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 Previous: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler |  Next: Radio Mentor |
 An Iroquois Middle School student asks his question while a classmate awaits her turn. An MCI-donated teleconferencing link provided two-way audio between the school and Earth station VK5ZAI. |
NEWINGTON, CT, May 26, 2005--A nephew of US Astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY, was among the middle schoolers who spoke with the International Space Station May 16 via Amateur Radio. The contact with youngsters at Iroquois Middle School in Niskayuna, New York, was arranged via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. Responding to one student's question--how does the robotic arm function in zero gravity--Phillips took a moment to correct a widely held misconception about the spacecraft's environment.
"There is gravity," Phillips explained. "That's what holds us in orbit, so let's not use the term 'zero gravity.' A lot of people use it, but it's not really right." In past ARISS contacts, other ISS crew members have described it as "microgravity."
Phillips said the robotic Canadarm2 has to be really
flexible, but it doesn't have to be very strong. "It's not like a crane because
it doesn't have to lift heavy weights," he said, "because we're all just
floating together here in orbit." The force the robotic arm needs to move
objects is relatively small, but it must be very carefully controlled, he
added.
 Next! Several of the students at Iroquois got to ask two questions before time ran out on the pass. [Megan Allen, Niskayuna Central School District, Photos] |
The young questioners included Phillips's nephew Paul Manning. His sister Julie was in the audience for the event. Paul asked about the types of experiments under way on the ISS.
"Well, we're doing a lot of experiments in which we are the human guinea pigs to see how our bodies react to being in space," Phillips told his nephew. "We also observe the earth, and we do engineering and materials research to see how materials behave in the conditions that we can create only here in orbit."
In response to the often-asked "food question," Phillips explained that the Expedition 11 crew has run out of fresh food and now is eating meals that come in cans or that are freeze-dried. He also pointed out that there's no refrigerator on board to keep things cold. "And contrary to what you may have heard, there is no ice cream in space," he added.
Phillips said reaching Mars is a goal of the human space
flight program, but just how or when it will happen remain open questions. "I'd
say we have a goal to send some people to Mars for a short flight, but we
really don't have any details on exactly how we're going to do it--how long the
mission will last, what kind of rocket it will be," he said. "And the idea of
actually settling on Mars for a long-term stay, that's a long, long time away,
in my opinion."
 Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR (left), and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips, KE5DRY. [NASA Photo] |
The crew's current mission, he explained, is to carry out
scientific experiments and to "extend the human presence in space, with the
idea of eventually building a settlement on the moon, and then a mission to
Mars--hopefully within the next 20 or 30 years."
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Serving as the Earth station control operator was ARISS veteran Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, in South Australia. An MCI-donated teleconferencing link provided two-way audio from the ham radio contact with NA1SS to the school.
According to Iroquois Middle School Principal David Crandall, 12 seventh-grade science students participated in the ham radio contact with the ISS. In all, the youngsters managed to fit 18 questions into the approximately 10-minute contact before the ISS went over the horizon above Australia.
ARISS is an educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
| Previous: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler | Next: Radio Mentor |
