Last Modified: 10 April 2005

About ...

Calendar

Newsletters
Index to Recent Newsletters
April 2005 Newsletter Index
  • Upping the ARISS Ante
Committees

New Mexico Nets

NM Web Links

AARC Constitution & By-Laws

Albuquerque Amateur Radio Club
April 2005 Newsletter

Internet Edition



[ARISS Logo]

Upping the ARISS Ante


International Space Station Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, has decided to double up on the number of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school group QSOs during his remaining two weeks of operation from NA1SS. ARRL Field & Educational Services Manager Rosalie White, K1STO, says Chiao has enjoyed speaking via ham radio with students on Earth during his ISS duty tour.

"Sparking youth interest in science and technology is quite high on the list of what's important to astronauts and to NASA," she said, noting that NASA's Education Office has been strongly supporting Amateur Radio in space for more than a decade. Since Expedition 10 began last October, Chiao has logged 19 ARISS school group contacts. During a direct contact March 29 between NA1SS and W5NGU, the astronaut spoke with youngsters at the Science Discovery Center in Denton, Texas.

White said successfully putting together the many pieces of an ARISS school-group QSO is tricky at the eleventh hour. To accommodate the change, ARISS moved up a scheduled QSO for a school in Zurich whose volunteers are well-prepared. For the second extra slot, ARISS scrambled to make arrangements with a NASA Explorer School from which a teacher interested in using ham radio in class had submitted an ARISS application. For this QSO--with Flory Academy of Sciences and Technology, in Moorpark, California, ARISS plans to employ a combination of Amateur Radio and teleconferencing rather than attempt to set up a direct QSO.

Arriving later this month, the next crew increment, Expedition 11, will put two hams aboard the ISS--US Astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY, and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR. Krikalev, who will be Expedition 11 crew commander, will be doing his second tour of duty aboard the ISS. He served as flight engineer on the very first ISS crew and served aboard the Russian Mir space station in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

ARISS is an international educational outreach with US support from ARRL, AMSAT and NASA. [Ed.: This article is from The ARRL Letter - Vol. 24, No. 13 - April 1, 2005.]
[Mailbox]
Please send comments and questions concerning this web document to John (KC5AYN) at kc5ayn@qsl.net .