Author: cmejackson500

May 11: The online publication, Interesting Engineering, ran a story about Dhruv Rebba, an ARISS volunteer who specializes in computer science as a senior at Normal Community High School in Bloomington, IL.  He’s been chosen for the national 2022 4-H Youth in Action Award for STEM. Here’s why. He’s the lead of the Illinois 4-H in Space Mission Command. The 4-H in Space program will potentially allow 10,000 Illinois youth over three years to collect data from satellites in space. He works with Illinois 4-H, the Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems at Illinois, and the University of Illinois Department of Aerospace in developing a program to enable youth to build and program microsatellites that will launch in third quarter 2022. He’s CEO of Universal Health Foundation, an international non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of life for the underprivileged, providing such things as supplies to the needy–19 schools and 250 families during the pandemic.  In 2017 he wrote an ARISS Education Proposal with teachers, which won his school an ARISS contact. 

April 7: An ARISS educator at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Houston, TX engaged Kindergarten through 8^th grade students in STEM by getting their hands-on help in assembling the pieces of a ham radio station at the school. The school will host an ARISS contact later in 2022. Earlier, students had assisted in installing the antenna and the antenna rotator on a mast. Recently, adults set up the antenna on the school roof. Students now proudly “have ownership” of the antenna. 

May 12: An ARISS contact was hosted by the Scuola Secondaria Leopardi in the Macherio, Monza and Brianza Provence of the Lombardia region of Italy.  150 students filled the big auditorium and 100 others in classrooms and outside of the school watched the livestream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duoy5ArXFFw.  Macherio’s mayor, the school principal and teachers, and news reporters also watched the action. After the contact, students showed off some of their educational achievements and talents to the audience.  By evening, 1,527 viewers had watched the recording of the contact. In previous months, 240 elementary and middle school students learned many aspects of space exploration and took part in events related to astrophysics, archaeology, electrical engineering, space medicine, environmental science, and amateur radio.

May 5: NASA’s web pages carried a feature titled, “The Scientific Journey of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 Aboard the ISS.”  The story highlighted “scientific milestones” from the six-month mission, including that Raja Chari supported an ARISS radio contact with school students in Chile.  The story is at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/scientific-journey-on-ISS-crew-3

May 11: The May/June 2022 issue of On the Air magazine contains an article penned by Rosalie White; it included a section on ARISS.  The magazine, published by the American Radio Relay League, goes to 45,000 of its members in print or digital format. Her item, titled “Don’t Hesitate to Ask,” encourages readers not to worry that asking questions makes them sound “green.” She cited examples of not hesitating to ask how to make ARISS packet and cross band repeater contacts and to learn about ARISS SSTV (picture link) sessions.

ARISS Upcoming Events
 May 19-20 Hamvention, US-wide large amateur radio convention: booth, forum, ARISS-US team
May 20 Forum Accademico Italiano eV, Koln Germany  ARISS school contact, ARISS-Europe team
May 21 All-Russian Traveler Festival, Lipetsk, Russia  ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia team
May 27 Aznakayevo youth, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia  ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia team

April 29: Students at Istituto Comprensivo 1 Chieti in Abruzzo, Italy conducted an ARISS contact with Samantha Cristoforetti, who answered 15 of their questions. As the ISS pass ended, the principal and the school gave Cristoforetti greetings and best wishes.  300 students in their classrooms watched the action via livestream (within a week, viewers of the recording totaled 715). After the contact, an ARISS Technical Mentor presented a talk to everyone about the ARISS program.  TV stations RAI3 and RETE8 covered the activities. A few ARISS Italy team members who were on standby at their ARISS ground station, livestreamed that activity with the contact’s audio; they garnered 47 views. Other European space-enthusiast hams provided YouTube videos of the ARISS radio transmissions for 88 viewers. A practice session before the contact gave students a lesson on radio communications and that session was livestreamed with 278 watching. This urban school enrolls 1,000 students ages 4-14. STEAM lessons and projects offered at every grade level cover things such as robotics and coding. Students participated in ESA’s “Zero Mission-Astro Pi” project, and in 2021 met Astronaut Luca Parmitano. Members of the amateur radio team from Pescara instructed students on the installation and types of ham radio equipment and antennas they would be using to make the ARISS radio contact.

