The International Space Station

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ARISS event - Toyon Elementary San Jose, California USA

An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Toyon Elementary, San Jose, California USA on 21 May.
The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 17:21 UTC

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and K6MFW. The contact should be audible in western portions of North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

Toyon is located in the northeast foothills of San Jose. Our population is approximately 470 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, which includes two special day classes.

Our diverse student population celebrates the many cultures and ethnicity of our district. Cultural diversity at Toyon includes African American, American Indian or Alaska
Native, Asian, Filipino, Hispanic or Latino, Pacific Islander, and White.

The primary languages spoken at home include: Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Punjabi, Hindi, Samoan, and Tagalog. Toyon is a NASA Explorer School.

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

1: When you were a small child, did you dream of being an astronaut?
2: How many years did you have to go to school to become an astronaut?
3: Why did you choose to be an astronaut when you could have chosen an easier job?
4: How does it feel to leave the earth's atmosphere?
5: What is it like to float in space?
6: Do you still wear a spacesuit even if you're in the space station?
7: Is it fun to work in space?
8: What is your favorite thing to do in space?
9: How long can you live in space?
10: Have you done a space walk? What did you do?
11: How do you know when it is night or day?
12: How many planets can you see from the space station?
13: Have you seen anything weird in space?
14: What have you learned by living in space?
15: Do you speak other languages on the space station?
16: Does it get hard for you to stay up there with the same people all the time?
17: What do you miss most when you are up in the space station?
18: What are some challenges you face in space?
19: Do you regret going through all the training and hard work to go to space, or was it worth it?
20: How many years will you stay an astronaut?

Please note, the amateur radio equipment on the ISS is not functioning in the automatic modes properly and may be silent more than usual. Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact can be found at
http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact .

Next planned event(s):
EFLS Sainte-Marie Suarlee, Suarlee, Belgium -
Tue 2007-05-29 07:22 UTC via W6SRJ
JSC Teacher to Teacher Workshop, Houston, Texas, USA - Thu 2007-05-31 17:32 UTC via WH6PN

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station.

Teachers, parents and communities see,
first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning.

Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.rac.ca/ariss (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).

Thank you & 73,
Kenneth - N5VHO