 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
 Previous: Indiana Seeking Ham Radio Volunteers in Wake of Killer Tornado |  Next: Dayton Hamvention® Says Better Communication a Key Goal for 2006 Show |
 At 8J4ISS, youngsters at the Kawachi Citizen's Committee for Youths facility get ready to speak with ISS Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, at the controls of NA1SS. [Photo courtesy of Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ] |
 The audience of more than 100 people who turned out for the ARISS contact between 8J4ISS and NA1SS applauds. [Photo courtesy of Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ] |
 Expedition 12 Flight Engineer Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev (left), dons his Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit in the Quest Airlock of the ISS. Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, assists him. The pair performed its first scheduled spacewalk November 7. [NASA Photo] |
CLICK HERE to listen to the ARISS contact between 8J4ISS and NA1SS: [9:39] Audio clip courtesy of Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 9, 2005--ISS Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, completed the 200th Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school group QSO November 3. ARISS arranged the direct VHF QSO between 8J4ISS on behalf of the Kawachi Citizen's Committee for Youths in Japan and NA1SS onboard the ISS. McArthur told the participating youngsters that the climate aboard the ISS permits the crew to dress lightly.
"It is very, very comfortable," McArthur said. "Normally we just wear short pants and short-sleeve shirts and socks." And, when those clothes get dirty, he said in response to another youngster's question, the crew simply throws them out and puts on fresh clothing. While ISS crews generally dress casually, there are occasions--such as during televised news briefings and change-of-command ceremonies--when ISS crew members suit up in their uniforms.
Some of the youngsters were curious about how well the ISS crew could spot landmarks on Earth from their perch 220 miles high in space. "We cannot see the Tokyo Tower with just our eyes," McArthur responded to one questioner, "but sometimes we can see such objects through a telephoto lens on a camera or with binoculars." He also told the kids that he had not yet seen the Great Wall of China from the ISS but "we have taken pictures of the Great Wall of China from space."
McArthur said the crew frequently has to do repair and maintenance work aboard the ISS. "Yesterday, I helped my Russian crewmate Valery [Tokarev] replace a pump inside the space station," he told his young listeners.
Answering the seemingly obligatory "food question," McArthur said his favorite space lunch is "a big can of Russian lamb and vegetables."
McArthur and Tokarev this week completed their mission's first spacewalk to install a new camera on the station's exterior. The pair has been onboard the ISS for a little more than a month. They'll return to Earth in April after 182 days in space, McArthur told the youngsters. The Kawachi contact occurred the same week NASA was celebrating five years of continuous human habitation of the ISS. The ISS Expedition 1 crew came aboard November 2, 2000.
McArthur was able to answer 19 of the youngsters' questions during the nearly 10-minute contact. The control operator for the Kawachi event was Kazuma Maekawa, JA4HCG/AG6J, who said "good-bye" to McArthur in Japanese, Russian and English as the ISS went out of range. An audience of more than 100 parents and relatives and representatives from five TV stations--including national network NHK--and three newspapers was on hand for the occasion. Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ, served as the ARISS mentor for the contact. He's posted audio and video clips on the Web.
ARISS is an
international educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and
NASA.
| Previous: Indiana Seeking Ham Radio Volunteers in Wake of Killer Tornado | Next: Dayton Hamvention® Says Better Communication a Key Goal for 2006 Show |
