October 29, 2007
DOUBLE ITALIAN
SCHOOL CONTACT SUCCESSFUL
On
Monday October 29th 2007 at 08:23 UTC, i.e. 09:23 local
time, the IIS Deambrosis-Natta school, located in Sestri
Levante, near Genoa and the Engineering Faculty of
the University of L’Aquila,established a radio contact with ESA astronaut Paolo
Nespoli, IZ0JPA, onboard the International Space
Station. A second contact between the schools and Nespoli
took place during the following pass, at 09:59 UTC.
The
IIS Deambrosis-Natta school
is located in Sestri Levante,
near Genoa. The school counts 900 students and 140
teachers. Deambrosis-Natta is a high school
specializing in scientific and technological subjects. Students can choose
among several courses: mechanical, electronics, electro-technological focusing
on automation. It also specializes in telecommunications. The school is a
member of the national network "Radio at school" and "Radio
transmission experiments for educational purposes".
The
Engineering Faculty of the University of L’Aquila was founded in 1964 and now offers 10
different undergraduate programs at the level of Bachelor of Science in
Engineering, 12 graduate programs at the level of Master of Engineering, one
single-stage program, and a number of advanced graduate courses leading to the
degree of a PhD. In the field of Information Engineering there are specific
programs in Electronics, Telecommunications, Automation and Computer Science.
The faculty is located on the hill-top of Roio a few
km from the city of L’Aquila. Presently there are 5000 students
enrolled, who reach a high level of preparation through the coordinated action
of 164 faculty teachers.
Alessandro
Iscra, IK1WKR was the contact coordinator for this
ISS contact in Sestri Levante.
Piero Tognolatti, I0KPT was
the contact coordinator for the ISS contact in L’Aquila. The operator of the contact was ARISS
mentor Francesco De Paolis, IK0WGF. The questions
were read by the students. The audience in the shack room was about 200 persons
in Sestri Levante and more
than 350 students, guests and media operators in L’Aquila. In Sestri Levante were present ESA Educational and ASI
representatives.
At 08:23
UTC
contact with IZ0JPA was established and Paolo Nespoli
first introduced Pamela A. Melroy, STS 120 Commander,
who sent greetings to the students, and than answered 3 questions.
At 09:59 UTC a second contact with IZ0JPA was
established and Paolo Nespoli answered 10 more questions.
The signals and audio from the ISS were excellent.
Many TV stations, radio stations and newspapers
covered the event.
Congratulations to the ARISS team in Sestri Levante and L’Aquila!
73
Francesco De Paolis, IKØWGF
ARISS mentor
Natta/L'Aquila audio 1
Natta/L'Aquila audio 2
L'Aquila picture
