August 10: Summer in or near Vestal, NY means hundreds of campers between grades 2 and 12 are enjoying Kopernik Observatory and Science Center’s weekly STEM camps. This summer’s boys and girls experienced a myriad of science activities with the help of School Programs Coordinator and Science Teacher for Kopernik, Tish Bresee, a NASA Solar System Ambassador. Examples of some of the lessons included how to use a telescope, launch and track high altitude balloons, make ham radio contacts, all with a tie to ARISS and what it’s like being an astronaut on the ISS. This past week’s camp, “Welcome Aboard the ISS,” saw 19 campers thrilled by the chance to ask Bob Hines a question; he replied to 19. An excited gathering of 60 attendees at the Center, including youth from a previous week’s camp (“Secrets of Code” on coding, Morse code, and electrical circuits) watched the activity. TV stations and a cable station (WIVT, WICZ, WBCH) covered the ARISS contact. The livestream garnered 110 viewers—youth who’d been at earlier camps, along with the general public. Within 48 hours, 308 people had watched a recording. The URL (begin at 9 minutes) is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OadnQ3UX_s. Two URLs for media hits are:
https://www.wicz.com/story/47070053/students-at-kopernik-speak-to-astronaut-aboard-iss
August 8: A week-long workshop called Summer Space School was held at the Space Research Institute, the space science studies department at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia. Organizers received support from the Roscosmos State Corporation. Study areas for youth coming from many locales ranged from astronomy and astrophysics to the origin of the Universe and exoplanets. Students could choose subjects tied to astronautics, space communications and remote sensing, space medicine and biology, and scientific journalism. They engaged in a simulated trip to, and landing on, Mars and planned a settlement in which to live and do scientific research. On one day of the space school week, 70 students participated in a successful ARISS contact with Sergey Korsakov. They had studied the About Gagarin from Space set of lessons led by the ARISS-Russia team.
August 8: The Isle of Thanet News, an online UK news service featured Isabella, an eight year old from Broadstairs. Her father, a ham operator was lucky late one night to hear Kjell Lindgren making radio contacts on the ARISS radio in the ISS with ham operators. Matt’s ham license allows him to help others use his radio under his direction. He woke his daughter to try for a short chat with Lindgren, and she snagged him. Isabella said: “It was amazing to contact the ISS and it made my night and day. I was elated when I heard an astronaut on the ISS. After we spoke on the radio, NASA contacted us for a picture of me, which they sent to Astronaut Kjell and to my surprise, Kjell sent me back an image of my picture on his iPad floating in the ISS!” The article’s URL is: https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2022/08/10/broadstairs-eight-year-old-to-feature-on-nasa-website-after-radio-chat-with-iss-astronaut/. NASA plans to run a story about this on its web pages. On August 16, a British Broadcasting Company News reporter interviewed Isabella, and the segment should air soon.
August 10: The ARISS-Russia team conducted an ARISS radio contact at the Ufa State Aviation Technical University in Ufa, Russia. The 100 youth, ages 14 to 17, came from various regions of Russia. The ARISS-Russia team taught them the About Gagarin From Space lessons. Oleg Artemiev supported the radio contact.
August 2: ARISS educator Diane Warner gave a talk about ARISS and the ISS to a group of Lancaster, OH community members who attended a presentation given by her club, the All Terrain Amateur Radio Association. The club’s intent was to introduce the community to amateur radio and invite them to sign up for an upcoming amateur radio license class.
August 6-7: At the 2022 ARRL Pacific Northwest DX Convention in Spokane, WA, ARRL-ARISS Board Committee Chair Mark Tharp set up a display table sporting ARISS’ roll-up banner, handouts, and business cards. 140 attendees came from 12 states and British Columbia, and they took home all but a few of the ARISS business cards. This annual convention features programs of interest to ham radio operators who enjoy making radio contacts with hams in countries located in very remote parts of the globe.
ARISS Upcoming Events
Aug 18 Cambridge Public Library & Idea Exchange, Cambridge ON ARISS contact, ARISS Canada Team