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 Previous: FCC Proposes to Fine Missouri Amateur for Failing to Reply to Correspondence |  Next: W1AW, K1D to be On the Air for Kid's Day, January 2 |
 A Westhampton Beach pupil asks his question of astronaut Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, while other youngsters await their turn. Members of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club set up and ran W2AMC for the event. [Don Fisher, N2QHV, Photo] | ||
 A member of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club erects the antenna system for the W2AMC Earth station. [Warren Melhado, WM2Z, Photo] | ||
 Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, enjoys floating around in the ISS. "You feel very free!" he told students in Quebec November 30. [NASA Photo] | ||
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NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 9, 2004--Teacher April Pokorny's fifth graders at Westhampton Beach Elementary School on Long Island, New York, had reason to be grateful the day before Thanksgiving. That's when they got a chance to speak via Amateur Radio with International Space Station Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, at the controls of NA1SS. Secondary school students in Quebec spoke with Chiao via ham radio on November 30. Both contacts were arranged via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. The Long Island school's November 24 educational contact was some three years in the making.
"I am still feeling euphoric over our wonderful experience," Westhampton Beach Elementary School Principal Anne Rullan remarked the following day. Pokorny said the ARISS contact provided a connection between classroom learning and real life. "What could possibly be more exciting than talking to an astronaut while he is in space," she told a reporter for TV Channel 12. In addition to TV coverage, one radio station and two newspapers reported the event.
The youngsters had worked up a list of two dozen possible questions to ask Chiao, who's been aboard the ISS since October. The Westhampton Beach contact was only his second Amateur Radio contact ever.
Among other things, Chiao told the Westhampton Beach pupils that the food aboard the ISS was pretty good, that the orbit of the ISS could be altered "a little bit," and that the 2003 shuttle Columbia tragedy, in which seven astronauts died, did not deter his desire to go into space. "We're all professional astronauts, and this is what we do, and we know what the risks are" he said. Chiao called the Columbia mishap "a very sad thing for all of us."
As was the case with other astronauts and cosmonauts before him, Chiao said he enjoys looking out the window and taking pictures, and he sometimes and spends his spare time watching movies. "I also like floating around a lot," he said. Chiao told another youngster that it would be easier to pitch a fast ball on Earth than in zero gravity.
The ARISS QSO was supposed to happen during the previous school year, but the Expedition 8 crew was dealing with an air leak aboard the spacecraft at the time and had to beg off some scheduled school group contacts.
Seventeen members of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club (PARC) set up the W2AMC Earth station and made other technical arrangements to enable the contact. Jim Jones, KC2IGT, Charles Burnham, K2GLP, and Van Field, W2OQI, provided radio practice for the 12 students "who were willing participants in this experience," said PARC President Roberta Keis, N2RBU. PARC has practice in making ARISS contact arrangements. It also assisted in a 2002 ARISS contact with Quogue School, also on Long Island.
"Second time around was not as scary as the first time, but it was not without the usual need for backup planning," Keis said. An auxiliary generator ended up running all the radio and videoconferencing equipment after power at the school kept cutting out due to damp, rainy conditions that day. PARC members also needed to repair an antenna controller within an hour of the contact's start.
"The after-contact comments were all positive," Keis said.
"Words like 'amazing' and "wow!' were
mixed with tears of emotion and a general feeling of floating on air."
Canada Contact Short but Successful
 As a radio reporting team (left) offers live commentary, students at the Fernand Lefebvre Secondary School in Quebec speak to Astronaut Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, via ham radio. [Gaétan Trépanier, VE2GHO, Photo] | ||
 Members of the Sorel-Tracey Amateur Radio Club, VE2CBS, set up the Earth station for the Canadian ARISS contact. (L-R) Jean-Pierre Houle, VE2AHD, Luc Leblanc, VE2DWE, and André Girard, VE2GFF. [Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA, Photo] | ||
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On November 30, youngsters at the Fernand Lefebvre Secondary School in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, Canada, chatted with Chiao during a somewhat curtailed contact. Calls by Earth station operator Luc Leblanc, VE2DWE, were met with packet bursts during the first several minutes of the 10-minute pass. When Chiao's voice finally came through loud and clear, "all in the auditorium started to breathe again," said ARISS-Canada's Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA.
Because of the late start and further interruptions, Chiao only answered seven questions. He told the students he had trained for about three years before going into space as the Expedition 10 commander in October--about 18 months as a backup crew member and another 18 months for his current mission. In response to other questions, Chiao again said he enjoyed being able to float around, but that zero gravity did have its downside.
"Everything's a little trickier in zero gravity because there's no gravity to help keep things in their place," he said. "It's easy to lose things. Just small, little things go floating away. You have to pay attention to what you're doing and know where everything is."
Chiao said the most surprising thing about going into space was the view of Earth and how beautiful it is. "It's even better than the pictures and the IMAX movies," he commented.
As the contact drew to a close, Chiao said he was sorry he wasn't able to answer more questions. Remarked Lamoureux afterward, "Despite the shortened contact, the ARISS spirit was present, and all will remember the event for a long time."
Members of the Sorel-Tracey Amateur Radio Club, VE2CBS, set up the Earth station for the contact. As an audience of some 450 parents, teachers and visitors looked on, a French-language radio reporting team from CJSO (101.7 FM) commented on the contact as it progressed, somewhat as if it were a sporting event. Some 1800 students outside the auditorium heard the contact via an intercom link.
ARISS is an international educational outreach with US
participation from ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
| Previous: FCC Proposes to Fine Missouri Amateur for Failing to Reply to Correspondence | Next: W1AW, K1D to be On the Air for Kid's Day, January 2 |
