ARISS
School Selection committee

Minutes

revised 2012-11-08 

The International Space Station is now under construction and is permanently manned by teams of astronauts, many of whom have amateur licences.  Below are the latest minutes from the ARISS committee which deals with the selection of schools for ISS contacts

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• February 9, 2006, April 13, 2006, June 8, 2006

• January 13, 2005, March 10, 2005, May 12, 2005, October 13, 2005, December 8, 2005

• Jan 8, 2004, May 13, 2004, July 8 2004, November 11, 2004

• March 13, 2003, April 10, 2003 , July 10, 2003, September 11, 2003, November 13, 2003

• January 31, 2002, February 28, 2002, March 28, 2002, June 27, 2002, August 1, 2002, Sept 12, 2002 , October 10, 2002, Nov 14, 2002

• October 25 2001, November 29, 2001, December 27, 2001

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee, 08 June 2006 teleconference

The teleconference meeting was attended by Daniel Lamoureux, Keigo Komuro, and Chair Rosalie White. At the last moment, committee members Larry Agabekov and Jorg Hahn were unable to attend.

Old Business

The most recent ARISS QSOs were with: a crew-picked school in Alabama, the Japanese Yoneda-Nishi school, the Italian Virgilio school, the Inuit Quebec school, and a New Jersey and a Michigan school. The latter two schools submitted applications in 2003.

Jeff Williams seems to be doing fine with the schools.

New Business

The US ARISS Team has a new volunteer to help teachers. Rita Wright, KC9CDL, was the first teacher to have an ARISS QSO; that was in December 2000. She earned her ham license and started a school ham club while waiting for this QSO. She will talk to teachers about appropriate lesson plans, and test the lesson plans that Johnson Space Center has in process, and study these for application to the Moon, Mars and Beyond program.

Johnson Space Center (JSC), the group that is now funding ARISS for NASA, has asked that we provide more demographics about under-represented students in our schools.  For the US, that could be students who are on a free lunch program, Native American Indians, and so on. JSC will help us share this type of information to NASA staff who can help ensure we get funding. Daniel said that most of these types of school statistics are restricted by Canadian law from being distributed. Rosalie commented that the request from JSC applied the most, probably, to US schools.

The committee received school applications from some members – Keigo and Daniel, in particular. These applications went to Charlie, also.

Regarding the committee’s meetings, Keigo has suggested that if there are no specific agenda items, topics or proposals from committee members, we may wish to skip the next meeting, which would normally be August 10 at 1400 UTC. Daniel agreed that skipping the August meeting would be fine, and said the committee could do business by email, regularly. Then, if an issue arose at any time, the committee could hold a teleconference meeting. It was voted to go to this method.

Keigo is unsure if he will attend the October ARISS meeting in San Francisco. Daniel may have a conflict with the meeting dates. Rosalie will give a report at the meeting on the duties of the committee so that new school mentors will understand how ARISS applications are handled.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Committee Chair
 

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee, 13 April 2006 teleconference

The teleconference meeting was attended by Daniel Lamoureux, Keigo Komuro, Gaston Bertels, Jonathan Neubauer, and Chair Rosalie
White. Larry Agabekov was unable to attend, and Gaston sat in for Jorg Hahn.

Old Business

An update on progress with lesson plans was given Jonathan. He said that while NASA Hq was determining what groups would support
ARISS, and while Cindy McArthur was in Russia, progress on lesson plans was in hiatus. Rosalie said the ARISS Team would be willing to
look at the lessons for their being pertinent to the Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative, and asked if it would be appropriate for a few plans
to be given to teachers to try out, and offer feedback. Jonathan agreed that would be suitable.

Rosalie asked about the timeframe for the US team to review groups whose proposals for downlinked videoteleconferences were not
selected, and may be considered for US ARISS QSOs. Jonathan will send that list very soon.

The most recent ARISS QSOs were with schools or groups in Portugal, Australia, California, Illinois. Having McArthur carrying through
during his last month on the ISS to talk to two and three schools a week has really helped. The US has 3 school applications remaining
that are dated 2003, and then we can start on the 2004 applications.

New Business

The ARISS Team has names of several crew-pick schools of new ISS crew member Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Johnson Space Center
handled/helped with the applications, which are on Charlie Sufana’s Web pages, and some have been forwarded to the committee.
Frank is interested in the number of SuitSat QSL cards that will be needed in the ARISS regions. Keigo reported that Japan has received
35. Gaston reported interest in QSLs by Europeans, and also, that Christophe said payment has been received for ARISS QSL cards from
the US and from Japan.

The committee received school applications from Keigo, and from Daniel. These applications went to Charlie, also.

Due to Frank’s new work duties and associated morning meetings, the agenda at ARISS International meetings will be kept short.

The committee's next meeting should be June 8 at 1400 UTC.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Committee Chair
 

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee  9 February 2006 teleconference

Roll Call

The teleconference meeting was attended by Larry Agabekov, N2WW; Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA; Gaston Bertels, ON4WF; Jonathan Neubauer, and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO. Keigo Komuro and Jorg Hahn were unable to attend, and Gaston sat in for Jorg. After roll call, each committee member in attendance explained their ARISS role. Jonathan is a NASA Education Specialist at Johnson Space Center in the Teaching From Space program (formerly, he worked with the NASA Explorer School program). His office works with different groups to get educational payloads on the ISS and the space shuttle, they run video conferences including handling demos (that don't require upmass) with crew members, showing students what it's like to work and live in space

Old Business

The most recent schools that have had ARISS QSOs were Bill McArthur's four crew-picked schools, 2 US schools (Dale, DeGolyer), and schools from Brazil and Thailand, which will be followed by an Australia museum and a Quebec school (Jaanimmarik). The Quebec school asked for a delay -- they are in the dead of winter (in the Arctic), which may be why they asked for a delay. McArthur's interest in talking to two and three schools a week right now is phenomenal! The US Region hopes he will QSO all of the remaining US schools that applied in 2002, and maybe one or two schools that applied in 2003.

The SuitSat signal is still reported as weak. ARISS Team members are learning about what to do differently for the next opportunity in 2007 for a SuitSat. Daniel heard a suggestion about putting SuitSat files on the Web for all students to see. Rosalie reported that other such suggestions have been discussed, and further discussion will take place among team members.

The USA's FCC announced that it would be conforming its rules to the ITU change of Article 25 about bi-lateral agreements and third party traffic. This becomes official once the information is published in The Federal Register (Rosalie is monitoring this), which could be very soon. She asked Chris Imlay for an update on what ARISS Regions must provide for third party, based on this change by FCC. He said a letter from a country's telecommunications office is enough. Rosalie will ensure Chris gets those letters from the ARISS regions, and he will work with the FCC and the Department of State in order for ARISS to operate within the rules.

New Business

The committee received school applications from Keigo and from Daniel, and the applications went to Charlie. Gaston is receiving questions about applications. Rosalie sent to the ARISS Mentors a list of schools that had and had not submitted NASA evaluations. Jonathan reported that he and his colleagues ended their review of proposals from schools and science centers for downlinked videoteleconferences. He asked if the centers could be told that ARISS might be able to do QSOs for them in the summer when US schools are not in session. Rosalie asked him to forward the list of centers, since we would need to determine if any of the centers has already had an ARISS QSO.

