• September 10: Students at the Collège Raymond Sirot and the Raymond Sirot Middle School in Gueux, France were involved in an ARISS radio contact, interviewing Chris Cassidy about his experiences on board the ISS. He answered 12 questions as the radio communications were relayed, due to the Covid crisis, through one of ARISS’s Australian amateur radio ground stations. The audience consisted of 110 students. The Departement de la Marne (government education agency) livestreamed the contact to 600 students in all schools in the Marne region, and 2,300 others viewed the stream afterwards. A live YouTube garnered 192 views. An outstanding showing of news media covered the event: regional TV FR3 Champagne Ardenne, regional radio France bleu Champagne-Ardenne, national radio NRJ and RCF, regional newspaper L’Union, and several private video channels. The school staff put a large emphasis on explaining to the audience the role that ham radio played in the event. Both schools’ students learn about space, gravity, matter and energy and do project-based STEM learning. The Collège partners with a planetarium (who also streamed the ARISS contact for 48 viewers) and an area ham radio group so students can learn about the universe and amateur radio.

• September 9: The ham news podcast, Ham Nation, ran a 20-minute segment covering the recent activation of the ARISS InterOperable Radio System (IORS) on the ISS. The host for this portion of the evening’s program was well-known amateur radio personality, mentor and ARISS donor, Gordon West. Rosalie White had been corresponding with him about ARISS’s successes and he decided to tell his audience about ARISS this week and again next week. During his talk, he explained the IORS’s capabilities, the cross-band repeater mode it is currently in, and how to interact with this ISS communication option. His slides illustrated good techniques for making an ARISS repeater contact. The YouTube attracted 324 live viewers and thus far, another 850 afterwards. The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krsha5dSoi4&t=3066s.

 

• September 2: A San Diego, CA, CBS News reporter asked ARISS team member Kerry Banke for an interview at his house. The result was a feature story about how ARISS facilitates students to talk to astronauts, the positive ways students are affected by this, and Banke’s volunteer work on the new ARISS radio system. The article included an older video clip of Doug Wheelock demonstrating how he used ARISS equipment in the Russian Service Module to talk to ham radio operators and featured Wheelock giving a mini tour of the ISS. The URL is: https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/zevely-zone/la-mesa-man-building-space-radios-from-his-garage/509-445801a4-aaf2-419b-8758-f423d8333a04
  

 

• August 25: The ISS Ham media team at Johnson Space Center created and posted a great nine-minute video on ARISS and amateur radio. It highlighted Chris Cassidy supporting the May 15th ARISS contact for young members of the Airdrie Space Science Club and other area students in Airdrie, Alberta. Within 2 days, views of the post totaled 36,700 with 214 Re-tweets and 1,100 likes. The link is: https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1298273936124153860.

 

• Also, the ISS Ham team posted the video on YouTube. In 2 weeks, views totaled 11,567.    The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=1clACXLdDhs&feature=emb_logo.

 

• A few hours later, Cassidy posted comments about the video on his own Twitter account so more people could see the video. It quickly got 22,400 views, 96 Re-tweets and 648 likes. His link is: https://twitter.com/Astro_SEAL/status/1299104348811612160.

 

• ARISS sponsor ARRL (American Radio Relay League) posted Cassidy’s video on its Facebook page and quickly saw: 8,177 people reached, 383 engagements, 194 reactions, and 52 shares. Many other ham radio and non-ham radio news outlets picked up the story.  ARRL’s Facebook link is: https://www.facebook.com/ARRL.org/posts/10157912097177408.
  

 

• The video went global! Hours after the first posting, the UK’s DailyMail posted the story; link is: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8666705/NASA-astronaut-Chris-Cassidy-ISS-receives-call-Canadian-students-using-ham-radio.html
  

 
                                              ARISS Social Media
                                            Facebook in August 2020

Twitter: As of August 31, 2020, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 13,083, a gain of 142 over July.
  
Instagram: As of August 31, 2020, Instagram followers increased to 164.
 
