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 Previous: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Youth in Emergency
Communications |
With Junki Okuda, JL3JRY, at the controls of 8N3ARISS in Habikino, Japan, students from area schools get ready to talk via Amateur Radio with astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, at NA1SS. [Photo courtesy of Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ/AD6GZ] |
ISS Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, RZ3FK, cuts the hair of astronaut Peggy Whitson, KC5ZTD, during their 2002 tour of duty aboard the space station. Whitson holds the vacuum device, mentioned by Fincke, that collects the free-floating freshly cut hair. [NASA Photo] |
An audience of some 400 people plus news media were on hand for the ARISS contact. [Photo courtesy of Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ/AD6GZ] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 5, 2004--The lack of gravity aboard the International Space Station makes it a bit more difficult to stay well groomed in space, according to NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke, KE5AIT. During an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact July 29, the astronaut answered a series of questions put to him by students in Habikino, Japan. Fincke, who responded in both Japanese and English, said he and crewmate Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, give each other a haircut about once a month.
"But we have to use a vacuum cleaner nearby to catch all the hair," said Fincke, at the controls of NA1SS and carefully enunciating his English. "If we did not, then all of the hair would float around the space station and not be very good."
As have others, another student wanted to know what Fincke thought about the view of Earth from space.
"Everything is quite beautiful," he answered. "We have a very beautiful planet--not only the country of Japan but many other places are very beautiful." In a later reply, Fincke said when he first saw "Mother Earth" from the ISS, "It was all my dreams coming true."
Fincke advised the students to study math and the sciences as well as foreign languages if they had aspirations to become astronauts.
The sponsoring Council on Sound Development of Schoolchildren in Habikino
used the special call sign 8N3ARISS for the direct 2-meter Earth-space contact,
marking the first time a five-letter suffix call sign was used in Japan. At the
8N3ARISS controls was Junki Okuda, JL3JRY.
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Cosponsors included the Habikino Board of Education and the Kyoiku Network for the Mineduka Senior High School District. The Council had support from Habikigaoka Elementary School and the Japan Amateur Radio League.
Nearly two dozen students participated in the ARISS QSO, and Fincke got to answer 16 of their questions before the ISS went out of range. An audience of nearly 400 was on hand for the event, which received media coverage from one television station and two newspapers.
Control op Okuda thanked Fincke for taking the time to answer the youngsters' questions. "The children are really excited because they have contacted you in space," he told the astronaut. "We wish you health and success in your mission."
ARISS in an international educational
outreach with US participation by ARRL, NASA and AMSAT.
| Previous: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Youth in Emergency
Communications |
