SMCS Activity 4

The Event

Another attempt at making contact with the International Space Station will be taking place on Wwdnesday 15th February 2023 at 13:45. The event will be filmed live for Youtube HERE:

Stella Maris College together with the Malta Amateur Radio League, will be pioneering a unique and one-time event for Malta, in which students will be making live radio contact with the International Space Station and the astronauts living there. During this special event, one of the astronauts on board will spend 10 minutes using a live radio link to answer questions related to the experience of living in space.  The questions will be asked by a number of students who will be gathered for this live link in the hall of Stella Maris College, Gzira. This occasion will help bring to life a reality which was previously only envisaged in books and films, while encouraging young learners to view the field of space with all its ramifications as a possible path for future research and innovation, in line with the recent National Space Strategy.  

Participating in this unique event are students from four church schools:  Stella Maris College, De La Salle College, St Francis Secondary School and Sacred Heart College. Over the last months, these schools have been working hard to integrate the theme of space in their respective school scenario, not only in extra-curricular activities, such as talks and clubs, but also via the curriculum itself. In fact, Stella Maris College has been tackling the space theme in English Literature, while critically exploring the abridged version of H. G. Wells’s classic novel  ‘The War of the Worlds’, in Art through the visual representations of planets, in Robotics through coding and even in various other disciplines.  

Background

The International Space Station (ISS – NA1SS, DP0ISS) is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live. The space station is also a unique science laboratory. Several nations worked together to build and use the space station. The space station is made of parts that were assembled in space by astronauts. It orbits Earth at an average altitude of approximately 250 miles. It travels at 17,500 mph. This means it orbits Earth every 90 minutes. NASA is using the space
station to learn more about living and working in space. These lessons will make it possible to send humans farther into space than ever before.

The Malta Amateur Radio League (MARL - 9H1MRL) , established in 1922, has its premises in Mdina Road Attard.MARL is a certified voluntary organisation VO/0797 and represents the local licenced radio amateurs community with MCA locally and with the International Amateur Radio Union worldwide. MARL offers free tuition for interested parties in electronics, science, technology, physics and math and prepares
them to obtain the HAREC certification which is recognised locally by MCA and globally by the respective authorities. Voluntary services are also offered to the Civil Protection Department, Scouts and other registered NGOs who require radio services or support. Premises are open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for social gatherings and other ongoing activities.

MARL also offered and executed extra-curricular lectures in RF (radio frequency) to the Department of Electronics Engineering at the University of Malta when required covering topics ranging from RF interference, antennas, associated math and electronic circuitry and design.

With the above in mind, four key members of the club (herein referred to as the ARISS Malta team) are currently intensely working and are heavily invested (from their own pockets due to limited funds available at the club and cost of radio hardware) in establishing live-contact via radio with astronauts onboard the International Space Station and make this available to the school willing to host such an event. This is a very technically challenging and ambitious undertaking. The established plan is to hold the event under strict ARISS / NASA & ESA regulations at Stella Maris College, Gzira. The orbits of the International Space Station and the astronaut schedules determine when the contact will happen.