Jonathan took Frank's lesson plan files and correlated with these with what he found at JSC that Scott Anderson and Cindy McArthur had in the files. He asked what ARISS had heard about status of the lesson plans. Rosalie reported that we were told the lessons were ready for graphics department work. He is looking at the lessons for how well they fit into the Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative. Rosalie said ARISS would be willing to look at the lessons for this reason, also.

The committee's next meeting should be April 13. Daniel will be in Central America, but hopes to have telephone access for our meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Committee Chair
 

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee 8 December 2005 teleconference

Rollcall

The teleconference meeting was attended by Larry Agabekov, N2WW; Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA; Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB; and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO. No European delegate was able to attend.

Old Business

A number of school applications have been taken care of by Charlie, including those from Daniel and some from Keigo.

The most recent schools with ARISS QSOs were from Japan, Europe, Canada, Russia and the US -- from all ARISS regions. Bill McArthur is happy to talk to two schools each week, which helps with the US backlog of schools. The US ARISS Region is now working with schools for February that applied in autumn of 2002.

Daniel asked if the new plan for schools (the Window of Opportunity for schools to apply for ARISS QSOs) is for the US, only. That was confirmed -- it is only for the US schools, and the plan will be announced soon.

New Business

EdCats, now called NEEIS, for 2005 was officially closed on December 1. All but two schools submitted evaluations. Thanks go to this committee's members, in particular, to Gaston, for help in reminding schools and school mentors to get the evaluations submitted. The school mentors have a new URL for teachers, at this time.

The Russians are considering a worldwide ARISS operating event in late December. We may hear more about that very soon.

Daniel asked the best way to learn when a QSO will be happening. He will ask Steve, again, to send details. Also, Charlie's Web site is updated each week with tentative schedules.

Keigo asked if the date and venue is known for the next ARISS conference. We will ask the question at the next ARISS-I teleconference meeting.

Keigo asked if the US/FCC has changed any rules based on the ITU change of Article 25 about bi-lateral agreements and third party traffic. Rosalie will ask Chris Imlay once more for the latest information.

The committee's next meeting should be February 9. Keigo and Larry thought that date was fine. Daniel may be in Senegal but will know more very soon, and if that date is not a good one, the committee can discuss options. Rosalie will ensure Jorg and Gaston are aware of the date.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Committee Chair

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee 13 October, 2005 teleconference

The teleconference meeting on 13 October 2005 was attended by Larry Agabekov, N2WW; Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB; Gaston Bertels, ON4WF; and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO. Gaston substituted for Jorg Hahn, DL3LUM, who could not attend. Also not able to participate were Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA; and Jon Neubauer, who was recently invited to attend for NASA Johnson Space Center.

Old Business
* This committee voted, prior to when our last telecon would have been held, to postpone that telecon since some of us would be meeting soon, in person at Surrey.

* Rosalie forwarded a number of committee members' applications to Charlie. Last week she received two for the US, and if these are good, she will forward them to the committee.

New Business
* Jon Neubauer is taking the place of Scott Anderson as the representative from the Education Office at NASA Johnson Space Center.

* Rosalie has started contacting the US schools whose teachers submitted applications years ago. There are 7 from 2002, 8 from 2003 and 6 from 2004. She will not contact those from 2005. The US has so many old schools because there was a backlog from Space Shuttle SAREX days, and of course, less crew time when the crew total decreased to two people. Bill McArthur will be talking to one school per week, and then after getting started, he may be able to talk to two per week. The USA may finally get an opportunity to schedule a slightly higher percentage of US schools – a year ago, our committee approved this (the US hams and schools thank you!) – and we hope to be able to implement this. Orbital mechanics may slightly favor the US during McArthur’s Expedition.

* The next group of schools being scheduled are as follows: 3 for Japan, 3 for Canada, 2 for Europe, 2 for the US, and those will be followed by crew picks.

* The NASA database of teacher evaluation forms (previously named EdCats, now named NEEIS, for NASA Education Evaluation Information System) has closed for archiving for Fiscal Year 2005. A database will open again after mid-October for teachers to submit late reports from earlier in 2005. Our mentors will need to strongly push teachers to get the late reports submitted. This committee may need to push the ARISS mentors.

* Our committee's next telecon should be December 8. Those attending today’s teleconference meeting felt that date would be fine for our next meeting.

* Gaston said that the IARU Region 1 members have voted to set up a working group for Amateur Radio in space, and Gaston will be involved. The Furtherwick Park School in the United Kingdom was contacted by Gaston, and the teachers involved in that upcoming ARISS QSO have agreed to include one question from Tunisian Boy Scouts. These Tunis radio scouts will have a booth at a UN summit, and the IARU will be there. It is hoped that the scouts’ PR about their ARISS involvement will influence the Tunisian communications authorities to allow individual ham licenses instead of only club stations.

* Gaston said ARISS Europe awaits word that the upcoming CERN QSO is approved for 22 November. ESA sponsored a competition for students in 6 countries (Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Greece). Astronaut Bill McArthur will be asked the 20 best questions; 2 European astronauts will be on standby in the event of a problem. A few students (14-16 year old) will be chosen to travel to, and stay overnight at, CERN, where ESA is sponsoring an event to promote space studies. The event is set up in parallel with a science teachers' congress that will be attended by 400 scientists and teachers from around the world.

* ARISS Europe meets today, Gaston reported, to begin the planning process for equipment for the future ISS Columbus module. Talks will begin covering every ARISS aspect. Rosalie said that at the 25 October ARISS–I telecon meeting, there may be further discussion about interference to the ISS. Larry said that Mir equipment was very close in frequency to the ham equipment, which was shut off during docking. Gaston said that the topic of interference would be a very important one at future Columbus meetings.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee 12 May, 2005 teleconference

The teleconference meeting was attended by Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA; Larry Agabekov, N2WW (in Russia); Gaston Bertels, ON4WF (in place of Jorg, who could not attend at the last moment); and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO. Also at the last moment, Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB could not attend.

Old Business
* At our last teleconference meeting in March, Daniel and Gaston asked that Rosalie tell them which of their schools had not submitted evaluation forms. She sent the list to them and all of the other ARISS Ops. In a short while, she will visit the NASA site again to check what schools have responded.

* John Phillips got a good start on his school QSOs. Leroy Chiao did a good job with his school QSOs. Rick Lindquist continues to publicize all stories. John Phillips will do fewer US schools because he will be in space during summer months when US schools are not in session. We hope to have more US schools on the timeline in September.

New Business
* Frank, Carol, Rosalie and Mark Steiner prepared an update for NASA on how ARISS meets NASA's goals. We continue to be asked for a status report, as are all NASA programs, because funding is going toward the Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative. We must concentrate on getting details about students who become interested in aerospace careers, and we need to learn more about actual educational activities done in the classroom. Daniel asked if we had received any input from surveying students about career interests -- we asked a few schools, and got a few replies.

* The largest US ham convention is also this year's ARRL National Convention. Frank will give an ARISS talk at the AMSAT Forum, and Rosalie will give a very short ARISS talk in the ARRL Expo area. She will also escort astronaut Tony England for his visit to ARRL's Donor Reception, and to the AMSAT and ARRL Booth areas.

