Second Time’s the Charm for New Hampshire School Space Contact

Maple Avenue Elementary School in Goffstown, New Hampshire. The April 13 ARISS contact was the very first for a school in the Granite State.

Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, at the controls of the Phase 2 NA1SS station--a specially modified Kenwood TM-D700E. The Phase 2 station is in the crew’s quarters. [NASA Photo]

Fourth graders at Maple Avenue School line up April 5 for their first attempt to speak with the ISS via ham radio. Unfortunately, technical problems scrubbed the contact.

With smiling faces and questions in hand, youngsters are ready for their second, and successful, QSO with NA1SS. [Photos Courtesy of Jim Heedles, WW1Y]

Chiao, left, and crewmate Salizhan Sharipov. The Expedition 10 crew returns to Earth on April 24.

NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 20, 2005--Youngsters at Maple Avenue Elementary School in Goffstown, New Hampshire, had to wait an extra week, but on April 13, they were able to talk directly via Amateur Radio with Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, at the controls of NA1SS on the International Space Station. Technical problems cropped up on the originally scheduled date of April 5. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program was able to reschedule the contact for April 13. Chiao told one youngster that while there’s no weather per se in space, the ISS can view Earth’s weather. The external environment of space does come into play, however, in developing suits for spacewalks, he said.

“We really don’t run into any kind of environmental weather or anything like that,” Chiao explained. “Of course, outside in space it’s a vacuum and it’s very cold or very hot depending on whether you’re in the sun or in the shade. And so those are factors that we consider when we design the spacesuits.”

During the approximately 10-minute direct VHF contact, the 20 Maple Avenue kids ran smoothly through a list of 20 questions, and Chiao was almost through answering the last when the ISS got out of range of ground station W1SSC, the call sign of Spaceflight Systems Corporation Amateur Radio Club in Nashua. Jim Heedles, WW1Y, served as the Earth station control operator for the contact.

Students taking part in the ARISS contact were in Georgia Paris' fourth grade class, who spoke with NA1SS using Amateur Radio equipment set up at the school specifically for the contact with NA1SS.

Responding to another question, Chiao elaborated on experiments that have been under way during his Expedition 10 duty tour. Chiao said the space station’s goal is to be a worldwide laboratory.

“We’ve done some interesting experiments on board,” Chiao said. “We’ve done one experiment in particular--something called ‘Telemed’--and we use an ultrasound machine to image each other’s internal organs and bones and teeth and things like that, taking directions from a doctor on the ground.”

Chiao has explained in past ARISS school contacts that the Telemed experiment is aimed in part at coming up with ways to monitor the health of space travelers and diagnose problems that might arise during long-term space ventures.

CLICK HERE to listen to the April 13 ARISS QSO between NA1SS and youngsters at Maple Avenue School in Goffstown, New Hampshire: [9:32]

The two-man crew, which includes Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, also has been growing some pea pods, Chiao said.

The Maple Avenue Elementary QSO marked the first Amateur Radio school group contact with a New Hampshire school. An audience of 200 students, teachers, parents and local dignitaries was on hand for the event, which was covered by three newspapers and a TV documentary team. Audio from the event was Webcast to sites in the US, the UK, Australia and Europe. Heedles expressed his thanks to all who were involved in helping to make “lifelong memories” for the fourth graders.

ARISS is an educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.

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