April 6: For their ARISS radio contact, students from Leonardo Da Vinci-Nauen Campus in Nauen, Germany traveled to the German Aerospace Center (DLR). They talked via radio to Matthias Maurer who answered 20 questions and reminded them to study hard so they too can become astronauts. An audience following Covid guidelines consisted of 20 students, 3 teachers, and 10 community members including the amateur radio mentor team. 123 viewers watched the livestream; these youth, teachers, and community members used the Chat function to cheer on the student questioners. In 48 hours, views totaled 1,585. DLR said viewer numbers would climb as soon as its staff posted video and details about student STEM activities on its web site and social media and distributed releases to newspapers. In the hour before establishing the ARISS contact with Maurer, a Q&A session allowed students to pose questions to space agency experts. At the end of the day, the ARISS-Europe mentor said, “Students were very excited beforehand, and afterwards they were all the happier and content!”
April 5: The About Gagarin From Space program hosted an ARISS contact and sessions on space and amateur radio communications for Lyceum students at Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. Students spoke with Oleg Artemyev and the radio contact was coordinated by staff at the Mission Control Center-Moscow.
April 4: ARISS Technical Mentor Dave Jordan learned of an article featuring the Space Hardware Club (SHC) at University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville, AL and its ARISS contact. The write-up ran in a UAH online web site; it was titled “UAH Space Hardware Club team will connect area students with the International Space Station.” SHC made the ARISS events a main part of its 2022 outreach initiative, engaging students at three schools (two middle schools, one elementary school). Some of these youths asked the questions during the ARISS contact. SHC Outreach Manager Rebekah Clark said, “During our educational visits to the schools, the UAH SHC ARISS team was able to teach approximately 800 students about STEM topics such as rocketry, high altitude ballooning, ham radio, and the ISS.” The article can be found at: https://www.uah.edu/news/items/uah-space-hardware-club-team-will-connect-area-students-with-international-space-station.
April 5: ARISS Director of Education Kathy Lamont told 12 educators attending the ARISS-US Education Committee about the campaign NASA is doing with Artemis I to publicize its launch this summer and the STEM Learning Pathway. ARISS educators were interested in the STEM Learning Pathway add-on with its eight weeks of curated content for students. One teacher said he’d sign up as soon as the committee meeting ended and others were going to share the news with their school faculty.
April 5-6-7 ARISS team member Randy Berger attended the 37th Space Symposium Conference in Colorado Springs, CO and had time to network with SCaN Policy & Strategic Communications Specialist Angela Peura. Students came on one of the conference days and Angela had ARISS handouts and NASA materials for them—ARISS thanks her for this.
April 5: ARISS Technical Mentor Charlie Sufana spoke via Zoom to 12 Metro Amateur Radio Club members in the Skokie, IL area. His presentation included a video of Tim Peake talking about ARISS, some ARISS history, and how ARISS school contacts work. He showed a video of an ARISS school contact he had mentored. Then during the Q&A portion, Charlie answered questions for 30 minutes.
April 7: The ARISS-US team supported an ARISS contact for area schools mentored by the Space Hardware Club at University of Alabama in Huntsville; details will be in next week’s report.
ARISS Social Media for March 2022
ARISS Facebook – March
Twitter: On March 31, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,327, a gain of 1.8% over the end of February.
Facebook: Followers for March 2022 increased to 7,365.
Instagram: Followers at the end of March 2022 grew to 410; Post Count is 29.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of March, subscribers increased to 1.65k.
ARISS Upcoming Events
April 13 Dr. David R Williams School, Oakville ON, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 13 École Secondaire Ste. Marguerite d’Youville, St. Albert AB Canada, Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 14 Herzliya Science Center Israel, Herzliya, Israel, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 14 École Secondaire Ste. Jean D’Arc, London ON Canada, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 14 École Marie Poburan, St. Albert AB Canada, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team