* Gaston gave an update on Columbus. Danny's work has been taken over by Pavel, an assistant professor who specialises in electronics, and particularly in patch antennas. Delivery of the antennas is slated for September. The costs have gone from 100.000 Euro (installation) + 10.000 Euro (antennas) to 180.000 Euros, for the manufacturing of the patch antennas will cost an estimated 80.000 Euro. Rosalie will announce during her convention talk that Europe is looking for donations. Gaston will ask for donations at the ARISS-Europe meetings in Germany this summer.

* Larry will not be able to attend the Surrey meetings in July.

* Gaston reported that Thoms Reiter has been asked by ESA to handle three specially scheduled European QSOs. His current time frame is to launch in September and he will now have a greatly extended stay on the ISS -- through April 2006.

* Daniel asked whether anyone had received room confirmations from Surrey University. He had reserved a room two weeks ago, and has heard nothing. Rosalie has not received a response. Gaston will check on this.

* Our next teleconference meeting should be July 14, although that is very close to the Surrey meetings. We will circulate an email in July to find if we actually need a July 14 teleconference.

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS-Europe Chairman

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee 10 March 2005 teleconference

The teleconference meeting was attended by Larry Agabekov, N2WW; Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA; and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO. At the last moment, Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB; and Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, could not attend.

Old Business
Earlier in the week, Keigo forwarded two new Japanese school applications to the committee. These were sent on to Charlie Sufana.

Rosalie and Frank had reported to this committee that they would meet with Debbie Brown-Biggs at NASA Hq. This meeting took place last week, and Rosalie reported a few items from the meeting. As you recall, Debbie is leaving NASA, and Rosalie and Frank shared a large amount of information with the person who was named as acting coordinator for ARISS. In order to be somewhat more assured of some future funding for ARISS, we will try to work more with the NASA Explorer Schools. Also, the plan that Frank and Rosalie presented to NASA Hq for lowering the backlog of schools was accepted. (For future applications, we will have a two- month window of opportunity, annually, for US schools to submit applications. The requirements for the school's educational proposal will be for a somewhat more robust plan. Then the ARISS Team will announce which 12-15 schools will be in the queue for the following year.)

Daniel asked about lowering the great amount of of school applications currently in the queue, and Rosalie reported that with the huge interest in ARISS by John Phillips, Sergei Krikalev, and Bill McArthur (crewmembers of the two next Expeditions), we believe the queue can be greatly reduced. Daniel will ask Frank if the remaining two Canadian schools applications from 2002 will be on the next list of contacts that will shortly be produced.

New Business
St. Martins Lutheran School in Australia is the next scheduled ARISS school. The two previous schools were crew picks.

Larry asked if anyone had received email recently from Sergej Samburov. No one knew a reason why Sergej wouldn't be available. Larry will phone Sergej; Larry will be in Russia during the end of March or the first half of April.

The committee's next meeting should be April 14, however, Larry may be on travel at that time. Once Larry determines his travel schedule, we will make a final plan for the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Committee Chair
 

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee 13 January, 2005 teleconference

The teleconference meeting was attended by Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA; Larry Agabekov, N2WW; Gaston Bertels, ON4WF; Frank Bauer, KA3HDO; and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO.  At the last moment, Jorg Hahn, DL3LUM, Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB could not attend.

We are happy to have Daniel in good health for joining our teleconference meetings again.

Old Business

NASA's fiscal year ended in September, and all but two schools submitted evaluations. In about two weeks, another reminder will be sent to ARISS school mentors whose teachers haven't submitted evaluations.

Leroy Chiao is doing a nice job with his school QSOs.  Rick Lindquist continues to publicize all stories.  The US schools are still lagging in being selected due to orbital mechanics and timing issues.  Canada schools were recently on the schedule, which should help things. 

New Business

ARRL worked to get a Worked All Continents award for Mike Fincke, and it was presented to him during his mission debriefing.

ARISS funding for the European Columbus module is slowly increasing -- Gaston reminded us that this can be followed on the ARISS-European Web site.  He said work on the antennas is progressing. Rosalie was happy to get her grant request approved for $5,000 USD from the ARRL Foundation.

NASA Hq requested that the US Team prepare another fiscal year 2004 report.  We are working on it. We are getting challenged now more than ever, as are all NASA programs, because funding is tight since it is being moved to the Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative.  ARISS mentors have been asked to get the names of the newspapers and broadcast stations who attend the ARISS QSOs, so that we can report this.  NASA likes PR, but is even more interested in educational activities in the classroom. Mentors will be asked to get more details on students who want to become astronauts or engineeers or mathematicians, or a teacher who wants to do more space programs.  If we could get those names and the specifics, that would be wonderful.  Gaston will send Frank some of the information he has on this type of thing.  If we could get more details on actual educational activities done in the classroom, that would be very useful.  Daniel asked what finances NASA provides, and Frank explained some of the in-kind aspects, crew-time being donated, NASA staff time such as the hardware safety office, support from Kenneth Ransom and Carol Jackson, real dollars for hardware and testing, and so on.  Daniel thought the schools might need to know this type of thing.

The US team will get further involved for what to do with our many schools that are in the backlog.  We may have a formal solicitation for schools, and only accept x number per year.  Any new school in Canada is told by Daniel that they may have to wait a year or two.  The US team tells schools 2 or 3 years.  Gaston suggested that Europe may eventually have several schools for a QSO -- one direct, and two on the telebridge.  The US Team will consider that approach.  There will always be somewhat of a backlog, but it can be a shorter wait than we now have.

The committee's next meeting is scheduled for 03 March at 1400Z.

Respecfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO

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 ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee 11 November 2004 teleconference

 The teleconference meeting was attended by Ken Pulfer, VE3PU; Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB; Larry Agabekov, N2WW; and Chair Rosalie White, K1STO.  At the last moment, Jorg Hahn, DL3LUM, could not attend.

 Old Business

 Regular reminders are sent by Rosalie to ARISS school mentors to encourage their teachers to submit evaluations; NASA's fiscal year ended in September, and all but two schools had submitted evaluations. 

The ARISS-I meeting minutes were finalized by Rosalie and we were awaiting one report to include.  Carol Jackson integrated the URLs of all reports into the minutes.  Ken has now posted the minutes to the Web site.  Larry said he was able to access them yesterday. 

We have a new crew on the ISS, and the first QSO has been scheduled for next week.  We hope this crew will be as interested in ARISS as the previous crew. 

Canada and the US has a backlog of schools waiting for QSOs.  Canada has two schools now on the schedule, which should make things better.  The delay of 1.5 years has worried Daniel, and there have been ideas discussed for how to deal with any further backlog that may develop.  The US is considering ways to deal with their backlog, and once we decide on some ways, we will get an okay from NASA.  Ken said more and more of Canada's schools are showing great interest in the Amateur Radio education program, which includes wireless technology and ARISS.  During the telecon, Ken thought of an idea -- is there a potential for trying to tie these schools directly to ARISS, and for instance requiring them, if they want an ARISS QSO, to be part of Canada's school program?  It could be a small commitment done within Canada's school program, such as school to school IRLP activities.

It is an idea the US will consider among others we feel may help to maintain a school's interest in ARISS during the long wait.  Ken also talked about setting up a "budget" in order to tell schools what year to expect a QSO.  The US is also thinking of that.  Keigo asked if any schools have withdrawn their application when, for instance, the US was backlogged during SAREX days.  Rosalie reported that some schools withdrew because their teachers had retired or because their administrators were not interested in supporting what was required for a QSO. 

