ARISS News Release No. 20-22

ARISS News Release No. 20-22
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS Contact is Scheduled for
Ramona Lutheran Christian School, Ramona, CA

October 13, 2020—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule
confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is the group that puts together special
amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses
on the International Space Station (ISS).
This will be a direct contact via amateur radio between students at the Ramona Lutheran Christian School
(RLCS) in Ramona, CA and ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR. The
Ramona Outback Amateur Radio Society (ROARS) ham operators using call sign N6ROR will operate
the ground station for this contact. Students will take turns asking Cassidy their questions.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 14, 2020 at 9:26 am PDT (Ramona) (16:26 UTC,
12:26 pm EDT, 11:26 am CDT and 10:26 am MDT).

RLCS (with students in preschool through sixth grade) is located in an unincorporated mountain
community approximately 40 miles northeast of San Diego. In addition to the school's classical course
curriculum, RLCS also involves students in STEM-enrichment club activities that include robotics, coding,
physics, space-related sciences, and radio theory. In 2019, the Amateur Radio Relay League awarded
RLCS an Icom IC-9700 radio built and designed for communications with amateur radio
satellites—resulting in the first school radio station in Ramona, and one solar-powered thanks to
equipment provided by ROARS. The ARISS contact will utilize this set-up. ROARS members have helped
students prepare for their ARISS contact and mentored them on amateur radio operating protocol
including emergency communications and Morse code practice.

ARISS invites the public to view a livestream of the pre-action (join 20 minutes beforehand) and the
upcoming ARISS radio contact at https://youtu.be/jDTydjM60_k .
_____________________________
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. How has Expedition 63 changed your outlook on life?
2. What is your favorite thing to look at in space?
3. What is most difficult when you are recovering from returning to Earth?
4. What does it feel like when you are on a spacewalk?
5. What was the strangest thing that's happened to you while you were in space?
6. What is your favorite activity when you have free time on the ISS?
7. How likely do you think it is that I will visit outer space in my lifetime, even if I never become an astronaut?
8. What does it feel like to sleep on the ISS?
9. What mission were you most scared of?
10. What are your favorite experiences of Expedition 63?
11. What has been your favorite experiment on the ISS?
12. About how many repairs are made each week aboard the ISS?
13. What is your favorite game to play in space?
14. What are your 3 favorite foods to eat while on the ISS?
15. What language has been the most challenging to communicate aboard the ISS?
16. What food are you most looking forward to eating when you get home?
17. What fear have you had regarding space?
18. What surprises you the most about how the ISS is today than when you were part of the assembly mission?
19. Which holidays have you enjoyed celebrating on the ISS?
20. What's your favorite number of people aboard the ISS at one time?
21. Who was your favorite astronaut that you have met from another country?
22. What way(s) could we utilize space to help manage our problems with waste disposal on Earth?
23. Do you hope to go back to space or the moon in a commercial space suit via a commercial vehicle?
24. How do you use ham radio on the ISS and after you return to Earth?

ARISS – Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Amateur Radio Operations 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 International Space Station (ISS). In the
United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio
Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA's Space
Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of
science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics 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 learn about space, space technologies, and
amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR

ARISS - Slow Scan TV (SSTV) transmissions are scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS)

Latest News

Slow Scan TV (SSTV) transmissions are scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) :

from Monday 5 October at 18:45 UTC
to Thursday 8 October at 18:20 UTC.

Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120.

Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ .

An award is being prepared, courtesy of ARISS Poland.

Good luck !
73,
Gaston Bertels ON4WF

ARISS multi-point telebridge contact with school in USA

ARISS multi-point telebridge contact with school in USA

An ARISS educational school contact is planned for Chris Cassidy KF5KDR with students at McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA, USA.

The contact is scheduled on Wednesday October 7, 2020 at approximately 14:16 UTC, which is 16:16 CEST.

The link to the ISS will be operated by the amateur radio ground station ON4ISS.
Downlink signals will be audible in Europe on 437.525 MHz FM.

