• April 20: Winmalee Public School in Blue Mountains, New South Wales (NSW), Australia hosted an ARISS radio contact with Victor Glover who answered 18 questions. Students ended the session with a big thank you. The school STEM curriculum includes a weekly STEM Lab for K-6. Space studies covered the solar system, space travel and missions, and exploration. Lessons to prepare for the ARISS contact focused on the ISS: tracking its position in orbit using applied mathematics, building models of the ISS, youth learning about astronauts and their roles, then sharing their ISS knowledge with high school students. The ARISS event brought out a big crowd following area COVID rules—100 students, 200 parents, and the director of Blue Mountains schools. Others were a Blue Mountains City Council member, a popular Sydney TV crew filming the entire event, and a high-rating radio station that later broadcasted its audio recording. The school’s livestream got 300 viewers. The lead ARISS teacher wrote, “Our entire townspeople are now huge fans of Victor Glover. He was so delightful in his manner and responses with the children. Thank you so much to NASA and ARISS. Science Rocks!” The NSW government web site ran a great story at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/latest-news/winmalee-students-visit-outer-space. The minister of education stated, ”It’s an incredible opportunity for students to be able to speak with an astronaut and connect what they’re learning to real life events.” A two-minute delightful ABC Facebook post is at:  https://www.facebook.com/9NewsSydney/videos/496447581720667/

• April 20:  During the Winmalee ARISS contact described in the previous blurb, a Belgian ARISS team member and colleague were teaching a ham license class for Belgian Army soldiers in two cities. A message said: “We each used the Winmalee students’ ARISS contact / ISS pass to demonstrate amateur radio. We heard 18 questions and answers at both of our sites with only a simple handheld ham radio station—an excellent demo of ham capabilities, antenna polarization, and signal propagation.”

 

• April 21: The ISS National Lab, Lockheed Martin, and the Space Foundation sponsored “Gateway: The Next Giant Leap,” a webinar on inspiring the next generation of world changers. ARISS-US Education Committee member and Space Station Ambassador Melissa Pore presented a talk on how to connect students to the ISS through ARISS programs. The audience, made up of educators participating in Space Foundation and ISS National Lab programs, learned about Gateway as an outpost for Artemis missions to the moon and how to engage students in related learning activities.

 

• April 15: A member of the ARISS-US Education Committee, Diane Warner, who hosted an ARISS school contact in 2019, had presented an ARRL (American Radio Relay League) Learning Network webinar last month at ARRL’s request, on ARISS activities at her school. Now, ARRL has asked her to have the webinar shown, and to support it during a livestream Q&A, at one of its July educator professional development workshops Teachers Institute—TI. TI offers educators four days of virtual instruction on topics related to wireless technology and amateur radio. Diane will get to attend all four days; she is thrilled! 

 

• April 19:  The ARISS team thanks SCaN for posting on its Twitter and Facebook platforms (53.4k Followers) an ARISS news release about the Winmalee Public School ARISS contact. SCaN’s Twitter post garnered top spot for the week with 7,132 Impressions. NASA STEM retweeted the Twitter post to their 300k followers.

 
        Upcoming Events
 

• April 21 Space Foundation Gateway Webinar, talk on ARISS for educators, Melissa Pore
  
• April 24 ARRL Virginia Convention, panel: ARISS engages Kids/Women in Radio, K.Lamont, M.Pore
• April 26 St. Scholastica’s College, Glebe AU, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
• April 26 St. Margaret’s School, Melbourne AU, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team

                             

• April issue: The Smithsonian magazine ran a feature on how ISS crew members spend their leisure time. The story began with a bit of detail on early space crews’ heavy workloads and needing time off. The writer moved to now, with space crews continuing to be more productive when schedules include relaxing—with making music being quite popular. The story cited the importance of ham radio as an engaging onboard leisure activity, as Doug Wheelock realized during his 2010 ISS mission. Speaking about the myriad of radio signals he heard from Earth’s ham operators, Doug said, “That started a trend for me where I made thousands of contacts across the world. That really became part of my connection back to the planet.”  Referring to deep space missions, he said, ““I can’t imagine doing a long-duration mission without that connection to the planet. It’s a huge psychological hurdle that we’re going to have to figure out.” The article is at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-do-astronauts-spend-their-weekends-space-180977480/?utm_source=pocket-newtab. A post about the story was added to the ISS Ham Twitter page and to ARISS Facebook and Twitter pages.
  

• April 14:  A team from the ARISS-USA Education Committee is reviewing ARISS Education Proposals that arrived during the opening of the recent window (February 15 to March 31, 2021) to accept such proposals. US education institutions whose proposals rise to the top in this competitive process will be offered the opportunity for ARISS radio contacts to be scheduled for January 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022.
  

         Upcoming Events
 

• April 20 Winmalee Public School, Blue Mountains NSW Au, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
  
• April 21 Space Foundation Gateway Webinar, talk on ARISS for educators, Melissa Pore
• April 24 ARRL Virginia Convention, panel: ARISS engages Kids/Women in Radio,  K.Lamont, M.Pore
• April 26 St. Scholastica’s College, Glebe AU, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
• April 26 St. Margaret’s School, Melbourne AU, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team

• March 24-25: Students at the Savannah River Academy (SRA) in Grovetown, GA have been preparing for their upcoming ARISS contact. Members of the Amateur Radio Club of Columbia County (ARCCC) presented a session that gave students a solid understanding of how to operate a handheld radio. They practiced talking to each other using Family Radio Service (FRS) radios and remembered to use phonetics when saying call signs. The kids learned about QSL cards that confirm a radio contact was made between hams; QSLs are commonly traded after radio contacts. The cards were a hit with students getting to design their own personal QSLs.
  
