International Space Station

Upcoming ARISS contact with Westbrook Intermediate, Friendswood, Texas

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Westbrook Intermediate, Friendswood, Texas on 03 November.
The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 19:29 UTC.

The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and LU8YY. The contact should be audible over portions of South America. Interested parties are invited to listen-in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

Westbrook Intermediate, one of 9 intermediate schools in Clear Creek Independent School District, is a 6th - 8th grade campus of almost 1500 students. Housed on the campus is the district's intermediate gifted and talented magnet, Webster Academy - Visions in Education, or WAVE.

This GT magnet brings together over 500 gifted and talented students from across the district to participate in a unique program design. One of the opportunities available to WAVE students is an amateur radio license class. In partnership with the Clear Lake Amateur Radio Club, over 350 students have earned their ham radio license over the last 9 years. At any time, there are approximately 100 hams in attendance at the school.

Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. What adjustments to photography need to be made to take pictures in space-inside and outside the space station?
2. How do you wash your hands on the space station? What happens to the water after you use it?
3. How does your experience in space differ from what you thought it would be like before you went up the first time?
4. What is the most difficult part of living in space?
5. What effect does the lack of gravity have on your body? What tasks that are otherwise easy are now hard to do?

6. What changes do you have to make to your eating procedures in space?
7. Do you get to listen to music in space? Are there favorite songs that help you during stressful or lonely times?
8. What kind of training/education do astronauts have to go through?
9. How does the training at the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab) compare to the real experience?
10. What do you do when debris is flying toward the space shuttle?

11. What do you plan to do when you return to Earth, that you could not do in space?
12. What materials are used to make the shuttle?
13. John F. Kennedy said that it was his goal to have a man on the moon. If the space exploration program still exists 50 years from now, what planetary explorations do you expect to be achieved by then?
14. What do you miss most while in space?
15. Have you seen Aidan's progress report?

16. Do you need to worry about catching the flu or some other illness?
17. What kind of experiments do you do in space, and how would the results be different if those experiments were done on Earth?
18. What do you do in your leisure time?
19. What kinds of food do you eat?
20. What was your most memora\ble experience on this mission?

21. How long can you stay in space?
22. Are there any works of art or anything else on the ISS to inspire or relieve stress visually?
23. What sensations do you experience during lift off? Are there different sensations during landing?
24. What types of activities do you do for fun in space?
25. What does a normal day look like since there is not a designation between night and day?

Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact.

Next planned event(s):
John Taylor Collegiate, Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada, Wed 04 Nov 09 14:38 UTC
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL Thu 05 Nov 09 19:46 UTC
Tokaisonritsu Muramatsu Elementary School, Tokai Vill., Japan, Fri Nov 06 09 08:47 UTC

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 on-board 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.

Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).

Thank you & 73,

David - AA4KN