ARISS Weekly Status Report - December 14, 2020

• December 4: Students at Tecumseh High School in Tecumseh, OK (some on site and some at home)  were thrilled by their ARISS contact. Shannon Walker answered 20 questions for an attentive audience of 200 including the Tecumseh mayor and the Tecumseh Public Schools superintendent while the assistant superintendent served as moderator.  Lead teacher Bill Crow declared, “It was awesome!  We had parents crying for joy!!” Video was streamed by the school for students (3,003 live views) and by the area ham radio club for the public (1,500 views). Three days later another 1,600 views had viewed the contact.  KFOR-TV, KAUT-TV and KGFF radio ran clips of the contact during their news shows, and Countrywide News and the Shawnee News Star covered the story.  The school’s Electronics and Amateur Radio class students of all levels learn basic circuitry using Snap Circuits, build simple circuits creating movement or sound design and progress to complex electrical circuits. Younger students learn basic coding using Bee Bots, Osmo systems, and Code-a-Pillars. Two students studied for and earned their ham radio license and have enjoyed talking over the air around the world and building satellite antennas in order to make ham satellite contacts.    
  

• December 4:  The Scuola Secondaria di I grado Anna Frank in Pistoia, Italy hosted an ARISS Multi-point Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio with Victor Glover. He answered 18 questions from students, some at school, some at home due to Covid-19.  120 people attended the event along with reporters from WebTV TVL and Radio Pistoia Web; live video was streamed and posted on the web sites. The contact was livestreamed resulting in 144 live views. A Milano teacher with her ham radio license and 15 fifth graders stood in their schoolyard, listening on her radio, and a student from Sri Lanka translated the English into Italian for the others. 
  

• December 7: Students at Athlone Community College in Athlone, Ireland participated in an ARISS contact with Shannon Walker. The event was streamed live to 1,200 students and staff in the school who were observing social distance in multiple classrooms. An additional 400 YouTube viewers watched live as students asked Walker 20 questions. Students viewed a videotaped message from the Irish Minister, and a representative came from the Education and Training Board. Pre-recorded videos were played of Dr. Norah Patten, an Irish aeronautical engineer, author and award-winning STEM advocate and Alan Giltinan, astrophysicist at Blackrock Castle Observatory.  Reporters came from two national TV stations, two national and three regional radio stations, and two national and three regional newspapers. The event was livestreamed for all students and staff and 400 across the world. By three days later, 2,000 more people had viewed the stream. A two-minute news clip produced by the Irish National Broadcaster RTE aired during prime-time evening news; it is at:  https://www.facebook.com/rtenews/videos/1049040025601236/   
  

 

• December 3:   A successful ARISS contact was completed for students at Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia.  Sergey Ryzhikov answered questions from 11 young people. The school had been leading a class of students in lessons from the “About Gagarin From Space” program.
  

• December 9: An ARISS contact was hosted for students at Southwestern State University in Kursk, Russia. Sergey Kud-Sverchkov supported the contact. Students participate in the About Gagarin from Space program. Two examples of the many questions students asked were:
  

         What research is not suitable for an astronaut?
         Do you have a favorite flower-plant-insect-animal from experiments on the ISS?

• December 2: The Moscow Aviation Institute scheduled an SSTV session tentatively for December 1-2, and historical images began to be downlinked on the 2nd.  Images were of “Soyuz crews of the past” and thus far, 398 hams, teachers, space enthusiasts, and the general public have downloaded 1,041 images. These are posted on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at: www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.
  

• December 13: An ARISS contact was scheduled for students at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the National Research University of Mordovia State University, N.P. Ogarev, in Saransk, Russia.  Students are part of the “About Gagarin from Space” program.
  

• November:  A previous report covered the shipment of boxes to schools of the ARISS Radio Experimenters Kit and beta-version hardcopies of the accompanying handbook. The kit is mentioned on the ISS National Lab Space Station Explorers web page at: https://www.spacestationexplorers.org/educational-programs/ariss-radioexperiment/. Here is a list of schools that received the kits.
  

1. John F. Kennedy High School - Denver CO
   
2. John F. Kennedy High School - Granada Hills, CA
3. John F. Kennedy Middle School - Woburn MA
4. Codman Academy Charter School - Dorchester, MA
5. Young Men’s Leadership Academy at Kennedy Middle School - Grand Prairie TX
   

 

• December 4: The Oregon Charter Academy (ORCA) hosted their 3rd in a series of ORCA NASA Radios Events. These lessons are tied to the school’s ARISS contact scheduled for December 15. During this lesson, titled “Houston, Let’s Solve a Problem,” 22 students were presented with a scenario where they are on a space mission when an explosion occurs. They had to work together to resolve the problem, save their craft and crew, and return to Earth.
  

 

• December 9:  Victor Glover and four schools sponsored by the Turkish State Meteorological Service had a successful ARISS contact. Schools were in these cities: Yenimahalle, Keçiören, and two schools are in Gölbaşı.  Most students were home, linked in online (150), and 15 were on site. Media reporters were from CNN Turkey and nationwide newspapers.
  

          ARISS Social Media
 
          Facebook in November 2020

        Twitter: As of November 30, 2020, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 13,799, a gain of 180   over October.
 
        Instagram: As of November 30, 2020, Instagram followers increased to 197 over October.
 
        YouTube Members: As of November 30, 2020, there are 791 YouTube members.
 
 
         Upcoming Events    

• December 15:  Students at Oregon Charter Academy in Mill City, OR, have an ARISS contact scheduled with Shannon Walker.

 

• January 5-15:  Times for ARISS contacts are being considered for the Oswaldo Guayasamín School of Basic Education in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Ecuador and for Shigagakuen Junior & Senior High School in Higashioumi, Japan.