April 21: Ben Davis Aerospace Technical High School (DATHS) in Detroit, MI hosted an ARISS Watch Party for students at Coleman Young International Airport. Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club members brought and set up a ham radio station so youth could listen to Kayla Barron answering Bellefontaine (OH) High School students’ questions during an ARISS contact. ARISS Technical Mentor Larry Koziel brought monitors so DATHS students could watch the Ohio livestream.  The mix of attendees included the DATHS Advisory Board and principal, a teacher, members of the area Tuskegee Airmen Chapter, and airport administrators. DATHS has an ARISS contact in the second half of 2022.

April 30: Istituto Comprensivo Tolfa in Lazio, Italy hosted an ARISS radio contact with Samantha Cristoforetti; she replied to 17 student questions.  24 students, a number of staff, TV representatives (RAI3, RAI Gulp, TGR Lazio, Canale10) and an Il Messaggero newspaper reporter were in the room.  2,036 others in school classrooms watched the livestream, which is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKlOwjvTpt8—begin viewing at 37 minutes 10 seconds (you could’ve heard a pin drop!).  Within a week, 3,709 viewers had watched the recording. This urban primary and middle school’s curriculum focuses on language skills and STEM. Students have taken part in ESA’s “Send your Drawing into space with Cheops,” Italian Space Agency’s “Send ARTEMIS-inspired Drawings to the Moon,” Institute of National Astrophysics’ “Learning about Light Pollution,” and NASA lessons on space exploration and the ISS. The area amateur radio club led student activities on radio science and demos of the radio equipment needed for the ARISS contact. 

May 3: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic presented a talk titled “Space—the Ultimate Frontier” to 80 engineering students at Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy.  She covered a little space history, Meteo weather satellites, and the ARISS Program.  Ivancic is a 5^th grade teacher and this was her first talk to a university audience; she was thrilled to be invited to do so.

ARISS Social Media for April 2022

ARISS Facebook – April

Twitter: On April 30, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,580, a gain of 1.6% over March.
Facebook: Followers for April 2022 increased to 7,517.
Instagram: Followers at the end of April 2022 grew to 421.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of April, subscribers increased to 1.66k.

ARISS Upcoming Events 
May 12 Scuola Secondaria G Leopardi & Macherio, Lombardia Italy ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe team
May 19-20 Hamvention, a US-wide big amateur radio convention: booth, forum, ARISS-US team
May 20 Forum Accademico Italiano eV, Koln Germany  ARISS school contact, ARISS-Europe team

April 21:  Bellefontaine (OH) High School hosted an ARISS contact with Kayla Barron for all students enrolled in the city’s elementary, intermediate, middle, and high schools. A 9^th grader who had earned his amateur radio license, sounded like an adult handling the introduction and managing the mic for students from all 4 schools asking the questions. Two of the high school’s graduates gave inspiring talks on studying hard and their engineering careers at SpaceX and NASA Glenn Research Center.  2,316 K-12 students, 234 educators, and 49 administrators, parents and professionals watched the livestream. From Michigan, ARISS Technical Mentor Gordon Scannell and ARRL Great Lakes Director Dale Williams drove to Ohio for the day. Other VIPs attending were the mayor and school superintendent, school board members, a rep from Armstrong Air & Space Museum, and ARISS Education Ambassador Diane Warner. 315 members of the public and a Michigan school class of 30 watched live via a YouTube video; see https://youtu.be/6t5ZQOw2j68.  In a week’s time, 1,538 had watched the recording.

The Bellefontaine School District posted this teacher comment:  “It [ARISS lessons] plants a seed in students. It’s creating experiences for students so they can find their path in life. Even with needing to lead a year of lessons on space and communications, I would do it all again.”  A high school math teacher wrote, “Ms. Barron’s answers were so well phrased. She restated students’ names, showing she loved talking to them. I truly thank her for showing so much compassion to our youth!”  A fourth grade teacher said: “My whole class is inspired to become astronauts!”

