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 Previous: What to Do About Morse? Code Requirement Remains on the Books in US, Canada |  Next: ARRL Board Requests Policy Recommendations to Implement WRC-03 Results |
 Space Camp instructors assist students in a dry run prior to the actual ARISS contact. |
 Aziz Sasa, TA1E (right), passes the telephone to a space camper to ask her question. |
 The Turkey Space Camp ARISS contact attracted reporters from national media in Turkey. "The event was mentioned by all TV channels in the main news," Sasa said, "some of them including detailed interviews with participants." |
 Piano man: Astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, in the Hawaiian shirt, clowns at the electronic piano keyboard on the ISS while upside down as a somewhat puzzled-looking Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, watches. [NASA Photo] |
 After the ISS contact, some contacts were made on HF at YM3SCT to acquaint the space campers with Amateur Radio. Here, Aziz Sasa, TA1E (right), demonstrates the station to a student from Israel. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 23, 2003--With apologies to Billy Joel, US astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, is "The Piano Man" in space. During a July 14 contact arranged as part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program, Lu told students at Space Camp Turkey--home of YM3SCT--that one of the things he enjoys doing in his off-hours is playing the piano.
"We have a small piano up here. It's an electronic piano, and I like to play the piano in my spare time," Lu explained to the 124 space campers at Space Center Turkey in Izmir. Twenty of the youngsters--who were from the US, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Azerbaijan--got to ask questions of the astronaut during the ham radio/teleconference linkup. An MCI teleconference line handled two-way audio between the space camp in Turkey and the International Space Station Amateur Radio Club, NN1SS, in Maryland, where ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, sat at the controls. He had assistance from John Nickel, WD5EEV, and Mark Steiner, K3MS.
The ARISS contact kicked off a week of activities at Space Camp Turkey. ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, in Belgium served as mentor and moderator for the contact, while Azis Sasa, TA1E, handled arrangements at the Space Camp with assistance from Mehmet Ali Birit, TA3BM, Dali Karadogan, TA3EU, and Ali Özsaran, TA3EL.
In response to a question about where the ISS crew gets its water, Lu explained to the space campers that water arrives in huge containers aboard Progress supply rockets from Russia. The water, he said, serves two purposes: it's used to drink, and it's used to generate oxygen to breathe.
Regular exercise is an important part of the ISS crew's regimen in the near-zero gravity of space, Lu said, adding that he enjoys listening to selections from the space station's large CD collection while he's on the treadmill. He noted that while he was talking to the youngsters on Earth, his crewmate, Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, was running on the treadmill.
"We spend a lot of time exercising," Lu said, pointing out that since microgravity has eliminated the need for crew members to walk, their muscles and bones atrophy during their six-month tour of duty. "You fly everywhere," he said. You don't walk. That is a lot of fun!"
Before the ISS went over the horizon, the
students let out with a loud, "Thank you from Space Camp Turkey!"
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Bertels called the occasion "a wonderful incentive for the youngsters, tomorrow's engineers, scientists, poets and science fiction writers, men and women who will have a nice story for their grandchildren to listen to."
Sasa, who is president of TRAC, Turkey's International Amateur Radio Union member-society, said he thought the contact had made a big impression on the youngsters and hoped some of them would become interested in Amateur Radio as a result of the experience. Nearly 200 others attended the event, including news media.
ARISS is an international program with
participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
| Previous: What to Do About Morse? Code Requirement Remains on the Books in US, Canada | Next: ARRL Board Requests Policy Recommendations to Implement WRC-03 Results |