New Business 

ARISS is looking for funding to aid in having Amateur Radio on the European Columbus module.  Rosalie has found a potential source, and will report more as we learn more. 

Larry reported that he has re-sent paperwork to Russia regarding the interpretation of the third party rules.  He said there is a new person in Russia's radio frequency branch (the URL is www.grfc.ru) and it is unclear how this person and his assistants feel about Amateur Radio.  Larry spoke to one of the assistants who seemed somewhat positive, but the assistant does not speak for everyone in the office. 

Daniel should be back for our committee's next meeting; he is very interested in this committee's work.  Ken expects that he will also continue with his IARU work, so doing both may be dependent on his doctor's wishes. 

The committee's next meeting is scheduled for Jan 13 at 1400Z.  Good wishes for the upcoming holidays were given to everyone. 

Respectfully submitted,

Rosalie White, K1STO committee chair 

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School  Selection Committee Minutes from telecon 8 July, 2004 at 1400 UTC

Old business:
The minutes from the last teleconference meeting were previously approved and forwarded to Ken Pulfer to post to the Web.

A Canadian school was scheduled for a QSO, and then an EVA caused the schedule to be cancelled.  The schoolteacher said to wait a year before re-scheduling because of wanting to better prepare the students.

EVAs have caused several school QSOs to be cancelled, but the EVAs are important.  Mike is more enthused with QSOs, now that he's done a few and two are scheduled for upcoming weeks.

A recent QSO was with  Space Camp Turkey, to be followed by Meizen High School in Japan.  Keigo sent two school applications that were forwarded to Charlie. The Space Camp Turkey story is on the Web; Gaston recorded the audio while Peter Kolfer assisted with the QSO.  Gaston asked the teacher to fill out the NASA Edcats report.  Rosalie will send reminders to mentors again, soon.

Last spring our committee voted to, at some point in the future, select a higher percentage of US schools than schools from other regions.  This action has not yet taken place.  We also said we would review the oldest Canadian school applicants. 

New business:
We have heard nothing more about Mike Fincke staying on the ISS through November.

We got a request from a Neil Armstrong space museum in Ohio for a QSO to honor the anniversary of Neil's visit to the Moon.  The US team is looking into whether it is a major event with visits from dignitaries, and we might do it as a PR-type QSO, such as was done with Japan's Ham Fair.  There is no school QSO that week.  There is little time to plan and work a QSO for this event. 

Gaston asked if general QSOs are done during crew members' leisure time, and the answer is yes, that the time is not counted as school times.

Larry asked about the crew doing a QSO with hams at the UN.  He will send more information to Frank,  and check to see if any students are at the UN station.

Keigo asked about input from the committee for a paper for the AMSAT symposium; he had sent some data.  No other input has been sent.  He suggests using ARISS region reports from the minutes of the ARISS ESTEC meeting.  Papers are due in early August, and Rosalie will see what can be done.  Tim's paper will be on scheduling challenges. Gaston hopes to do a paper on the Columbus  module. 

 
Scott thanked Kenneth for sending Field Day photos because he'll use these when presenting talks at an upcoming conference to urban and rural teachers.

Frank and Gaston have talked abt Sergej's suggestion of asking Gennady to do school contacts.  It would be useful because we can use the Russian schedulers instead of always using NASA schedulers.  We can experiment with the Russian procedures, since the crew after Leroy Chiao's mission won't have a US-licensed astronaut, and we may utilize the Russian crew member.  If we do, we'll educate US hams about third party rules. 

Frank and Rosalie are working with Chris Imlay on the FCC interpretation of WRC-03 third party changes.  Frank will work with  Mr. Alexandrove at Energia to provide a letter for for the Russian Ministry of Communications about Russian crew members -- and all future crew members -- about third party.  Since Sergej asked Gaston about handling Russian QSOs, Gaston asked if Larry knows anyone in the Russian Ministry of Communications.  Larry is quite familiar with Tatyana Khovanskaya(sp?).  A general position, rather than a mission by mission ruling, is highly preferable since countries can now agree to follow the rule from WRC that bi-lateral agreements are no longer necessary.

The next meeting of this committee will be September 10. 

Respectfully submitted,
  Chair Rosalie White, K1STO

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Minutes of the ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee Teleconference
May 13, 2004 at 1400Z

1. Committee members attending the teleconference meeting were: Larry Agabekov,
Keigo Komuro, Daniel Lamoureux, Gaston Bertels, and Chair Rosalie White.

2. Old business--Rosalie reviewed recent ISS activities as follows:

* This spring 32,000 teachers attended 3 USA national teachers conferences;
ARRL staffed a booth and talked to teachers.

* Two very successful European school QSOs in April were handled by European
Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers.

* Scheduled ARISS QSOs are for a planetarium in Pennsylvania, schools in New
York and Quebec.

3. New Business

* The ARISS team is preparing Leroy Chaio to take his ham exam; he is the Exp
10 commander.

* Keigo reported that a Japanese school will be submitting an application to
him soon, and he will forward it to our committee. This group will operate a
special station at EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan from March 25 to September 25, 2005.

* Gaston told the committee about Space Camp Turkey -- a 1-week camp for US,
Greek, Turkish and Israeli students. The camp had a QSO last year when ARISS
needed groups during the summer while schools aren't open. The camp has asked
again for a QSO this year, although Gaston told them we may not be able to do a
QSO every year. Gaston asked the Ops Committee to consider the camp for that
week if no other group is available. (At this time, the Ops Committee doesn't
know if there is a museum or science center waiting that could have a QSO that
week.) Gaston asks if that week is clear, does our committee agree that is okay
for another QSO this year? Our ToRs state that our committee can consider
special educational activities. Daniel said if the camp isn't taking the place
of others groups that have been waiting, he would agree. Keigo and Larry were
in agreement with Daniel. Rosalie asked if the students were different each
year, and Gaston replied in the affirmative. Rosalie asked if Gaston knew of any pressure that had been applied last year on NASA, and Gaston agreed to try to find out.

* Rosalie is reviewing the 3rd party issue we will have for Exp 11 -- the US
crew member isn't interested in getting his ham license. Gaston reported a related third party issue -- that the Belgian Institute for Posts & Telecommunications will have written a license for a station in Belgium for phone patch usage over the public telephone system.

The license gives the exception for only the ISS ham station to do educational
QSOs where 3rd party is involved. Rosalie will share the details with Chris
Imlay on the chance that this would be useful for Exp 11.

* Keigo asked that the committee discuss comments from the ESTEC meeting about
new ISS hardware offering new modes, possibly allowing interested schools to do
more than just question-&-answer sessions. An example would be a school
preparing a few minutes of footage for SSTV of science experiments and an
explanation for the astronauts, and then get the astronaut's response. Keigo
reminded us that the astronauts will need more training. Gaston liked the idea.
Rosalie said that any major changes would be reviewed early on with Debbie
Brown-Biggs at NASA Hq.