Last year, students established the Bellefontaine High School Amateur Radio Club and through the months, classes took part in lessons on wireless communication and space communication.

Media–pre-contact:

1. Springfield News Sun   

https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/bellefontaine-school-students-to-talk-to-astronaut-at-international-space-station/NDZMBXWJSFDNBIWFQHDVKZI4QM/

2. Peak of Ohio 

https://www.peakofohio.com/news/details.cfm?clientid=5&id=339129

3. Bellefontaine Examiner 

https://www.examiner.org/bhs-amateur-radio-club-prepping-for-international-space-station-contact-thursday/

Media—post-contact:

1. WHIO-TV  
   https://www.whio.com/news/local/local-school-set-talk-with-astronauts-later-this-month/6VDGG4VLYNC4NIKFSFWYIAZERE/
2. Peak of Ohio
   https://www.peakofohio.com/news/details.cfm?clientid=5&id=339305

April 14: An ARISS contact held for students at the Rakia-Herzliya Science Center (HSC) in Herzliya, Israel was supported by Axiom crew member Etyan Stibbe. He answered 9 questions. 341 people attended the event and 315 viewers watched the livestream, which is at https://youtu.be/pCf-Spm5R6c?t=2013. In a week’s time, the recording had 1,339 views. Stibbe collaborated with HSC and is aligned with The Rakia Mission, which inspires the Israeli population about space and its opportunities. HSC is an educational institute promoting STEM to 1,500 K-12 students. Its enrichment programs cover technology and science including space, robotics, physics, computer sciences, and life sciences. One of those programs included their ARISS project, which gave 200 high school students a variety of related educational activities over several months on how to operate HSC’s amateur radio satellite station in its Space Laboratory. The Israel Amateur Radio Club helped students track and operate through LEO satellites and learn how to handle radio communications for the ARISS contact.  

April 5-6: Engineering students and radio enthusiasts gathered at Pandit Deendayal Energy University in Gandhinagar, India for the “Two Day Workshop on Amateur Radio Technologies.” Rajesh Vagadia, who had assisted as an ARISS volunteer for 2012 and 2019 ARISS contacts in India, conducted sessions with help from ham radio leaders—six men and one woman. 40 students took part in the workshop for eight hours each day; some of the university’s faculty attended. Sessions provided many demos of the newest technologies used in ham radio, some educational aspects of ARISS, and basic radio concepts, i.e., signal propagation and modulation. Students enjoyed the demo on how to receive ARISS SSTV transmissions (picture downlinks) using a simple software-defined radio dongle and a home-built handheld antenna. Also, leaders set up two ham radio stations for students to do ham radio SSTV contacts with one other from room to room—students enjoyed transmitting and receiving their own images and audio to each other. A YouTube summarizing workshop events is at: https://youtu.be/lFf4g4Ubm1k and 160 people have viewed it.  Vagadia wrote: “For several years, I’ve run an ARISS awareness campaign for Gujarat schools—top-class metro ones to small underprivileged-village ones. I believe knowledge should be for all, equally. Right now, I’m assisting a school in a very tiny village with their ARISS education proposal.”

ARISS Upcoming Events 

May 13 Scuola Secondaria G Leopardi & Macherio, Lombardia Italy ARISS contact, ARISS Europe team

April 13:  Students at École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville in St. Albert, AB, Canada held an ARISS radio contact Q&A session with Axiom crew member Mary Pathy on the ISS. He answered 12 questions and then thanked the students.  The YouTube livestream had 240 students viewing the action along with a team of 17 others.  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporters were on site and posted a story. After the contact, one teacher reported, “The ARISS contact was ‘all the talk’ in the hallways for the rest of the day.” The school provides education to grades 7-9 and its optional class program allows students to participate in STEAM-oriented activities including; robotics, multimedia, and enterprise and innovation.

