April issue: The Smithsonian magazine ran a feature on how ISS crew members spend their leisure time. The story began with a bit of detail on early space crews’ heavy workloads and needing time off. The writer moved to now, with space crews continuing to be more productive when schedules include relaxing—with making music being quite popular. The story cited the importance of ham radio as an engaging onboard leisure activity, as Doug Wheelock realized during his 2010 ISS mission. Speaking about the myriad of radio signals he heard from Earth’s ham operators, Doug said, “That started a trend for me where I made thousands of contacts across the world. That really became part of my connection back to the planet.” Referring to deep space missions, he said, ““I can’t imagine doing a long-duration mission without that connection to the planet. It’s a huge psychological hurdle that we’re going to have to figure out.” The article is at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-do-astronauts-spend-their-weekends-space-180977480/?utm_source=pocket-newtab. A post about the story was added to the ISS Ham Twitter page and to ARISS Facebook and Twitter pages.
April 14: A team from the ARISS-USA Education Committee is reviewing ARISS Education Proposals that arrived during the opening of the recent window (February 15 to March 31, 2021) to accept such proposals. US education institutions whose proposals rise to the top in this competitive process will be offered the opportunity for ARISS radio contacts to be scheduled for January 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022.
Upcoming Events
- April 20 Winmalee Public School, Blue Mountains NSW Au, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
- April 21 Space Foundation Gateway Webinar, talk on ARISS for educators, Melissa Pore
- April 24 ARRL Virginia Convention, panel: ARISS engages Kids/Women in Radio, K.Lamont, M.Pore
- April 26 St. Scholastica’s College, Glebe AU, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team
- April 26 St. Margaret’s School, Melbourne AU, ARISS contact, ARISS-Japan team