Downlink frequency on UHF instead of VHF was chosen in order to avoid conflict with SSTV operations on VHF.


School Information:

McConnell Middle School is a Gwinnett County public school located in the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.  McConnell has 2300 students in grades 6-8. Our student population is diverse with students from many different ethnicities.  Our 8th grade students are in classes that earn high school credit for science, math, business, and some foreign languages while in middle school.  ARISS is one part of our efforts as we work towards becoming a STEM certified school. Some of our students are involved in a competitive robotics club and an environmental club. School wide, there is also interest in sustainability projects including hydroponics and low impact gardening.
The McConnell Radio Club, KD4TGR, in its 6th year, is also part of our STEM certification goals. It is mentored generously by members of the Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society (GARS.org). Additionally, members of North Fulton Amateur Radio League (NFARL.org) are serving as the technical mentors for this ARISS.  Several of our current and former students are licensed hams. Two of the students who will be asking questions are licensed radio operators: Daniel Reed (KN4SSI), technician class, and Maggie Colley (KM4PTW), extra class.
McConnell was originally scheduled to have this ARISS contact last April but that was postponed when the school system shut down due to the pandemic.  We are back in school with many protocols in place to keep everyone safe.  Some students attend school in person and some online.  Students in our school and others in our school system will watch this ARISS contact via closed circuit streaming, some from their classrooms, some from their homes. 
Our whole school community, students, faculty, and parents have been working towards this ARISS Radio Contact for well over a year.  This ARISS event will stand out as the highlight in a school year when so many other events have been cancelled or minimized. Thank you for this opportunity.

Students First Names & Questions:
1. Sydney (7th grade):  Are there special activities designed for you to help relieve the stress of living and working in space?
2. Tiffany (7th grade):  Describe what surprised you about earth when you got to the ISS.
3. Jaelyn (7th grade):  Do you see evidence of the recent West Coast wildfires or other environmental situations?
4. Patrick (7th grade):  As a middle school student what can we do to prepare ourselves for the job you do today as an astronaut?
5. McKenzie (8th grade):  In the movie The Martian, Mark was trained as a botanist. What is your area of interest and what experiments are you doing in your field?
6. Stephen (8th grade):  How long is your mission and how do you expect it might impact your body?
7. Adrian (8th grade):  What was the hardest part of training prior to going to space?
8. Kyra (8th grade):  How often do you need to do repairs on the outside of the ISS?
9. Kenzie (8th grade):  Describe your medical training that would help if an astronaut becomes ill or seriously injured while on the space station.
10. Daniel KN4SSI) (9th grade):  Standard air pressure on earth is 1 atmosphere. What air pressure do they try to maintain on the ISS?
11. Sara (9th grade):  What qualifications do you have that enable you to be assigned to more than one mission or similar?
12. Matthew (9th grade):  Have you ever tried growing carrots or root vegetables in space?
13. Caleb: 9th grade. Are there any times where any shipments of food or drinks are running late, or have space flight troubles, and you run out of food or water for the time?
14. Maggie KM4PTW (12th grade):  How does food taste when you don't get to smell it?
15. Daniel KN4SSI (9th grade):  How is the ISS designed in case of a collision with space junk or a meteoroid?
16. Kenzie (8th grade):  What is the procedure if spills, liquid or solid, occur during experiments?
17. Maggie KM4PTW (12th grade):  How do you maintain clean hygiene while in space?
18. Maggie KM4PTW (12th grade):  What is your normal schedule on the ISS?


AboutARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation(AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National  National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics 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 learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Gaston Bertels ON4WF

ARISS News Release No. 20-21

ARISS News Release No. 20-21

Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
aa4kn@amsat.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISS SSTV Event Scheduled for early October

October 02, 2020 — An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for early October. 

The event is scheduled to begin on October 4 at 14:00 UTC for setup and operation and continue until October 8 ending at 19:15 UTC. 

Dates and times subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme of this collection of images will be Satellites. Radio enthusiasts
participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/ .

After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image.

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 International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers and NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics 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 learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. 

For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Media Contact:
Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR