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 Previous: The Amateur Amateur: CW--Her Plan Versus My Plan |  Next: Well-Known Contester Daniel K. Robbins, KL7Y, SK |
 Sixth and seventh-grade students at Silverheels Middle School in Fairplay, Colorado, some parents, teachers and administrators gather in the school's library in anticipation of the scheduled ham radio contact with Peggy Whitson, KC5ZTD, at the controls of NA1SS on the ISS. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 5, 2002--Despite some last-minute anxiety due to equipment failure, an October 28 Amateur Radio contact between Colorado youngsters and the International Space Station was successful. The contact between ISS astronaut Peggy Whitson, KC5ZTD, and middle school students at Silverheels Middle School in Fairplay was arranged as part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program.
"It's an experience we'll never forget, and we appreciate all the volunteers who made this possible," coordinating teacher Marcy Wilkins said. "I've been looking forward to this and so have the kids. They have been so excited about this since school started." The ARISS school contact was the last scheduled with a member of the ISS Expedition 5 crew.
Because the QSO
was handled via a WorldCom teleconferencing link between the school and Earth
station op Nancy Rocheleau, WH6PN, in Hawaii, all the school needed on its end
was a working speakerphone. But, with all else ready, the school's speakerphone
failed at the appointed hour. A parent rushed home and returned with a
substitute unit, and the conversation went ahead as scheduled. Wilkins'
students have been studying about space in general and the ISS in particular
for several weeks now, and they developed their questions for Whitson on the
basis of what they've learned.
 Student Bekah Carnahan (left) and teacher Marcy Wilkins await word from WH6PN in Hawaii that contact with Whitson has been established. Bekah asked the first questions of Whitson. |
Student Jacob Reese wanted to know how long it takes Whitson to swim across the entire space station. Whitson said "swimming" in zero gravity is one of her favorite pastimes. "I actually can get across the station in probably less than a minute if I'm in a hurry," Whitson, said. "But sometimes high speed can get you in trouble, especially if someone happens to be in your way."
Replying to a question about what foods she misses, Whitson took another mild swipe at the repetitious menu crewmembers consume while on ISS duty. "Every eight days we start over with the same foods we had the previous eight days," Whitson said. "So I think I'm looking forward to anything that's not on those eight days."
Whitson said it was an "amazing feeling" to lift off in the space shuttle. "It was a pretty exciting moment for me," she said. The first few days in space were another thing due to the physiological changes, mostly due to shifts in bodily fluids. "You tend to feel like you have a head cold because the fluid has shifted toward your head, and a backache from having the fluid redistribute in your spine," Whitson explained. But, she said, those effects disappear quickly and you adapt "amazingly well" to zero gravity.
The only other
problem that occurred during the approximately 10-minute contact was an
unexplained drop in audio level from the ISS that lasted several seconds.
 Silverheels students who participated in the ARISS contact mug for the camera, with teacher Marcy Wilkins (top, middle). [Silverheels Middle School Photos] |
Toward the end of the contact, Whitson again reflected on the enjoyment she derives from living and working in zero gravity. "Living up here on space station gives me an opportunity to enjoy the feeling of floating," she said. "It's an amazing feeling."
Working outside the space station, she added, made her feel like "a very very fast bird." As she's told other students, Whitson said she hopes to one day return to space after her current ISS tour ends later this month.
Click here to hear audio of the ARISS contact with Silverheels Middle School: [10:10] |
Whitson and her Expedition 5 crewmates, Valery Korzun, RK3FZ, and Sergei Treschev, RK3FU, have been in space since June 5. The Expedition 6 crew of Kenneth Bowersox, KD5JBP, Nikolai Budarin, RV3FB, and Donald Petit, KD5MDT, will launch aboard the shuttle Endeavour November 11. Bowersox will serve as the crew commander, Petit will be the NASA ISS science officer, and Budarin will serve as a flight engineer. The Expedition 6 crew will be the third all-ham crew to serve aboard the ISS.
ARISS is an
international project with US participation by NASA, ARRL and AMSAT.
| Previous: The Amateur Amateur: CW--Her Plan Versus My Plan | Next: Well-Known Contester Daniel K. Robbins, KL7Y, SK |
