Author: cmejackson500

April 4:  An ARISS radio contact enjoyed by students from Collège Théodore Monod in Gagny, France was supported by Matthew Dominick, who answered 16 student questions. The National Air and Space Museum of France, at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport, hosted the ARISS contact. 150 people in the room—students, professors, parents, journalists, and museum staff—watched the event.  The ARISS Technical Mentor reported that the YouTube webcast garnered 300 live views from the College’s students (and other area colleges’ youth) who couldn’t go to the museum. The recording earned 1,000 views in 2 days’ time. The museum’s 17K Facebook followers had an opportunity to watch the contact, which the staff posted.

April 8:  Students in Utah’s Tooele County School District relished their ARISS contact with Matthew Dominick. He answered 15 questions while 200 students, teachers, and parents sat in the gym. Another 200 watched the YouTube livestream at the district’s Community Learning Center (CLC has four separate schools for K-12 youth and life-long learners) and at Bonneville Academy in Stansbury Park.  In two days’ time over 400 more people saw the recording. A KSL-TV story detailed how the ARISS contact wasn’t an isolated event—that many district schools led space and STEM lessons beforehand and will hold more soon. CLC staff had prepared space activities for their students and shared the plans with area schools.  Additionally, the ARISS contact was the highlight of Bonneville Academy’s day-long STEM extravaganza, part of the school’s Space Week. Reporters came from four TV stations, two newspapers, one radio news station, and one online news outlet. Lead ARISS educator Clint Thomsen said: “This [ARISS contact] is a unique chance for our students to engage with space exploration in a tangible and unforgettable way.”  Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club and the West Desert Amateur Radio Club taught students basic electronics and guided seven youth in earning their ham radio license. 

April 10:  Jeanette Epps supported an ARISS contact for two Italian education groups that the ARISS team linked via Google Meet–ARTADEMIA in Milano and the Scuola Secondaria I grado A. Moro in Ponte Lambro. A report stated that 80 people attended at ARTADEMIA along with special guest Paolo Amoroso, a space and astronomy author. During the contact Epps answered 10 questions. Due to an online microphone malfunction at the beginning of the contact, ARTADEMIA students voiced some of the Ponte Lambro students’ questions until the mic issue got cleared up.  The livestream captured over 200 views.  The Italian ARISS radio telebridge station supported the contact and livestreamed their activities for enthusiasts to watch.

April 8: ARISS-USA announced a call for ARISS Education Proposals from US education institutions; proposals are due between April 8 and May 19, 2024. Proposals get reviewed and the best are accepted, which results in the education institution being selected for an ARISS contact between January 1 and June 30, 2025.  ARISS widely distributed a news release and social media posts announcing the window along with sending details to the NASA EXPRESS e-newsletter and other NASA offices.  NASA’s ISS Science Communications, NASA en español, and NASA SCaN teams all amplified the news regarding the call for proposals on their social media platforms, as well. ARISS thanks these groups. NASA EXPRESS goes to 61,030 subscribers and is shared through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement’s social media (409,023 X followers, 120,927 FB followers, and 524,654 Pinterest followers).   

April 7: Twenty-five students from Volga State University of Telecommunications and Informatics, Samara, Russia took part in a successful ARISS contact supported by the ARISS-Russia Team.  Two ARISS volunteers led students in the About Gagarin from Space lesson activities and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Grebyonkin answered students’ questions.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
Apr 17: Mrs. Ethelston’s CE Primary Academy, Lyme Regis, UK – ARISS contact – ARISS-Europe Team
Apr 17: Mountain View Elementary School, Marietta, GA – ARISS contact – ARISS-US Team
Apr 22: American International University, Salmiya, Kuwait – ARISS contact – ARISS-US Team

April 3: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Daytona Beach, FL hosted an ARISS radio contact with Matthew Dominick for Volusia County School District students from 4 middle schools. He answered 17 of their questions while an audience of 200 students and faculty listened. ERAU offered two livestreams and one is (begin listening at 1 hour 37 minutes) at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/eraudaytona/portal.htm?eventId=754085&streamType=video.  These media groups aired stories: WNDB, Hometown News Volusia, Flagler News Weekly, and Newsbreak.  The middle schoolers had done several months of space preparatory activities. Following the contact, the ERAU STEM Outreach Club held a workshop, staffing tables for the youngsters to create electrical circuits using copper tape, control spherical robots, and build space vehicle models. Youth talked to visiting ARISS engineers who had brought ham radio equipment. Astronaut and ERAU alum Nicole Stott gave a Zoom presentation and Q&A; it was projected on a huge monitor for the youth. ERAU Dean of the College of Engineering said, “We love having K-12 students on campus…inspiring the next generation to become engineers and scientists…they see how they can use math and science skills to do fun and interesting things.”

