July 11-15: ARISS Director of Education Kathy Lamont and ARISS educator Kelly Cammarano gave short talks about ARISS on day two of a professional development seminar for educators. They explained a little about the ARISS program, resources on ARISS’ web pages for educators, the ARISS Education Proposal, and the timeframe that ARISS will open the next window to accept proposals. The American Radio Relay League, one of ARISS’ sponsors, put on the week-long seminar in Newington, CT for eight educators from around the US. They did hands-on lessons on satellite communications; sensors and an Arduino board—programming sensors on a breadboard to collect and transmit data to be shared by APRS (automatic packet reporting system); and working with that data—how to plot and analyze it. The women felt they could take many of the hands-on STEM lessons back to their classrooms. Kathy, from Virginia, and Kelly, from California, have each hosted ARISS contacts in the past at their schools.
July 19-22: The 2022 ARISS-International working group held its annual meeting (online) of world ARISS Officers, ARISS Delegates, and ARISS volunteers. 34 of the team attended. Areas represented by team members were Australia, Japan, Canada, the US, and many countries in Europe. Day 1 presentations included an overview of the last 12 months of ARISS’ successes such as great outcomes from lessons done with US and European students, and some of ARISS’ planning and activities leading to future major projects. Day 2 and Day 3 topics focused on three main areas that define ARISS’ initiatives dealing with education, operations, and development. An update was shared on all education programs funded by grants won in 2021, such as the development of hands-on electronic kits that enhance the introducing of electronics in the classroom. Progress was reported on the ARISS *STAR* program where students will engage in tele-robotics and using ham radio to control the robots. A talk on operations covered several ARISS activities such as the very popular Slow Scan TV (SSTV—picture links), events that educators report have proven to spark students’ interest in ISS operations. The last day of the meeting included future plans and activities to consider and the 2023 meeting.
July 21: During a spacewalk, Oleg Artemyev deployed 10 satellites on behalf of the ARISS-Russia team. Sergey Samburov, leader of the team, monitored the deployment from Russia’s Mission Control area. Students at South West State University (SWSU) in Kursk built eight of the satellites and students at Ryazan State Radio Engineering University built two of the satellites. Details about the satellites were in an earlier weekly report.
July 21: ARISS learned about viewer numbers of the “Amateur Space Radio” episode of Houston, We Have a Podcast, which first aired on July 7. The podcast featured Courtney Black, of the ISS National Lab, talking about her past experience as a teacher who hosted an ARISS contact. Metrics received are:
- Apple Podcasts—garnered 1,600 unique listeners
- SoundCloud—received 350 plays and
- Google got 250 plays.
July 23: An ARISS contact was hosted for people taking part in the Celebration of the frigate “Nadezhda,” in Vladivostok, Russia. Listeners learned about ARISS and heard cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev support the ARISS radio contact. The ARISS-Russia team coordinated the activity.
ARISS Upcoming Events
July 28: Buehler Challenger & Science Center, Paramus NJ ARISS contact, ARISS-US team