• The next evening at SRA Family Day, ARCCC members set up exhibit tables to engage students, their parents and teachers in ham activities. Demos of amateur satellite communication took place with students recording call signs and grid square coordinates for hams they contacted. They talked over the air with an ARCCC member at home. Kids showed off to parents the things they had learned such as sending Morse code. Several students and adults said they’re interested in getting a ham license.
  

• March 26: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers week-long summer classes to educators; ARISS-US Education Committee member and science teacher Martha Muir attended one. Upon completion, educators become part of the CDC’s Science Ambassador Fellowship (SAF) program and receive the quarterly Science Ambassador Alumni Newsletter. Last quarter’s e-letter carried a notice on watching CDC leaders take part in a NASA-sponsored live chat with Kate Rubins and Shannon Walker. Thinking that some SAF educators might want to host their own ARISS contact for students, Martha penned and submitted a short piece on ARISS and the ARISS proposal process. The editors accepted her item for the Spring 2021 e-newsletter.
  

• April 6: The School of Information Technology & Mathematical Sciences, Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program 2021 in Mawson Lakes, SA, Australia hosted a successful ARISS radio contact with Shannon Walker for elementary students of Mawson Lakes School.  She answered 22 student questions. People in attendance numbered 45 including the university’s Department of Education Director and Advanced Technology Program Manager. A student exclaimed, “I loved this! One day I will become a scientist and go to space.” Another said, “This made me take a special interest in space and astronomy. I loved the way we were trained and briefed for the event.” The university used its Facebook account to livestream the contact: 767 viewers, 605 engagements. A few days later, another 190 had viewed it. People listening via Echolink totaled 30.
  

• April 5-7: ARISS-Russia hosted three successful ARISS contacts for these schools:

1. Nilak Dosaaf Llc in Kaluga
   
2. Kaluga Regional Schools in Kaluga  
3. St. Petersburg School in St. Petersburg
   

• On April 5, Nilak Dosaaf Llc high school students enrolled in the educational program called About Gagarin from Space spoke with Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. On April 6, students in the About Gagarin from Space program in Kaluga Regional Schools spoke with Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.  St. Petersburg students in the About Gagarin from Space program talked over the radio on April 7 with Sergey Ryzhikov.

• March 31: Three ARISS Italian volunteers presented a live ARISS program for the Associazione Radiotechnica Italiana, Firenze chapter.  The talk was titled “The ISS Seen through ARISS Eyes and Beyond” and 39 people watched, including 2 students and 1 educator. An unknown number of others watched live via the chapter’s Facebook page but within a week, viewers totaled 454; the link is: https://www.facebook.com/IQ5FI. Topics included the antennas to use for ARISS school contacts, the ARISS HamTV system, the ARISS Italian radio telebridge station, and the ARISS Interoperable Radio System.   

         Upcoming Events

• April 20 Winmalee Public School, Blue Mountains NSW Au, ARISS contact    ARISS-Japan team

March 28-31: In four days’ time, the ARISS-Russia team sponsored ARISS radio contacts at:

• Aznakaevo School, Republic of Tatarstan
• International Aerospace School, Ufa
• Lipetsk Regional Public Organization, Lipetsk
• Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk  
  

 
Two of the contacts were tied to the ARISS-Russia educational program called “About Gagarin from Space.” Sergey Kud-Sverchkov supported the first of the four radio contacts with students of the Aznakaevo School. Sergey Ryzhikov handled the second radio contact for students at the International Aerospace School. The third contact, hosted by Ust-Ivanovka Amurskaya school of Amur State University, had Sergey Ryzhikov speaking over the radio with students. Sergey Kud-Sverchkov talked with the Lipetsk Regional Public Organization of Radio Sportsmen.   

• March 20:  Two students at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, VA gave a presentation at the school’s amateur radio club meeting to invite more students to become members of the club.  The two students talked about a new AMSAT CubeSat Simulator received by their teacher Melissa Pore, an ARISS-US Education Committee member. The youth explained the CubeSat payload’s new and interesting aspects and how they’ll engage in hands-on activity with it.  Also, Pore’s students were highlighted in the April edition of Virginia Living regarding the TI Codes competition hosted by Texas Instruments and NASA; students designed an astronaut pillow that among other things, had a CO2 sensor and a micro fan to circulate air near an astronaut’s face.
  

• March 31: An article titled “ARISS, The Most Engaging STEAM Proposal: Amateur Radio Activity from the Space Station” written by ARISS Italia volunteer Micol Ivancic appears in the March 2021 edition of Radio Rivista. This is the official monthly publication of the Associazione Radiotecnica Italiana (ARI), the national amateur radio society in Italy. The three-page article covers ARISS operations and schools’ ARISS STEAM activities.  Italian teachers can request free copies of the magazine for their schools.  

Social Media
 
Facebook – March 2021

 *Higher Reaches--posts about the result of the EVA to re-install the original ARISS cable and also an upcoming ARISS school contact
 Facebook Impressions for the quarter (January-March) totaled 62,277.
 
Twitter:
As of March 31, 2021, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 14,530, a slight gain over February.  Impressions for the quarter (January-March) totaled 257,290.
 
Instagram:
As of March 31, 2021, Instagram followers increased to 297, an increase of over 3% from February.
 
YouTube Members:
As of March 31, YouTube members totaled over 1,300. In January, the total was a little over 800. 
 
ARISS Web Unique Pageviews:
In March ARISS Web Unique Pageviews totaled 43,329, an increase of over 3,000 from February.

         Upcoming Events

• April 6      Sch of Information Tech & Math, Mawson Lakes Au, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team