that Snow Elementary School teachers in Dearborn, MI, wanted recommendations for cool books to read to students during Reading Month. Gordon, one of the school district’s IT staff members, shared the URL for Story Time from Space, including Emily Calandrelli’s “Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader” with its ties to ARISS, read by Anne McClain. When he saw one of the teachers a few days later she reported that her 20 students enjoyed Story Time from Space. She added that some of the girls in her class were very excited to learn that girls can be astronauts, too!  She said: “Apparently I have some girls interested in becoming astronauts when they get older!”
 
March 21: The Toyonaka High School ARISS contact was successful and more details will be available for next week’s report.
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
 
March 22  Aznakayevo city youth, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia ARISS contact, ARISS Russia team
TBD for April  Axiom Canada & Israel school contacts, ARISS-Canada & ARISS-Europe teams
 

March 1: University of Maryland’s Global Campus (UMGC) website featured a story posted on the Cybersecurity blog about Rachel Jones, an ARISS informal educator who led STEM lessons at an ARISS school. She always wanted a space career, had NASA internships, and earned a Master’s in Space Studies at International Space University in Strasbourg, France where she discovered she loved cybersecurity. Back in the US, she earned a Master’s in Intelligence and this spring, will finish a UMGC Bachelor’s in Cybersecurity. Leading young students in ARISS hands-on lessons made her recognize the importance of exposing kids to science at an early age. Rachel said, “I really didn’t have the mentorship to recognize what I wanted to do early in life, so I want to make sure I provide that to others.” The engaging story is at:     
https://globalmedia.umgc.edu/2022/02/28/degree-in-cybersecurity-opens-a-door-to-space-exploration-for-rachel-jones/
 
March 3: ARISS-US Director of Education Kathy Lamont coordinated with two ARISS team members and held an ARISS Proposal Webinar. This was for educational institutions wanting to learn how to be selected for an ARISS contact, including tasks such as preparing STEAM classroom lessons. Attendees learned about the ARISS Education and Contact Proposal they would prepare and how to navigate the submission process. Attendees numbered 25.
 
March 1: An ARISS February weekly report featured five-year-old Mario Vasquez and his father in Spain who shared the excitement of receiving ARISS SSTV images during the ARISS December session. Mario loved it, and ARISS educator Micol Ivancic found out about his reactions. She decided to mail him a special gift of decals and patches tied to ARISS and space. He was elated, sent her his photo, and anxiously awaits the next ARISS SSTV event.
 
March 6: Two years ago, SpaceX-20 launched to the ISS with the ARISS InterOperable Radio System (IORS) in its protective pouch. Today the IORS continues to work flawlessly and is a staple of ARISS operations in Columbus. ARISS’ power supply guru Kerry Banke reported the IORS has been on the ISS for over 17,500 hours and has traveled about 306 million miles!  Frank Bauer congratulated the ARISS team who contributed to the development and flight certification of the IORS.
 
March 5: ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger set up a booth area representing ARISS at the Irving Hamfest, the second largest regional amateur radio get-together in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He displayed ARISS hardware and information on ARISS education programs and school radio contacts. He talked with over 60 hams who had questions. He reported, “Most said they were going to listen to other hams engaging with the onboard ARISS radio system. Three want to help with ARISS school contacts and two want to help schools with preparing an ARISS Education and Contact Proposal to submit.” 
 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 
 
March 17 Kids Star Club Sayama, Sayama, Japan ARISS contact, ARISS -Japan Team
March 18 HamSCI Workshop, Huntsville AL, presentation on ARISS experiments, ARISS-US Team
March 21 Toyonaka High School, Toyonaka, Japan ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan Team
TBD for April: Axiom crew school contacts in Canada and Israel                       

February 28: Carter G. Woodson Middle School hosted an ARISS radio contact with Thomas Marshburn; he answered 20 student questions. An audience of 16 educators, 58 students, and 15 guests listened. The school is named for Carter Woodson, a son of former slaves; he became the second African-American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. Founder of the association for the Study of Negro Life and History, he is considered the father of Black History Month. The ARISS contact live stream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmFtTluF3aQ) was on YouTube, and also posted is a school video of student STEM activities; the two garnered 390 views. An online newsfeed, the Progress-Index featured an article about the contact. NBC-12 reporters came to school the next day to interview students for a special show. The school’s STEM curriculum included courses in space exploration and related technology, the Solar System, and careers tied to the study and exploration of space. The faculty partnered with members of the Richmond Amateur Radio Club who provided instruction on how radios work, hands-on kit-building and electronics, and amateur radio communications.
 