April 13: Dr. David R. Williams School in Oakville, ON, Canada was the site of an ARISS radio contact with Axiom Astronaut Mark Pathy; he answered 13 students’ questions and one from a teacher. All 1000 students listened to the livestream and were excited that retired CSA Astronaut David R. Williams was online listening, too.  The school’s name comes from him, a Canadian physician and CEO who served as mission specialist on two space shuttle missions (1998 and 2007).  Viewers of the recording posted on the school Facebook page totaled 115. The faculty provides opportunities to over 1000 junior kindergarten through grade eight students who have a major interest in science. They learned about all Canadian astronauts and the contribution Canada makes to the international space effort. Through the year, the science curriculum led students in discovering ISS research conducted as related to humans’ response to Earth’s environmental conditions, living and working on the ISS, and social aspects of that.

April 11-13: ARISS sponsored another very popular Slow Scan Television (SSTV) session (picture downlink event), this one featuring women in space and recognizing Cosmonautics Day. For about 60 hours, 12 images were downlinked. Space and radio enthusiasts, students, educators, parents, and shortwave listeners throughout the world enjoyed trying to collect all 12 space history images.  1,182 participants posted 3,339 images to the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.  Nearly all enthusiasts requested the handsome ARISS SSTV diploma. Many left comments and here are two:

• 5th grade teacher: “I worked with my students to receive SSTV. They were very interested!” 
• “These SSTV images were received as part of our 4th grade science activity at Horizon Science Academy.”

April 14:  École Elementaire Ste. Jean D’Arc in London, ON, Canada held an ARISS contact for its students and Axiom Astronaut Mark Pathy, who answered 15 questions. Western University (WU) researcher Eric Pilles worked with the school and attended the ARISS contact. He reported: “When the radio kicked in, you could feel the energy in the room as everyone got excited to hear what the astronaut had to say.”  The school collaborated with WU’s outreach program at the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, which allowed students to participate in extra activities such as visits to an observatory. The EESJD faculty involved all 400 students (junior-kindergarten to 6^th grade) throughout the year in studies related to the ARISS contact. For example, sixth graders focused on space-related sciences, effects on the body in space, and what impacts space exploration has on society and Earth’s environment. All students learned about Canadian astronauts and contributions of Canada to the international space effort. CBC posted an online story about the ARISS contact at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-students-over-the-moon-after-chat-with-astronau-aboard-the-iss-1.6420312

April 14:  Students at École Marie Poburan in St. Albert, AB, Canada held an ARISS contact with Axion Astronaut Mark Pathy; he answered 13 of the students’ questions. The school’s 300 students are in Kindergarten to 6th grade. In preparation for this ARISS contact, the faculty developed science program activities for all grades activities such as designing a space shuttle, planning a Mars outpost, learning to do orbital tracking of the ISS, and learning about basic electrical circuits. The 3rd graders found out things about sound and communications. The 5th graders tied together connections between Earth’s ecosystem and weather science. The 6th graders designed space-related inventions and discovered the impact Canadian innovations have had on space science.

April 21: Bellefontaine (OH) High School’s ARISS contact will be reported next week.

ARISS Upcoming Events 

Next ARISS contacts — TBD

April 7: Members of the Space Hardware Club (SHC) of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) sponsored an ARISS contact and related educational activities for 800 students in 4 of the region’s schools, Buckhorn Middle School, Mountain Gap Middle School, New Hope Elementary School, and Sparkman Middle School. Undergrads invited a few students from each school to come to UAH ask questions during the radio contact with Thomas Marshburn. People watching the day’s events totaled 108. The livestream is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyl-ekn612M&t=1603s. Undergrads are sending the recording to the four schools for all students to watch. WAAY-TV was on hand to record the event and broadcasted a video report in a newscast; it is at https://www.waaytv.com/community/uah-space-hardware-club-organizes-event-for-students-to-connect-with-the-international-space-station/article_29e8600c-b6be-11ec-abec-abd991289912.html. In preparation for the contact SHC engaged the 800 students in model rocket launches, high altitude balloon launches with radio payloads, and other hands-on STEM activities.  SHC Outreach Manager Rebekah Clark said, “All of the schools specifically requested the recording be sent to them to add to their curriculum.”   