         ARISS Upcoming Events     

• September 18: The school, Avellaneda Ikastetxea, in Sodupe, Spain will host an ARISS contact utilizing the ARISS telebridge ground station in South Africa to relay communications between the school and ARISS ham radio station on the ISS. Chris Cassidy will support the contact.

• September 2: Chris Cassidy installed and set up the first element of the ARISS Next Generation Radio System--the Interoperable Radio System (IORS)--in the ISS Columbus module. The IORS is now in operation and consists of the MultiVoltage Power Supply, a specially modified JVC Kenwood transceiver, and associated cables. The ARISS team spent five years developing the IORS, which replaces an intermittent Ericsson radio and packet module. With time, more ARISS equipment will be launched for other ISS modules, and will support different experiments.  ARISS distributed a news release, picked up by many news outlets, sharing that the IORS was activated initially in cross-band repeater mode as a relay station allowing hams on Earth to make radio contacts with one another. Thousands of hams quickly began interfacing with the new ISS system, enjoying the new communications option. A ham radio operator in Mauritius wrote: “Patrice and I had a superb contact via the ARISS FM repeater a few minutes ago. Fine signals both ways on VHF and UHF. Really nice to have the repeater on the air!” 
  
• Next week the ARISS team will use the new system for an ARISS school contact. ARISS thanks major sponsors NASA and ISS National Lab for supporting the ARISS team!  The team is already shared ideas for new experiments to try.   
  

• September 2: A successful ARISS contact with Chris Cassidy was sponsored by the KMO Kolska Wyspa (a club of teenage explorers) for its students and those from other schools in Kolo, Poland: Adam Mickiewicz Primary School No. 2, Kazimierz Wielki Secondary School, and Martinuary Insurgents Primary School.  Students, ages 12 to 19, and staff gathering at the Mickiewicz school totaled 29, while 61 viewed the livestream YouTube, and 42 watched live video provided by the British Amateur Television Club (BATC). BATC viewers could also see video of Martin Diggins handling the radios at his Australian ARISS radio telebridge station, relaying Cassidy’s voice and the Polish youths’ voices. Cassidy answered 13 student questions. Two TV stations and a photo agency were on hand covering the day’s activities. The KMO club leaders, some from area ham radio clubs, work with teachers and students promoting EarthKAM and MoonKam activities in cooperation with Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw.  The Wielki school is known for its outstanding robotics program. Younger students studied space, handled ham radio equipment, and regularly updated a bulletin board showcasing the latest news from ESA, NASA, and the Sally Ride Science program. KMO students learned to solder, then assembled robots, learned to control the robots, and older students moved on to bigger robots. After participating in EarthKam, they put on a show called “The Earth from the Sky.”

• August 24: The Queensland Government Department of Education (DoE) in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia sponsored an ARISS contact with Chris Cassidy for the 4th annual i-Educate Conference, this year with educators online. The conference, considered the premier professional development technological conference for all Queensland educators, is led by the DoE IT branch. During the contact, a group of 30 students and staff from three schools (Mount Crosby State School, Runcorn Heights State School and Victoria Point State High School) assembled in a DoE office building and Cassidy answered 11 questions from the 13- and 14-year olds. Online for the ARISS contact were 265 educators while 69 others listened on EchoLink and IRLP (an online amateur radio audio conference service). The IT branch interacts with all Queensland schools providing guidance in implementing technology for student learning in classes.  

• July 17: ARISS balloon race coordinator Joanne Michael in Culver City, CA, was invited by a race participant in Pasco, WA to give a Zoom talk to members of the Prosser Conservatory of Theatre for Children. She discussed the science of radio, showing examples of a radio receiver, transmitter, and antenna, and what they do and how ARISS radio contacts work. She explained differences and similarities of sound waves and radio waves and something these students could easily relate to, how to stop microphone feedback problems! Taking part were 20 students ages 8 to 17, 3 formal educators, and 1 informal educator.

