ARISS Weekly Status Report – 9/5/2022 – ARISS | Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

August 24: Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, a temporary home for children needing short- or long-term care in the Nashville, TN area, hosted an ARISS contact. Four young patients asked questions of Kjell Lindgren while the in-house TV studio broadcasted the actions of 14 students and 4 teachers to 343 patients in hospital rooms. Members of Vanderbilt University Amateur Radio Club and Williamson County Amateur Radio Group handled the ham radio station for the contact and had installed the antenna on the roof. Just before the contact ended, Lindgren told listeners: “Thank you for letting me be a part of your day, and thank you for facilitating this contact.” Staff had set up learning stations for all hospital patients to explore hands-on activities, working with models of planets and hands-on sound wave activities. Kids saw a real Moon rock and got space-related items, thanks to Marshall Space Flight Center. One child’s mother related her son’s passion for space; “That’s all he wants to talk about and create about, so this is amazing that in the hospital, he experiences this.” The studio program manager declared, “’Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ has a whole new meaning for us after a touch with a world many miles away. Thanks goes to NASA, ARISS, area ham radio operators, Ryan Seacrest Foundation, and the hospital school program.” Channel 5 WTVF prepared an online report, which is at https://www.newschannel5.com/news/cosmic-conversation-patients-at-vandy-childrens-hospital-talk-to-astronaut-orbiting-earth. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center web pages featured a story at: https://news.vumc.org/2022/08/31/young-patients-connect-with-international-space-station/. A teacher leads the hospital school program serving 80 students weekly, coordinates with students’ schools to continue a regular learning curriculum, and helps expand their creativity and imagination through the Ryan Seacrest Foundation’s on-site TV studio.

August 26: New England Sci-Tech (NESciTech), a STEM education center and makerspace in Natick, MA, will host an ARISS contact this fall. In preparation, the center is sponsoring a 12-month space-science program for New England girls and boys in grades 4-12. Hands-on space science workshops this summer included SciTech Rocketeers (model rockets), introductory math for modeling rocket flight, and electronic circuitry. One group of students watched a launch of their Cubes-in-Space™ project. Upcoming workshops include Air Powered Rockets, Introduction to Arduino Electronics, Amateur Radio Technician-level Classes, and Public Telescope Nights. NESciTech fostered strong ties with the New England home school community and students in several states are involved. The ARISS contact will be hosted at The Big E (exposition)—a fair that draws 60,000 to 180,000 visitors daily.

ARISS Social Media for August 2022

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