• March 19:  The new ARISS radio system that was launched to the ISS in early March has now been moved out of the Dragon capsule by ISS crew members and is stowed on the Harmony module until ARISS receives one final approval.  The ARISS team is developing crew procedures for set-up and installation.
  

 

• March 25-27: ARISS contacts postponed this week because of host schools’ and education groups’ COVID closings are:  SPDW Voortrekker Movement Camp in Oranjeville, South Africa; Ramona Lutheran School in Ramona, CA and Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia.  The next school considering ARISS contact options is tentatively scheduled during the last of May, but is continuing to very closely monitor the area’s health situation.
  

 

• March 19: In a collaborative initiative between the ISS National Lab Space Station Explorers, Story Time From Space, and ARISS, the recent book Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader by Emily Calandrelli was read by Anne McClain for Story Time From Space. Anne read the book in three segments. The second segment features a tour of the ARISS radio station that includes details about ham radio and ARISS. At the end of the final segment, a video was included of Sunita Williams talking about the impact of ham radio on both the ISS astronauts and students taking part in ARISS activities. Many schools and media outlets—and even the USA’s First Lady—have recommended that parents have housebound youth listen to McClain read the book.  The Vermont Community Newspaper Group‘s (Burlington) reporter wrote in part, “A great way to get out of the house—way out of the house—without leaving home…. In this installment Ada is trying to fix a ham radio….  It’s a nice antidote to weighty issues, enjoying readings from weightlessness.”  A few posts recommending McClain’s YouTube thus far are: Los Angeles’s ABC TV7; Daily Times (Delaware County, PA); The Mercury (Berks County, PA); The Trentonian (NJ); The Barnstable Patriot (MA); the Orange School District and Hamilton School District (NJ); Palo Alto (CA) schools; and an education blog in Glasgow, Scotland.
  

• March 26: The online weekly news show, HamTalkLive!, featured an hour-long live interview of Frank Bauer talking about the new ARISS radios launched in early March to the ISS.  Several HamTalkLive! tweets were posted prior to the show to promote the ARISS interview and a number of listeners tweeted their questions for Frank to answer.

• March 20: Amateur Radio Newsline, another online weekly news program, presented a short piece about the new radio equipment sent to the ISS. This show highlighted the Kenwood transceiver and how it was set up by Kenwood engineers to improve the ARISS worldwide school and education group contacts, the ARISS Slow Scan Television sessions and APRS packet communications, and the tertiary backup communication system for the ISS. 

 

• March 20: An ARISS Italian team member and teacher, Micol Ivancic, gave a Skype talk with the theme being ham radio in space.  She presented a program covering the first days of ham radio communication in space by Owen Garriott to some future possibilities ARISS is considering for Lunar Gateway.  The Skype talk, sponsored by the Italian national ham radio society, was for hams and ham clubs and 47 viewers tied in.
  

• March 12: A 20-minute show about amateur radio was produced and run by the German broadcast radio station, WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk).  One fourth of the show, titled “Amateur Radio, More than a Hobby,” was devoted to ARISS.  A portion of one of Alex Gerst’s ARISS school contacts was included. The show is at:  https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/neugier-genuegt/feature-amateurfunk-100.html

 
 
          ARISS Upcoming Events      

• TBD:  The ARISS team is studying options that ensure social distancing, with one part of the communications link—the one involving individual youth—being virtual.
  

o edit.

• March 13: Youth who are part of the Australian Air League’s South Australia Wing in Parafield, South Australia, Australia took part in an ARISS contact with Drew Morgan.  He answered 14 questions with a listening audience of 200.  Dignitaries present were Rear Admiral (Ret.) Kevin Scarce and the mayors of Port Adelaide, Gawler, and Salsbury.  The ARISS contact was shared via Echolink and IRLP with 28 check-ins from around the globe, including 13 from the US.
  

• March 19: Due to COVID-19 greatly limiting the ARISS team and students from being at education institutions, team members pulled together a new plan for the latest ARISS contact.  The Turkey Space Camp in Izmir closed to protect youths’ health just days before their ARISS contact.  So students’ questions for their contact with Drew Morgan were pre-recorded by space camp staff with help from the Turkey Radio Amateurs Society members in Izmir.  With the work of the Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club members at the W5RRR ARISS ground station, the recorded questions were transmitted via ham radio to the ISS for Drew to hear; he answered 16 questions. 

