First ARISS Canadian Contact Will Be Last for Current Crew
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 21, 2001--The first Amateur Radio Station on the International Space Station--or ARISS--school contact with a Canadian school is expected to be the last such contact for the Expedition 1 crew. Youngsters at the Merivale Public School in Ottawa, Ontario, are scheduled to speak via Amateur Radio with the ISS crew on Thursday, February 22, from 1829 to 1840 UTC.
Merivale Public has an enrollment of nearly 600 students, from junior kindergarten to grade 6. ARISS volunteer Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD, is coordinating the Amateur Radio setup at the school. Ken Pulfer, VE3PU, Claire Fowler, VE3NPC, Steve Regan, VA3MGY, Eric Teutsch, and ARISS mentor Charlie Sufana, AJ9N will be assisting.
 Dressed in a NASA-style jump suit, teacher Lori McFarlane discusses the International Space Station with students at Merivale Public School in Ottawa.
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McFarlane's wife, Lori, is the coordinating teacher. She and the youngsters have been practicing asking their questions and radio procedure in anticipation of the big day. A dozen pupils are set to ask questions of Space Station Alpha Commander William "Shep" Shepherd, KD5GSL, who will use the NA1SS call sign for the approximately 10-minute contact. Among other things, the youngsters' plan to ask about trash disposal and recycling aboard the ISS, procedures for dealing with a sick crew member, and what the crew does for exercise.
Merivale's Space Club--with 54 members in grades one through six, has been busy keeping up on the latest information on the space station, space exploration topics and other space-related activities. A 20-by-30 foot mural of the space station and a 12-by-12 foot screen displaying the live tracking of the space station have helped to turn the school's gymnasium into "Mission Control." The school has created a space station "mission patch" that will appear on T-shirts worn for the contact.
 Teacher Lori McFarlane helps a youngster practice for her turn as part of the scheduled ARISS school contact on February 22.
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Assuming it is successful, the Merivale ARISS contact will be the last school QSO for the current crew of Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR. Since coming aboard the ISS last November, the Expedition 1 crew has completed contacts with schools in Illinois, Virginia, New York and Texas plus a handful of casual contacts. The crew's extremely busy schedule of the shuttle crew has precluded more Amateur Radio activity from the International Space Station during the current crew's stay, however, and the ISS Amateur Radio packet system is yet to become operational.
ARISS spokesman Will Marchant, KC6ROL, said he expects it will be sometime in late March--after the Expedition 2 crew arrives--before ARISS school contacts can resume. The ISS Expedition 2 crew will include two hams, Russian cosmonaut and Commander Yuri Usachev, RW3FU, and US astronaut Susan Helms, KC7NHZ, in addition to US astronaut Jim Voss.
For more information on the ARISS program, visit the ARISS Web site.
Page last modified: 08:12 AM, 22 May 2001 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2001, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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