• 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