 

• Space Camp’s livestream listing students’ questions, relaying Morgan’s ham radio transmission and showing stock ISS images and video garnered 366 views.  It was played through loud speakers in Turkey where 14 adults could gather, and the link was sent to the youths and others at home.  Space Camp reported 2,782 views of their ARISS-related Instagram posts.  A number of people said this ARISS activity was a boon to young people and adults in many areas who are dealing with COVID. Staff shared this about their 20th anniversary: “We have been visited by 250,000 youth and adults from 60 countries. Staff members are college graduates and undergraduates, some with education majors, others pursuing masters in astronomy, and all are trained in space education.” 
  

• March 17: ARISS-US Education Committee member Dan Pooler was to give a professional development presentation on ARISS at the New Hampshire Teachers of Mathematics Spring Conference in Manchester; it was canceled due to COVID. 

 

• March: The ARISS team is working the changing schedules for ARISS contacts since most schools are closed and education groups aren’t meeting.  For ARISS’s nine radio telebridge stations, four are located at public or NASA (GSFC and JSC) locations that are now inaccessible. Recent postponements are:  Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital-Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN; McConnell Middle School in Loganville, GA; Oakwood School in Morgan Hill, CA; Piatra-Neamt in Romania.
  

 

• The ARISS team is transforming our activities for the health and safety of our students, host education institutions, astronauts, and our team. ARISS is international in scope, like the ISS, and COVID and government policies affect each person and each ARISS Region differently, and effects will change rapidly for weeks to come. ARISS is preparing for longer-term effects (months). Working with a physician on our leadership team we continue to review all procedures and monitor local and global change so as to plan modifications. 

 

• Short term: ARISS mentors work with each education institution in the queue to determine the way forward.  Each selected ARISS contact “belongs to” the education institution; they know best the local COVID policy, so ARISS abides by their decision to cancel, postpone, or modify the contact efforts. ARISS asks all to put health and safety first; each contact decision is carefully scrutinized by the senior ARISS International leadership team. 

 

• Long term: ARISS has several initiatives underway to transform how we interact with students and host education institutions.  Per the COVID mitigation ideal--we will interact with “infinite” social distancing--engaging virtually with each student and staff member in their homes (even quarantined).  More details will be shared soon.

         ARISS Upcoming Events      

• March 27: Youth attending the SPDW (Sentraal Penkop en Drawwertjie Waterwerkkamp) Voortrekker Movement, a week-long scout camp in Oranjeville, South Africa look forward to their ARISS radio contact with Drew Morgan. It will be livestreamed.
  

• March 31: An ARISS contact is tentatively planned for students of Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia.

• February 20: Two ARISS volunteers brought STEM and ARISS to Red Hill Lutheran School in Tustin, CA. Taking part were 210 K-8 students and 32 staff. Drew Morgan was supporting an Ohio ARISS contact; Red Hill students were treated to watching the Ohio livestream and responded enthusiastically. They were divided into groups to get a brief intro to ham radio and ARISS before experimenting with the ISS Above Raspberry Pi. Next, youth got on the air to make ham radio contacts, posing questions to area ham operators. Students watched a video of Anne McClain on the ISS talking about her feelings of unity with people on Earth. The youth sent a Twitter message thanking her for the things she had said. To their joy, Anne soon posted a reply!  A teacher said, “This was awesome! I've always loved NASA and am fascinated by it. The kids really enjoyed themselves and I couldn't help but ask my own questions of our guests. I want to spark [student] interest because who knows, I could be teaching a future astronaut!”
  

• February 25: ARISS-Russia supported an ARISS contact for 25 Zorinsky Secondary School students and 5 adults in the Kursk region of Russia. They learned many space facts while talking with Oleg Skripochka. They regularly take part in the About Gagarin from Space program.
  

• February 7: Undergrads from Southwest State University in Kursk, Russia traveled to a youth conference held at the Equator Technological University in Quito, Ecuador. ARISS-Russia sponsored an ARISS contact for them with Oleg Skripochka; 50 people attended. The undergrads from Russia participate in the About Gagarin from Space program. 
  

• March 9: River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, FL held its ARISS contact last week. The impact of the students’ studies tied to this event and realizing the value of ham radio as a teaching tool have inspired a second faculty member to earn a ham license. Next year’s plan is to grab the interest of all aerospace students by helping them earn their licenses. The school will hold Ham Fridays for youth to study aerospace and electronics and enjoy using the school’s ham station. The first licensed teacher said, "The ARISS contact was not the end of this project, but the beginning of so much more. We really did spark interest.”  A second result of the ARISS contact is that nearby Millennium Academy is interested in ARISS and setting up a ham station.
  

