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 Previous: One Up, Three to Go: New Amateur Radio Antenna Installed in Space! |  Next: In Brief |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 16, 2002--Thirteen elementary school students in Mississippi fired off a total of 18 questions January 16 to ham-astronaut Carl Walz, KC5TIE, who responded from the International Space Station during a pass over North America. As crowd of about 200 students and 50 parents looked on, youngsters at St Clare School in Waveland quizzed Walz for about 10 minutes. The contact with NA1SS aboard the ISS was the first Amateur Radio on the International Space Station school QSO for the Expedition 4 crew, which has been aboard the ISS for just over a month.
"These students are going to have a very slow time of landing back on Planet Earth, and the parents are still on Cloud Nine!" Coordinating teacher Mary Bartholomew commented afterwards. Bartholomew said that her students have been studying the electromagnetic spectrum and space travel in preparation for this week's contact, which was facilitated by ARISS--a joint effort of ARRL, NASA and AMSAT.
 Astronaut Carl Walz, KC5TIE, aboard the ISS. [NASA Photo] |
As the contact began, ARISS mentor and control operator Tim Bosma, W6ISS, relayed congratulations to Walz from ARISS Board Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, for Monday's successful installation of a new VHF-UHF ham antenna on the ISS Service Module. Bosma contacted the ISS via W6SRJ in Santa Rosa, California. Audio was relayed to and from the school via a WorldCom teleconferencing circuit.
Walz mentioned ham radio in two of his answers to the students. He said ham radio was one of the ways that he communicated with family and friends while on board the space station (an onboard e-mail system and a telephone are others). In response to a question about improvements to the NA1SS station, Walz noted Monday's ham antenna installation. The new antenna was not used for the January 16 contact, however. While the contact was solid for the most part, some unidentified interference marred parts of Walz's responses.
In response to other questions, Walz reported that he and his crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufrienko, RK3DUO, and Dan Bursch, KD5PNU, were conducting experiments with algae, and did research on lung function during Monday's spacewalk. He told the students that on Christmas Day he unwrapped a few presents that he had carried up as personal items, and that he received books, CDs and pictures.
"We had a chance to talk with our family and friends--we have a telephone up here--and we shared candy and watched a movie," Walz said.
Walz said that the Mercury and Gemini project astronauts of the 1960s--especially John Glenn--were his role models in deciding to become an astronaut himself.
Listen to the audio from the St Clare School ARISS contact on January 16, 2002: |
Reporters from a Biloxi TV station and three newspapers witnessed today's ARISS contact. ARISS mentor Randy Becnel, W5UE, helped the staff and students prepare for the event.
Several more
ARISS school contacts are set for this month and next. More than 40 schools are
on the list at this point, and ARISS plans to have at least one school contact
a week during the current mission. Bursch reportedly made several casual contacts last week from the ISS. For more
information, visit the ARISS Web site.--Gene Chapline, K5YFL/ARISS
| Previous: One Up, Three to Go: New Amateur Radio Antenna Installed in Space! | Next: In Brief |
