Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Update: the ARISS contact was a success!
May 27, 2019 – As part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut David Saint-Jacques, KG5FYI, will connect with students from Walter Murray Collegiate Institute in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and answer their questions, live from the International Space Station (ISS).
The ISS call sign is scheduled to be NA1SS and is expected to begin at approximately 2:18 pm CST (20:18:50 UTC 48 deg). It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time.
The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK6MJ and should be audible over
portions of Australia and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English and French.
Brian Jackson, VE6JBJ, ARISS Western Canada Mentor, is the Moderator for the event.
ARISS is an international program aimed at inspiring students worldwide to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through Amateur Radio communications opportunities with the ISS crew.
For more information on ARISS please visit:
RAC ARISS webpage: /ariss/
Main ARISS website: http://www.ariss.org
Questions and Additional Information:
Walter Murray Collegiate is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Along with its many standard course, it has some excellent Engineering/Electronics courses and a very extensive hands-on “shop” class which involves machinery, welding, carpentry, car repair etc. There is also very busy “tech” club that is involved in robotics as well as a “science” club that this year was very excited about the “Tomatosphere” project.
Contact day with David will be very busy. We will, have on site, the University of Saskatchewan Engineering faculty represented by the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team (USST) which will be demonstrating two of their projects that day. One team will represent and demonstrate CubeSat’s and the other team will engage all the students with the Rover project. In addition RASC Saskatoon will be there with solar scopes and will be in the auditorium with demonstration telescopes.
The Saskatoon Amateur Radio Club (SARC) will also have their Amateur Radio equipment for all the students.
Proposed questions generated by the Walter Murray Collegiate Institute students:
- How do relations between countries on Earth impact relationships between astronauts of different nationalities?
- What did you bring with you to space?
- What are your next goals after you return to Earth?
- As technology develops and it becomes safer and more economically efficient to send unmanned flights to space, what argument would you give in favour of continued investment in manned space flight?
- How much force do you feel when you are leaving the atmosphere and escaping the gravitational pull of Earth?
- What do you think is the most interesting experiment you are working on currently on the ISS and why is it important?
- Why do you think space travel is important in an age where problems like climate change exist?
- With climate change growing on Earth, do you think the rate of space debris will cause a problem in the future? If so, what could be done about it?
- How can people not interested in actually going to space help support Canadian space programs? Is there anything random civilians, high school students, etc. can do to help explore the galaxy?
- Should we be considering the legal and economic impact of colonizing Mars or is it too early to consider at this time?
- What do you think is the future of space exploration? Do you have ideas of what it might look like?
- In space, you have to be very careful with the resources you are offered. How can you apply this to being more eco-friendly on Earth?
- What is the most memorable view you remember seeing when you were traveling to, or actually at, the ISS?
- What’s something that you never realized until going into space?
- Are the computers and parts of the ISS still from when it was sent into space or were they upgraded?
- I know you have changed career paths a lot. What was the most valuable thing you learned while finding your passion as an astronaut?
- What utensils are used to write in space? Can you use pens and pencils? If not, what do you use?
- Do you think more resources should be spent on saving Earth or leaving it?
- How has going into space and the experience of observing the universe from such a surreal perspective contributed to your opinion on the existence of life in other places?
- Is medicine different in space? If so, how?