• July 17: Cosmonaut Ivan Vagner supported an ARISS contact with students in the Gargarin from Space study program who were participating in the 9th International Aerospace School summer event.  The coordination of activities is based out of Ufa, in the UN Sultanova Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. Utilizing social distancing, 15 college students, 2 professors, and 2 adults were part of the ARISS contact.

• August 7: Senior Education Manager Dan Barstow at ISS National Lab asked ARISS educator Melissa Pore to invite two students to be recorded for a NASA video downlink. Bishop O’Connell High School had an ARISS contact two years ago and students continue to study radio and space.  High schoolers Mira and Will were selected for the downlink because of design studies they’ve done, and they could ask Chris Cassidy about these. Mira enquired about future automated space vehicles that might result in less training needed to go to space. Will requested advice about a prototype space pillow that was designed for microgravity. 

   ARISS Upcoming Events        

• September 10: Students at College Raymond Sirot in Gueux, France are a go for their ARISS radio contact with Chris Cassidy.
• September 18: Students from Avellaneda Ikastetxea School in Sodupe, Spain are scheduled to have an ARISS contact with Chris Cassidy.
  

• August 18: Kathy Lamont, ARISS-US Education Committee Chair, reported that she networked on behalf of ARISS with the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Program Manager of Aerospace Education. CAP education leaders already knew about ARISS after visiting the ARISS exhibit at the Space Education Explorers Conference in Houston. They’ve now added ARISS to their online posting of educational resources for CAP Aerospace Education Members. They wrote, “[We] really like what the ARISS organization does! Anything you want us to post, we will.” CAP’s educational resources list is at: https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/programs/aerospace-education/for-educators/aehome (ARISS posting is halfway down the page). The ARISS web site URL is listed under the title “Amateur Radio on the International Space Station Educational Content” and ARISS’s YouTube URL of videos is listed under the title, “Educational Videos.” 

• August 13: Oregon Charter Academy (ORCA), an all-virtual public school in Portland, OR has been educating students with a focus on STEM for 15 years. The academy’s ARISS contact is scheduled for December. The online Monthly Portland, a magazine highlighting Portland’s culture and events, posted an article titled “Students Reach for the Stars.” It covered ORCA’s curriculum tied to ARISS and students’ field trips to area university labs and science museums. The story described science experiments done by students at home while watching ORCA’s broadcasts. Principal Dan Vasen was quoted talking about a partnership he set up with JPL Mobile Museum’s RADIOS (Remote and Distant Interactive Online Sessions) to engage ORCA’s 350 K-12 students in monthly virtual STEM enrichment, which includes content from Space Center Houston that JPL distributes. ORCA will share these programs with several other schools and government officials via Zoom and ORCA’s Facebook page. Vasen said, “Students who participate in this free program get curriculum integrations focused on STEM and NASA education all year.” The story’s author wrote: “Through innovative partnerships with NASA, students can also communicate with the stars—or at least those living among the stars at the International Space Station. Interest in space has never been higher, and ORCA is fueling their dreams of science careers.” The article is at: https://www.pdxmonthly.com/sponsored/2020/08/students-reach-for-the-stars

• June 24: ARISS-US Education Committee team member Melissa Pore, a teacher at Arlington, VA’s Bishop O’Connell High School, has been scheduling online STEM aerospace speakers for her students who enjoy space and ARISS-related studies. The summer activities maintain the youths’ enthusiasm. The first two speakers attracted 20, and then 30 students and 2 educators. The first speaker, Caitlyn Singam, a systems engineer and bioengineer, inspired students about NASA’s Dragonfly Mission to Titan. The second speaker, Karen Rucker, a Ball Aerospace electrical engineer, focused the students on space communications such as ARISS and SCaN, 3-D printed antennas, and analog space missions leading to future missions to Mars. A side note—Ms. Singam and Ms. Rucker are both amateur radio operators.  