February 4-25: With their ARISS contact scheduled for April, the Space Hardware Club of the University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville recently visited several area schools whose students will be part of the contact. As prep for this, the undergrads visited the schools, leading lessons in space-related projects. They spent a day with 100 students at New Hope Elementary School in New Hope, building and flying paper rockets and then manipulating string to learn how radio waves work. Undergrads returned to the school to teach kids with a critical thinking game involving balloon payloads. At Mountain Gap Middle School in Huntsville, 120 students gathered with UAH club members to make and race paper airplanes and then joined together for a session with the critical thinking game on balloon payloads.
 
February 8: The Liborius Gymnasium in Dessau-Roßlau, Germany hosted a 2018 ARISS contact and students are continuing to study STEM tied to space and wireless radio. Twelfth graders love their physics class and built a ham radio station to engage with the QO-100 geostationary satellite. Recently, 35 twelfth graders planned an exposé for 45 tenth graders and staff. The capstone was a one-hour Q&A ham radio contact via QO-100 with four Antarctica Neumayer Station scientists. One was Theresa Thoma, a ham operator with computer science and electrical engineering degrees. Katherine, a Liborius student who has her ham license, used the school ham radio set-up to initiate the call while students listened anxiously, hoping the contact would work. Theresa answered from Neumayer’s radio room—students “broke out in frenetic applause.” She and the three other scientists answered questions about life at Neumayer, their research and technology, the ham station, and Antarctic effects on radio propagation. Afterwards, Liborius students said Theresa was a good role model for them. Next, Liborius students used a globe, satellite model, and string to present radio wave theory to non-hams. They used props to explain frequency and amplitude of an electromagnetic oscillation, and described the math and physics in “an engaging way.” Media reps came from radio stations MDR, SAW, Corax, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper, and MDR TV; the latter showed a three-minute video on the evening news titled, “Sparks—a hobby that broadens horizons.”
 
March 3: The ARISS team wrote and distributed a news release on working with Axiom Space. Two crew members scheduled to fly on Axiom Mission-1 (Ax-1) will use the ARISS radio to conduct school radio contacts. Ax-1 crew members Mark Pathy from Canada and Eytan Stibbe from Israel will support the contacts.  ARISS trained them on using the ARISS radio system and guided them on studying to earn their ham radio licenses. Stibbe will talk with middle and high school students in Israel. 40 school classes are expected to take part in his “Rakia” mission with theoretical and practical sessions on radio-based communication. Pathy’s personal mission theme of “Caring for people and the planet” will benefit Canadian elementary and high schools with STEM content and mentorship. Students developed questions on how human bodies react to being in space, doing things in zero gravity, and the state of our planet.
 
February: ARISS teacher Melissa Pore has been sharing with Bishop O’Connell High School students in Arlington, VA the many new STEM education activities she learned at the Space Exploration Educators Conference in Houston, TX. Her engineering students and amateur radio club members are enjoying space and communications activities tied to their 2022 Global Studies Program, “Space Exploration, Engineering & International Cooperation,” with ARISS as the role model.
 
ARISS Social Media for February 2022
 
ARISS Facebook – February

Twitter: On February 28, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,227, a gain of 1.2% over January.
Facebook: Followers for February 2022 increased to 7,305.
Instagram: Followers at the end of February 2022 grew to 404.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of February, subscribers increased to 1.64k.
 
 
February: Top Tweet—12.9k Impressions       Top Facebook Post—3,566 Reaches
                                     119 Engagements     
Twitter: On February 28, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,227, a gain of 1.2% over January.
Facebook: Followers for February 2022 increased to 7,305.
Instagram: Followers at the end of February 2022 grew to 404.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of February, subscribers increased to 1.64k.
 
February: Top Tweet—12.9k Impressions       Top Facebook Post—3,566 Reaches
                                          119 Engagements       
 
ARISS Upcoming Events 

March 18 HamSCI Workshop, Huntsville AL, presentation on ARISS experiments, ARISS-US Team