ARISS contact planned with school in Germany

Friday August 31, 2012 at 11.23 UTC, which is 13.23 CEST, an ARISS contact is planned with Megina Gymnasium Mayen, Germany

This will be a direct radio contact operated by DN1PU.

Downlink signals from the International Space Station will be audible over Europe on 145.800 MHz FM.

The Megina-Gymnasium Mayen has made arrangements to contact the ISS in cooperation with three other schools (Albert-Schweitzer Realschule, Kurfürst-Balduin-Gymnasium Münstermaifeld, Max-von-Laue Gymnasium Koblenz) all located in Rhineland-Palatinate, a rural part in the West of Germany. In the previous weeks, a lot of students have handed in questions, which they would like to have answered by the astronauts onboard the ISS. They will put the questions in turns, so that each school can ask the same number of questions. To simplify the procedure, the participating students will come to Megina-Gymnasium and the questions will be transmitted to the space station from Mayen.

The event will be broadcast live video in all three schools and all students will thus participate. At Megina-Gymnasium, the broadcast will be part of a school project day about space exploration and science.

Students will ask as many of following questions as time allows.

1. Tobias: What is the best part of being an astronaut?

2. Sophie: How does your typical day look like, do you have any rituals?

3. Celina: Do you have free time and how do you spend it?

4. Evita: Do you feel time, when there isn't night and day?

5. Kira: What kind of food do you miss most?

6. Anna Lena: Can you imagine that a person without "NASA-training" can live on the space station?

7. Sebastian: What is the most difficult thing to get used to in microgravity and for what reason?

8. Paul: Which experiments are currently being conducted by the crew?

9. Martina: Is there a special sleeping-room?

10. Lisa: How long can you stay outside the ISS doing repair works?

11. Nele: What does it feel like to be in outer space?

12: Susanna: Is there any difference between observing comets or falling stars from the ISS or from the earth's surface?

13. Tobias: Is it possible to observe really strong thunderstorms from the ISS?

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 onboard 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.

73, Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Chairman