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W1AW > ARL 20.11.05 18:58l 67 Lines 3416 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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==STUDENTS IN ITALY, ENGLAND ENTERTAINED, EDUCATED VIA HAM RADIO
Students in Italy and England spoke via Amateur Radio November 9 with
International Space Station Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program arranged the QSOs
with the Francesco Negri Comprehensive Institute in Casale Monferrato,
Italy, and with Furtherwick Park School on Canvey Island in Essex, England.
Speaking via the space station's NA1SS, McArthur shared with the students in
Italy how it feels to be living in space.
"I feel very humble, I feel like I'm a very small person from a planet with
many billions of people and that I'm very fortunate to represent human
beings--mankind--in space," McArthur said. He and crewmate Valery Tokarev
will be aboard the ISS until next April.
McArthur said he and Tokarev have been conducting experiments focused
primarily on how people can live and work during long periods in space. He
also said microgravity was "very, very comfortable," and meant the crew
never had to sit down. In all McArthur managed to answer 20 questions during
the nearly eight-minute contact.
The contact took place over a teleconferencing circuit via Nancy Rocheleau,
WH6PN, in Honolulu, because Italian radio regulations do not permit
unlicensed individuals to speak over Amateur Radio.
A little more than seven hours later, McArthur was back at NA1SS, this time
for a direct contact between NA1SS and GB2FPS at Furtherwick Park School,
where 16 students took part in the event. In answer to one student's
question, McArthur said the Amateur Radio station was one of the systems
available to keep in contact with Earth if the primary and back-up
communication systems ever went down.
The ISS commander also allowed that he enjoyed a broad and eclectic range of
music, from classical to country.
"I like classical--Mozart, Beethoven, Bach. I like contemporary music--Jet,
Dispatch. I like country-and-western music--Garth Brooks, Robert Earl Keen
are my favorite singers there. I like older music--I'm a big Beatles fan,"
McArthur said.
"As a matter of fact," McArthur continued, "we're going to have live music
aboard the station Sunday morning from one of Sir Paul McCartney's concerts
out in California." Indeed, on November 13, McCartney provided a live wakeup
call from Earth to the ISS crew during a first-ever concert linkup.
Several of the Furtherwick Park students' questions were more scientifically
oriented than those typically put to ISS crew members during ARISS school
group contacts. Replying to a question on whether microgravity affects the
distribution of bodily fluids, McArthur answered in the affirmative.
"The fluid tends to shift down from our legs, our feet, lower extremities to
the upper part of your body," McArthur explained. He said there's not much
astronauts can do to prepare for this occurrence, and the body responds by
reducing the amount of fluid in the body.
He told another student that it would be difficult to maintain a candle's
flame in microgravity because the convection needed to supply oxygen to the
flame requires gravity. Convection keeps a candle's flame generally vertical
on Earth, McArthur explained. Microgravity also influences how substances
mix, he said.
ARISS is an international educational outreach with US participation by
ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
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