Rosalie also mentioned that her staff person, Mark Spencer, wants to offer
teachers some options to enhance ARISS QSOs, such as telling schools about the
Radio Jove project -- see
http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ,
encouraging teachers to try ham satellite QSOs, get involved with Project INSPIRE -- see
http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/inspire/ ,
and working with weather satellites.
If schools get involved in several projects, the wait time will help teachers
stay interested in ARISS. Space agencies have programs that each of our mentors
can talk to teachers about -- our committee agreed this was a good idea to
encourage. Daniel agreed this would be good for keeping interest alive during
the wait time, plus it is an advantage to the students, and a natural expansion
of the ARISS program. Keigo said some mentors are supporting amateur satellite
communications with teachers, now. Gaston reminded the committee about the
ARISS European national competition held for schools, about his crystal radio
project, and Mark Spencer also asked about interest in defining, for school administrations that ask, "space literacy" for students, and even for the general public --
space agency work enhances the general public's life, but the general public
does not seem to know about, or appreciate, it. If the committee has comments
on this, please forward them. (In a similar vein, Mark developed a definition
of "wireless literacy" for students.)

7. Our next meeting would be 8 July at 1400 UTC. Daniel, Larry and Keigo can
attend, and we will find out if Jorg can, also.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO, Chair

---

Minutes of the ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee
teleconference January 8, 2004 at 1400Z

1. Committee members attending the teleconference meeting were: Larry Agabekov,
Keigo Komuro, Daniel Lamoureux, Jorg Hahn, Rosalie White and Frank Bauer. Scott
Anderson could not attend.

2. Minutes of our mid-November meeting were approved by email shortly after
that meeting.

3. Old business--Rosalie reviewed recent ISS activities as follows.

* Jorg has sent an update on European school applications, with priorities
marked. Rosalie has forwarded these to Charlie Sufana.

* During the committee's November meeting, Rosalie related that Frank and his
team were negotiating with Johnson Space Center for crew time for QSOs. The
team was successful. The most recent ARISS QSOs that have taken place after the
European school QSOs that were done with Pedro Duque are: Renmark school in
Australia; the two German schools, one in Niebull and one in Dresden; the
Gilmour Academy in Ohio and the Monroe school in California.

* Non-school activities done recently have included the Roy Neal special event
from late November through December. ARRL has received a stack of envelopes;
hams are looking for certificates. The crew also has packet radio activated,
and hams are making packet QSOs. The Kenwood equipment was set up, and is being
tested. Frank gave an update: the Kenwood radio has 5 modes, and some are being
evaluated. The crew surprised NASA by getting the equipment set up so early.
We weren't totally surprised because this crew is made up of experienced hams.

* Please don't forget to encourage your school mentors to get the
schoolteachers to fill out the NASA on-line evaluation forms.

5.New Business

* Scott Lindsey-Stevens, N3ASA -- new US member of the ARISS PR committee -- has
begun to take information from school QSOs to the SAREX reflector and to other
public venues.

* Jorg said the debrief that Gaston attended with Pedro Duque, was successful
and included talk about his QSOs.

* Jorg related that Gaston is still on schedule with preparations for ham
activities involving ESA-astronaut Andre Kuipers in April. Jorg's applications
included 1 school for Kuipers, plus another one to be considered.

* Committee members reported on planned attendance at our in-person meeting in
March. Daniel may have conflicts now that he has new responsibilities as RAC
president. Jorg will take part unless priority work duties get scheduled.
Manfried is assisting with meeting plans and the room has been booked. Rosalie,
Larry, Keigo and Frank will be going.

* Frank related that Carolynn Conley, at Johnson Space Center, who has
supported ARISS very well for a number of years now, has moved up to another job
position at Houston. Kenneth Ranson, N5VHO, has taken her place in working with
ARISS, started this job on January 2, and will attend our in-person meeting.

* Keigo reported that some of his region's schools need to be scheduled in the
coming months, and the Operations Team is working on this.


7. Our next meeting would be in March, on the 11th, if needed. It is just
prior to our in-person meeting. Rosalie will post an email message, and if
there is no new agenda item, we will not meet. However, if we need to, we will.
All members agreed to this plan.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO, Chair

---

Minutes of the ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee teleconference

November 13, 2003 at 1400Z

1. Committee members attending were: Larry Agabekov,Keigo Komuro, Daniel Lamoureux, Gaston Bertels (taking part for Jorg Hahn who could not attend), Rosalie White, and observers Scott Anderson, Carol Jackson and Scott Lindsey-Stevens. The committee had approved the minutes from the last meeting, shortly after that meeting, through an e-mail vote.

 2. Rosalie reviewed recent ISS activities as follows:

* The most recent ARISS QSOs were:

Verbum Casa das Palabras, Vigo, Spain, 26 Oct
Ceip Seixalbo School, Ourense, Spain, 23 Oct
Kagawa Junior High School, Ube City, Japan, 9 Sept
Webster High School, NY, USA, 10 Sept

* Gaston reported two good QSOs -- the 6 classes gathered in Vigo were winners of an ESA competition of primary schools in Spain and Portugal. Students were invited to the Vigo museum, which is dedicated to communications.

* Keigo reported on the Kagawa Junior High School QSO.

* An October Soyuz launch delivered ESA taxi-astronaut Pedro Duque,KC5RGG/ED4ISS, and the Expedition 8 crew -- Mike Foale, KB5UAC,and Alexander Kaleri, U8MIR.

 3. Rosalie reviewed the successes with the NASA EdCats on-line evaluation forms for fiscal year 2003. Only 2 of the 43 schools did not submit their evaluations. NASA Hq was very pleased. 13,586 students participated in the schools and another 650 listened from other schools or facilities. 890 teachers participated.

 4. Keigo sent new schools applications, which are now in Charlie Sufana's hands.

 5. New Business

* Rosalie introduced Carol Jackson -- new administrative assistant to Frank for ARISS; and Scott Lindsey-Stevens, N3ASA -- new US member of the ARISS PR committee. He will take information from school QSOs and ARISS-international meetings to the SAREX reflector and to the general public.

* Gaston reported that a story about the Vigo QSO will be in the monthly URE (Spain's IARU society) magazine.

* Gaston said a debrief with Pedro Duque is next week at ESTEC, and Gaston will have an exchange with Pedro about QSOs.

* Gaston has begun preparing for ham activities involving ESA-astronaut Andre Kuipers, for April.

* Rosalie related that Frank and his team have been negotiating with Johnson Space Center for crew time from the Expedition 8 crew for upcoming ARISS QSOs. We will soon see QSOs scheduled.

* Gaston talked about Mike Foale's two crew picks, one with Kings School in Canterbury, UK, and one in Scotland. Working with Gaston to set up ham stations is AMSAT-UK and RSGB.

* Daniel discussed a concern over doing more publicity about school successes, causing more schools to apply, and then schools will have to wait longer and longer for a QSO. This has been an occasional problem for SAREX, over the years. Frank's team is looking at wording for use with NASA to further guarantee time for school QSOs. Also, some crews are more active on ham radio than others, and the active crews help us get through our school lists more quickly.

* Gaston reported in the past 12 months since the Vittori and De Winne flights, that working with ESA has been easier. Originally, ARISS work was handled by the PR office of ESA, but when ESA saw ARISS' impact on the national public, ARISS was moved under education (ESA's Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity Directorate - Educational Service). At the upcoming debrief, ARISS is placed on the same level as all other scientific and educational activities. The same type of state-level competition as was in Spain, will soon be set up by ESA for the Netherlands and the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium (primary schools), with winning classes probably going to ESTEC for one day and enjoying an ARISS school contact with Andre Kuipers.

