NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 16, 2005--Students in Italy and England spoke via Amateur Radio November 9 with International Space Station Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program arranged the QSOs with the Francesco Negri Comprehensive Institute in Casale Monferrato, Italy, and with Furtherwick Park School on Canvey Island in Essex, England. Speaking via the space station's NA1SS, McArthur shared with the students in Italy how he feels about living in space.
 A youngster at Francesco Negri Comprehensive School asks her question of ISS Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. |
 Surrounded by NASA, ISS, ham radio and other paraphernalia, Negri School youngsters await the start of their contact with the ISS. |
CLICK HERE to listen to the contact with students at Francesco Negri Comprehensive Institute in Italy: [7:47] |
"I feel very humble, I feel like I'm a very small person from a planet with many billions of people and that I'm very fortunate to represent human beings--mankind--in space," McArthur said. He and crewmate Valery Tokarev will be aboard the ISS until next April.
Responding to another student's question, McArthur said the crew had "some" Italian food on board, but he didn't think it was very good Italian food. "We have vegetables with spices that we call 'Italian vegetables,' and we do have pasta on board," he said.
McArthur said he and Tokarev have been conducting experiments focused primarily on how people can live and work during long period in space. He also said microgravity was "very, very comfortable," and meant the crew never had to sit down. In all McArthur managed to answer 20 questions during the nearly eight-minute contact.
Claudio Ariotti, IK1SLD, coordinated the contact, which took place over a teleconferencing circuit via Nancy Rocheleau, WH6PN, in Honolulu. ARISS employed the "telebridge" for the Negri school group contact because Italian radio regulations do not permit unlicensed individuals to speak over an Amateur Radio transmitter.
Ariotti set up an audio link to an assembly hall, where the entire student body, teachers, parents, dignitaries, government officials, representatives of Italy's International Amateur Radio Union member-society--the Associazione Radioamatori Italiani (ARI)--and others could monitor the contact. Will Marchant, KC6ROL, moderated the contact, and Peter Kofler, IN3GHZ, was the ARISS mentor.
Seven newspapers and a local radio station covered the
event. Reports on the contact were set for later broadcast by
three television channels.
 Janice Ilston (left), who had the initial idea for the space chat, with some of the lucky students who participated in the November 9 contact with Furtherwick Park School. |
 Former Beatle Paul McCartney provided the ISS crew with a live musical wakeup call November 13 during a first-time-ever concert hookup. He performed "Good Day Sunshine" and "English Tea." Commented ISS Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, "That was simply magnificent. We consider you an explorer just as we are." [NASA Photo] |
CLICK HERE to listen to the contact with students at Furtherwick Park School in England: [10:22] |
A little more than seven hours later, McArthur was back at NA1SS, this time for a direct contact between NA1SS and GB2FPS at Furtherwick Park School, where 16 students took part in the event. In answer to one student's question, McArthur said the Amateur Radio station was one of the systems available to keep in contact Earth if the primary and back-up communication systems ever went down.
The ISS commander also allowed that he enjoyed a broad and eclectic range of music, from classical to country.
"I like classical--Mozart, Beethoven, Bach. I like contemporary music--Jet, Dispatch. I like country-and-western music--Garth Brooks, Robert Earl Keen are my favourite singers there. I like older music--I'm a big Beatles fan," McArthur said.
"As a matter of fact," McArthur continued, "we're going to have live music aboard the station Sunday morning from one of Sir Paul McCartney's concerts out in California." Indeed, on Sunday, November 13, McCartney provided a live wakeup call from Earth to the ISS crew during a first-ever concert linkup.
Several of the Furtherwick Park students' questions were more scientifically oriented than those typically put to ISS crew members during ARISS school group contacts. Replying to a question on whether microgravity affects the distribution of bodily fluids, McArthur answered in the affirmative.
"The fluid tends to shift down from our legs, our feet, lower extremities to the upper part of your body," McArthur explained, "and so we generally have a 'full head' sensation--it feels a little like a head cold to begin with." He said there's not much astronauts can do to prepare for this occurrence, and the body responds by reducing the amount of fluid in the body.
He told another student that it would be difficult to maintain a candle's flame in microgravity because the convection needed to supply the oxygen needed to support combustion requires gravity. Convection also keeps a candle's flame generally vertical on Earth, McArthur explained. Microgravity also influences how substances mix.
Dave Speechley, G4UVJ, was the control operator for the contact between GB2FPS and NA1SS. Howard Long, G6LVB, the UK ARISS mentor, called the event "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that the students would never forget.
ARISS
is an international educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT
and NASA.
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