Support ARISS
ARISS stands for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station. ARISS has an educational "school contact" programme makes it possible for school kids to talk, from their classroom, to an astronaut or cosmonaut on board of the International Space Station (ISS). For that reason there is an amateur radio station on board of the ISS and most astronauts / cosmonauts are licensed radio amateurs.
In the near future an additional module, named Columbus, will be added to the ISS. ARISS will have a new amateur radio station in this module. The new station includes outdoor antennas for the microwave bands, that will allow to send a TV-signal up to the ISS (and back down of course). So soon school kids will not only be able to talk to an astronaut but also see him (or her) while talking and have a real time look inside the space station!
These school contacts are, without any doubt, a powerful promotion for amateur radio.
But all this costs money, building a radio station in space is not exactly cheap.
ARISS stands for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station. ARISS has an educational "school contact" programme makes it possible for school kids to talk, from their classroom, to an astronaut or cosmonaut on board of the International Space Station (ISS). For that reason there is an amateur radio station on board of the ISS and most astronauts / cosmonauts are licensed radio amateurs.
In the near future an additional module, named Columbus, will be added to the ISS. ARISS will have a new amateur radio station in this module. The new station includes outdoor antennas for the microwave bands, that will allow to send a TV-signal up to the ISS (and back down of course). So soon school kids will not only be able to talk to an astronaut but also see him (or her) while talking and have a real time look inside the space station!
These school contacts are, without any doubt, a powerful promotion for amateur radio.
But all this costs money, building a radio station in space is not exactly cheap.