December 06,
2010
ARISS
CELEBRATES 10th ANNIVERSARY OF STUDENT CONVERSATIONS WITH ISS ASTRONAUTS
On
21 December 2000, astronaut William Shepherd turned from his
usual activities aboard the newly occupied International Space
Station (ISS). Floating over to a “ham” radio attached to a station
bulkhead,
he
called the Burbank School in Burbank, Illinois and was soon talking with
14 enthusiastic students. This month, amateur radio operators world-wide
celebrate the tenth anniversary of this first school contact from ISS.
Since
that first contact, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
(ARISS) volunteers have conducted 565 successful contacts in 40 countries
in 5 continents, allowing thousands of students to share the excitement of
those first 14. Moreover, tens of thousands of students, faculty, and parents
have participated by planning and attending these events.
ARISS
contacts have prompted countless students to seriously consider pursuing
science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, including
becoming an astronaut. Educational programs and amateur radio clubs
established at participating schools continue to inspire students long
after the contact has ended.
The
use of amateur radio in space began in 1983 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
The Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) flew on 28 shuttle missions,
proving the educational and crew morale benefits
of
ham radio. Ham radio also proved popular with the cosmonauts aboard space
station Mir. The value of amateur radio in space was so apparent to NASA
and the Russian Space Agency that the ARISS radio became the first
experiment to be activated on ISS.
ARISS
is a volunteer program that inspires students the world over to pursue
STEM careers by providing amateur radio communications opportunities with
the International Space Station (ISS) on-orbit crew. Students learn about
life on board the ISS and explore Earth from space through science and
math activities. ARISS provides opportunities for the school community
(students, teachers, families, and local residents) to become more aware
of the substantial benefits of human spaceflight and the exploration and
discovery that occur on spaceflight journeys while learning about
technology and amateur radio.
ARISS
is an international working group comprising delegations from 9 countries,
including several countries in Europe as well as Japan, Russia, Canada,
and the USA. The organization is run by volunteers from national amateur
radio organizations and international AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite
Corporation) organizations in each member country. ARISS team members in
each country work with their respective
space
agencies (ESA, NASA, JAXA, CSA, and the Russian Space Agency). In the USA,
ARISS works with the NASA Teaching From Space program.
Gaston
Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS
Chairman