November 4: Harel Educational Campus in Holon, Israel hosted an ARISS contact, giving students a chance to talk with Josh Cassada. He answered 14 questions. A crowd of 200 watched the contact activity including a news reporter who covered the story for Israeli TV Channel 13. More Harel students viewed the livestream. The school, comprised of intermediate through high school levels (7 to 12), offers spiritual religious education and studies in robotics, communication, graphic design, computers, and literature. Faculty wanted to host the ARISS contact when they recognized a need to broaden student knowledge of space technology and boost curiosity about science. 

November 6: ARISS educator Martha Muir set up a mini-youth activity lounge at the 2022 Stone Mountain Hamfest (a gathering of ham radio enthusiasts) in Lawrenceville, GA. She offered space and communications-related hands-on activities from 10 am to noon with help from ARISS volunteer Rachel Jones, a PhD student who had led STEM lessons in 2021 for all kids at an ARISS school. Hamfest youth enjoyed Snap Circuit kits (these attracted kids of all ages plus some interested older hams) and building paper airplanes. North Fulton Amateur Radio League members from Atlanta guided youth in experiments with Morse code; one high school gal really enjoyed it, picking it up very fast. A friend of Martha’s led radio transmitter hunts for kids. The hidden transmitters were stuffed animals—baby and papa foxes. Afterward, a girl told her dad he “needed to make some [hidden transmitters] that look like foxes” so she could do hunts at home. Martha gave two forum talks. She was one of several people speaking in the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) Forum led by the ARRL Southeastern Director (director for AL, FL, GA, PR, and VI) and ARRL Georgia Section Manager; 30 people attended. Martha’s second forum was on getting youth involved in ham radio. Rachel supported both forums and ARISS volunteer Jim Reed shared a few comments on ARISS at the second forum (he joined ARISS’s social media team recently). 

October 18: Norwich (CT) Free Academy students have engaged in hands-on STEM lessons in preparation for their early 2023 ARISS contact.  A school educator committee worked with the science department to integrate lessons on space and communications into the curriculum for all 2,100 students. One popular communications activity for students involved the Norwich Free Academy Amateur Radio & Engineering Club members setting up a kiosk in the library, with the kiosk being titled “Use the Force.” Sitting on the kiosk was the front portion of a ham radio transceiver (receiver and transmitter) that had a dial students could turn to listen to radio stations. This front part of the transceiver was linked to the other portion of the transceiver residing in the school’s ham club station. Turning the dial at the kiosk, students could decide what communications to listen to, capture the radio call signs, and type these in the club’s online logbook. This past May, club members had set up a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 16 receiver. They have been capturing live GOES 16 satellite data to research and predict weather patterns on Earth and to investigate possible correlations between these patterns and flora and fauna growth patterns. The club does an annual balloon launch.

October 30: An ARISS radio contact took place for student participants attending the 12th International Aerospace School named after cosmonaut U.N. Sultanov in Ufa, Russia. Cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who is also a Russian engineer, supported the contact.  ARISS-Russia leader Sergey Samburov and Cosmonaut S. N. Revin came to watch the students. The event was supported on the ground by two ARISS-Russia volunteers.  Students had engaged in the educational studies called About Gagarin From Space. As with other ARISS-Russia sponsored radio ARISS contacts, this one was scheduled by Russia’s Mission Control Center-Moscow.  

October 9: The West Michigan Aviation Academy in Grand Rapids, MI will be scheduled in 2023 for its ARISS contact. The school hosted their Broadening Horizons Breakfast, an event attended by 200 supportive community leaders, alumni, faculty, and students. ARISS Technical Mentor Gordon Scannell was invited and traveled there. He gave a presentation about the ARISS program and the upcoming contact to a group of the school’s students. He networked with the school CEO, Dean of Aviation & Engineering, Dean of Teaching & Student Learning, and science and aviation teachers.  All were very pleased that the school will host an ARISS contact.

October 21-23 ARISS educator Dan White, Electrical and Computer Engineering Associate Professor at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN, traveled to Corinth, Greece for the Libre Space Foundation’s Core Contributor All-Hands Workshop. He presented several talks on the ARISS program and discussed how Satellite Networked Open Ground Stations (SatNOGS) can regularly capture the downlink of all ARISS contacts. He described his role of making online posts to the SatNOGS worldwide ground station operators about ARISS contacts and how he will expand on this communication, initiating discussions about each ARISS contact. 

First part of October: ARISS educator Linda Nowicki was accepted for another year to be a judge for the AIAA—American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She reviewed proposals for the AIAA 2022-2023 Classroom Grants program that awards funding for groups with top proposals.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
Nov 18 Amur State University-ARISS contact, Blagoveshchensk, Russia, ARISS-Russia Team
Nov 20 Ural State University-ARISS contact, Yekaterinburg, Russia, ARISS-Russia Team