• August 19:  Students from virtual summer camps sponsored by Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, NY had a successful ARISS contact with Chris Cassidy. Many more details will be available for next week’s report.

• August 24:  The Queensland Government Department of Education in Brisbane, Australia sponsored an ARISS contact for students as a part of the online i-Educate conference for educators. The conference is considered Queensland’s premier professional development technological conference. ARISS team members will have pulled together the outcomes by next week.

 
         ARISS Upcoming Events     

• September 2:  Students at KMO Kolska Wysp in Koło, Poland will have an ARISS radio contact with Chris Cassidy.

• August 8: The ARISS-Russia team reported that an ARISS radio contact took place in Aznakaevo in the Republic of Tatarstan. The young people involved had been participating in the About Gagarin from Space youth program and 20 questions were answered by cosmonaut Ivan Vagner. Eighty people attended the event, 50 of which were students. Here is an example of one of the questions students asked: “Do magnetic storms affect the radio communications with the ground?”
  

• August 4: ARISS Educator Melissa Pore assisted with three lesson activities related to space communications and ARISS during two of the two-hour sessions for the online DC Space Camp. Some of the types of things she helped the youth understand were radio signals, line-of-sight radio propagation, Morse code, how to point antennas, and building equipment for radio communications. The camp youth were taking part in many lessons led by the PSC SCaN team about a number of NASA’s projects. Thirty youths, including Arabella Trump, tied in from the surrounding areas and they ranged from second through sixth grade school levels.
  

         ARISS Upcoming Events     
 

• August 19:  Staff and students from summer camps at Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, NY, are finishing preparations and lessons for their ARISS radio contact with Chris Cassidy. ARISS is preparing a news release to distribute.
  

 

• August 24:  The Department of Education-Queensland Government in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia will host an ARISS contact for youth.

• July 29: An article appeared in the Ramona Sentinel about Ramona (CA) Lutheran Christian School students’ preparations for an ARISS contact in mid-October. Beginning August 17, the school will offer a course called Robotics and Amateur Radio Fundamentals through the STEM clubs. The course builds on STEM lessons taught this spring related to ARISS. If the school postpones its opening, teachers hope to get a waiver for small groups of social-distanced students to do the hands-on activities. They will learn how to code robots and be mentored by the local radio club, Ramona Outback Amateur Radio Service, in a number of hands-on radio activities. The newspaper story also explained the ARISS program, its focus on STEM learning, and its affiliation with NASA, ARRL, and AMSAT. The lead teacher had traveled to ARRL Hq in Connecticut in 2019 for a week-long Teachers Institute to learn to lead activities that utilize amateur radio as a STEM-teaching tool in the classroom.    
  

  

• Aug 4-5:  Space and radio enthusiasts around the globe enjoyed a Russian Slow Scan TV (SSTV) session carried out using the Moscow Aviation Institute’s MAI-75 experiment on the ISS. Images featured things related to Russian space and aviation history. Participants used free software from the internet to download and post 2,830 images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery web pages:  https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.  US participants were very pleased including one writer, Beth in Texas, who said:  “I received an image during a pass today. It was a low elevation pass, just 7 degrees. The next pass is a high elevation one. Fingers crossed for a good image!”  ESA Education has promoted ARISS SSTV for a month after creating and posting an online video on how to download images. ESA Education’s David Honess wrote: “At one point there were 98 concurrent users downloading images from the Goonhilly Web SDR! I am really pleased…the views of our video jumped from 3,000 to 9,600 the last few days!  And over 50 comments were posted, which are all nice and positive.”  An ISS Fan Club web page administrator said she noticed a big increase in people who posted notes about it being the first time they downloaded SSTV images.
  

• Ongoing:  In the past six months, the ARISS team has been developing an electronics teaching kit focused on radio technology targeted to elementary through high school students. Hands-on lesson plans to use with items in the kit cover basic electronics and communications concepts: Understanding Waves and Wave Propagation, Series and Parallel Circuits (and electronics understanding), Codes and Ciphers, and a Software Defined Radio (also known as the ARISS Radio Pi) that is a plug and play system.

