Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and teen participants at the Pacific Science Center located in Seattle, WA. ARISS conducts 60-100 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
The Pacific Science Center (PacSci), located in Seattle, Washington, began as the Science Pavilion in the 1962 World’s Fair. PacSci hosts numerous exhibits highlighting Space Exploration, Tropical Butterflies, Physics, the Brain to Body connection, Hands-on Making, and more. PacSci has a youth development program, Discovery Corps, made up of high school students who support PacSci staff members that work with many departments around the Science Center, serving guests, conducting research, and participating in unique STEM and education-related enrichment activities. This group of teens will be participating in this ARISS contact and have been actively preparing by developing an extensive curriculum with topics related to space and amateur radio. Some notable topics the teens have learned about in this curriculum include how the Ionosphere influences radio propagation, how solar events and space weather influence satellites, and Interviewing & Public Speaking etiquette. They also attended workshops, hosted by Tinker Tank, and successfully built a Yagi tape measure antenna, soldered an attenuator kit, and conducted a fox hunt around Seattle Center. Members of the West Seattle Amateur Club are supporting PacSci during this ARISS contact.
This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing youth to ask their questions of astronaut Jeanette Epps, amateur radio call sign KF5QNU. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relay ground station.
The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Seattle, WA. Amateur radio operators using call sign W7AW, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for August 16, 2024 at 11:14:35 am PDT (Seattle) (18:14:35 UTC, 2:14 pm EDT, 1:14 pm CDT, 12:14 pm MDT).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://www.youtube.com/@pacificsciencecenter/streams
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As time allows, students will ask these questions:
- Did you always have the goal of being on the ISS?
- What inspired you to become an astronaut?
- What kind of training do you have to have before going into space?
- How do you deal with emergencies or unexpected situations when you are in space?
- What is the coolest thing you’ve seen while you’re in space?
- How does an astronaut train for life in zero gravity?
- What precautions does an astronaut need to take to safely adjust to life in space?
- How do astronauts minimize the weight of necessities when traveling up to the ISS?
- What personal items are you allowed to take to the ISS?
- What do astronauts do in their free time while up in space?
- What steps do you have to take before being an astronaut?
- What barriers did you overcome to get to the ISS?
- What experiments or discoveries have you been a part of that you’re most proud of?
- How do you tell time in space?
- What’s the oddest thing about living in space?
- What’s the most challenging part about being an astronaut?
- What do you find most interesting about space?
- What laws do you have to follow in space?
- When did you realize you wanted to go to space?
- How do you utilize radio technology on the ISS?
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 ISS. In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this 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 take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org.
Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
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