ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, holds the microphone for a student to ask his question at the Brussels Planetarium. [ARISS Europe Photo]
ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, holds the microphone for a student to ask his question at the Brussels Planetarium. [ARISS Europe Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 30, 2003--Teenaged members of an amateur astronomers' club enjoyed an opportunity to speak via ham radio with someone in space July 24. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact originated at Brussels Planetarium, an annex of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Contact participants got to ask 13 questions of astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, at the controls of NA1SS aboard the ISS. In response to one youth's question, Lu said he and the Expedition 7 crew commander, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, get along well in part because they have been in space together before. Lu said if others were able to share his and Malenchenko's perspective on Earth the experience might contribute to world peace.
"I do think it would make a difference if all the peoples of the world could see what we're seeing up here and experience what we're experiencing," Lu said. "The experience of living with people from other cultures, working with them and sharing an incredible view of the earth, and I do think that would make a difference."
 Veteran ARISS Earth-station operator Gerald Klatzko, ZS6BTD, served as ground station for the ARISS Brussels contact from his well-endowed Johannesburg ham shack. | |
 NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, shown here working in the ISS Destiny Lab, told the Belgian youngsters that experiments done in space are ones that are difficult or impossible to do on Earth. [NASA Photo] | |
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As he and other ISS crew members have remarked in previous ARISS conversations, the view of Earth while soaring 240 miles above in space is breathtaking. From "the rich blue colors of the ocean to the white of the clouds, and the red colors of the deserts of Australia or Africa to the dark green colors of the rain forest, it's all incredibly beautiful," Lu remarked.
Lu also said the ISS crew was unable to actually appreciate the absolute silence of space aboard the ISS because the spacecraft is filled with ventilation fans. The fans are a necessary substitute for natural convection currents on Earth, which do not occur in the microgravity of space, he explained.
Lu also noted that he and Malenchenko had "a small celebration" topped off with Chinese rice pudding to mark Lu's 40th birthday on July 1. "A birthday in space was a lot of fun," he said, adding that he got to also talk with some of his colleagues on Earth as they were celebrating too.
Handling Earth station duties for the contact was Gerald Klatzko, ZS6BTD, in Johannesburg, South Africa. An MCI teleconferencing circuit provided two-way audio between South Africa and the Brussels Planetarium, where the teenagers and ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, used a speakerphone. MCI also provided streaming audio to the Web. The planetarium's public address system made contact audio available for an audience of about 100 people, Bertels said.
Two TV and one radio station covered the event and interviewed the teenaged astronomers afterward. The Belga press agency also was on hand. In the planetarium, the participants and those looking on could see the ISS replicated on the planetarium's hemispheric dome.
ARISS is an international project with
participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
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