NHS students finally reach space station

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
After a disappointing failed first attempt in January, a small group of students interested in ham radio  made history on March 1 when Newcastle High School became the first Wyoming school to make contact with the International Space Station. The program that made it happen was the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program, better known as ARISS. 
The students’ first attempt on Jan. 28 to engage with ISS astronaut Mike Hopkins was unsuccessful due to issues with a coaxial cable that had been replaced on the station. After several failed attempts to reach the space station, the crew signaled “no joy” on the contact to the ARISS team in Belgium. 
During their 10-minute conversation with Hopkins, students asked several questions, including how the astronaut has been affected by zero gravity, what the astronauts do for fun, whether Hopkins has ever lost something on a space walk and what was the weirdest solution to a problem that actually worked. 
After the visit, senior Gunner Ramsey told the News Letter Journal that he was excited that the contact was successful this time and that it was really neat to know that they were speaking with someone who was “up there and moving so fast.” 
Junior Travis Scribner added that it was “pretty cool” to be a part of the experience and that he was surprised more things hadn’t been lost during space walks. 
“The button story was really cool, that he used a hammer to fix it,” Scribner said, referring to Hopkins’ response that he was directed to “hit it with a hammer” when a button on the station was acting up. 
Other information shared by Hopkins during the call was that the space station is roughly the size of a three- to four-bedroom house with bedrooms, gyms and kitchens — all in very close quarters. Luckily, he said, the station does not have many windows, allowing the astronauts to keep a fairly regular night and day schedule.
When asked what was the most interesting thing he had seen on a spacewalk, Hopkins said that he is always surprised with how dark it is when they are outside of the space station. 
“It is just you and the dark out there. The only thing between you and space is your shield,” Hopkins said. 
Despite dealing with several effects from the zero gravity, including bone-density loss and fluids shifting, Hopkins said, he enjoys his time in space. After you have been up there once, he said, it is easy to acclimate to life on the space station on subsequent visits. The astronaut said that this was his second stint in space. 
To conduct the call, the school used a downlink frequency that is used for transmission of signals from the satellite to the earth station receiver.  The ARISS team in Belgium used call sign ON4ISS, the amateur radio telebridge ground station, to serve as the relay amateur radio ground station, science instructor Jim Stith explained. 
Ham radio, also known as amateur radio, is a radio frequency spectrum for purposes of noncommercial exchange or messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting or emergency communication. 
The space station contact was made possible by almost a year and a half of work, Stith said. Collaborating on the project with Stith was ARISS mentor John Kludt and John Cranmer of the North East Wyoming Amateur Radio Association.
ARISS is a group that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the ISS. The program began in 2000, conducting over 1,000 calls between students at the station. Wyoming is the 49th state to conduct one of these calls, with South Dakota being the only state that hasn’t. 
Before making the call to the ISS, the students in the school’s amateur radio club participated in activities that allowed them to learn how to operate ham radios and build antennas with a curriculum tie-in to the school’s mathematics and science classes, information from Stith said. 
“Student activities (involving students in grades K-12) prior to the ARISS contact were designed to increase awareness and interest in amateur radio, and STEM education, and to foster an appreciation for STEM in student’s future career choices,” a press release from ARISS stated. “The school has partnered with members of the North East Wyoming Amateur Radio Association (NE7WY) who will provide technical support during contact.”