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 Previous: CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Inaugural Class Announced |  Next: Kachina Exits the Amateur Radio, HF Market |
NEWINGTON, CT, May 23, 2001--While he doesn't yet hold a ham ticket, astronaut Jim Voss has been making a lot of friends on Earth via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. Voss today completed another on-air conversation with youngsters at the Moran Prairie Elementary School in Spokane, Washington. Late last week, Voss chatted with students at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Youngsters at the Washington school asked questions ranging from bone density to exercising in space, radiation and solar flares.
 The Expedition 2 Crew of (left to right) Jim Voss, Yuri Usachev, RW3FU, and Susan Helms, KC7NHZ. Voss told students this week that he thought NASA did a good job with crew selection because everyone was getting along well. [NASA Photo] |
"I think your brain does work a little bit differently up here," Voss told one Moran Prairie youngster named Robbie. "The way I think about it is, you're up here, you're floating around, and your mind is having to do a lot of things that aren't natural to interpret the way you see things upside down," he continued. "We have to be a little bit more careful up here when we're doing our work."
Voss told another youngster, Kalli, that he's gotten very used to being in space, but he feels his leg muscles are getting weak, despite regular exercise. He told the pupils that he enjoys space walks and was looking forward to an excursion outside the ISS in a couple of weeks that he thought might be more challenging than usual.
An MP3 audio file of the Moran Prairie Elementary School QSO with Jim Voss is available. [10:30] |
In his "free time," Voss said, he enjoys microgravity. "Sometimes I do things with the zero gravity, floating around and doing flips and somersaults--it's like playing in space."
Voss told students at both schools that the astronauts are enjoying "quite a variety" of foods on the space station's menu. He also said he misses his family but told the Missouri students that he felt "lucky and blessed" to be aboard the ISS and that he enjoyed the inspiring view. "The earth is quite a gorgeous place, and we can't take pictures that are good enough to make it look as good as it really is," he told the Parkway Central students May 17.
The high schoolers also wanted to know about such issues as sleeping in space, what the crew does if someone gets sick, and what it takes to become an astronaut and ISS crew member.
Both contacts were made directly, via 2 meters, and Voss used the NA1SS call sign for the QSOs. Each lasted approximately 10 minutes--the typical length of a horizon-to-horizon pass. Tom Faulkner, W7TRF, handled ground station duties for the Moran Prairie contact, while Roy Welch, W0SL, made technical arrangements for the Parkway Central students, who used KC0PCH, the call sign of the school's Amateur Radio club.
Voss, astronaut Susan Helms, KC7NHZ, and Russian crew commander Yuri Usachev, RW3FU, are approximately halfway through their Expedition Two tour of duty aboard the ISS. They will return to Earth in July.
Penciled in for an ARISS contact next week is Daviess County High School in Owensboro, Kentucky. An effort to complete an ARISS contact during the Dayton Hamvention AMSAT Forum via a telebridge with Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, in Australia was unsuccessful.
| Previous: CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Inaugural Class Announced | Next: Kachina Exits the Amateur Radio, HF Market |