April 11: École Secondaire St. Albert Catholic High School in St. Albert, AB, Canada hosted an ARISS contact with Axiom Astronaut Mark Pathy, who answered 13 student questions. 50 people came to watch students while all 758 students and staff watched the livestream. A second livestream connection was provided and it got a reported 67 views. The school’s Facebook page posted a YouTube video that garnered 244 views. The St. Albert Gazette ran an article on April 12 at https://www.stalberttoday.ca/local-news/sachs-students-call-spaceman-in-space-pathy-ariss-gabelmann-groves-5254868. Two other media outlets picked up the story, RMOToday.com (Rocky Mountain Outlook) and StAlbert TODAY.  100% of the latter’s readers rated the story as “important to their community.” The writer quoted a young lady student saying: “I feel like every kid has that dream of going into space. The opportunity to talk to someone who is not only an astronaut but currently in space was really cool.” Students had formed a space club, researched space science, and launched a weather balloon as STEM preparation before the ARISS contact.

This was the first of six ARISS contacts carried out by a civilian crew during this first Axiom Space mission to the ISS. More details on the other contacts will be in hand to provide in next week’s report.

April 7: Bellefontaine High School in Bellefontaine, OH, will host an ARISS contact on April 21 and invited students from the area elementary, intermediate, and middle schools to participate in related STEM activities and the upcoming ARISS contact.  Seventh graders created STEM-related artwork, designed a KWL table of facts about the ISS, and brainstormed on ways people communicate—from body language to computer coding. Fifth graders used math equations to investigate Aurora in space; analyzed items at NASA News Live, applying that knowledge to other areas; and made models of the Solar System, comparing and contrasting each planet and other galaxies. Lower grade students experimented with communications using cans and string, reporting the impact on sound quality when changing the size of cans and type of string. Students from the three lower-grade schools composed questions they want to ask Astronaut Kayla Barron during the ARISS contact that the high school is sponsoring. High school students have learned a variety of wireless radio lessons and some have earned their ham radio license. They will put that knowledge to use when they operate the ham station during the ARISS contact with the help of the area ham club.

April 11: Students at DLR School Lab TU Dresden in Dresden, Germany engaged in an ARISS contact with Matthias Maurer, who answered 18 student questions. 100 people were on hand for the event; they heard DLR Mission Manager Volker Schmid describe the students’ space- and technology-related educational activities and competitions that the youth enjoyed in preparation for the ARISS contact, including the German CanSat Competition 2020/21, a German-Polish summer science camp „Völlig Schwerelos“ 2021, and „Moon Camp Challenge“ 2022. The contact livestream is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LKjD2QlisM. Within 3 days, it garnered 726 views.

April 8: The NASA.gov’s YouTube online weekly news source, titled “Space to Ground,” highlighted ARISS in its video. A good chunk of the segment introduced viewers to the ARISS program, noting its accomplishments in providing two-way ham radio communication between students and astronauts on the ISS. The host of the show stated the ARISS mission, promoting STEM initiatives to students. Within a week, the video saw 4,079 views and is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IiWyrPygfA. NASA made the story into a Twitter post, as well, with it grabbing 20.9K views within 5 days.  Even better, NASA staff did the stories in Spanish and posted both the YouTube and the Tweet in Spanish.

April 15: The About Gagarin From Space program hosted an ARISS contact for students at Southwest State University in Kursk, Russia.  They spoke with Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. Students had built satellites that will be released during a spacewalk; they prepared circuit board diagrams of the satellites for other students who might want to get involved in similar projects.

April 8: ARISS Education Ambassador Martha Muir received an update from the teacher she worked with at Sussex County Charter School for Technology in Sparta, NJ.  The teacher reported that she is leading some of the STEM hands-on activities that she had not had time to finish prior to the school’s ARISS contact in late February.  The activities were listed in the ARISS Education Proposal, which is what school selections for ARISS contacts are based on. She invited a professor of astronomy to visit and do a demonstration titled, “Sunspots and Space Weather.”  The next guest speaker she scheduled is a fluid systems design engineer for Blue Origins. The teacher wrote: “Gotta keep inspiring these kids!” ARISS totally agrees.