 

• The latter includes a Raspberry Pi and software, both specially developed by ARISS (the software is embedded on a micro-SD card for the Pi), and an RTL-SDR dongle that plugs into the Pi and attaches to the provided antenna. The ARISS Radio Pi will enable students to investigate radio signals across the radio spectrum and to track and listen to satellites, including the ISS.
  

 

• The first batch of kits is nearing completion and then will be introduced to students at several schools.
  

ARISS Social Media
 
Facebook in July 2020

Twitter: At the end of July 2020, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 12,941, a gain of 176 over June.
  
Instagram: As of July 31, 2020, total Instagram Followers increased to 157.
 
 
        ARISS Upcoming Events     

• August 21: Students from summer camps sponsored by Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, NY will speak with Chris Cassidy during an ARISS contact.
  

• August 14-15: Kathy Lamont, chair of the ARISS-US Education Committee and a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Aerospace Education Member will attend sessions of the virtual CAP 2020 National Conference on a variety of CAP educational resource materials that can be used by teachers and students.

• July 30: The ARISS radio contact with students from the American School of Rio de Janeiro (EARJ) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with Chris Cassidy was a big success.  At the mike of the ARISS radio station, he answered 12 questions. The youth engaged safely in the contact through an online connection to an ARISS ham radio ground station in Belgium. Over 340 other students, faculty, family members, and friends watched the livestream and by 4 days later, total views were 2,582. The YouTube is at: https://youtu.be/MSyfzEHYwrE.  The teacher wrote: “We are so very grateful for this opportunity; in the middle of a global pandemic, our students contacted the ISS! Our whole community is celebrating; we needed this. We will build a greater emphasis on space science in our curriculum. We are all inspired.” Another hope is to set up a school ham station and tie it to lessons in geography, languages, math, and chemistry.  Students attending the school come from 30 nations with a 70/30 mix of local to non-local kids.
  

• July 24:  An article about ARISS volunteer Kerry Banke appeared in the La Mesa Courier, an online publication based out of San Diego.  The item titled, “Space Radio – La Mesan Develops Device for the ISS,” featured Banke’s career as an R&D engineer, his interest in ham radio microwave operations, and what he’s particularly enjoyed doing since retirement. That is when he became an ARISS Mentor, introducing area schools to ARISS. Then in 2015, he switched his volunteer time to helping design and develop the ARISS InterOperable Radio System (IORS), and did the vast majority of the work on the Multi-Voltage Power Supply. The IORS, launched to the ISS on SpaceX-20, is now in the Harmony Module awaiting set up and installation in Columbus.  The article is at: https://lamesacourier.com/space-radio/
  

• July 30: The August issue of CQ DL, the journal published by Germany’s national amateur radio society, Deutscher Amateur Radio Club, ran an item about the 2020 ARISS-International Annual Meeting. The story described the meeting being held by necessity via GoToMeeting and listed some discussion topics including current operations and projects such as ARISS SSTV educational sessions, the new ARISS equipment awaiting set up on the ISS, and future ARISS projects. The article also featured the new ESA Education videos about ARISS.   

• July 26: A seasoned ARISS volunteer, Shane Lynd of Glenden in Queensland, Australia has a new weekend home in the coastal town of Mackay and recently set up a second ARISS telebridge station there. His new ham radio station has been tested and is now fully operational.  Eager to ensure that ARISS contacts are well-supported during the Covid crisis, he will operate his second station on weekends when needed. 

 
          ARISS Upcoming Events     

• August:  Students from Greenwood Primary School in Greenwood, Western Australia, Australia have a list of choices to prioritize for an ARISS contact with Chris Cassidy.
  

