July & August: ARISS volunteer Stefan Dombrowski and area ham radio operators mentored youth attending STEM camps at the Euro Space Center in Libin, Belgium. Every camp focused on a major STEM area and youth learned about ARISS activities. At SatCamp, each youth built his or her own MySat (a “CubeSat-like device”) to name and take home. Kids learned what real satellites can do and why they don’t fall to Earth. Youth worked with basic electronics—voltage, resistors, and so on; learned basic programming for Arduino computers; and how to solder and work on breadboards and printed circuit boards. They installed their circuit board, Arduino, and a 2.4 GHz transmitter into a 3-D printed box. A drone lifted each box ~300 feet, one by one, and each student listened to a radio ground station to capture their own device’s transmitted flight data: temperature, air pressure, humidity. They visited ESA’s ground station in Redu and enjoyed ham radio activities including a transmitter hunt. For SatCamp II, kids brought back their MySat and installed a GPS receiver, solar panel, IMU (inertial measurement unit), and a heat radiation experiment unit with black and white surfaces. The drone lifted each MySat for youth to capture telemetry/flight data. They visited the white room at ESA’s education facility. ARISS mentors helped at a third camp, also, this one for young rocket builders who prepared payloads and tracked flight data. For all camps, kids took part in ham radio demos, learned to receive satellite transmissions (NOAA and FunCube), and listened to ARISS school contacts. 

September 6:  ARISS team member Ana Guzman reported that NASA had posted an Instagram Reel about 8-year-old Isabella whose dad, a ham operator, assisted her in speaking with Kjell Lindgren on the ISS.  Ana shared these amazing statistics about the Reel.

  • 1.2 million Views
  • 52,796 Likes
  • 528 Comments

September 15:  ARISS assisted one of its sponsors, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), with publicity for the upcoming ARISS contact at The Big E (Exposition), a state fair for all New England states held in West Springfield, MA.  Area hams will staff an interactive exhibit each day of the 17-day fair, the 6th largest in the US. One portion of the exhibit will feature ARISS. But the most exciting event at the fair will be in The Big E Arena with room for 6,000 people—an ARISS contact. On September 27, youth who have been enjoying STEM activities at New England Sci-Tech—a learning and makerspace center in Natick, MA, will speak with Bob Hines.  ARRL posted a home web page story and in its weekly e-letter, The ARRL Letter, circulated to 107,000 radio amateurs.  Two other news outlets posted stories, WWLP 22 News out of West Springfield, MA and by Morning Ag Clips with its US-wide audience.  See:  https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/live-chat-with-astronauts-during-the-big-e-fair/
and https://www.morningagclips.com/the-big-e-to-host-a-live-space-chat-with-international-space-station/.

ARISS Upcoming Events

Sep 26 Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia  ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia team
Sep 27 New England SciTech students at The Big E–exposition in W. Springfield MA, ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
Oct 1 Aznakaevo youth, Aznakaevo, Rep of Tatarstan, Russia ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia, team