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 Previous: Two ARRL Sections to Get New Section Managers in October |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
 As other students in the queue look on, one of the International Space School ARISS contact participants prepares to pose his question to astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, at the controls of NA1SS aboard the ISS. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 8, 2003--Students at the International Space School spoke August 1 via ham radio to NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, aboard the International Space Station and at the controls of onboard ham station NA1SS. The contact was arranged via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. The students gathered at the University of Houston in Clear Lake, Texas, for the contact, and Lu answered a dozen questions during the 10-minute pass. In answer to one question, Lu said being on the ISS had not altered his views regarding the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
"I've always thought that it would be pretty remarkable circumstances if we on Earth were the only life anywhere in the universe," Lu responded. "The question is, 'Where?'" Lu said the answer to the question of whether life exists beyond the bound of Earth "is profound either way."
Lu also said he seems to be enjoying spicier
foods more since he's been aboard the ISS, but he was not able to figure out
why that's the case. Every day on the ISS involves solving a problem of one
kind or another, he said, but he called being in space "quite an honor" and "a
tremendous opportunity" and he predicted the day would come when more people
got the chance to experience space firsthand.
 An International Space School student at the University of Houston asks her question of Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, aboard the ISS. |
It wasn't so much classroom or academic preparation but his own experience as an aircraft owner and pilot helped prepare him for being in space, Lu related in response to another question, "because you are always behind the panel someplace, unbolting something or working on something or re-routing wires." Lu said it's often the same with the space station. "It's a lot like working on the inside of an airplane or on the engine of an airplane in a lot of a cases, because the basic 'wrench skills' turn out to be quite a plus up here," he said.
 Veteran ARISS Earth station operator Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI. |
The contact was the 108th ham radio school-group QSO in the history of the ARISS program. Most contacts during the summer months have been with schools and educational groups outside the US, since US public schools are on summer vacation.
Since the ISS was passing over the Southern Hemisphere at the time, Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, in Australia--an ARISS veteran--served as Earth station for the International Space School contact. MCI provided a two-way audio teleconferencing link between Australia and Houston.
"We had an excellent horizon-to-horizon pass," said Will Marchant, KC6ROL, the ARISS mentor for the QSO. The International Space School students saluted Lu with a hearty "Thank you!" at the contact's conclusion.
ARISS
is an international program with participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
| Previous: Two ARRL Sections to Get New Section Managers in October | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
