ARISS-Europe News Bulletin – 20.05.2006

ARISS SCHOOL CONTACT PLANNED WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL IN VENICE

An International Space Station Expedition 13 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Virgilio Primary School, Venice, Italy on Monday, 22 May 2006. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:28 UTC, which is 15:28 local time.

The contact will be direct between stations NA1SS and IW3GPO. During the first 5 minutes of the contact, the downlink signals should be audible from Ireland to central Europe and north Africa and during the following 5 minutes in eastern Europe and Turkey. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.800 MHz downlink.  

The primary school was built in 1980, and its name is "Virgilio" like the name of an important Roman emperor poet's name. It's a big school with two floors and a wonderful garden. In the school, there are 210 pupils and 23 teachers, and only one of them is a man; all the other teachers are women. There are ten classrooms, a library with many books, a computer room, a gym, a music room and a video room, an English room and a dining hall. School starts at 8.30 and finishes at 4.30 from Monday to Friday.

Students at Virgilio Primary School will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. Where are you from?
2. How many people are there in the Space Station at the moment?
3. Have you ever had a language problem?
4. How many experiments are you conducting on this mission?
5. What are some of the jobs you do on the Space Station you enjoy doing?
6. What are the jobs you don't like doing?
7. How do you get oxygen and water?
8. Is it scary to do an E.V.A. and work in space?
9. How long will you be staying in space?
10. How long did it take you to get to the space station?
11. How many times have you been in space?
12. What is the most beautiful thing that you have seen in space?
13. What is the most beautiful star in space?
14. How do you communicate with your family and how often do you get to talk to them?
15. What do you miss most?
16. Do you have a lot of free time?
17. What do you do for fun in space?
18. What is your favorite space food?
19. Was it scary the first time you went into space?
20. What inspired you to become an astronaut?
21. How long did it take you to become an astronaut?
22. What happens if someone gets sick?
23. Can you take animals to space?

Good luck to the school and to the interested ground stations!

73

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS-Europe chairman