April 7: ARISS Technical Mentor Dave Jordan gave a multimedia presentation on new ARISS initiatives to the Lake Monroe Amateur Radio Society club members in the Winter Springs, FL area. He related updates on many aspects of ARISS. Of the 42 listening, a few were informal educators;, a Q&A followed the talk.

April 7-8: A Slow Scan TV (SSTV) picture downlink event was sponsored by the Moscow Aviation Institute. Space enthusiasts, students, educators, members of the public, and amateur radio operators captured the images and many posted them for public viewing at the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.  Total number of images that fans posted as of April 14:  885 images from a total of 372 people.  The ARISS Facebook page post proved how popular the SSTV events are; the Reach was 15,287.

April 9: At the Tampa Amateur Radio Club TARCFest (a regional gathering of ham radio operators), ARISS Director of Public Engagement Rita DeHart and ARISS volunteers Lou McFadin and Elizabeth Mueller set up and staffed a table exhibit that featured the technical side of ARISS and a continuously running video about aspects of ARISS. The team had material for interested teachers and students, too.  Those stopping by included 3 youth, 1 of whom took material to give to his schoolteacher, and 15 adults, one of whom asked Rita to speak about ARISS at a future meeting of his ham club.

ARISS Upcoming Events 
April 21: Bellefontaine High School, Bellefontaine OH ARISS contact, ARISS-US team

April 6: For their ARISS radio contact, students from Leonardo Da Vinci-Nauen Campus in Nauen, Germany traveled to the German Aerospace Center (DLR). They talked via radio to Matthias Maurer who answered 20 questions and reminded them to study hard so they too can become astronauts. An audience following Covid guidelines consisted of 20 students, 3 teachers, and 10 community members including the amateur radio mentor team.  123 viewers watched the livestream; these youth, teachers, and community members used the Chat function to cheer on the student questioners. In 48 hours, views totaled 1,585. DLR said viewer numbers would climb as soon as its staff posted video and details about student STEM activities on its web site and social media and distributed releases to newspapers. In the hour before establishing the ARISS contact with Maurer, a Q&A session allowed students to pose questions to space agency experts. At the end of the day, the ARISS-Europe mentor said, “Students were very excited beforehand, and afterwards they were all the happier and content!”

April 5: The About Gagarin From Space program hosted an ARISS contact and sessions on space and amateur radio communications for Lyceum students at Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. Students spoke with Oleg Artemyev and the radio contact was coordinated by staff at the Mission Control Center-Moscow.

April 4:  ARISS Technical Mentor Dave Jordan learned of an article featuring the Space Hardware Club (SHC) at University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville, AL and its ARISS contact. The write-up ran in a UAH online web site; it was titled “UAH Space Hardware Club team will connect area students with the International Space Station.” SHC made the ARISS events a main part of its 2022 outreach initiative, engaging students at three schools (two middle schools, one elementary school). Some of these youths asked the questions during the ARISS contact. SHC Outreach Manager Rebekah Clark said, “During our educational visits to the schools, the UAH SHC ARISS team was able to teach approximately 800 students about STEM topics such as rocketry, high altitude ballooning, ham radio, and the ISS.” The article can be found  at:  https://www.uah.edu/news/items/uah-space-hardware-club-team-will-connect-area-students-with-international-space-station.

April 5: ARISS Director of Education Kathy Lamont told 12 educators attending the ARISS-US Education Committee about the campaign NASA is doing with Artemis I to publicize its launch this summer and the STEM Learning Pathway.  ARISS educators were interested in the STEM Learning Pathway add-on with its eight weeks of curated content for students. One teacher said he’d sign up as soon as the committee meeting ended and others were going to share the news with their school faculty.

April 5-6-7 ARISS team member Randy Berger attended the 37^th Space Symposium Conference in Colorado Springs, CO and had time to network with SCaN Policy & Strategic Communications Specialist Angela Peura. Students came on one of the conference days and Angela had ARISS handouts and NASA materials for them—ARISS thanks her for this. 

