ARISS contact planned with School in Rome

 

Monday December 19, 2011 at approximately 08:42 UTC, which is 09:42 CEWT, an ARISS contact is planned for Teodoro Mommsen Middle School, Rome, Italy.

 

The Mommsen middle school is located in the district “Appio-Latino”, in the south of Rome and is composed of three complexes located on the edge of the Caffarella Park.

 

The school endorses the aims of Article 3 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic and those suggested by UNESCO for the formation of the citizen.

The school is attended by about 800 students aged 11 - 13.

 

This will be a telebridge contact operated by Adrian Sinclair LU1CGB, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The conversation will be conducted in English.

 

The venue will be broadcast in streaming video on http://www.livestream.com/AMSAT_Italia/

 

Downlink signals from the ISS will be audible in Europe on 145.800 MHz FM.

 

The contact will also be broadcast on EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

 

Students will ask as many of following qustions as time allows.

 

1. Scientific experiments aside, how can your mission in space benefit mankind?

2. How many years of training are required for an important mission like yours?

3. How do you spend your spare time?

4. Have you ever come across serious problems or accidents during your stay in space?

5. How are you able to get on well with others for so long in the spaceship?

6. How does it feel to see the plant Earth from such a distance?

7. How do you reach and get back from ISS?

8. When outside the station, does the speed stay the same?

9. How do you get about the daily cleanliness and the personal hygiene?

10. As soon as you land, what physical problems do you encounter?

11. During your stay in space, have you ever come across any particular phenomena such as meteorites, which you can’t see from Earth?

12. What is the most common illness in space?

13. What advice would you give young people who hope to one day become an astronaut?

14. What do you miss most of your everyday life on Earth?

15. How does it feel to go round and round without gravity in space?

16. Does the passage of time feel different in space than on Earth?

17. When you get back to Earth from space, what do you miss the most?

18. Does the human body go through changes in space? Do you sweat?

19. What does a typical day on ISS look like?

20. What does it feel like to go up in space for the first time?

 

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

 

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology and learning.

 

73

 

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Chairman