ISS Commander addresses litter and
Space Station 'tilt' in ham contact
Littering the galactic highway and a curious International Space Station
(ISS) "tilt" phenomenon were among topics ISS Expedition 10
Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, addressed in a ham radio contact with Bentley
School in
Oakland, California.
The February 28 QSO with NA1SS was arranged by the
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. Chiao
opened the contact by greeting Bentley's students and teachers as well
as his sister Sandy, who visited the school for the event.
One Bentley youngster worried that space would becoming as polluted with
trash as Earth. Chiao acknowledged that rubbish is thrown from the ISS
"every now and then," and even garbage went overboard from the
now-defunct Russian Mir space station. But he assured the youngster that
tossing trash into space can be an acceptable disposal method.
"That's really not as big of a problem as you might think, because
what happens is that over the course of a few days, the orbit decays,
and it burns up in the atmosphere, so it's really not a long-term problem,"
Chiao explained. "But we do have to be careful to throw things off
in the proper direction and at the right speed so that it won't come back
and hit us."
ISS crews also dispose of trash and unneeded items by stowing them in
Progress supply rockets after they've unloaded the cargo, then sending
the vehicles into Earth's atmosphere where they incinerate.
Responding to other questions, Chiao told the students that the ISS can
accommodate a maximum crew of six or seven people, although the current
crew increment is just two - Russian Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and himself.
He said the ISS now weighs 200 tons, and it will tip the scales at more
than 250 tons - Earth weight - when it's finally completed in a few years.
Another youngster said he and his schoolmates had read that the ISS tilts
when the astronauts go on space walks. He asked if Chiao knew why this
happened.
"That is kind of a mystery," the astronaut answered. "We're
not really sure why during some of the space walks we do - including the
one that Salizhan and I took a few weeks ago - the space station ended
up tilting a little bit and we believe it's because of the forces we're
putting into the station while we're working."
Chiao said speculation is that when the crew members are outside the
ISS holding onto handrails, every time they turn bolts or have to do something
that applies some force on the spacecraft, it causes a physical reaction
by "tilting" the ISS.
Chiao said he views the current ISS missions as a "stepping stone"
to future, longer space missions to Mars and beyond, and he expressed
the hope that one of the Bentley Students could be on a future deep-space
mission. In all, students got in 15 questions before the ISS went out
of radio range.
Handling Earth-station duties for the event was Nancy Rocheleau, WH6PN,
at Sacred Hearts Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. Teleconferencing was compliments
of MCI.
Contact audio went out to some 80 stations via EchoLink.
Teacher Carol Roach coordinated the students at Bentley School, while
Kerry Banke, N6IZW, mentored the contact and Will Marchant, KC6ROL, served
as the moderator.
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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