An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) QSO September 20 with youngsters at Kagawa Junior High School in Ube City, Japan, was the last scheduled ARISS school group contact for the current crew. Now that Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, are nearing the end of their duty tour aboard the ISS, school group contacts are on hold until the next crew arrives. Lu was at the controls of NA1SS for the direct 2-meter contact with 8N4ISS in Japan. Responding to the now almost inevitable “food question,” Lu told the youngsters there’s a “pretty decent selection” of food onboard the ISS, but . . .
“That being said, it has been five months up here and I am looking forward to some different kinds of food when I get back down to the ground,” he conceded. Lu expressed mixed feelings about his life in space as compared with life on Earth. He told the students that while he missed his friends and family on Earth, “up here it’s a very special place.”
One student wanted to know if the astronauts could use fire in space.
“Well, it’s not something we typically use up here,” Lu responded, but he went on to say that the ISS is equipped with solid-fuel oxygen generators that are burned to produce oxygen.
“That is an emergency means of producing oxygen if our normal oxygen-generating systems all fail–as a last resort,” he said. Lu said the devices also are used on submarines, but they are not normally used aboard the ISS.
Thirteen students at the Japanese school got in more than a dozen questions during the pass, which ran just under ten minutes before the ISS went out of range. Handling Earth-station duties at 8N4ISS was Hisao Emoto, JG4OHX. An audience of approximately 150 and several news media representatives were on hand for the occasion.
ARISS http://www.rac.ca/ariss/ is an international project with support from ARRL, NASA and AMSAT.–Some information provided by Satoshi Yasuda. 7M3TJZ/AD6GZ