 

• March 9: ARISS-US Education Committee member Dan Pooler gave a professional development presentation on ARISS and STEM-related activities to teachers at the annual conference of the New England League of Middle Schools held in Providence, RI.
  

• March 3: ARISS-US Education Committee member Tommy Henderson gave a presentation under the auspices of IEEE Region 5 at the Tulsa Community College (TCC) in Tulsa, OK for 35 undergrads and 10 adults. His topic was amateur radio astronomy and ARISS.  The audience saw two YouTube videos—one of his Tulsa students during their ARISS contact in 2015 and one of students setting up a portable ham station. He focused on different designs of antennas for radio astronomy and ARISS contacts. He is TCC’s Associate Professor of Electronics.
  

•   March 6: The Tulsa Engineering Challenge was hosted at Tulsa Technical Institute in Jenks, OK. ARISS-US Education Committee member Tommy Henderson showcased the Tulsa Community College Amateur Radio Club’s ham equipment and ARISS activities.  The challenge focused on students in grades 4-12 and 1,100 youth came from 40 schools. In addition to examining hands-on display items, they took part in many competitions, i.e., making a ping-pong ball launcher from a mousetrap, and watched stage shows such as one on chemistry and physics sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers.  
  

• March 13: Students in the Australian Air League’s “South Australia Wing” in Parafield, South Australia had an ARISS contact with Drew Morgan; details will be available soon.
  

• March 12:  ARISS leaders developed a COVID-19 policy regarding upcoming ARISS contacts at schools.  The ARISS Team wishes to protect students, educators, the general public, and ARISS volunteers as much as possible.
  

                                                 ARISS Social Media
                                             Facebook in February 2020

Twitter
At the end of February 2020, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 12,218, a gain of 104 over January.
  
Instagram
As of February 29, 2020, total Instagram Followers have increased from 119 to 139.
 
 
          ARISS Upcoming Events      

• March 17: ARISS-US Education Committee member Dan Pooler will give a professional development presentation on ARISS at the New Hampshire Teachers of Mathematics Spring Conference in Manchester, NH. 
  

 

• March 19: Turkey Space Camp students in Izmir, Turkey have an ARISS contact scheduled with Drew Morgan.
  

• March 3: Students at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, FL had an ARISS contact with Drew Morgan. The school auditorium held a combination of 853 teachers and high school and middle school students listening to Morgan answer 14 student questions.  Student STEAM exhibits were set up for visitors to view.  After the contact, students in the audience enjoyed visiting the ham station and the ham technical crew on stage to study how ham radio made the communications possible. The school district livestreamed the events on their Facebook page; both the school and school district had posted many Social Media stories about ARISS before and after the ARISS contact.  News outlets covering the event were ABC-TV, Fox TV, Spectrum News TV, CBS, and newspapers Suncoast News and Tampa Bay Times.  The neighboring Wendell Krinn Technical High School’s student news crew was invited, and they interviewed River Ridge students.  ABC-TV went all out, airing a story during their TV broadcast, posting video on their Facebook page, posting a story at their online news page, and doing a YouTube, with the latter being at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezHohE7GoTk
  

• January: A cross-country airline flight allowed two ARISS educators to team-teach STEM with students. Manhattan Beach (CA) School District Science Specialist Joanne Michael went to visit Antietam Elementary School teacher Kathy Lamont in Woodbridge, VA.  Joanne brought materials to help Kathy’s class put together a high-altitude balloon with a ham radio payload.  Joanne led students in looking at different types of balloons and satellite maps, and how ham radio is used to get data and how to collect it. After the launch, students made assumptions based on the data they compiled, such as decreasing speed due to weather. They compared all their data results to “professionals.”  Joanne’s California students have launched 6 balloons and among other things, always analyzed the daily data to make predictions about the track and length of the flight, and when the balloons went down, students studied data and maps to figure out possible reasons why, such as if one hit a mountainside.   
  

• March 6: The ARISS team’s new radio system, the InterOperable Radio System launched to the ISS on SpaceX-20.  Team members will wait for word on when the system is unloaded from the Dragon capsule. The hardware team has submitted all responses to NASA engineers’ questions and all approvals but one thus far, have been received for setting up the radios.
  

