Oct 18: Valley High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico was the site of an ARISS contact with Serena Aunon-Chancellor, who answered 17 questions while an audience of 400 looked on. The event was live-streamed and a TV reporter provided coverage. Astronaut Mike Mullane presented a talk and a Q&A at the event. In late September, many students and their teacher, who is on the ARISS-US Education Committee, took part in activities at a large ham radio convention in Albuquerque. They set up two long exhibit tables and answered many questions about their projects, including several displayed rockets (one, five-feet high). They worked on trajectory data while there, and gave presentations about their ARISS-related studies.
Oct. 22: Ashford School in Ashford, CT held a successful contact with Serena Aunon-Chancellor who answered 17 questions for a crowd of 430. In May, students had traveled to Wallops Flight Facility to watch their two experiments (part of Cubes in Space) be launched on an SR-5 sounding rocket, and to present two poster talks about the experiments. They were testing effects of space travel on how dry nutmeg seed coats become versus a student-chosen artificial seed, and space radiation blocked by a regular bandage versus a student-designed radiation-blocking bandage. A teacher wrote, “Our kids are so inspired by space. They refer to themselves as the ‘Mars generation.’” The ARISS event was live-streamed and three TV stations were taping—one ran a noon-time clip and planned a longer story at prime time. Stories are at:
Oct 8: Students from nine schools came to Allen Park Elementary School in Ft. Myers, FL for a successful ARISS contact with Serena Aunon-Chancellor. Faculty member Courtney Black said, “We wanted to reach students who will be future astronauts, future engineers, future educators who would benefit from this experience.” Cape Coral High School senior Maite Araiza said she wants to bring her love of STEM subjects to other young females in the future. "I just really love space and the mystery of it. There's so much to be explored and I would love to be a part of that." North Fort Myers freshman Peyton McCarthy was grateful to have had this ARISS opportunity. "I really want to keep focusing on engineering and mathematics. It would be incredible to work with NASA or SpaceX, I would really like the engineering side, behind the scenes.” Stories are at:
Oct 11: As the ARISS contact on Oct. 2 was ending at Pell Elementary School in Newport, RI two STEM teachers were awarded a $2,000 legislative grant from RI State Representative Marvin Abney. The teachers will use the grant for hands-on activities that inspire students about STEM studies and STEM careers. (The report on the school contact was in the previous ARISS PSC Weekly.) Additionally, the broadcast news arm of the RI Legislature prepared an outstanding six-minute video for its program, “Legislative Insight,” which highlighted the impact on students of Pell Elementary School’s ARISS contact and featured the grant award. The clip is now playing over cable systems across RI, and is at (click on the screen to start the show): http://ritv.devosvideo.com/show?video=6d976036f2a5
Oct. 16: Students at Sint-Jozefcollege in Turnhout, Belgium interviewed Alexander Gerst (11 questions) while 1,000 people watched. Flemish national TV carried the contact during the prime time news. Local press was present.
Oct. 15 - 20: ARISS held its annual ARISS International Face-to-Face Meeting at the College Park Airport & Museum in College Park, MD. On the two days prior to the meetings, the first-ever ARISS Education Summit was held at the facility.
At the international meetings, ARISS delegates and team members from around the world presented and listened to talks on all aspects of ARISS, from operations to education to hardware (current and upgrades) to future projects. The team heard the latest news on HamTV, the InterOperable Radio System, and the antenna change-out required by the Bartolomeo platform; potential Astrobee activities, HamTV II, and Radio-Pi projects; and crew scheduling. The team was particularly interested in a presentation by John Guidi, NASA Gateway Utilization Manager, who said ARISS is the only non-commercial entity whose ideas are being considered by the Deep Space Gateway program. Team members enjoyed viewing a live-streamed ARISS contact in Belgium. On the last day, an ARISS contact took place between meeting attendees and Serena Aunon-Chancellor. Team members unable to travel to Maryland could tie in remotely to the meetings.
At the ARISS Education Summit, attendees were educators from the US and other countries; ARISS-US Education Committee members; and STEM educators from College Park Airport Museum, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Space Communication & Navigation (SCaN) & NASA GSFC Education Office; NASA HQ SCaN; CASIS/SSE leaders; ARISS-I delegate/attendees, SCaN-sponsored educators from the mid-Atlantic region; and University of Maryland educators and students. They saw a demo of ARISS Slow Scan TV and several ham satellite contacts. One of the ARISS-US Education Committee teachers brought eight of her students to give talks about their STEM studies. Other committee members were part of a panel session discussing educator perspectives on ARISS, and gave presentations on the ARISS education proposal process and on orbit prediction programs. Astronaut Paul Richards led a discussion on space and education, CASIS’s Dan Barstow spoke on exploring with the ISS, and Jimmy Acevedo/SCaN presented on kit-based learning. Attendees toured GSFC and the ARISS K6DUE ham radio station.
Oct. 12: A successful ARISS contact took place at Southwest State University in Kursk, Russia with Sergei Propopev.
Oct 10: Due to an audio problem, the ARISS contact for two German schools, Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium in Heilbronn and Realschule & Gymnasium in Weingarten was unsuccessful and will be rescheduled.
Oct 24: Delcastle Technical High School in Wilmington, DE is hosting a contact with Serena Aunon-Chancellor.
Oct 24: Alexander Gerst will talk to students in two German schools: Martin-Andersen-Nexö-Gymnasium in Dresden, and Liborius-Gymnasium in Dessau-Roßlau.
Nov 02: Students at Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School, Palmer, MA, are ready for their ARISS contact with Serena Aunon-Chancellor.