March 23: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic in Milan, Italy gave a web radio talk on Indie Life Radio about her activities during her trip to Florida to attend the ARISS 40-year celebrations at Kennedy Space Center. The radio host interviewed her about the ARISS program and the ISS program. The radio station turned the interview into a podcast and ran it two more times.

March 27-April 4: Mission Control-Moscow scheduled seven ARISS contacts supported by the ARISS-Russia Team. Educators at each site led students in the About Gagarin from Space lesson activities. Three crew members, Aleksandr Grebyonkin, Oleg Novitskiy, and  Marina Vasilevskaya, supported the ARISS contacts, answering students’ questions and often focused on guidance toward aerospace careers. The following education groups took part.

• Southwestern State University in Kursk, Russia
• International Aerospace School named for U.N. Sultanov in Ufa, Russia
• Belarusian State University in Minsk, Belarus
• Secondary Lyceum of Amur State University in Blagoveschensk, Russia
• Ryazan State Radio Engineering University in Ryazan, Russia
• University College of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad, Russia
• students from schools of the Aznakaevsky District in Tatarstan, Russia
  
  

ARISS Social Media

ARISS social media leader Jim Reed reported March 2024 Social Media highlights:

• Facebook stayed the top social platform for ARISS for the third straight month   
• Video continued to help increase the number of Impressions on all ARISS platforms   
• X Followers topped 20K this month —  Facebook Followers passed 12K

March Total Impressions on X (blue) and Facebook (red) – 285,155

March Total Followers on X (blue) and Facebook (red) – 32,321

March 2024 X & Facebook Total Impressions and Total Interactions/Engagements

• ARISS X – Total Impressions / Views 139,689,  Interactions / Engagements 5,561 
• ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions / Views 145,466,  Interactions / Engagements 5,347

March 2024 X & Facebook Total Followers – 32,321

• ARISS X – 20,042
• ARISS Facebook – 12,279

March 2024 X & Facebook Total NEW Followers  – 434

• ARISS X – 158
• ARISS Facebook – 276

Also:

• ARISS Total New Followers on ALL ARISS Social Platforms (not just X and FB) – 839
• ARISS You Tube – Total subscribers  2,120
• ARISS Web pages – Unique Visits 18,029 & Page Views 51,505    
          

March Top Posts on X and Facebook

• Top X post (17,658 Impressions, 869 Engagements): a 2006 video of ARISS SuitSat deployed from ISS
• Top Facebook post (22,208 Impressions, 633 Engagements): an image of ARISS’s HamTV unit headed to the ISS via SpaceX-30

ARISS Upcoming Events  

Apr 10: ARTADEMIA education group, Milan & Scuola Secondaria I grado A Moro, Ponte Lambro, Italy- ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team

March 21-23: ARISS Director of Education Tanya Anderson and ARISS educator Kathy Lamont represented ARISS at the 2024 National Conference on Science Education held by the National Science Teachers Association in Denver, CO. The ISS National Lab had invited ARISS to set up a display in its booth. The two educators explained ARISS to about 3,000 attendees. They networked with SCaN’s Jimmy Acevedo, NASA Next Gen STEM’s Samantha Thorstensen, and Space Foundation people. ARISS thanks ISS National Lab for providing the exhibit space.  Also, ARISS thanks the SCaN staff who described ARISS in their forums.

March 21:  The launch of SpaceX-30 brought special ARISS cargo to the ISS: the refurbished Ham TV system. When it is set up for operation, it will enable ARISS contacts in a number of schools to feature live video of the astronaut the students talk to while the contact takes place. ARISS recognizes Kayser Italia, AMSAT Italia, the NASA HUNCH team, and the ARISS-USA team for their involvement in the repair and updating of the Ham TV system.

