ISS Fan Club

1. Upcoming School Contact
Lycee mixte René Gosse in Clermont L'Herault, France will participate in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, March 10 at 08:30 UTC. In preparation for the contact, students will study Math including vector work on gravitational forces, French, Ecology and Sustainable Development, and Physics, including the history of space exploration, principles of inertia, and radio waves. The school held a workshop "English for the sciences" allowing scientific themes to be discussed in English. The object of this workshop was to enable students to develop their knowledge of English while exposing them to international scientific exchanges, primarily written in this language. This course will be extended by a second workshop "Scientific exchanges in English". The ARISS contact will be a continuation of this second workshop and represents a tremendous opportunity for the students to apply their knowledge and language skills. The project will conclude with a visit to the "Cité de l'Espace" in Toulouse. The school will partner with Radio Club F6KEH also known as "Emetteurs Biterrois." Newspapers, television and radio stations will be notified of the event.

2. Lycée de la Borde Basse Contact Successful
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Lycée de la Borde Basse in Castres, France took place on Wednesday, March 5. ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts, FX0STD/KE5FNO, answered 10 questions posed to him by as many students. A representative from the ESA Education Office gave a presentation to the school and a photographer was present to cover this event. The contact audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, receiving 7 connections from 6 countries. La Depeche du Midi ran a Web story on the event. The article is written in French. See:
http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2008/03/06/440113-Castres-Les-lyceens-en-direct-avec-l-espace.html

3. ARISS Face to Face Meeting to be Held in Moscow
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team will meet in Moscow, Russia this summer for its annual Face to Face Meeting. Delegates will arrive on July 15 for the July 17 -18 meeting. Plans are ongoing.

4. ARISS Crew Debrief Session
On Friday, March 7, a crew debrief was held with astronaut Dan Tani, KD5DXE. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team received feedback on the ARISS radio system onboard the ISS.

5. Astronaut Training Status
Two Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) training sessions are planned for astronauts Nicole Stott, KE5GJN, and Sandy Magnus, KE5FYE, with Houston area school, Westbrook Intermediate. The training sessions, which are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using ARISS-equivalent equipment, are planned for Thursday, March 13 at approximately 14:50 and 15:15 UTC. Audio is expected to be fed into IRLP and EchoLink servers. Magnus is slated to be a crewmember of Expedition 17/18, flying to the ISS on STS-126 in September 2008. Stott, a member of the Expedition 19 crew, will fly on STS-128 in May 2009.

6. ARRL Article on AMSAT, ARISS
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a Web story covering the 2008 plans of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). The Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) educational outreach program and SuitSat-2 are included in this web story. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2008/03/05/10005?nc=1

Source ARISS Weekly Status