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 Next: ARRL Concludes 5-MHz Experiments, Awaits FCC Decision on New
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A somewhat apprehensive-looking Sam Rosenberg, age 5, gets ready to ask Bowersox what kinds of plants the crew was growing in space. At the controls is Charlie Sufana, AJ9N. Geri Smith of the Adler staff assists. [Adler Planetarium Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 3, 2003--Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school and educational contacts resumed in late December after a hiatus to change crews. Expedition 6 Crew Commander Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP, spoke December 29 via NA1SS with a dozen youngsters visiting Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago. It marked the 81st ARISS contact and the first contact for Bowersox' crew with youngsters in the US. Expedition 6 crew members also conducted successful ARISS contacts on New Year's Eve with participants at the World Scout Jamboree in Thailand and with students in France.
"I'd say the most important thing that I have learned in space is that people are very, very strong and flexible, and we can adapt to all types of different environments," Bowersox told nine-year-old Anashya Srinivanasan. The youngster had asked Bowersox--a space veteran--to describe the most interesting or important thing he'd learned in space.
Other youngsters were curious about food and eating in space. Bowersox said
he missed pizza most of all aboard the ISS. "My favorite space food is bread
pudding, and I don't have to cook it at all," Bowersox said in response to a
question from six-year-old Katherine Shade. "And I can just open a packet and
eat straight out of the packet with a spoon." In reply to a question from
eight-year-old Ari Harris, Bowersox explained that the human body still digests
food very well in zero gravity.
As Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, hold the mike, nine-year-old Kate Kauffold asks her first question while Anashya Srinivansan (right), also nine, awaits her turn. Looking on is Geri Smith of the Adler Planetarium staff. [Adler Planetarium Photo] |
Bowersox also said the crew was trying to grow some tomatoes and herbs in space. "We're not sure how they'll turn out," he told five-year-old Sam Rosenberg, "but we're hoping they'll be very tasty."
Adler staff member Geri Smith wanted to know if Bowersox was interested in
being among the pioneers who eventually settle the planet Mars. "Well, if I was
going to go to Mars, I would want to take my family," he replied. "But if my
family would go with me, I think I would go."
Participants at the 20th World Scout Jamboree queue up to ask their questions of astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT, at the controls of NA1SS aboard the International Space Station. [Masashi Osada, JI1CUJ, Photo] |
Freddy Atkins, another Adler staffer, had a more down-to-Earth question: "What happens if you are out in space and you sneeze inside your space helmet?" he asked.
Responded Bowersox, "If you sneeze in your space helmet, it makes a mess, and you just have to look around the spot until you come back inside."
The unusual weekend contact took place during one of the crew's normal days off--a Sunday. But Bowersox said that didn't mean the crew was loafing around the space station "We still have to exercise, do a lot of house cleaning; a lot like a Saturday probably around most people's houses down on Earth," he said. "I, for example, spent a lot of time trying to find things and put them in the right places, like you spend time cleaning out your garage and sorting out all your tools."
An audience of some 200 people, including TV and newspaper reporters, were on hand to watch the youngsters interview Bowersox via Amateur Radio. Participating youngsters ranged between five and ten years old.
Masashi Osada, JI1CUJ, delivers an NA1SS QSL card to one of the World Scout Jamboree participants. Osada is the Scoutmaster of Venture Scout Troop 27 in Chiba, Japan. |
Organizing the ARISS event were ARISS mentor Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and Smith. "Rita Wright, who coordinated the first ARISS contact at Burbank Elementary in Burbank, Illinois, was enrolled at a class at Adler and told Geri about the ARISS program," Sufana said. The Adler Center for Space Science Education was recently established as a collaboration between NASA and the planetarium to provide educational programs and public outreach.
Sufana said one of the main challenges for him and his crew was installing the antennas on the planetarium's roof in freezing Chicago weather. The project required pulling some 450 feet of coaxial cable per antenna into a gallery known as CyberSpace. "We went through air intake grates, down the side of catwalks, through a boiler room, through a cable pan about 15 feet above the floor and finally into CyberSpace," Sufana recalled. "Rotor control was done from a small room just inside a door leading to the roof in order to cut down on cable length." That still meant running 450 feet of audio cable from CyberSpace to the rotor control site.
On behalf of the youngsters and Adler Planetarium, Smith expressed appreciation to Bowersox and the rest of the Expedition 6 crew of Nikolai Budarin, RV3FB, and Don Pettit, KD5MDT. "You have made these children very happy and given them an unforgettable experience," she said after the nearly 10-minute contact. "73 and 88."
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(Quicktime) clips of the Adler Planetarium ARISS contact are available via the Adler Planetarium Web site. |
On December 31, 15 Scouts at the 20th World Scout Jamboree in Thailand spoke with Pettit via special event station E20AJ. An audience estimated at 200 plus another 20 or so members of the media, were on hand. The participating Scouts were from Thailand, Japan, Korea and Belgium. Among other questions, the Scouts wanted to know if Pettit wanted his own kids to grow up to become astronauts, how the crew members bathe in space, and how the lack of gravity affects the human body.
Also on December 31, Pettit spoke with students at the Rene Mure school in
Commelle-Vernay, France. Ten questions were asked and answered, and a loud
applause went up to the ISS at the contact's conclusion, said ARISS
International Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF. Bertels said some 60
schoolchildren and their parents assisted in the contact. The French youngsters
wanted to know if Pettit believed in extraterrestrial life, whether the crew
could feel the speed of the ISS through space, and if microgravity made it
difficult for crew members to find their way in the space station.
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