QSO until 2018

The transmission type is called duplex, so questions are sent from Earth on another frequency.
This is the downlink audio file only (from ISS to ground), so we can listen only to the answers. OVER is pronounced by Paolo after he has answered and he’s ready to listen to the next question.
Here my translation, it is far from decent English but I’m Italian and English is my second language…

> Question from Earth

“You no longer feel the gravity force here in orbit… I don’t know, everybody reacts in a slightly different way, it seems I… I feel a lot this feedback, and for the first days it’s quite hard. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Alessandra, we reasoned … the work ranges from 5am to 7.30pm, we have two contacts with control center, one at the beginning and one at the end, and we work about 50% on mantaining the space ship, 30% on making experiments and 20% on doing activities like this I’m doing or doing physical training. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Luisa, we have a little free time usually on Saturday and Sunday, and in the evening before going to bed. We don’t have television, though they can send from Earth some pre-recorded shows; we have a slow speed Internet link, and of course we have a lot of music. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Francesco, we use GMT (London time, Greenwich main time), and we measure time with the normal clock/watch, it’s obviously a bit complex when you watch outside because there are these following sunlights and sunsets; so we look at the clock and we know what time is it by looking at the clock. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

[We now are] “…above the northeast of the United States, it’s still night here where we are, and… er… hehe, I can’t see much, it’s night and it’s completely dark below. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Edoardo, the Moon is always interesting, and it moves very fastly; I use to say, jokingly, that it occasionally comes to visit us; you can see it very clearly because there are no clouds, and I shot some close-ups where you can see it very clearly… In conclusion, it’s very interesting, from here. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Well, Lorenzo, men or humans have arrived as far as the Moon, so about 350.000 km from earth… uhm… that’s where we arrived at the moment. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Gabriele, we have lots of targets; in science, in tecnology and in education; the main target is to use this laboratory here in orbit, to continue living here and to learn more in the future for all of us. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Ludovica, this is my second mission, I did the first on a space shuttle at the end of 2007; it was a short mission at the time, this is a long lasting one, it’s six months in the station. -OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Well, Virginia, I consider myself lucky to be able to top my dream, to fly in the space and look at the Earth from up there; it’s a very good feeling, but everybody of us has dreams, but it’s not necessary to become an astronaut: the important is to understand what you want to do, to do it right and to try to achieve it as possible. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Aurora… uhm, yes, we have an on-board logbook that is actually not so full of notes… in fact everyone of us keeps a logbook, that is something personal, just to write down things like technical things but even feelings and emotions. – OVER

> Question from Earth

“Alessandro, we have about 80 kinds of pre-confectioned, different foods, that are kept in small envelopes or boxes; we don’t have a fridge, so everything must be eaten this way; those foods can be lyophilized; in this diet there’s a bit of everything, pasta, rice, meat, fish, vegetables; the only thing that’s missing are fresh things, because we obviously can’t keep fresh things here. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Alberto, we have some kind of sleeping bag; mine is wrapped to the floor, at least with feet tied to floor, the remaining floats around; I enter this sleeping bag and i sleep this way, floating… I must admit it’s very comfortable; your head doesn’t hit anywhere because you don’t move forward or backward, I never had this kind of issue. – OVER”

> Question from Earth

“Goffredo, we have an aluminium shield that breaks any micro-meteorites that reach us… occasional damages… well, we have to find the leak and fix it, but at the moment, in ten years of station orbiting, that never happened. – OVER”

And that’s all. Hope I’ve been helpful 🙂