On-board fires and safe grounding questions for astronaut

Speaking from the International Space Station's NA1SS, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, recently greeted students at his college alma mater in Georgia and an elementary school on Long Island.

McArthur answered questions put to him via W4AQL by students at Georgia Tech on January 19 and via N2RBU by pupils at Abequogue School--some 100 miles east of New York City--on January 24.

The direct VHF contacts were arranged by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. Both
school groups wanted to know what the ISS crew would do in case a fire broke out aboard the ISS.

"The first thing we want to do is try to protect the crew, so we immediately gather at a common location--it's called the Central Post in the Russian Service Module, which has a lot of data available, and from there we plan how to address the fire," McArthur told the Georgia Tech group. "Now, if it's an obvious fire right in front of you, you use the fire extinguisher or turn the electrical equipment off. If it's not something so obvious then we methodically go to the source of the fire, try to assess what is the source of the fire and then address it either by removing electrical power or using
the fire extinguisher."

McArthur later told the Abequogue youngsters that the crew does considerable training on what to do in case of fire.
He said that if the crew members were unable to get a fire under control, they'd get into the Soyuz vehicle, abandon the space station and return to Earth.

One of the Georgia Tech students also asked McArthur about electrical safety grounding aboard the ISS. "We don't really have a problem making it safe for human contact," McArthur replied. He explained, however, that equipment grounding differs from the Russian side to the American side of the
spacecraft.

"On the American side, we use a common ground much like an automobile does," he said. "The Russian electrical equipment actually does have a separate ground wire--a return to ground."

McArthur told the college students that the overarching goal of all scientific research and experimentation aboard the ISS is to understand how to keep space travelers safe, healthy and productive on a long-term voyage, such as one to Mars.

During the subsequent contact between NA1SS and N2RBU at Abequogue School, one of the elementary pupils asked if McArthur had seen anything mysterious in space during his time aboard the ISS.

"I think the only mysterious things I've seen have been some personal items floating around," McArthur responded. "I have a little orange-red 'Koosh' ball, and I think it's just kinda neat when it escapes on its own and floats around on the air currents," he added, eliciting giggles from some of the kids.

He told another youngster that the crew has no problems keeping down its food in the microgravity environment. "It stays in our stomachs very nicely," he said. "The human digestive system seems to function very, very well in space."

Teacher and Peconic Amateur Radio Club (PARC) President Roberta Keis, N2RBU--an ARISS school contact veteran--served as the control operator for the Abequogue contact. PARC members assisted in setting up the Earth station.

ARISS is an international educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.

Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The American Radio Relay League

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