April 5: ARISS Technical Mentor Charlie Sufana spoke via Zoom to 12 Metro Amateur Radio Club members in the Skokie, IL area.  His presentation included a video of Tim Peake talking about ARISS, some ARISS history, and how ARISS school contacts work. He showed a video of an ARISS school contact he had mentored. Then during the Q&A portion, Charlie answered questions for 30 minutes. 

April 7: The ARISS-US team supported an ARISS contact for area schools mentored by the Space Hardware Club at University of Alabama in Huntsville; details will be in next week’s report.

ARISS Social Media for March 2022

ARISS Facebook – March

Twitter: On March 31, 2022, ARISS Twitter followers totaled 16,327, a gain of 1.8% over the end of February.
Facebook: Followers for March 2022 increased to 7,365.
Instagram: Followers at the end of March 2022 grew to 410; Post Count is 29.
ARISS YouTube: At the end of March, subscribers increased to 1.65k.

ARISS Upcoming Events 

April 13 Dr. David R Williams School, Oakville ON, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 13 École Secondaire Ste. Marguerite d’Youville, St. Albert AB Canada, Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 14 Herzliya Science Center Israel, Herzliya, Israel, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 14 École Secondaire Ste. Jean D’Arc, London ON Canada, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team
April 14 École Marie Poburan, St. Albert AB Canada, ARISS Axiom contact, ARISS-Canada team

March 27: ARISS put on a strong presence at the 2022 ARRL Virginia State Convention in Annandale, setting up an exhibit table and providing guest speakers for an ARISS forum.   ARISS-USA Director of Education Kathy Lamont and ARISS-US Education Committee member Melissa Pore (the latter via Zoom) took turns giving a 50-minute presentation describing space and radio-related hands-on activities for elementary and high school students. Melissa spoke about her high schoolers’ STEM interests and a satellite she and elementary students at her previous school had built. Kathy explained the role wireless radio can play in elementary education and provided details on a variety of teaching activities that amateur radio operators use to enhance STEAM curriculum at various grade levels. 32 people came to the forum and another 138 tied in via Zoom including VIP ARRL Roanoke Division Director Jim Boehner in North Carolina. Zoom views jumped to 224 within a few days. At the exhibit table, 102 people stopped and learned about ARISS; several were George Mason University students and others were informal educators. Kathy, along with ARISS-USA Executive Director Frank Bauer, Associate Director Marty Schulman, and Janet Bauer staffed the booth. Two VIPs, ARRL Atlantic Division Director Tom Abernethy and ARRL Roanoke Division Vice Director Bill Morine sought out the ARISS table to shower compliments on the ARISS team.  

March 28: The ARISS team began plans for Hamvention, the world’s largest convention for amateur radio operators, which is held near Dayton, Ohio in May.  Hamvention officials honored ARISS, recently selecting the team for one of the coveted forum slots; this is the second year that has happened. Listeners will hear about current and future ARISS projects such as one involving student interaction with telerobotics.  ARISS team members will also set up and staff a booth, inviting wireless and space enthusiasts to learn about ARISS. The team will relate how formal and informal educators can engage in ARISS radio contacts. Passersby will be able to handle tools in the ARISS Radio Kit that can enhance science curriculum. They’ll learn that different versions of the kit are a main aspect of two new ARISS education initiatives.

March 31: The April issue of the QCWA Journal featured a cover story about ARISS penned by Rosalie White.  The Quarter Century Wireless Association, a US and Canadian organization, posts its journal every month. The three and a half page article highlighted the ARISS radio contact last December at the Savannah River Academy (SRA) in Grovetown, GA. The story’s focus covered SRA’s six months of wireless- and space-related hands-on student lessons along with ARISS’s new education initiatives.

ARISS Upcoming Events 

April 6  Leonardo Da Vinci Campus-Nauen, Nauen, Germany ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe team
April 7 Space Hardware Club with area schools, Huntsville AL ARISS contact, ARISS-US team
TBD Axiom Canada & Israel school contacts, ARISS-Canada & ARISS-Europe team