September 18: The Space Hardware Club at the University of Huntsville in Huntsville, AL is preparing for their ARISS contact next spring. The group’s plan was to carry out ARISS STEM activities in collaboration with nearby Buckhorn Middle School youth, with undergrads teaching middle schoolers. Recent events saw youngsters launch basic paper rockets using water pressure. First, they listened to details about rocketry and an intro to ham radio related to rocket launches and to the upcoming ARISS contact. Then undergrads guided youth in assembling their rockets and testing them and exploring more sophisticated rockets.  

September 21: Patients at Children’s National Hospital (CNH) in Washington, DC engaged in an ARISS contact with Akihiko Hoshide. He answered 16 of the kids’ questions as the ISS flew over the ARISS ground station in Italy, which relayed all radio communications. CNH staff reported over 350 K-12 patients in a bed in their rooms, listening to and viewing the ARISS contact via a CNH Zoom session. Staffers cited another 950 students, 500 parents, and 400 professionals who had the chance to watch at the hospital or its clinics and outpatient facilities. CNH coordinates the youths’ school districts with hospital teachers. It works closely with NASA and the Air and Space Museum to provide a STEAM curriculum that encourages designing, inventing, and creating. The CNH Seacrest Studio offers youth an interactive space for youth to explore radio, TV, and social media, and transmits programs to patient rooms. These young people learned about orbits, how to track orbits, communications, and ARISS ham radio transmissions between the ISS astronaut and the ARISS Italian ham operator being relayed to patients.

August 9-13: The last week-long science camp of the summer at Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, NY (camp title: “Return to the Edge of Space”) saw six youth immersed in STEM hands-on activity tied to a high altitude balloon launch. ARISS educator Drew Deskur coached the high schoolers in researching the steps last summer’s campers took for their launch. Next the high schoolers built the payload, integrating two cameras, tracking devices, Raspberry Pi, and experiment circuitry. The group got an intro to, and learned the usefulness of, amateur radio APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) that they would use to capture the balloon’s telemetry and tracking information. They discovered that amateur radio slow scan TV from the cameras allowed them to analyze the flight path in real time.  Campers launched the balloon August 11th, troubleshot a few mid-flight problems, and monitored flight data and constantly streaming video of the horizon and the balloon. After 10 hours, they recovered it. The next day they learned to analyze the data. The last day of camp, kids presented a program on their experiences to their parents.

September 21: ARISS educator Melissa Pore initiated a new strand for the Bishop O’Connell High School’s Global Studies Program. Pore and three fellow teachers are guiding students in this strand titled “Space Exploration, Engineering & International Cooperation.” The school’s entire 700 students and 20 teachers are engaged. This special Global Studies Program will be named on students’ graduation diplomas when they complete their senior school year. Pore plans to highlight ARISS in this strand, having students research the many examples of international cooperation required for the ARISS program and also describing her work on the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group and the necessary cooperation among members.

September 24:  Students at the SPDW Voortrekker Movement’s youth camp in Oranjeville, South Africa were preparing for their ARISS contact. ARISS will learn more details soon.   

ARISS Social Media

Facebook August 2021

ARISS Twitter:  As of August 31, 2021, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 15,216, a 1% gain over July.
ARISS Instagram: As of August 31, 2021, Instagram Followers totaled 348, a small gain over July.
ARISS YouTube: As of August 31, 2021, YouTube subscribers totaled 1,545, a slight gain over July.

ARISS Upcoming Events

Sep 27 Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia ARISS contact, ARISS Russia team