ARISS contact planned with school in
Luxemburg
Monday October 8, 2012 at 10.47 UTC,
which is 12.47 CEST, an ARISS contact is planned with St George’s International
School, Luxemburg.
The contact is scheduled for astronaut
Sunita Williams KD5PLB or Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI onboard the International
Space Station, depending on availability.
This will be a telebridge contact
operated by W6SRJ, located in Santa Rosa, California.
The contact will be broadcast on
EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as
well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.
St George's International School was
founded 20 years ago by a group of mothers. It has since then expanded to
comprise a Primary and Secondary section. There are approximately 680 students,
of which 2/3 are in Primary education ranging from Early Years ( 2 1/2) to Year
6 (11 yrs old). There are 40 different nationalities represented, comprising
some 20 different native language speakers other than English.
As the school year only began a few days
ago, the children have not yet benefited from all the planned conference and
activities. A satellite engineer, who works for the EuroSpace will be visiting
to speak to the children this coming Friday (28th Sept). There are other speakers
lined up: someone to explain the importance of radios; a space enthusiast and
engineer is to give a talk about the Moon Buggie as well as a visit to the
European Space Interactive Museum in Belgium. The school was recently offered a
scaled model of the ISS which will be displayed and used for teaching purposes.
Besides the talks, the whole of Primary
is engaging in learning about the various aspects of "Space". While
some year groups are learning about light and dark, others are doing the
planets and space travel, while others still are learning about sound and
light. And the Secondary science teachers have incorporated the ISS project
into their curriculum.
As all the children cannot be
accommodated in the hall at one time due to security issues, it has been
decided that less than half will actually see the children asking their
questions. However, a link to the various classrooms will allow the other
children in the school to attend 'via satellite'.
Students will ask as many of following
questions as time allows.
1. Iman (12). What is it like to see
Earth from up there?
2. Massimiliano (6). What planet do you
come from?
3. Darine (11). Can you see the sunlight
hitting Earth when in space?
4. Cara (6). Why do you have to wear
space suits?
5. William (14). How many people can be
on the ISS at once?
6. Lucy (11). How does being in space
affect your body?
7. Calin (15). How do you entertain
yourselves?
8. Christine (7). Is it hard to fall
asleep?
9. Ian (12). How do you cope with
weightlessness?
10. Malou (8). Are you bringing anything
back from Space?
11. Ioanna (14). If someone gets sick,
what do you do?
12. Ciara (10). How did you get chosen
for this mission?
13. Isha (13). What is your job on the
ISS?
14. Amin (9). Is there anything you are
not allowed to eat?
15. Mykola (13). How do you protect the
ISS from asteroids and meteorites?
16. Sveva (7). Where do you get rid of
your waste?
17. Ismini (13). What kind of science
experiments do you do?
18. Markus (10). How do you repair the
space station if something breaks?
19. Ben (13). How do you manage to stay
going around the Earth at that speed?
20. Oliver (15). Why do you think it's
necessary to spend millions on space exploration?
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