Upcoming ARISS contact in Morinville, Alberta on June 2 June 2, 2021 at 8:28:53 MDT

ARISS Contact on Wednesday, June 2:

As part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program,  Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI, will connect with students from The Father’s House Christian School in Morinville, Alberta.

This will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact. The Moderator for the event is ARISS Canada Mentor Brian Jackson, VE6JBJ, who is also the RAC Youth Program Coordinator.

The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ and may be heard by listeners who are within the ISS footprint that also encompasses the ARISS radio telebridge station.

ARISS team member Shane Lynd, VK4KHZ, from an Amateur Radio club station in Glenden, Queensland, Australia will serve as the relay Amateur Radio station.

Each student asking a question on the ARISS radio will be conferenced in from home or social-distanced at school.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for June 2, 2021 at 8:28:53 am MDT (Morinville, Alberta, Canada) (14:28:53 UTC, 10:28:53 am EDT, 9:28:53 am CDT, 7:28:53 am PDT).

The Father’s House Christian School is a Home Education Provider (Roots). Roots has 257 families, 550 students and 14 facilitators in its homeschooling program. In preparation for the ARISS contact, students and parents were involved in activities / discussions about space travel and living on the ISS. Students also built a model of the ISS using recycled materials. Home-school teaching material sources included studies on space exploration, life on the ISS and primary science topics, drawn from the websites: European Space Agency (Space and Exploration), NASA (ISS KidZone), and Primary Science Teacher College.

View the live stream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at https://youtu.be/S0_-QFkXdi4

Questions:

As time allows, students will ask these questions:

1.  How do you sleep when there is no gravity?

2. What do you eat in space, and how do you bring the food to space?

3. How do you not crash into space debris?

4. Is it hard to learn how to walk again on earth after being in the space station?

5. What is the Canadarm used for?

6. How does a candle react when it is lit in space in a zero gravity and oxygen supplied environment?

7. Why is going to Mars a one-way trip for humans?

8. I am interested in Astrophotography. I recently saw a picture that Astronaut Chris Cassidy captured of Hurricane Laura on August 25, 2020. Can you manually control the exterior cameras or are they are in a fixed position?

9. How long do you stay up in the ISS at a time?

10. Would a body decompose in space and if so, how long would it take?

11. What does it feel like to float in space?

12. How fast do you go? How many times do you orbit earth each day?

13. What happens if your radio breaks and you can’t talk to earth?

14. What are some experiments you are working on?

15. How do you know where to land when you leave space and come back to Earth?

16. Do you do anything special on birthdays and holidays in space?

17. What did it feel like looking back at Earth the first time you saw it from space?

18. What does launching from Earth feel like?

19. Is there anything flammable on the International Space Station, and if there is, what do you do if there is a fire?

20. Does hair grow faster or slower in space?

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.

Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio

As mentioned above, members will ask their questions to Astronaut Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG, via an adapted telebridge link which will use a multi-point system in which they are connected to the conference call centre from their own homes.

The concept requires three things:

• the ARISS telebridge radio ground station – a satellite Amateur Radio station with special equipment that an ARISS team member uses for teleconferencing
• the astronaut on the International Space Station using the ARISS Amateur Radio station
• students at their homes here on Earth

The telebridge radio operator links to the astronaut at the ARISS radio mic, and each youth then connects from home via their telephones. Their families can listen along with school faculty and the public from home.

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR

For more information on ARISS please visit:

RAC ARISS webpage: https://www.rac.ca/ariss/

Main ARISS website: http://www.ariss.org