Upcoming ARISS contact with Doncaster Primary School, Doncaster, Victoria, Australia

Telebridge station VK4KHZ in Victoria, Australia will call NA1SS at approximately 08:23 UTC on Thursday, February 25.

Doncaster Primary School is located in Doncaster, in the City of Manningham near Melbourne. It has a long and rich history dating back to 1863. The school still occupies the same 2.63 hectare site, but with modernised facilities that are now outstanding.

From October 1994 to the present day, the focus has been on rebuilding and rejuvenating. Fire destroyed half the school in 1979. Temporary relocatable buildings were put in place and remained for the next 20 years. In 1994 the school was in a state of disrepair. Its buildings and grounds, furniture and equipment, school organisation, curriculum, declining enrolments and appalling media coverage were evidence of a school at risk. The turn around has been exhilarating and astonishing.

Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. At what stage in your life did you decide you wanted to be an astronaut?
2. Does living in a zero gravity environment cause long term health problems?
3. How far have astronauts ever been in space?
4. Who was the youngest astronaut to go into space? How old was she or he?
5. How do you exercise in space?

6. How did you get into space?
7. What if there is a fire? Can you get rescued?
8. What’s the most interesting thing about space?
9. How do you drink in space because there is no gravity in space?
10. How do you control the space ship when it is floating in space?

11. Are there aliens in space?
12. How do you sleep in the space station?
13. What is your favourite food you eat in the space station?
14. What do you do on the space station to relax?
15. What happens if you run out of air?

16. What happens to all the rubbish from the space station?
17. How often do you have to do space walks to make repairs to the space station?
18. When you are in space are you ever nervous about anything?
19. When you swallow your food, does it feel funny in your stomach when in zero gravity?