Tag Archives: International Space Station

Mar 31 2013

Thornton Middle School students contact the International Space Station

Thornton Middle School ISS Contact

One of the Thornton Middle School students

On March 25, using the Thornton Middle School Wireless Technology Club callsign KF5NZD, students from Thornton Middle School in Katy, Texas contacted the International Space Station (ISS). They used ham radio to speak to ISS Commander Chris Hadfield VA3OOG who was operating one of the amateur radio stations onboard the ISS, callsign NA1SS.

“NA1SS..NA1SS this is KF5NZD, KF5NZD, How do you copy, over?” called 13-year-old Chris Bobicchio.

The Cypress Creek Mirror reports a long sticky pause filled the room followed by a clear “This is NA1SS to KF5NZD, you are loud and clear, how do you copy me, over?”

Thornton math teacher and ham radio enthusiast Tom Maxwell AE5QB had been trying to get his school involved in the ARISS program for the past three years and was finally accepted last summer.

AMSAT News Service reports Thornton Middle School students, due to their economic backgrounds, have limited opportunities for enrichment activities beyond those that can be implemented in the classroom. Many of its students and families believe that opportunities in high paying STEM careers are beyond the reach of Thornton students, and that, “other kids have all the luck.” This ARISS contact helped dispel these perceptions and will demonstrate to the students and families that Thornton students are capable of complex problem solving, and that they are capable of learning “Rocket Science” material.

Read the Cypress Creek Mirror story by Crystal Simmons at
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/cypresscreek/news/thornton-middle-school-students-make-contact/article_508321f1-dbe6-5994-b04d-edb8ae4dab69.html

To see a video of the complete question and answer session, visit
http://www.cfisd.net/movies/zmovies/ariss.htm

A list of the questions asked is at
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2013/ariss_event_2503.htm

Thornton Middle School Wireless Technology Club on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/PatriotsInSpace/

Thornton Middle School
http://www.greatschools.org/texas/katy/1727-Thornton-Middle-School/?tab=demographics

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) http://www.ariss.org/

Mar 22 2013

Tania in Space Comic Book

Tania in Space

Tania in Space

The French language version of the European Space Agency (ESA) website reports the latest in the series of comic books about the Adventures of Tania in Space was published on March 22, 2013.

ESA report that as well as the adventures of Tania the 176 page publication features articles on space and is prefaced by several astronauts such as Frank De Winne, Dirk Frimout, Jean-François Clervoy and Jean-Pierre Haigneré of ESA and even Pamela Melroy and Piers Sellers of NASA.

ESA report on the new comic book http://tinyurl.com/TaniaInSpaceESA

The comic book is published by Editions Joker http://www.editions-joker.com/

Space adventures of Tania http://tinyurl.com/SpaceAdventuresOfTania

Mar 10 2013

Video of ISS amateur radio contact with students at Lycee Polyvalent Anatole France

International Space Station ISS with shuttle Endeavour 2011-05-23A video has been released of the International Space Station (ISS) school contact with participants at the Lycee Polyvalent Anatole France.

The contact took place  at 1142 UT on Saturday, March 9, 2013. ISS Commander Chris Hadfield VA3OOG, used the call sign OR4ISS, and the high school used F4KIS.

Anatole France is a French high school located in Lillers, a small town in the center of the Pas-de-Calais department. There are about 850 students 15 to 20 years old. The science teachers and the local amateur radio club F4KIS, which became in 2010 the ‘Artois Lys Radio Club’, have developed a partnership since 2007 collaborating on projects to send sounding balloons into the stratosphere.

Continue reading →

Mar 9 2013

Amateur Radio CubeSat burns-up in atmosphere

Altitude of the five CubeSats - Image credit Masahiro Arai JN1GKZ

Altitude of the five CubeSats compared with ARISSat-1/Kedr – Image credit Masahiro Arai JN1GKZ

WE-WISH, one five CubeSats deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on October 4, 2012. burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere on Monday, March 11. On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Nico Janssen PA0DLO suggested it burnt up at 02:59 UT near 48 degrees North, 119 degrees East. He says TechEdSat is likely to be the next of the five to re-enter sometime in April.

Deployment of CubeSats WE-WISH and RAIKO from the ISS

Deployment of CubeSats WE-WISH and RAIKO from the ISS – Image NASA

Built by members of the Meisei Amateur Radio Club WE-WISH carried an infrared camera for environmental studies. The 320 by 256 pixels images  of the Earth’s surface were transmitted in approx 110 secs using SSTV. The callsign was JQ1ZIJ and the 100mW downlink on 437.515 MHz operated on CW (A1A), AX.25 1200 bps packet radio (F2D) or SSTV (F3F).

Masahiro Arai JN1GKZ has produced a chart that shows the declining altitude of the five CubeSats since their deployment. RAIKO was the largest of the CubeSats at about 2 kg and 10 × 10 × 20 cm and the others being about 1 kg and 10 × 10 × 10 cm. The chart compares their orbital decay with that of ARISSat-1/Kedr (30 kg, 55 × 55 × 40 cm) which was deployed on August 3, 2011 and and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on January 4, 2012, having spent 154 days in orbit.

Further information and some spectacular pictures of the CubeSats taken just after deployment can be seen at https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/techedsat-f-1-fitsat-1-we-wish/

Feb 19 2013

ARISS contact planned February 19, 2013 with school in Greece

The International Space Station

ARISS contact planned February 19, 2013 with school in Greece

An International Space Station school contact has been planned February 19 2013 with participants at 4th Dimotiko Scholeio Chaidariou, Chaidari (near Athens), Greece.             The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 14:06 UTC, which is 16:07 CEWT.

The contact will be a direct operated by J41ISS. Interested parties in Europe are invited to listen to dowlink signals on 145.800 MHz FM. The contact will be conducted in English.

The event will be webcast on several webstreaming servers: http://www.sv1eag.gr/ http://www.justin.tv/sv1eag#r=-rid-&s=em http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RFJbw5NeAc

School presentation:

Our school is located in Chaidari, a suburb in the north-west of Athens.             It was constructed in 1978, but it is now being renovated so as to be more energy efficient. It is a two-storey building with 16 classrooms, a Head office and a staff room. Continue reading →
Feb 17 2013

Astronaut / Radio Ham Chris Hadfield premieres song from space

Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory wearing a 73 T-shirt - Image Warner Bros

Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory wearing a 73 T-shirt – Image Warner Bros

While on-board the International Space Station (ISS) Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, KC5RNJ/VA3OOG, has been creating music in space .

He has been working with Ed Robertson who created the theme song for the popular comedy show The Big Bang Theory.

CBS News report: “We’ve been pals for a long time and it just seemed like a fun thing to do,” says Robertson of the song that is part of a planned album Chris Hadfield [VA3OOG] wants to record while in space. “Chris and his brother write songs and they’re really great, so he’s going to record a bunch of stuff up there.”

The result of the collaboration has been I.S.S. , Is Somebody Singing, which was premiered on Friday, February 8.

 

Watch the premiere of ‘I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)’

Watch Chris Hadfield VA3OOG – mixtape to the moon

I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) music score and lyrics
http://music.cbc.ca/#/Space/blogs/2013/2/Ed-Robertson-takes-us-behind-the-writing-of-ISS-Is-Somebody-Singing