March 20 & 22: ARISS-USA Executive Director Frank Bauer attended the 2024 Goddard Space Science Symposium at University of Maryland in College Park, co-hosted by the American Astronautical Society. Over 340 people including NASA scientists, researchers, and experts, and government and industry partners attended the event with its theme “Space 2040: Pathways to the Future.”  The Goddard Center Director welcomed everyone by emphasizing the role partnerships play in science and space exploration. NASA leaders shared goals for the next decades of exploration. Bauer networked with 35 people and described ARISS and its activities.

March 27: An ARISS radio contact led by the St. John’s School Authority in St. John’s, NL, Canada linked seven area schools’ students via Zoom. Loral O’Hara handled 16 students’ questions including: “What did you learn in junior high that was useful to you as an astronaut?” Her answer before explaining further: “A lot!”  The event’s livestream attracted 258 views and provided a video for students about the sun, greetings to them from Astronaut Robert Thirsk, and a video from St. John’s Signal Hill where, in 1901, Guglielmo Marconi heard the first-ever reception of a transatlantic (from England) wireless radio transmission. The YouTube URL is https://www.youtube.com/@fidlerville. Thirsk said, “Even in the vastness of space during my missions when I supported these radio contacts, I sensed the excitement in the voices of students.” The seven schools’ fifth through twelfth graders (210 of them) had enjoyed special ISS learning activities prior to the ARISS contact.     

March 19: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic presented to 17 students at Bandello School in Castelnuovo Scrivia, Italy. She described the ARISS program and shared many lessons with the kids covering the ISS and space exploration.  The youth, ages 9 and 10, look forward to their upcoming ARISS contact.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
April 3: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ., Daytona Beach FL-ARISS contact, ARISS-USA Team

February 11: The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ highly respected publication, AIAA Journal, recognized ARISS in its February 2024 issue. It carried a review of the recent AIAA SciTech Forum’s K-12 Educator Workshop and cited ARISS-International Chair Frank Bauer and ARISS-USA Director of Education Tanya Anderson for presenting an ARISS forum there. They explained how students engage in ARISS’ hands-on STEM lessons tied to their ARISS contacts. The journal reaches 25,000 engineers and aerospace libraries.

March 7: ARISS learned that one of its educators, Cassie Zielinski, at Mountain View Elementary School in Marietta GA was selected as the school’s 2023-24 Teacher of the Year!  Dr. Z, as she is called, leads the school as its STEM teacher and as co-leader of the Stem Key Team for teachers. The school reported, “She is the driving force behind all the great things that our students will be experiencing this year in the STEM Lab and with the ARISS radio contact.”

March 20: Adult students finishing their 9-year compulsory education (equivalent to a high school degree) at Second Chance School of Orestiada in Orestiada, Greece relished their ARISS contact with Loral O’Hara and Mike Barratt. The students’ 15 questions were divided up with Loral answering even-numbered questions and Mike answering odd-numbered questions. People listening in the room totaled 147 and they watched STEM presentations tied to “living beyond earth,” prior to the ARISS contact.  Those viewing the livestream totaled 60, and in two days’ time, that climbed to 583! The URL is https://youtube.com/@sdeorestiadas9736?si=RPdn0JxEjpbK2Rhx.

March 14: K-12 students at Galileo STEM Academy in Eagle, ID enjoyed STEM Night, an evening of hands-on activities led by ARISS STEM teacher Gina Kwid and 40 of the faculty.  The evening offered hands-on STEM projects to 400 students and 150 parents to complete together, including some at the ham radio display tables. The activities related to a range of STEM topics and a variety of STEM careers. Early PR announcing the event to parents touted: make a robot, explore a moon colony, discover drones, and take part in a builders’ challenge.

March 8:   Clark County Amateur Radio Club members in Vancouver, WA (70 people on-site and 35 via Zoom) enjoyed a presentation from ARISS volunteer Craig Bledsoe. He talked about ARISS school contacts and focused on the club members’ questions, explaining types of equipment, including antennas, radios, cabling, etc. that a school and a community would want for hosting an ARISS contact. An area high school that submitted an ARISS Education Proposal had asked the club if members could set up an ARISS radio station at school if the faculty’s proposal was chosen by ARISS educators reviewing proposals.

