ARISS Weekly Status Report - February 3, 2020

• 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.