Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at St Peter Junior School in Broadstairs, UK. ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
St Peter is a three form entry junior school located in Broadstairs, a small seaside town on the South East coast of England. St Peter’s students (ages 7 – 11) have been taking part in activities in ‘Mission Zero’ where they write a program to display a personalized image on an Astro Pi computer on board the ISS to remind the astronauts of home.
Students have also been taking part in the FUNcube project (tracking an active LEO Satellite – FUNcube-1/AO-73), and participating in a community stargazing event assisted by members of Ramsgate Stargazers. The school’s science club has also engaged students in space-related activities that include learning the difficulties of traveling to space, designing and launching rockets (using water and air), and living on the ISS (and designing solutions that may help overcome these difficulties). Members of the Hilderstone Radio Society (G0HRS) have been fundamental in advising and supporting the school during these activities and during this ARISS contact.
This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio and students will take turns asking their questions of Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, amateur radio call sign KI5WSL. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relay ground station.
The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Broadstairs, UK. Amateur radio operators using call sign GB4SPT, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 18, 2023 at 10:57:49 am BST (UK) (9:57:49 UTC, 5:57 am EDT, 4:57 am CDT, 3:57 am MDT, 2:57 am PDT).
The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://live.ariss.org
