ARISS Contact is Scheduled for I.E.S. Pedro de Valdivia in Villanueva de la Serena, Spain
June 12, 2020—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for another social-distanced ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and astronauts with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS).
This radio contact will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio, developed for distance learning while worldwide education institutions are 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 sign ON4ISS, who 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 via their telephones. Students take 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 from I.E.S. Pedro de Valdivia in Villanueva de la Serena, Spain. The radio contact is scheduled for June 16, 2020 at 14:25 local time in Spain (8:25 EDT, 7:25 CDT, 6:25 MDT, 5:25 PDT, 12:25 UTC). Prior to COVID-19, the students had studied and observed ISS passes, participated in NASA's EarthKam program, and built communication equipment to listen to ARISS contacts and make ARISS APRS contacts, and downloaded ARISS SSTV images from the ISS. The teacher said, “Our school emphasizes languages and cultures and gives special importance to science and technology.”
ARISS invites the public to view the livestream of the ARISS radio contact at: https://youtu.be/PyNqsTMqAoQ.
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. Due to Covid-19 we have to stay at home. Do you have any advice for us?
2. Do you think the Astrobee robot is the beginning of a new generation of robots that would work in the ISS?
3. Does weightlessness affect your thinking?
4. How do you keep fit if you are at zero gravity?
5. What do you do to entertain yourselves in the ISS?
6. After living in space, have you gained a new perspective on life and our everyday problems?
7. Did you feel sick while you were in the rocket?
8. What inspired you the most to become an astronaut?
9. What is the basis for your diet?
10. What would happen if you cried in space? How would tears react?
11. Is your spacesuit comfortable?
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
aa4kn@amsat.org
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