6. Our next meeting will be Thursday, January 8, 2003 at 1400Z.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO, Chair

---

ARISS Education Outreach Committee

Minutes of the September 11, 2003 teleconference

In attendance at the teleconference was:

Rosalie White, Chair
Larry Agabekov
Keigo Komuro
Gaston Bertels (for Joerg Hahn who was not available)
Daniel Lamoureux
Frank Bauer and Scott Anderson were in other meetings.

1. The committee members were reminded of the September 23rd ARISS-I telecon.

The committee approved the draft minutes composed by Rosalie of the July 10 teleconference meeting.

2. Many European youth groups were scheduled for QSOs this summer because most US schools were not in session. The schools allowed under the category of crew picks are being scheduled before this ISS crew returns home. Four European schools will be considered for Pedro Duque in October, two of which are ESA requests. The US has had so few schools scheduled, that the US backlog is very high (over 60 schools), and some applications arrived over a year and a half ago. The committee was asked to give approval to increase, for a while, the percentage of US schools selected. Committee members okayed this with the provision that the old Canadian applications would also be reviewed for selection. Committee members were asked to update their piority on their lists, if they had not done so recently. Daniel will forward the school names and the dates of his oldest applications. Rosalie will inform Frank of the committee's vote.

3. At our last meeting, it was reported that ARISS team member Brazilian Tadeu  Fernandes, PY1KCF, and his team are motivating schools to apply. The committee discussed who should handle Brazil applications. Do we go with Europe as we did previously, because they could easily handle the Portuguese language? Or do we go with Canada who gets many of the countries that don t fit elsewhere within our ARISS Regions. Gaston pointed out that the Portugeuese hams are already part of ARISS-EU under AMRAD. Also, months ago, Tadeu networked with the Portuguese volunteers. Gaston has talked to AMRAD again, and they are willing to assist. Daniel agreed that Europe could take the Brazilian applications, as the ease of working with the schools should be the most important consideration.

Gaston said having Europe do this work is more practical. The committee agreed, and also reviewed that although applications can be translated into other languages, these must also be submitted in English.

4. Rosalie reviewed the hardware updates -- the Kenwood D700 flew on a Progress rocket in August to the ISS. The Yaesu equipment will fly next year. Keigo was thanked for working with the equipment manufacturers. Rosalie reviewed that Frank mentioned we may experiment with using our Hawaii and Australia telebrige stations this autumn for Russian school QSOs, because when the crew is over Moscow they are talking with Mission Control, leaving no time for schools. Sergej will provide school information for scheduling.

5. Gaston reported on a strengthening relationship between ARISS and ESA, and meetings that he attended a few days earlier at ESTEC. He reported Pedro Duque flies October 18-28 for the Spanish Soyuz Mission (SSM), and Gaston is finalizing preparations for two schools he proposed. One is for student winners chosen from 14,000 Spanish schools and 1 Portuguese school of an ESA competition involving the Ministry of Education in Spain. The news was promoted to URE clubs who are helping the schools, including with equipment. Gaston met the directorate of ESA, the head of the SSM education services, the ESA education person who is collecting winners' questions, and Gaston contacted the Russian schedulers. Gaston asked them to send a letter in Russian, to keep Sergej informed. The Barcelona Planetarium has asked ESA about a QSO, and Gaston will check with the schedulers. Pedro got training at Houston by Carolynn and Lou with the equipment. Pedro's children's school, where 200 other children of Spanish ESTEC employees, is also being considered. Gaston's meetings were also successful for talking to ESA about possibly hosting an ARISS-I meeting next spring at ESTEC.

6. Daniel discussed a Canadian school where the youths graduated to another school before their group was selected for an ARISS QSO. When this has happened in the USA, the application is kept in the same spot in the queue, but the new school facility information is substituted for the old information, as long as this is okay with the old school who was removed from the queue. Daniel said the old school has no problem with the substitution. The committee agreed.

7. Daniel reported that his oldest school has waited two years, and their education proposal is no longer valid, and is looking for the best way to update their information. Some schools have generic plans that they put into place if they hear enough months in advance that they are being selected. The oldest USA applications are returned to the contact person to update phone and fax numbers and email, and any other information that is outdated.

8. The next eduation outreach teleconference meeting will be November 13. Keigo will send his two new applications to the commitee before then. Gaston reported that Europe has a time change on October 26, as do several of the other committee members' countries.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO, Chair

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

Minutes of the July 10, 2003 teleconference

In attendance at the July 10 teleconference (at 1400Z) was:

Rosalie White, Chair
Larry Agabekov (who got disconnected before the meeting was over)
Keigo Komuro
Gaston Bertels (for Joerg Hahn who could not attend)
Frank Bauer
Scott Anderson

The committee reviewed the date of the upcoming July ARISS-I teleconference. Gaston was thanked for updating the European school list, and it was forwarded by Rosalie to Charlie. For each of you, don't forget that when you sent an updated list to ensure that you put a priority on the schools. Rosalie updated the group with a quick summary of successful ARISS QSOs. Many European youth groups are scheduled because most schools are not in session for the summer months.

Scott gave us an update on progress on the NASA lesson plans for middle school youths -- the NASA Aerospace Education Specialists were reviewing the lessons.

Rosalie reported that ARISS team member of Brazil, Tadeu Fernandes, PY1KCF, and his team are motivating Brazilian schools to apply for QSOs. The Brazilian astronaut will be flying next summer or fall. The teleconference group discussed who should handle Brazil school applications. Do we go with Europe as we had done previously, because the Europeans could easily handle the Portuguese language?

 Or do we go with Canada who gets many of the countries that don't fit elsewhere within our ARISS Regions -- our ARISS rules say that Keigo takes Region 3, Jorg handles Europe, Russia does their own, the US has plenty of waiting schools, and Canada could take more.

Gaston pointed out that the Portugeuese hams are already part of ARISS-EU, although they don't have a lot of experience with school QSOs. Tadeu had already networked with the Portuguese ARISS-EU volunteers. Gaston agreed to talk to the Portuguese society again. Gaston reported on a strengthening relationship between ARISS and ESA, and meetings that would make the relationship even better.

Frank discussed progress on hardware development - the Kenwood D700 was to be shipped and fly on a Progress rocket in August. The Yaesu equipment will fly next year. Keigo was thanked for working with the equipment manufacturers. Frank talked about the protocol of agreements on hardware development and operations - agreed to was the firmware to be installed plus software, parameters for TNC (concentrating on ease of use by the crews), and a frequency list. Frank mentioned that the Russian team is interested in QSOs, but when the crew is over Moscow they are busy talking with Mission Control, leaving no time for schools.

We may experiment with using our Hawaii and Australia telebridge stations this autumn for Russian school QSOs. Sergej will provide school information to be scheduled.
Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, Chair

---

Teleconference of 10 April, 2003

1.) The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held on 10 April, 2003, at 1400 Zulu. Participating were Daniel Lamoureux, Larry Agabekov, Keigo Komuro, Scott Anderson, Frank Bauer and Rosalie White. Jorg Hahn could not participate.