• July 17: Christopher (Chris) Brault of Liberty Township, OH was selected as the 2020 Bill Pasternak Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year. This is a national-level award given to a youth who has accomplished a number of achievements in ham radio and technology activities. He is a senior honors student at St. Xavier High School, where he helped re-activate the school amateur radio club. In 2016, he assisted with leading his school’s successful ARISS contact with Kate Rubins, hosted by iSPACE, a science center near Cincinnati with the mission of igniting passion in students for STEM. Chris enjoys volunteering at many types of events that support activities aimed at grabbing the interest of youth for STEM. He works with scouts every year during Jamboree on the Air, an annual event for girl and boy scouts to have fun learning about the Boy Scout Radio Merit Badge, the Girl Scout Radio Patch, and ham communications. This year he helped support Youth on the Air in North America. Chris has an interest in aviation and takes flying lessons.
  

          ARISS Upcoming Events     

• July 30: An ARISS contact is planned for youth from the American School of Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact Via Amateur Radio with Chris Cassidy.

• July 10: An ARISS radio contact took place with homebound students from Don Bosco Technisch en Beroesponderwijs (technical and vocational education school) in Haacht, Belgium. Chris Cassidy supported the social-distanced Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio and answered 12 questions that highlighted 11 students, 4 educators, and 1 school administrator. The livestreamed YouTube garnered a large number of interested people—1,800 live views. Within 7 hours, another 1,600 people had viewed the action. The YouTube is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj6gkCtKAwg.  The school offers STEM lessons in astrobiology, telecommunications, electronics, and physics, and sponsors a student ham radio club.
  

• July 10-11: ARISS educator Joanne Michael was a speaker at the 2020 Great Plains Super Launch (GPSL), held as an online event this year. She talked about the recent ARISS-supported balloon race, how her balloon fared, and her lessons plans that thousands of educators downloaded for use.  GPSL is the premier North American balloon gathering for high altitude enthusiasts from around the world. Each year GPSL is held in a part of the Midwest and draws innovative hobbyists and professionals from dozens of states and as far away as England. At Joanne’s session, 60 people joined, with at least 3 being educators, 1 of whom is ready to get her students involved in balloon launches. Listeners haled from AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IA, ID, IL, MD, MI, MN, NE, NY, TX, and WY along with Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. In previous years on the final day of GPSL, many participants launched their own balloons and this year, they did so from home. Joanne prepared and launched a high-altitude balloon and a pico balloon from her Los Angeles area.
  

• July 10:  An IEEE Spectrum online article featured the writer’s view on the status of the amateur radio service. The author highlighted the radio service’s tie to STEM learning and so, the importance of promoting ham radio among youth. The story featured ARISS, including ARISS volunteer and high school student Dhruv Rebba. The writer described how the youth had persuaded his teachers to write a proposal for hosting an ARISS contact and gave them ideas for types of lessons for the proposal. It was selected for a 2017 contact with Joe Acaba.   

 

• July 17: Students from the International Aerospace School in Ufa, Russia took part in a successful ARISS contact and spoke with cosmonaut Ivan Vagner.  More details are expected.

 
         ARISS Upcoming Events     

• To be determined
  

• June 24: ARISS educator Neil Rapp and other leaders of the group Youth On The Air (YOTA) in the Americas planned YOTA Virtual Activity Day, a six-hour event filled with STEM activities related to ham radio. Leaders originally designed a five-day camp to be at the National Voice of America Museum near Cincinnati, OH. What with Covid-19, they switched to three days of activities youth would do at home.  The first day, YOTA Virtual Activity Day, boasted three competitions and five hands-on learning activities. College student and ARISS volunteer Ruth Willet led a session on amateur satellite operations, including how to interact with ARISS radios on the ISS.  YOTA online participants totaled 119, with 185 watching the action during the next few days.
  

• July 10: Students from Don Bosco Technisch en Beroesponderwijs in Haacht, Belgium had a Multi-point Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio with Chris Cassidy. Details will be available to report next week.

