ARISS contact planned with Gymnasium Siegburg, Germany

An ARISS educational radio contact is planned with Gymnasium Siegburg, Germany. The event is scheduled Monday September 1st, 2014 at 13.12.45 UTC, which is 15.12.54 CEST. It will be a direct contact, operated by DN6KW.

Downlink signals will be audible in Europe on 145.800 MHz narrowband FM.

The Ham Video transmitter will possibly be tested during this contact.

School presentation:

Our school is a whole-day (8 – 4 o’clock p.m.) high school and college (1,000 students, 100 staff) that prepares students for the final examination after 8 years studies. The school, situated close to the centre of Siegburg, sits in the middle of a park like campus.

We teach the languages traditionally taught in Germany, and alongside offer our students ABIBAC, a bi-lingual language curriculum, which opens the possibility of getting the French Baccalaureate, in addition to the German Abitur. These students acquire admission to not only German, but also to French universities.

Some subjects are also taught in English.

Both our world and our society and, thus, education, are subject to constant change.

Three important “pillars”, however, are considered to be permanent and accordingly, make Gymnasium Siegburg Alleestraße a reliable partner:

- Educational and academic qualities and commitment to ethical values

- Integration of all groups and elements that constitute school life

- Focus on health and wellbeing of students and staff

In addition to our foreign language profile we encourage and support musically interested students in special classes in which it is obligatory for all members to play an instrument. Students may later opt for music as their major subject.

A very wide range of natural sciences completes our school profile.

For several years now our school has been in contact with the University of Bonn working on a project in space science and remote sensing, sponsored by DLR (German Aerospace Centre) and BMWi (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology). The project allows our junior and senior students to participate in an analysis of data as well as in a satellite surveying remote sensing with reference to scientific problems.

For this reason, our school community is very pleased and proud to have been selected for the live call in September with Dr. Alexander Gerst on the ISS in September.

Students will ask as many of following questions as time allows:

1. Leonie (11): Wie fühlt sich Schwerelosigkeit an? Können Sie das erklären?

2. Leon (11): Wie war Ihr erster Weltraumspaziergang?

3. Jay (15): Wann, glauben Sie, kann man zum Mars reisen?

4. Sara-Marie (15): Was macht Ihnen am meisten Spaß an Ihrer Mission?

5. Matthias (15): Haben Sie, trotz Ihres Intensivtrainings, manchmal noch Bedenken, etwas falsch zu machen?

6. Quock: Was tun Sie in Ihrer Freizeit?

7. Max (16): Was haben Sie als persönlichen Gegenstand mitgenommen?

8. Saskia (18): Was vermissen Sie am meisten von der Erde?

9. Tobias (17): Was war das einflussreichste Forschungsergebnis, dass auf der ISS erzielt wurde?

10. Daniel (16): Gibt es schon medizinische oder physikalische Fortschritte?

11. Bilal (14): Haben Experimente bereits zu Ergebnissen geführt?

12. Merlin (15): Wie umständlich sind Reparaturen außerhalb der ISS?

13. Paul (14): Was ist das größte Risiko, was während des Fluges passieren kann?

14. This (14): Gab es bereits einmal einen Not- oder Krankheitsfall?

15. Caronlin (15): Wie viel Strom verbraucht die ISS?

16. Chantal (11): Kann es zu Stromausfällen auf der ISS kommen?

17. Tim (12): Wie weit ist die ISS automatisiert?

18. Sebastian (20): Wie viele Meter Kabel wurden in der ISS verbaut?

19. Jennifer (17): Wie schützt sich die Crew vor den kosmischen Strahlen?

20. Victoria (11): Wie ist das Housekeeping auf der ISS organisiert?

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 Europe Chairman