Space chats exhilerate
Long Island and Quebec schools
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 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. Pokorny said the Long Island school's November
24 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.
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 said he enjoys looking out the window and taking pictures, and
he sometimes 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.
Members of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club (PARC) set up the W2AMC Earth
station and made other technical arrangements to enable the contact. PARC
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," PARC President Roberta
Keis, N2RBU, 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
make a last-minute antenna controller repair.
"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."
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 ten-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.
Chiao told the students he had trained for about three years before going
into space in October. 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."
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-Tracy Amateur Radio Club, VE2CBS, set up the Earth
station for the contact. An audience of some 450 parents, teachers and
visitors looked on, and 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.
Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The
American Radio Relay League
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