 

• June 19: At-home students of Carmelita Manara School in Milano, Italy were thrilled to receive their Astro-Pi Mission Zero certificates. The electronic documents showed the exact start and stop times the Raspberry Pi computers on the ISS ran the students’ software programs, and where in the world the ISS was orbiting. ARISS volunteer and educator Micol Ivancic said the ESA project proved very exciting to her students. Nine teams, two to four students each, had formed online and completed the programming activity using the Mission Zero Sense HAT web emulator. Micol said next year’s challenge is to help students build an Astro-Pi clone with Sense HAT and a 3D-printed external shell. She wrote, “Students are so happy to have their certificates. We can't go to school, but we go into space!”      

 

• July 8: ARISS volunteer Ed Krome and ARISS were recognized in an article posted by The Republic, a Columbus, IN newspaper. The story told how he got intrigued in assisting with ARISS. The writer described Krome’s background as an electrical and mechanical engineer and ham radio operator for years, and after retiring, deciding to help ARISS. He was a key player in the mechanical design of the ARISS MultiVoltage Power Supply (MVPS), part of the new ham radio station waiting to be set up on the ISS for ARISS contacts. The article explained how the all-volunteer ARISS team built and tested all of the equipment and met NASA’s many stringent requirements. The writer highlighted ARISS, too, explaining that the program promotes STEM initiatives and how the MVPS will play a large part in this since it will power the interactive experiments on board the ISS that engage students.  When asked what he liked best about working on ARISS projects, Krome enthusiastically replied, “It’s just exciting and interesting. Its new technology, it’s space-related. It’s STEM, it’s trying to get the next generation, or two generations from now, interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” 

 
  The newspaper story is at: http://www.therepublic.com/2020/07/08/connecting_in_orbit__retired_columbus_engineer_works_on_radio_power_supply_for_space_station/
 
          ARISS Upcoming Events     

• July 17: Students from the International Aerospace School in Ufa, Russia are planning an ARISS contact and will speak with cosmonaut Ivan Vagner.  

 

• June 22-26: The 2020 ARISS-International Annual Meeting to be held in Germany was changed due to COVID 19 to five mornings on GoToMeeting. Representing 12 countries, 62 people tied in—20% more than at any other ARISS meeting. ARISS Delegates from all 5 ARISS Regions took part. Frank Bauer opened the meeting by recognizing ARISS’s 20 years of successes and attendees heard about commercial crews and a presentation on ARISS’s near and distant future. Morning two included discussions on ARISS operations during COVID 19 such as the new Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio with social-distanced students, ideas on improving operations during COVID and otherwise, and crew scheduling challenges. A full morning on day three was devoted to education with a few items being a review of the ARISS-supported balloon race that saw so many participants, a status on the US team’s Radio Kit project, and the ESA ESERO program with ARISS-related resources for European educators. Another morning focused entirely on ARISS on Lunar Gateway, a very popular topic; covered were requirements, concept of operations—crewed and uncrewed, hardware and software systems, risk identification, and work going forward.

• July 3: An ARISS outreach event was put together in Casale Monferrato, Italy by a group of ARISS volunteers and the ISS Fan Club. They supported a livestreamed YouTube talk with many of the volunteers sharing stories of interesting activities done by the IK1SLD ARISS Telebridge Station and ARISS HamTV Ground Station in that city. Paolo Nespoli was a special surprise guest joining via Skype. He answered a question from a student listener, described highlights from ARISS contacts he has supported, and thanked the ARISS volunteers, calling out their names. Also featured at the outreach event was an earlier interview of Luca Parmitano. The program was livestreamed on two platforms garnering 73 live views, and afterwards, 484 more views.  

ARISS Social Media
 
Facebook in June 2020

Twitter: At the end of June 2020, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 12,765. ARISS has been averaging 135 new followers each month.
  
Instagram: As of June 30, 2020, total Instagram Followers increased and now total 153.
 
 
         ARISS Upcoming Events     

• July 10: The next ARISS contact is scheduled for students from Don Bosco Technisch en Beroesponderwijs (technical and vocational education school) in Haacht, Belgium. This will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio with Chris Cassidy.