ARISS Upcoming Events  

Mar 25: Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team

Mar 27: Southwestern State University, Kursk, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team

Mar 27: St. John’s School Authority, Newfoundland, Canada-ARISS contact, ARISS-Canada Team

Mar 29: Students in Ufa, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team

March 9: ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger and an AMSAT volunteer shared the ARISS program and its education projects with radio and technology enthusiasts by staffing a booth at the Irving Hamfest in Irving, Texas. Randy reported an estimated 250 attendees, including “a lot of kids,” at the hamfest (an event with a variety of activities of interest to ham operators and STEM enthusiasts). Randy’s laptop displayed slides about ARISS and ARISS education. The two men spoke with over 50 adults and children who showed big interest in ARISS; kids loved being given ARISS, NASA, and other ARISS-partner stickers. Tom had a hand-held radio and antenna to demonstrate how to talk with ham operators in distant locations using the ARISS radio equipment on the ISS.

March 9: ARRL-ARISS Committee Chair Mark Tharp attended the 43^rd Electronics Show and Swap Meet at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA. He set up a table and a roll-up poster at this annual event to present ARISS and its educational programs. 1700 attendees had the chance to visit Mark’s display.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
Mar 20: Second Chance School, Orestiada, Orestiada, Greece-ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team
Mar 25: St. John’s School Authority, Newfoundland, Canada-ARISS contact, ARISS-Canada Team
Mar 25: Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
Mar 27: Students in Kursk, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
Mar 29: Students in Ufa, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team

March 4: Students at IES Pedro Simón Abril High School in Alcaraz, Spain experienced an ARISS radio contact with Loral O’Hara. Three hundred people watched the youth as Loral answered 20 student questions. The livestream captured 70 viewers and in 4 days’ time, the viewer total grew to 824. The media turned out in force: 2 national radio stations, 3 regional radio stations, 1 regional newspaper, and 1 online newspaper. The latter quoted a student saying, “This has been amazing for me, I have swelled up to cry.”  The ARISS contact was phase one of a project titled #AlcarazISS, an initiative involving 600 university and high school students. The initiative aims to bring science and technology to rural youth.

February 27: Educators at Centennial Campus Magnet Middle School Center for Innovation in Raleigh, NC gave students a broad understanding of space through various activities prior to their upcoming ARISS contact. Three of these are summarized here. Educators challenged 171 sixth graders to design and build a shock absorber to prevent a moon lander from sinking deep into the Moon’s fine surface dust.  More students and their families got the chance to take the challenge, too, during the school event, Night of Excellence. Another activity—a virtual one—allowed youth to try their hand at a simulated docking of a spacecraft with the ISS.  Other students created and hung posters that stretched down a school hallway; posters listed facts they’d researched about the Solar System bodies—comparing planets’ proportions, diameters, and distances between each. The school works with North Carolina State University and has an ARISS contact in late spring. 

ARISS Social Media

ARISS social media leader Jim Reed reported January 2024 Social Media highlights:

• ARISS’s many February activities led to more posts than in January, resulting in a 53% increase in Impressions—over 400,000 in February.
• Facebook brought home the best February results­—delivering nearly 250K Impressions.   
• Followers continued to grow in February; we passed 12,000 on Facebook, alone.

February Total Impressions on X and Facebook – 411,832

February Total Followers on X and Facebook – 31,887

February 2024 Total Impressions and Total Interactions/Engagements

• ARISS X – Total Impressions / Views 162,084,  Interactions / Engagements 6,174 
• ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions / Views 249,748,  Interactions / Engagements 5,478
• ARISS Total New Followers across all ARISS Social Platforms  – 537
• ARISS You Tube – Total subscribers  2,100
• ARISS Weg pages – Unique Visits 16,465, Page Views 49,481 

February Top Posts on X and Facebook

• Top X post (9,639 Impressions, 655 Engagements:) image of HamTV unit to fly on SpaceX-30
• Top Facebook post (76,939 Impressions, 633 Engagements): ARISS engineer Lou McFadin holds first ham radio (he modified it in 1983 for launch) used in space

