Students at the Immaculate Conception Elementary School in Brest, France, spoke January 8 via Amateur Radio with US astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT. A member of the Expedition 6 crew, Pettit is the chief science officer on board the International Space Station. The contact was arranged by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program.
Some 30 schoolchildren, their teachers and parents gathered in the room where the local Amateur Radio club had set up the satellite station. Once contact was established between NA1SS and ground station F6KPF and season’s greetings exchanged, Pettit began answering questions, which included one asking if the crew celebrated Christmas in space. Other youngsters wanted to know about how the ISS was supplied with food and where the crew’s drinking water came from. Pettit and his fellow crew members commander Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP, and Nikolai Budarin, RV3FB, will remain in space until March.
“The signal was strong, and Don’s voice sounded as if he was addressing the audience from the floor,” said ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF. By the end of the pass, 18 questions had been asked and answered. Those on hand for the early-morning contact included the mayor of Brest. The event received radio, TV and print media coverage.
Bertels reports that the 10 and 11-year-old pupils–students of Anne Jaouen–have been studying radio telecommunications throughout the school year with support from the Brest Amateur Radio Club. “Hands-on experience consisted of building a crystal radio set, and the children also have communicated from their classroom with French Amateur Radio stations,” Bertels said.
The youngsters also were actively involved in preparing the questions for the ARISS contact. “They studied some basics of astronomy, made models of the solar system, showing lunar phases, the sky, the sun and the earth,” Bertels explained. “They also saw pictures taken on board the ISS and transmitted on television.”
In addition to the scientific side of space study, the children wrote poems on the theme and illustrated these with paintings–now decorating the walls of the school–that represent the adventure of space exploration and the planets, Bertels said.