An ARISS educational school contact is planned for Victor Glover, KI5BKC with students at St Scholastica´s College, Glebe, NSW, Australia. The contact is scheduled on Monday April 26, 2021 at approximately 08:34 UTC, which is 10:34 CEST.
The link to the ISS will be operated by the amateur radio telebridge station ON4ISS, located in Belgium. Downlink signals will be audible in Europe on 145.800 MHz FM.
School Information:
St Scholastica’s College is an Independent Catholic day and boarding secondary school for girls founded by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in the Benedictine tradition. We promote a school culture which focuses on the academic and personal growth of each student. We celebrate diversity and provide an environment that enables all to find a place. We respect the spirituality of the first Australians. Our Mission is to equip young women to play their part in a world beyond school. Our Vision is to educate young women who, with justice and compassion, will make a difference in the world.
Students First Names and Questions:
1. Georgina (Y8): How has being in the space station changed your beliefs and or perspectives of the universe?
2. Nancyann (Y8): What have you found out on the ISS that cannot be found out on Earth?
3. Tasha (Y8): Has COVID-19 had an impact on life in the space station?
4. Hannah (Y7): How do you keep in touch with your family when you are in space?
5. Elena (Y11): Do you ever feel existential terror from being in space and seeing how endless the universe is? / How do you deal with this?
6. Ella (Y11): I imagine your work, being so far away and of such a vast scale, would impact your mental health. Considering this, are there ways you work on your mental health onboard, and has your experience changed the way you think?
7. Iris (Y8): What was the hardest of the requirements for space travel for you to meet?
8. Celeste (Y8): Do you believe that in the future, younger people will be able to go into space?
9. Pawalisa (Y9): What made or motivated you to want to become an astronaut?
10. Amelie (Y7): Can you see the effect of climate change from space? And if so, what are the phenomena you have observed?
11. Mila (Y9): What would you say is the most important skill for astronauts to have and master?
12. Marley (Y8): If funding for space exploration became scarce, how would you convince the world that space exploration was worth the investment?
13. Georgina (Y8): Do you believe that the tests and studies you perform will cause great change and progress in the way we live or view the world?
14. Nancyann (Y8): When first arriving into the space station how did you feel? And how do you feel now?
15. Hannah (Y7): Is there day and night in space?
16. Iris (Y8): Is NASA training similar to Roscosmos training? If so, how? What are the similarities/differences?
17. Pawalisa (Y9): How long did you have to train and prepare to go into space and what was the training like?
18. Amelie (Y7): Have you, personally, ever had to repair a part of the ISS due to damage caused by man-made space debris? And if so, what part of the spacecraft did you repair?
19. Marley (Y8): What is the best scientific advancement or discovery that the ISS has delivered to humanity?
20. Hannah (Y7): Where does your waste (rubbish and sewerage) go?
21. Marley (Y8): Is the future of space travel likely to be in the hands of private companies like Space X or government agencies like NASA?
22. Marley (Y8): What impact do you think that the ISS has had on international cooperation?
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
Update:
Lessons in the run-up to the ARISS contact focused on the space station, how to track its position in orbit using applied mathematics, and the ISS crew members and their roles. The ham radio contact gave eight youngsters a possibly life-changing opportunity to learn about living and traveling in space by speaking with someone who’s already there. „I’m still on a massive cloud of happiness,“ sixth-grader Asher Renwick said. „Victor was so nice, and his answers were excellent. I realized that most people come home to their family each day and take that for granted, but astronauts can’t do that.“ Glover’s number one piece of advice: „Be resilient. Don’t stop in the face of challenges.“ Channel 9 in Sydney aired a news story about the Winmalee contact that was posted to Facebook.
Meanwhile, Stefan Dombrowski, ON6TI, and Luc Vlecken, ON4ALV, in Belgium, took advantage of the opportunity to listen in to the direct 2-meter (145.800 MHz) signal from the ISS as a demonstration for their Belgian Army trainees learning about amateur radio. „We both used the Australian Winmalee Public School ARISS QSO/ISS pass between Victor Glover, KI5BKC, and the students,“ Dombrowski said. „It was an excellent demonstration of ham radio capabilities and was also a good educational demonstration of antenna polarization and signal weakening with distance.“
arrl.org
Second ARISS contact scheduled on Monday 26 April
An ARISS educational school contact is planned for Shannon Walker, KD5DXB, with students at St. Margaret´s School, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The contact is scheduled on Monday April 26, 2021 at approximately 10:12 UTC, which is 12:12 CEST.
The link to the ISS will be operated by the amateur radio telebridge station IK1SLD, located in northern Italy. Downlink signals will be audible in Europe on 145.800 MHz FM.
School Information:
St. Margarets Berwick Grammar School is an independent school in the Casey Cardinia area of Melbourne. It´s primary school is coed, middle school is single gender and then high school at times comes together to offer a comprehensive curriculum. St. Margarets has a long history celebrating its 95th birthday this year.
Students First Names and Questions:
- Arnav: Is the atmosphere in space hot or cold?
- Rosie: I wonder what space food tastes like?
- Zac: What minerals and gases do you study in space?
- Akash: How is water recycled in the ISS?
- Manuth: Are there unexpected laws of physics that do or don´t remain the same in space?
- Nethasha: How many countries are involved in the International Space Station?
- Jackson: When you come back to Earth do you still feel like you are floating?
- Anoushka: Do you think you can use what you have learned in space to help us with our life on Earth?
- Ella: What thing in space stunned you the most?
- Adeshveer: What is your space suit made of and what features does the space suit have in it?
- Balin: How big of an issue is space junk for the International Space Station? Is there much junk around the station and has the Station ever been damaged by space junk?
- Farhan: Do you hope to live on Mars one day?
- Rusandi: Do medical operations occur on the ISS? If so, how do the astronauts prevent body fluids (such as blood) from being released due to low gravity?
- Nethasha Brentwood (for Om & Varshini): Can you see weather from space such as rain or lightning from above the Earth?
- Jackson Brentwood (for Krishav): How long does it take to orbit the Earth?
- Anousha: What noises do you hear in space?
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
Update:
Just hours after her crewmate Victor Glover KI5BKC had an earlier QSO with students at St. Scholastica’s College in New South Wales, Shannon was using the callsign OR4ISS as she took the mic to chat to youngsters at St. Margaret’s School and Berwick Grammar School in Melbourne. There were the usual questions about food, gravity, temperature, space junk and science experiments on board but one question in particular reflected the global excitement over recent space exploration and future flights to Mars. Even as Shannon was preparing for her return to planet Earth, she was already being questioned about whether she might like to return to space — and this time, make it all the way to Mars as part of a flight crew.
Shannon said that her heart was certainly in it but that trip is still a long way off. She replied: „wouldn’t mind doing it but I’m afraid by the time we get to Mars, I will already be a retired astronaut.“
Graham Kemp, VK4BB, via arnewsline.org