• March 6:  ARISS was discussed in a New York Times article in regard to an upcoming ARISS contact in Green Bank, WV’s quiet zone.  (The school got an approval letter from quiet zone authorities for the ARISS contact.)  The Times story has a section about ARISS and the STEM studies the Green Bank Elementary-Middle School teachers are leading that included in their ARISS proposal as student preparation for the ARISS contact that will be in late 2020. The URL is:
  

          https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/us/green-bank-west-virginia-quiet-zone.html


          ARISS Upcoming Events      

• March 9 & 17: ARISS-US Education Committee member Dan Pooler will do professional development presentations on ARISS at the annual conference of the New England League of Middle Schools to be held in Providence, RI, and at the New Hampshire Teachers of Mathematics Spring Conference in Manchester, NH. 
  

 

• March 13: Students in the Australian Air League’s “South Australia Wing” in Parafield, South Australia will have an ARISS contact with Drew Morgan.

 

• March 14-15: ARISS Mentor Gordon Scannell will give a forum on ARISS at the ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention in Perrysburg OH. He will be introduced as a VIP guest at the banquet, also.

 

• March 19: Turkey Space Camp students in Izmir, Turkey have an ARISS contact scheduled with Drew Morgan.

 

• February 22: Students and faculty at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, FL spent a Saturday finishing projects related to their upcoming ARISS contact on March 3.  Two of the projects they finalized were Tomatosphere and creating a special school logo that celebrates their ARISS contact and related STEAM studies.
  

• February 24: Kittredge Magnet School (KMS) in Atlanta, GA hosted an ARISS contact with Drew Morgan who answered 15 student questions. Attendance in two adjoining rooms totaled 600. The Brookhaven city mayor, representatives from the city council, the Dekalb School District Board, and the American Radio Relay League attended along with two TV stations’ crews. Viewers of the livestream ARISS contact totaled 1,700. Over 5,000 watched the video afterwards. A Kittredge educator honored the memory of math genius Katherine Johnson and NASA crew member Christa McAuliffe who said, “Space is for everybody.” -- the Kittredge teacher adding, “Kittredge Magnet School is making space ours.” Six Kittredge Magnet School Amateur Radio Club members took turns at the mic thanking area hams for helping two boys earn the Boy Scout Merit Badge, aiding a group of girls in garnering the Girl Scout Ham Radio Patch, and visiting classes to let students make radio contacts with hams at Georgia Tech and around the globe. A boy said his favorite radio contact was with a ham who lived on an island near Ontario, Canada, who had no Internet or phones, and his main communication method was ham radio. Students displayed various STEAM projects around the school including Maker creations.  The URL for the livestream is (the kids’ cheering quiets down at 4:40):
  

          https://www.facebook.com/kittredgemagnet/videos/845713255892438/

• February 20: Students at Maple Dale Elementary School in Cincinnati, OH had a fantastic day having spoken with Drew Morgan. An 11th grade student and ham operator Julianna Di Benedetto handled the ARISS contact. A crowd of 500 listened as Drew answered 16 student questions. Addressing the group was the district school superintendent, attending along with three American Radio Relay League officials from Michigan and Ohio. Maple Dale livestreamed the ARISS contact to 9,630 students at 6 area schools: Blue Ash Elementary School in Blue Ash, Symmes Elementary School in Cincinnati, and 4 schools in Montgomery: Montgomery Elementary, Greene Intermediate, Sycamore Junior High, and Sycamore High.  A Maple Dale teacher said: “We featured students and their questions on Maple Dale social media before the contact, and the school’s phone began ringing off the hook with questions on how to watch the livestream. So we posted the URL on the Sycamore School District’s Social Media pages.”  An ARISS volunteer in California, giving a ham radio talk at an area school set up Maple Dale’s Facebook page so the West Coast kids and teachers could watch the ARISS contact live.Two news crews caught the Maple Dale action and another crew taped students the previous day. Following the contact, teachers discussed starting a school ham club. Media hits included:

 https://local12.com/news/local/sycamore-students-get-the-chance-to-speak-with-iss-astronauts

https://www.wlwt.com/article/local-second-graders-talk-to-astronaut-aboard-the-international-space-station/31028142

• 2 for 1 -- a NASA blog posted the ISS daily summary, including the ARISS event, and Space Ref picked up the post:
  

http://spaceref.com/international-space-station/nasa-space-station-on-orbit-status-20-february-2020---new-bone-research.html

• February 25: Students at Celia Hays Elementary School in Rockwall, TX were excited to have their ARISS contact with Drew Morgan. Over 190 students sat on the gym floor while another 680 on campus listened via the school’s communication system as 15 questions were answered. A newspaper reporter covered the event and the contact was live streamed; it is at (begins at 9 minutes): https://live.myvrspot.com/st?cid=NWM5NW. A short ARISS Facebook video of a girl garnered, in less than a half day, a Reach of 1,751 and 500 views. Student activities included robotics, ham radio satellites, coding, and communications such as the Deep Space Network.
  

• February 18: Long-time ARISS volunteer Tony Hutchison was invited by the premier of South Australia to a dinner in Adelaide as a guest of the Australian Space Agency.  Tony was honored for his and his ARISS team’s work in Australia, inspiring thousands of youths’ interest in space, communications, and all types of STEM.  

• February: Wikipedia's web page on SpaceX-20 (launch targeted for March 7 with ARISS’s new InterOperable Radio System—IORS--onboard) is at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_CRS-20.  The page lists some primary payloads, including the IORS, and says:  “Interoperable Radio System (IORS) is the foundation element of the ARISS next-generation radio system on ISS.”  The second and third media hits on SpaceX-20 and ARISS were an American Radio Relay League (ARRL) web story and a nearly full-page article in March QST, ARRL’s monthly journal going to 160,000 members.

• February 24: ARISS Mentor Gordon Scannell was invited to a meeting at Southfield Christian School, a K-12 school in Southfield, MI to give a workshop meeting on ARISS.  Three teachers, the elementary school principal and middle school principal attended. The result of the meeting is that the faculty plans to spend several months developing their ARISS Education Proposal.  

 
 
         ARISS Upcoming Events      

• March 3: Students at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, FL, are all set for their contact with Drew Morgan.
• March 9 & 17: ARISS-US Education Committee member Dan Pooler will do professional development presentations on ARISS at the annual conference of the New England League of Middle Schools to be held in Providence, RI, and at the New Hampshire Teachers of Mathematics Spring Conference in Manchester, NH. 
• March 14-15: ARISS Mentor Gordon Scannell will give a forum on ARISS at the ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention in Perrysburg OH. He will be introduced as a VIP guest at the banquet, also.

• February 7-9: The ARISS team had a multifaceted presence at the 2020 Orlando Hamcation, the 2nd largest US amateur radio convention, which boasts 25,000 attendees.  ARISS Chief Engineer Lou McFadin gave a forum talk on ARISS.  ARISS shared a booth area with one of its sponsors, AMSAT, and a group of ARISS volunteers spoke with many hundreds of passers-by.  Orlando Hamcation staff had reviewed nominations sent from around the US for their 2020 Carole Perry Educator of the Year award, given to a teacher whose work resulted in outstanding educational contributions.  Hamcation selected ARISS-US Education Committee member Melissa Pore as the winner.  She was asked to give an ARISS workshop at Hamcation, as well.  Days earlier, she had gone to Houston to present an ARISS workshop at the Space Exploration Educators Conference.      

• Feb 12: In preparation for their Spring 2020 ARISS contact, 90 secondary students and 30 high school students at the school, Ro-Sat One, in Piatra-Neamț, Romania have engaged in many educational activities. These included studying research carried out on the ISS, characteristics of electromagnetic waves, and basic technical knowledge of ham radio equipment. They viewed NASA photos of nighttime over Bucharest, listened to Luca Parmitano’s ARISS contacts, tried digital communications including Morse code, and downlinked ARISS SSTV images. In each week of January, a group of students were chosen to prepare for their ham radio license exam to be administered in March 2020.

 

• January: ARISS-US Education Committee member Kathy Lamont, teacher at Antietam Elementary School in Woodbridge, VA, has involved students in the Dream Up Germs in Space program, part of Space Station Explorers. Kathy and the gifted and talented 4th and 5th graders were inspired to do STEM projects by Mark Vande Hei when all of the school’s students listened to him during their ARISS contact in 2017. Now, students are comparing their microbes to those experimented with previously on the ISS by Vande Hei! 

                                                           ARISS Social Media
                                                        Facebook in January 2020

Twitter
In the month of January, ARISS Twitter saw a gain of 231. Total Followers are now 12,114.
 
