March 21: Toyonaka High School in Osaka, Japan hosted an ARISS contact for students to talk with Kayla Barron; she answered 20 student questions. People social-distanced on site totaled 75, including students, educators, parents, and a visiting professor. The school was named one of Japan’s Super Science High Schools and 30 students belong to the Toyonaka High School Science Club. Several times a year, the high school club members hold scientific labs for elementary school students—this year, the activities related to ARISS. The Kansai ARISS project team assisted the students.  These scientific labs for the younger students will continue through the school year.  SpaceRef.com posted in its March 21st ISS Status Report a paragraph that ARISS had prepared about the Toyonaka radio contact.

March 17: ARISS learned that ARISS educator Rachel Jones who mentored students at the Savannah River Academy (SRA) in Grovetown, GA, has won a national-level award.  The Radio Club of America (RCA) and the International Wireless Communications Expo selected Rachel as winner of the 2022 Young Professionals Award. It goes to individuals who “work in wireless, are under age 35, and execute some of the industry’s most innovative ideas, showing creativity and influence.”  Rachel developed and executed a year of exciting hands-on lessons tied to wireless for grade 1-8 SRA students as preparation for their December ARISS contact. She got help from her ham club, Amateur Radio Club of Columbia County, to guide all 145 students in transmitter hunting, launching balloons with radio payloads, and operating various types of ham radio equipment. Rachel received her award at the 2022 International Wireless Communications Expo during the Radio Club of America Breakfast.

March 18:  ARISS Chair Frank Bauer and ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger prepared charts for a professional development workshop given by Frank at the 2022 5th Annual HamSCI Workshop. The talk covered recent ARISS research, such as the MarconISSta experiment, along with new ARISS educational programs that focus on research. Most of the 122 audience members were undergraduates and professors. A VIP, Esayas Shume, NASA Science Mission Directorate, Heliophysics Division attended and afterwards, wanted to talk to Frank about similar interests. Several professors and undergrads sought out Frank to discuss how to be involved in ARISS research.  He said, “This conference was a great event for allowing ARISS to network with people interested in research.”  

March 22: An ARISS contact took place for youth in the city of Aznakayevo in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The youth group participates in the About Gagarin From Space program. Anton Shkaplerov supported the ARISS contact.

March 21: A selection of ARISS team members studied a batch of student resumes and gave recommendations to Frank Bauer on NASA interns to consider inviting to work with ARISS. Two ARISS education programs will utilize students to assist with putting into motion the various aspects of the ARISS programs.

March 16: Rosalie White gave a half-hour presentation on the latest ARISS news at the ARRL-ARISS Board Committee meeting. She presented what’s new in regard to hardware plans, operations, recent accomplishments, and education programs.  ARRL (American Radio Relay League), a major sponsor of ARISS, re-named Rosalie as the ARISS Delegate representing ARRL to the ARISS teams for 2022. This was the board committee’s first meeting of the year.

ARISS Upcoming Events 

April 5 Leonardo Da Vinci Campus-Nauen, Nauen, Germany ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 7 Space Hardware Club with area schools, Huntsville AL ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
TBD Axiom Canada & Israel school contacts, ARISS-Canada & ARISS-Europe team