May 16, 2023, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Webb Bridge Middle School located in Alpharetta, GA. ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
Webb Bridge Middle School (WBMS) is a public school (with a total enrollment of 1188 in grades 6 through 8) in Alpharetta, Georgia, a far northern suburb of Atlanta. The primary audience for the ARISS contact is their 6th grade students (11 – 12 years old), who also study Geology and Space sciences during the year. In support of this contact, WBMS has partnered with the local amateur radio organization, the North Fulton Amateur Radio League (NFARL). During the day of the contact, planned activities will center around amateur radio and space education such as a morse code station, a get on the air station, and poster presentations on satellites, orbits, and Earth´s atmosphere.
This will be a telebridge contact via Amateur Radio and students will take turns asking their questions of Astronaut Warren Hoburg, amateur radio call sign KB3HTZ. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the telebridge station. The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Casale Monferrato, Italy. The amateur radio volunteer team at the station will use the callsign IK1SLD, to establish and maintain the ISS connection. The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for May 19, 2023 at 18:20 UTC.
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: http://www.ariotti.com/
As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. What was your first mission and how did it make you feel?
2. What was the hardest and easiest part and challenges of becoming an astronaut?
3. What is the weirdest thing you have encountered in space?
4. What is the most profound lesson you learned from your experience in space, and how has it changed your perspective on life?
5. How major is the difference between daily life in space and earth? Would things in space like gravity change your daily routines?
6. If space does not have the same gravitational pull as the earth, then how does your body stay healthy and stable?
7. If I were to become an astronaut, what would you tell me you wish that you knew when you started your career?
8. What is training like? Do a lot of people quit?
9. When you’ve just left the atmosphere, and you can see earth and all the other planets from afar, what do you feel? Do you have a sense of love for the universe and how amazing it is?
10. Does it hurt when you go back into the Earth’s atmosphere after you’ve gotten used to little to no gravity?
11. I have a friend that told me that astronauts faint a lot after they come back to Earth, is this true?
12. What do you do when you get bored in the spacecraft?
13. Has there ever been a moment where there was a challenging situation and you and your other astronaut friends aboard the ISS has to work together to solve the problem?
14. What would you do if your spaceship was suddenly going down and you weren´t able to control it?
15. What happens if someone drifts out to space? Are there emergency protocols or anything to do to save them?
16. If your nose is itchy on a spacewalk, what do you do?
17. As you are blasting off, what does it feel like, is it nerve racking?
18. Can you communicate with your family while you are in space? If so, how?
19. How do you set your sleep schedule?
20. How do you plan to take out the trash in space?
ARISS-Europe News Bulletins are distributed by AMSAT Belgium.
You can help support this effort with a donation.
https://www.amsat-on.be/donation-ariss-europe-news-bulletin/