Instagram
As of January 31, 2020, total Instagram Followers are now 124.
 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events      
February 20: Students at Maple Dale Elementary School in Cincinnati, Ohio will reach out to Drew Morgan using the ARISS amateur radio station on the ISS. 

• January 28:  ARISS Challenge Coins were presented to members of the West Point Amateur Radio Club at the United State Military Academy in West Point, NY.  A local author of a number of articles on ARISS, Joe Lynch, set up the presentation to commemorate the West Point cadets talking on the military academy’s ham station radios last October with Drew Morgan using the ARISS radio station on the ISS.

• February 7: An ARISS contact was supported by ARISS-Russia and Oleg Skripochka for Russian students from Southwest State University in Kursk. The students were in Quito, Ecuador attending a youth conference being held at the Equator Technological University.  
• February 6-8: Frank Bauer and ARISS educator Melissa Pore staffed an ARISS display set up in conjunction with SCaN at Space Center Houston in Texas at the 26th annual Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC). Hundreds of teachers stopped at the exhibit and learned about ARISS.  Melissa presented a 45-minute ARISS workshop on the 6th, as well.  While in Houston on the 4th and 5th, Frank participated in the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers Education Summit, and he and Kenneth Ransom had meetings with several people at Johnson Space Center.
  

• February 7-9: ARISS team members had a presence at the Orlando Hamcation in Florida.  More details on ARISS activities there should be available for next week’s report.

 

• January 30-31: The Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) sponsored an SSTV session using ARISS equipment to downlink historical space-related images from the ISS.  Over 1,580 files that people had downloaded were posted online by ARISS for the world to see. Participants were from every continent.  Posted images are at:  http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

          ARISS Upcoming Events      

• February:  Maple Dale Elementary School students in Cincinnati, OH are waiting to hear about a date for their ARISS contact.

                                           

• January 28: The Primary School Jovan Jovanović Zmaj in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia was the site of an ARISS radio contact with Luca Parmitano. Students asked 20 questions before an audience of 205 people.  Before the ARISS contact was initiated, a program was featured about the ISS, the school, the ham club, and the school’s ARISS projects. The lead teacher stated that the audience included 56 VIPs and 18 reporters from 7 TV stations, 5 radio stations, and 6 newspapers.  For many weeks, teachers had been posting online many of the related STEAM activities students had undertaken, including planetary and communications studies.
  

• January 27: Students at three schools that are part of Escolas Serafim Leite in São João da Madeira, Portugal conversed with Luca Parmitano during an ARISS contact. A gathering of 425 people made up of 150 teachers, student teachers, and students watched the action as Parmitano answered 17 student questions.  It was standing room only in the auditorium, not large enough for everyone interested in watching. The remainder of the 1,200 students from three Serafim Leite Schools watched the activities via live stream, which is now posted at:  https://www.youtube.com/user/EscolaSerafimLeite. The ARISS Mentor wrote that reporters came from two national TV stations, one national newspaper, and three local newspapers. A special guest attended from the Portuguese national amateur radio society. Students created space vehicle designs, learned about the ISS, and tried out ham radio communications.
  

• January 23 & 27: ARISS team members held two ARISS Proposal Webinars for educators who wanted to learn more about ARISS’s proposal process and had questions. The team supported the webinars in conjunction with the new ARISS proposal window that opened February 1, 2020.
  

 

• January 30-31: ARISS-Russia was planning an MAI SSTV Session, downlinking space-related images from the ISS.  Details should be available for next week’s report.
  

 
          ARISS Upcoming Events      

• February 6-8: The ARISS team will have a presence at the 26th annual Space Exploration Educators Conference at Space Center Houston in Texas. ARISS educator Melissa Pore will lead a workshop there.  Frank Bauer will take advantage of being in Houston for the conference by scheduling ARISS meetings with several of the Johnson Space Center staff. He will also take part, on behalf of ARISS, in the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers Education Summit.
  

 

• February 7: An ARISS contact may be supported by ARISS-Russia and Oleg Skripochka for a school in Ecuador.

• January 18: Educators and students from McConnell Middle School in Loganville, GA set up an exhibit at Techfest in Lawrenceville, GA.  Students engaged the passersby, showing off STEM projects they work on related to an upcoming April ARISS contact.  A teacher and students from Kittredge Magnet School in Atlanta were visiting Techfest, also; they have a February ARISS contact. The two schools’ educators networked at Techfest (the event is a community outreach day where hams demonstrate many aspects of amateur radio).  Over 300 individuals attended including quite a few young people.
  

