ARISS News Release
No. 20-09
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled for American School of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
July 26, 2020—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio license on the International Space Station (ISS).
This radio contact will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio developed for distance learning when worldwide education institutions closed due to COVID-19.
ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR, will support the ARISS radio contact.
The ARISS telebridge radio ground station–a ham radio satellite station with special equipment for teleconferencing–will be operated by ARISS team member Jan Poppeliers, using amateur radio call signON4ISS. He will be social distanced at an AMSAT Belgium club station in Aartselaar. Cassidy will be at the ARISS ham radio station on the ISS and each youth will tie in from home. Students will be taking turns asking Cassidy their questions.
School staff and the public can watch the livestreamed action from their own homes.
The youth taking part in this ARISS contact are students from American School of Rio de Janeiro, Rio deJaneiro, Brazil.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for July 30, 2020 at 13:41 BRT (16:41 UTC, 12:41 EDT, 11:41 CDT, 10:41 MDT, 09:41 PDT). The 1,200 students at this co-educational college-prep school have access to nine science labs and a MakerSpace. Youth comes from 30 nations; the schools has a
70/30 percent mix of local to non-local students.
ARISS invites the public to view the livestream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at: https://youtu.be/MSyfzEHYwrE
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. Has the Corona virus pandemic afected the safety protocols aboard the ISS in any way?
2. How do you exercise in space so you keep your muscles and bones active?
3. Has your goal always been getting into space since you were a child or did you have diferent interests when you were a child?
4. Do you support a football team, and if so, how do you follow them from space?
5. What are some of the most memorable moments you’ve had since becoming an astronaut?
6. Since the date we visited the moon in 1969 we have made multiple trips to space in which we had learned a lot about it, what would you consider to be the next step for humans in space exploration?
7. How does sound difer in space from on earth, are there any big diferences in what you hear or is it the same?
8. What was the worst accident that happened in the international space station, and how was it dealt with?
9. What is it like to reach escape velocity? Were you scared that your spacecraft would explode during the take of? If so, how did you handle this fear?
10. After being in zero gravity for so long in space what is it like to return to gravity?
11. How long does the training take to become an astronaut on the ISS?
12. Does the absence of gravity make it harder to eat and drink certain foods in space?
13. Are there essentials you or other crewmembers take to the ISS apart from food and water, such as certain materials to run experiments or personal items?
14. How do satellites and spaceships make their way through the space debris safely? Is the ISS doing something to minimize space debris?
15. What is your opinion on the human race striving to become a multi-planetary species?
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab and NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and @ARISS_status.