ARISS Upcoming Events  
Mar 20: Second Chance School, Orestiada, Orestiada, Greece-ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team
Mar TBD: St. John’s School Authority, Newfoundland, Canada-ARISS contact – ARISS-Canada Team

February 20-24: ARISS’s conference at KSC celebrating 40 years of positives from ham radio on human spaceflight was a success! At the ARISS-International meeting, 44 people from around the globe discussed current and future activities, and enjoyed a KSC bus tour. Next, a two-day education conference’s 105 attendees took in educational and technical talks about ham radio on shuttles, Mir, and the ISS. Astronauts came: Tony England, Bill McArthur, Ken Cameron, Mike Finke, Nicole Stott, and private astronaut Richard Garriott recalled their missions’ school radio contacts. In education session, educators told how radio contacts led them to new STEM projects and youth said they were inspired to choose STEM careers. Johnson Space Center’s Cynthia McArthur spoke on ARISS having moved to a more robust education proposal process to select schools. A surprise ARISS radio contact with Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, who congratulated ARISS on its celebrations, answered questions from youth and educators. The final talk was by two NASA experts on thoughts for a future in space, Cislunar and beyond.  

February 22: Heart of Central California Girl Scout Troops 1089, 917, 793, and 1105 located near Sacramento, CA enjoyed an ARISS radio contact with Jasmin Moghbeli; she answered 20 of their questions while a group of 35 listened on site. A KCRA TV rep covering the contact shared a quote from Adriana Pedroza, Associate Director with Girl Scouts Heart of Central California: “The girls dreamed up this idea [ARISS contact]. They really implemented all of it, made the decisions, and took on all processes on their own.“  A YouTube livestream snagged 356 views; the troop’s Facebook video and Zoom offerings garnered even more. Media coverage resulted in 21 media hits in addition to KCRA’s story, including: KTVU-TV, The Lawton Constitution, Daily Republic,Cap Radio, Yahoo News, and 2 items in the Sacramento Bee.  The scouts prepared for their contact by engaging in seven learning sessions, titled Space & STEM Educational Activities and Experiences, that involved researching current ISS research and space science careers, downloading ARISS SSTV images (picture downlinks) from the ISS, building a radio, working with a software-defined radio, and more. This led to earning the Space Science Master Badge and STEM Career Exploration Badge. River City Amateur Radio Communications Society members mentored lessons in communications and electrical circuits.

February 15: Excited students participated in an ARISS contact with B. Russell High School in Rome, Italy, talking with Jasmin Moghbeli. She answered 12 of their questions with a large audience of 626 people listening, many being students. The contact, livestreamed on YouTube, had 526 viewers and that grew to 1,000 views in 2 weeks’ time–see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0YEgMvzbn8. To prepare for their ARISS contact, students researched facts about the ISS and space exploration, collected and analyzed telemetry from weather sensors, and put together and worked with electrical circuits and antennas to discover facets of electromagnetic fields, propagation, and reception. Members of the Italian Amateur Radio Association of Rome assisted with technical training.

February 15 & 16:  Two days in a row, the ARISS-Russia team supported ARISS radio contacts. Youth at Naro-Fominsk in the Moscow Oblast engaged in the first ARISS contact. Nikolay Chub spoke with the young people who had learned about space and radio communications. Students at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad, Russia took part in the second contact and talked with Konstantin Borisov. 

ARISS Upcoming Events  
TBD: Second Chance School-Orestiada, Orestiada, Greece-ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team

February 8-10: ARISS-US Education Committee members Gina Kwid and Clint Thomsen set up and staffed a booth at the Space Exploration Educators Conference held at Space Center Houston in Houston, TX.  They spoke with 180 attendees who teach in grade levels spanning K-16 and leaders from science museums, libraries, and STEM camps. These included the director of the US Air Force Academy Planetarium who is interested in submitting an ARISS Education Proposal, people from the Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium, and different staffers from the NASA Office of STEM Engagement.

February 9: The School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSIT) in Valencia, Spain held a successful ARISS contact for students with Loral O’Hara; she answered eight questions. Prior to the contact, numerous speakers gave STEM presentations to the audience of over 170.  Media covering the contact included “A Punt,” a public broadcast station.  A few days after the contact, livestream views topped 1,000. In preparation for the contact, ETSIT had mentored teachers from eight area schools in a two-year course titled Space for Kids, How to Design and Build a Nanosatellite. Teachers integrated the lessons for 160 students into their own established classes, such as Access to Space and the Space Environment, Satellite Communications, and Satellite Mission Design.