 

• ARISS volunteer John Kludt and other members of the North Fulton Amateur Radio League (NFARL) set up and staffed an ARISS-AMSAT exhibit booth at Techfest, talking to attendees about ARISS and ham satellites.  Additionally, NFARL members arranged a large area with tables loaded with hands-on activities that gave youth a chance to learn soldering and kit building.  Each youth had the opportunity to build a code practice oscillator and get help if needed.  
  

• Jan 22: Students at Morita Junior High School in Fukui, Japan enjoyed their ARISS contact with Luca Parmitano. Over 60 people were in attendance to watch the activity as Partmitano answered 15 of the students’ questions. The contact was covered by a TV station and a newspaper source. The school wrote: “Our students are learning many knowledgeable things of science and engineering through various experiments. Students number 332.”
  

• Jan 22: Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Canada was the site for an ARISS contact with youth talking to Luca Parmitano. A 96-year-old ham operator initiated the contact; she volunteers regularly at the science centre’s ham radio station exhibit, which has been set up there for more than 30 years.  An audience of 60 people watched as 11 students asked Parmitano their questions during the ARISS contact. Reporters from several media outlets were on hand taping video for stories they posted to their news sites.  The Centre’s staff supported numerous space-related STEM activities for youth and their parents in recent weeks.
  

• Jan 16: In preparation for their upcoming January 28th ARISS contact with Luca Parmitano, students at the Primary School Jovan Jovanović Zmaj in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia have enjoyed many STEAM activities.  Most recently, they competed in designing artistic mission patches. They regularly post online summaries of their activities for parents and others to read.
  

• January 23: The ARISS announcement about a new window opening in February to accept ARISS education proposals was posted by various news outlets including NASA EXPRESS newsletter.  Winning proposals would be for ARISS contacts taking place the first six months of 2021. The NASA EXPRESS newsletter was distributed to 42,866 subscribers and was shared via various social media outlets viewed by 552,296 followers.  

 

• February issue: ARRL’s (American Radio Relay League) monthly print journal, QST, featured a photo story on Melissa Pore from Arlington, VA who is an ARISS-US Education Committee member. The story highlighted her being chosen as the 2020 recipient of the Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award sponsored by the second largest US ham convention. She will be honored at the convention February 7-9, which is held in Orlando, FL.  QST is mailed each month to ARRL’s 160,000 members.    

 
 
          ARISS Upcoming Events      

• January 27: An ARISS contact at Agrupamento de Escolas Serafim Leite in São João da Madeira, Portugal was supported by Luca Parmitano.  Details will be in next week’s report.
• January 28: Youth at Primary School Jovan Jovanović Zmaj in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia look forward to their contact with Luca Parmitano.
• January 30-31: ARISS-Russia is planning an MAI SSTV Session, downlinking space-related images from the ISS.
• February 7: An ARISS contact may be supported by ARISS-Russia and Oleg Skripochka for a school in Ecuador.

• January 13: Sayama Mizutomi Community Center in Sayama, Japan hosted a successful ARISS contact between students and Luca Parmitano. An audience of 250 watched students as Parmitano answered 20 of their questions. A TV station, a newspaper and three other news sources were present covering the event. A YouTube file of the ARISS contact that shows student anticipation turning in to happiness is at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqACsQoYHSw.
  

• January 13:  An article about ARISS was written by an ARISS team member and posted on the website of University of Southern California’s Dornsife College.  The story is about how ARISS garners young people’s interest in STEM and results in “a spark of wonder and delight.”  The URL for the story is: https://dornsife.usc.edu/joint-educational-project/sparking-the-imagination/ .
  

• January 17: The ARISS Team wrote and distributed a new release regarding a new window of opportunity. That will be open February 1 to March 31, 2020 to accept ARISS education proposals.  Winning proposals will be for ARISS contacts during the January to June 2021 timeframe.
  

 
 
        ARISS Upcoming Events      

• January 22:  Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Canada will host an ARISS contact with Luca Parmitano.
  
• January 22:  Students at Morita Junior High School in Fukui, Japan are planning an ARISS contact with Luca Parmitano.
  
• January 29-31: ARISS-Russia will support an MAI SSTV Session, downlinking space-related images from the ISS.