An International Space Station (ISS) school contact has been planned with participants at Ashbury College Junior School in Ottawa, Ontario on January 23.
The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 2:49 local time or 19:49 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK5ZAI and the scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques, KG5FYI. The contact should be audible over 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.
The ARISS Mentor on site is Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD.
The ISS call sign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS and the scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques, KG5FYI.
Source: ARISS Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD
The Ashbury College Junior School
The Ashbury College Junior School is a co-ed independent school with 180 students from grades 4-8 in Ottawa. Our school’s motto, Honesty, Courage and Kindness, is lived every day by our students. Our students work hard in their academic courses and also participate in a wide variety of co-curricular programs and trips at the local, national and international levels.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
- When you launched into space and during flight did the sound from the launch hurt your ears?
- Sound travels to your ear on Earth by vibrating air molecules. Would you be able to communicate with another astronaut outside of the ISS without the use of a two-way radio?
- Does light and sound travel at the same rate in space as it does on Earth?
- What mental and physical training do you have to go through to prepare for life on the ISS?
- How thick are the walls on the ISS?
- How are the materials that are used to build structures in space changing?
- How do you monitor space junk and meteors aboard the ISS to avoid collisions?
- Every astronaut describes lift-off as having so much pressure on the body.Why don’t you suffer from the bends as the pressure is relieved once you are in space, as divers do?
- What experiments are you currently doing in space? And how will they affect us on Earth?
- How does the ISS maintain its temperature? What type of insulation does it use?
- What temperature is it up in space, what is the coldest temperature you have witnessed?
- Does the heat in space change dramatically when the ISS is near the sun?
- Is space just really cold or does it have no temperature?
- Does the lack of gravity on the ISS cause astronauts any pain?
- How did the ISS get up to space and what is it made of?
- How does your blood flow in space? Does your heart pump blood differently in space?
- How do you maintain the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the ISS?
- What happens when fluids collide aboard the ISS?
- Can you see hurricanes or tsunamis from space?
- How do you recycle the water? How long would you have, without water filtration, before you would need to be rescued?
- How do you clean up floating liquids if they spill?
Background Information:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States and other international space agencies and international Amateur Radio organizations around the world.
The primary purpose of ARISS is to organize scheduled contacts via Amateur Radio between crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced volunteers from Amateur Radio clubs and coordination from the ARISS team, the ISS crew members speak directly with large group audiences in a variety of public forums such as school assemblies, science centers and museums, Scout camporees, jamborees and space camps, where students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies and Amateur Radio.
ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, the Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA and CSA, with the AMSAT and International Amateur Radio Union organizations from participating countries.
ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crew members onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, firsthand, how Amateur Radio and crew members on the International Space Station can energize youth and instill an interest in science, technology, and learning.
For additional information on the ARISS program please visit:
RAC ARISS webpage: https://wp.rac.ca/ariss/
ARISS upcoming contacts: http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html