February 9-11: A team of ARISS volunteers had a presence at the Orlando (FL) HamCation, the 2^nd largest convention for ham radio enthusiasts in the world—~ 20,000 attendees. The team’s booth displayed several ARISS educational projects under development and the team discussed these and the ARISS program with 587 people. ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger and ARISS leader for social media Jim Reed presented a forum to 32 people on projects being developed for ARISS educational applications and for future ISS and lunar initiatives. Jim covered social media metrics and what to watch for on the platforms, and ran a video produced and aired by The NBC TODAY Show of a recent ARISS contact in Pennsylvania. The forum ended with a question and answer session.  

February 5: Dan White, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Valparaiso (IN) University and an ARISS-US Education Committee member earned the Michael V. Carano Teacher Excellence Award from the IPC Education Foundation, an arm of IPC, an international electronics manufacturing standards organization. An article in the university e-newsletter explained that the award exemplifies Professor White’s dedication to learning and thriving, two pillars of the university’s five-year strategic plan, and cited his being on ARISS’ education committee. He operates the university’s Wireless Research and Electronic Discovery Lab where students receive hands-on experience in satellite, microchip, and radio engineering projects, including the design and construction of a CubeSat.  Valparaiso University Dean of the College of Engineering Doug Tougaw stated, “We’re very pleased that Professor White’s excellent work was recognized by IPC. He brings a remarkable level of expertise and passion to the college, and his students’ lives are changed by the work they do with him.” 

ARISS Upcoming Events

Feb 22: Girl Scout Troop 1089, Sacramento CA-ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team
Feb 22-24: Human Spaceflight Amateur Radio: 40^th Anniversary Celebration, KSC Center for Space Education, Titusville FL—ARISS conference/gala, ARISS-I Team

February 1: The Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE) in Huntsville, AL hosted an ARISS contact with Jasmin Moghbeli. 20 students asked questions while a crowd of 435 people, mostly students, watched. Before the connection was made, Nicole Pelfrey, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Payload & Mission Operations Department Manager spoke to the students about career paths—the school has a partnership with MSFC. Media on hand included WAFF-TV and WZDX-TV.  Over 150 people viewed the livestream; 8 days later, that total increased to 454. ASCTE enjoys tremendous support for STEM from area industry.

February 7: Students at Lilburn (GA) Elementary School engaged in an ARISS radio contact with Jasmin Moghbeli; she answered 14 student questions. 342 students and 26 educators in the gymnasium watched the youth talking, as did reps from WANF-TV.  151 others watched the livestream, and total views in 2 days’ time climbed to 800. A second livestream captured 70 views from a Mississippi middle school where a teacher is working toward garnering her school’s future ARISS contact. At the beginning of the Lilburn’s event, the principal stated:  “You two [teachers] took a dream and a hope and made it happen.” Immediately after the ARISS contact, Lilburn hosted STEM Day for K-5 classes. Activities included experimenting with a model of a Mars Rover, a speaker from a NASA HR office who spoke on NASA career paths, a demo of a drone and Sphero™ robots, a tour of the ARISS radio set-up and radio modes, and a presentation on bugs in space.

February 1: ARISS Director of Operations Will Marchant guided a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) group in Winchester, VA in how to aim a hand-held antenna and to control a portable radio so they could listen to an ARISS contact taking place in Huntsville, AL.  The CAP youth met at STARBASE Winchester, a facility leading Department of Defense educational programs that aim “to engage our nation’s at-risk youth in inquiry-based hands-on STEM.” Will described the ARISS program to 30 high school students, 29 elementary school students, and 6 teachers. Students from the area’s Shenandoah University had traveled to the event to take part, as well.

ARISS Upcoming Events  
Feb 15: B. Russell High School, Rome Italy-ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team
Feb 16: Baltic Federal University-I. Kant, Kaliningrad Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
Feb 22-24: Human Spaceflight Amateur Radio: 40^th Anniversary Celebration, KSC Center for Space Education, Titusville FL—ARISS conference/gala, ARISS-I Team