2.) Committee members approved the minutes of our March meeting. Rosalie will send them to Ken Pulfer.

3.) A review of recent school QSOs was given, and included St. Ursula’s in Australia, Higashi Kaneko in Japan, Selnica in Slovenia, and Rushey Meade/NSC in the United Kingdom.

4.) We learned earlier that the next Expedition crew will consist of Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, and Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP. The crew change-out will cause the usual slowdown in QSOs. Larry reported that it is said Yuri is not a very active ham.

5.) Daniel asked about the discussion at our last teleconference meeting about weekend QSOs. Frank reported that the current crew had more time on weekends for QSOs, and we were trying to stay with our schedule of two QSOs per week, which had lagged because of some EVAs. We cannot always schedule weekend QSOs, but it is a contingency we can ask for at times, to maximize our possibilities.

6.) The next scheduled schools are the Lounsberry Hollow Middle School in the US, and the Canadian Cowichan Secondary School.

7.) Keigo’s school information for the Kuise Elementary School in Japan was forwarded to Charlie by Rosalie.

8.) ARRL is setting up and staffing an exhibit at another national teachers conference -- this one is attended by 18,000 math teachers for three days. NASA assists with the cost of the booth. The special events held at the IMAX theater in Halifax, Nova Scotia, resulted in over 300 Canadian teachers requesting ARISS information.

9.) Frank recently wanted Larry to ask about Russian schools that Sergej has been working with, and Larry called Sergej. Larry will continue to work with Sergej who has not yet turned in applications, but is considering the following schools (the spelling is probably incorrect): Young Astronomers in Persk, April 16 the Devire school in Kalenin, Kaluga in late April-early May, in Yuroslav (the UA3 area) for the 40th anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in space), in July the Science and Youth event in Koralev. Larry relayed that Sergej said although Malenchenko is not an active ham, Alexander Kaleri (U8MIR) who flies this fall is interested in ARISS. Frank and Larry will work together to determine ways to avoid scheduling conflicts with European schools. Frank will talk to Mission Ops about sharing information on schools. This committee is happy the cosmonauts and Russian youths can take part in ARISS more often.

10.) The old SAREX data page is still in place on the NASA evaluation Web site, called EdCats. Rosalie discovered just before the teleconference meeting that several schools used this form instead of the ARISS data page. She will relay this to the school mentors and Charlie Sufana, along with the list of schools that submitted data for either page. She will also share the information with the school committee. She will contact NASA to ask them to de-active the page for submissions, and to transfer all data to the ARISS page.

11.) Committee members discussed having meetings every two months instead of each month. We are accomplishing our business in a very efficient manner, and there is no need to meet monthly. However, if something unusual occurs, we can schedule a special meeting in between the two months. Members voted to follow this procedure.

12.) The next school group teleconference meeting will be 12 June at 1400Z.

Keigo will take part from Geneva. 
Respectfully submitted,Rosalie White, K1STO 
Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

 

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ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

Teleconference Minutes of 13 March, 2003

1.)  The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held on 13 March, 2003, at 1400 Zulu.  Participating were Daniel Lamoureux, Larry Agabekov, Gaston Bertels, Keigo Komuro, Scott Anderson, Frank Bauer and Rosalie White.  Gaston was welcomed as representing Europe for Jorg Hahn who is on mission today for ESA.  Scott was congratulated by committee members on earning his ham radio license; his call sign -- KD5VKV -- was issued March 3!

2.)  The committee held a final discussion at Keigo's request on one item concerning Russian regulations, which were mentioned in the draft of the minutes from the last committee meeting.  For the committee members, Larry interpreted part 4.2 of the Russian radio regulations -- these read: 

"All other individuals (owners of individual radio station lower category license and also SWL's) are permitted to work on the Club Stations only in presence of Chief Operator or his Deputies."

This section means that SWLs and all licensed hams have all privileges (including third party privileges) of Russia's highest class of ham operator if the operations are from a club station. 

3.)  After discussion of the item above, committee members approved the minutes of our last meeting.

4.)  Our ARISS-International meeting at Goddard Space Flight Center in December, was productive, but we missed Jorg and Daniel's presence.  The minutes were recently posted on the Web by Ken Pulfer.

5.)  A review of recent past QSOs was given as follows.  At the end of 2002 and in early 2003, ARISS QSOs were done with the Chicago Adler Planetarium, the World Scout Jamboree in Thailand, and with students in the Rene Mure School in France.  Another French school, Immaculate Conception, and a Montana school had QSOs after that.  We also heard from a number of hams who made general QSOs with Don.  Just recently, the crew did QSOs with the German Hochwald School, Tecnico Industriale Malignani Italian School, the Japanese Hirano Elementary School, the Krueger Texas school, and the Eugene Field School.  The latter school QSO was done to thank World Com for over 10 years of tremendous support of our telebridge QSOs.   

Frank said the ISS crew is very interested in doing QSOs right now.  If youth groups are available for weekend QSOs when orbital passes are better or when crews are more readily available, that youth group could be scheduled sooner than waiting groups that can't be available on weekends. 

6.) New business:  
*  The next Expedition crew will consist of 2 people -- possibly Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko; both are licensed hams.  Frank feels the smaller crew will not result in fewer QSOs being done.  But we will most likely see the usual slowdown when there is a crew change-out. 

*  Daniel sent his latest school list to us this morning.  Gaston sent updates last week.
*  ARRL is staffing an exhibit at a national teachers conference for three days.  NASA assists with the cost of the exhibit booth. 

*  Larry has had exchanges with the people involved with the Shadow Experiment. 
*  Frank's exhibit materials were used at the Halifax, Nova Scotia, opening of the IMAX Space Station movie. Daniel confirmed that over 300 Canadian teachers were given special information at the opening.  Frank reported that Ken Pulfer has another function for use of the exhibit materials.

7.)  The next school group teleconference meeting will be 10 April at 1400Z.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

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Teleconference Minutes from 14 November, 2002

1.)  The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held on 14 November at 1400 Zulu.  Participating were Rosalie White and Daniel Lamoureux; Larry Agabekov had a phone outage.  It was summarized that the Minutes of the meeting on 10 October were approved by e-mail.

2.)  An update was given by Rosalie on the ham activities of the ISS Expedition 5 crew.  Astronaut Peggy Whitson recently completed QSOs with a Pensylvania school, with the Royal Technical School Belgian Air Force, and Space Camp students at the European Space Center in Belgium.  Currently, ARISS activity is on hold while we are between the Expedition 5 crew and the Expedition 6 crew.  Daniel reported that he is seeing new interest by more schools.

3.)  Rosalie reported receiving from Larry, a translation of the Russian rules in regard to third party.  In the translation that Larry forwarded, the portion of the Russian rules that are about third party are under a section that is numbered 4.2.  Rosalie will send part 4.2 to ARRL's General Counsel.  Part 4.2 reads as follows:

        4.2. By the decision of Chief Operator of Club Station and his deputies
for independent radio operating on Club Station with Club call signs permitted
for those individuals who have a permit to use an amateur radio station of the
category not lower the category of club station. All other individuals (owners
of individual radio station lower category license and also SWL's) are permitted
to work on the Club Stations only in presence of Chief Operator or his Deputies.

The SWL call's is not Federal -- Russian FCC bussines, we just sent SWL calls
to non license HAMs who sent to SRR application for SWL. The SWL call's is like
R1A-001 for S. Petersburg and R3A-001 for Moscow e.t.c.  It was on my time
Presidency in SRR we had that kind of " INSTRUCTION " for HAMs and it's working
till today. That was the only way for kids to be a HAM in Schools.

4) It was reported that Rosalie and Frank prepared and submitted required paperwork to NASA Hq Education Office to show our need for our funding. This would be to cover things such as future hardware to be used for the school QSOs.  Recently, Peggy Whitson reported that our headset needed repairs.

5) New business --
--Daniel sent his latest school list to us this morning.  Gaston sent updates last week.
--We received an e-mail message from an Israeli ham who says an Israeli is training as an ESA astronaut at Johnson Space Center.  Although he is not scheduled for ISS missions, he may be interested in becoming a ham.  Rosalie networked the messenger with Jorg, Gaston and Nick Lance at Johnson Space Center, who is the lead for astronaut training. 

--One of my staff is at a national teacher's conference today through Saturday, exhibiting about ARISS and ham radio in school.

6.)  The next school group teleconference meeting will be 9 January at 1400Z.

Respectfully submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

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Teleconference Meeting Minutes from 10 October, 2002

1.)  The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee met on 11 October at 1400 Zulu.  Participants were Valery Agabekov, Keigo Komuro, Daniel Lamoureux, Gaston Bertels (who took the place of Jorg Hahn who could not attend), Rosalie White and Frank Bauer.  Marilyn Steinberg and Debbie Brown were not available to attend, and Alexandr Lazutkin did not respond to the meeting announcement.  The committee members expressed sadness at the news of Thomas Kielselbach having become a Silent Key. 

2.)  The Minutes of the September meeting were approved.

3.)  An update was given by Rosalie on the ham activities of the ISS Expedition 5 crew.  Astronaut Peggy Whitson recently completed QSOs with an Australian school, Canadian school, and two US crew-picked schools.  In the next few weeks, scheduled schools include a crew-pick school in the US, the Netherlands Scout Jamboree event, the Royal Technical School Belgian Air Force, and students at the European Space Center in Belgium.  Thanks were expressed to Keigo for forwarding new school applications.

4.)  Rosalie summarized for the committee, an interpretation written by ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay (and sent it to the FCC) of how the Netherlands Scouting authorization meshes with the FCC rules about third party.  The interpretation spelled out the details from the Netherlands paperwork forwarded by Gaston, showing what the authorization specifically confers on Netherlands Scouts in regard to speaking with US licensed astronauts.  Gaston will now move forward with further plans for the Netherlands Scout ARISS QSO.  At future committee meetings, Larry, will share more about the Russian material on third party; it is currently being translated into English.

5.)  Gaston announced a new European school mentor -- Peter Kofler, IN3JHZ -- who is a schoolteacher.  Frank said Peter is already doing a good job.  Frank expressed the need for new volunters to support the Operations side.  There is a need, in particular, for additional school group mentors and other volunteers to support the various operations roles.

6.)  Daniel initiated a discussion about his concern that some schools might not follow the activities listed in the educational proposal they submitted with their ARISS application, and some might implement little related educational curriculum at all.  Rosalie said this has occasionally been a problem in past years, but often as time passes, the schoolteachers initiate better technical classroom activities after the QSO, than near the time of the QSO.  Also, the teachers are required to fill out the NASA evaluation forms about the educational activities.  Frank said that US school mentors continue to push their teachers to ensure educational activities take place, and to ensure the teachers fill out the evaluation forms.

7.)  The next school group teleconference meeting will be 14 November at 1400Z.  Larry, Keigo and Gaston will be able to attend the next ARISS-I in-person meeting December 5-8 at Goddard Space Flight Center, but Daniel cannot.  Gaston has asked for agenda items for this meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
         73, Rosalie White, K1STO
         Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

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 Teleconference Meeting Minutes from 12 September, 2002

 1.) The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee met on 12  September at 1400 Zulu. Participants were Rosalie White, Valery Agabekov,  Keigo Komuro, Jorg Hahn and Frank Bauer (for part of the meeting). Daniel  Lamoureux, Marilyn Steinberg and Debbie Brown were not available to attend,  and Alexander Lazutkin did not respond to the meeting announcement. The  committee meeting was moderated by Rosalie, committee members approved the  Minutes of the last meeting (dated 27 June). 

 2.) An update was given by Rosalie on the ham activities of the ISS  Expedition 5 crew. Peggy Whitson has been busy doing science experiments, but  recently had completed one QSO per week. A successful QSO was done the  morning of our meeting; it was with the Glen Waverley College in Australia.  The weeks prior to that, QSOs were completed with one school in Israel,  Russia, USA (one of Peggy's hand-selected schools), Japan and Germany. The US  school was the first American school scheduled since last Spring. In the next  few weeks, schools will include a crew-pick school in Iowa, one in Canada and  one in Australia. 

 3.) Jorg submitted an updated European school list with new rankings. It  includes the groups, such as JOTA and the European Space Center that Frank  DeWinne will speak with, and an Italian school that already had a QSO attempt,  but was not very successful. Keigo spoke about the Tokyo Ham Fair and school  videotapes, and said that another schoolteacher is applying for a QSO. 

 4.) Rosalie reported that the ARISS Team worked to assist Russian ISS tourist  Lance Bass in earning his ham license (he is now KG4UYY), and doing initial  training with the radios. At the moment, Lance Bass' company is still raising  the needed money for a flight to the ISS, possibly next Spring. 

 5.) Another discussion took place about third party. Rosalie will speak  again with the ARRL General Counsel to ask about his progress on interpreting  laws about bi-lateral agreements. Jorg will talk to DARC; he will request  that they ask the German Post and Telecommunications agency to write a letter.  This letter would be taken by the ARRL General Counsel to the US Department  of State. The letter would state that based on the German educational  license, Germany would welcome setting up a waiver with the US Department of  State for ARISS QSOs, based on the facts that the QSOs are of an educational  nature, are for youths, and only occur on an occasional basis. 

 While in Russia, Larry spoke with the Russian telecommunications agency. He  obtained paperwork in Russian about third party, and will be translating this  for our committee in the next few weeks. 

 6.) The next school group teleconference meeting will be 10 October at 1400Z,  unless a committee member requests a different date. Jorg will ask Gaston to  take part if Jorg cannot. The next ARISS-I in-person meeting will be at  Goddard Space Flight Center, December 5-8. 

 Respectfully submitted, 
 73, Rosalie White, K1STO
 Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

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 Teleconference Meeting Minutes from 1 August, 2002

 1.) The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee met on 1 August  at 1400 Zulu. Participants were Rosalie White, Daniel Lamoureux, Keigo  Komuro, Jorg Hahn and Frank Bauer. Valery Agabekov, Marilyn Steinberg and  Debbie Brown were not available, and Alexander Lazutkin did not respond to the  meeting announcement. The committee meeting was moderated by Rosalie, and it  was reported that the Minutes of the last meeting were edited based on  suggested changes. 

 2.) A discussion was held about school applications that are submitted in  languages other than English. This is acceptable, but a duplicate application  must also be submitted in English; the QSOs will be done in English. Daniel  will forward his school applications to Marilyn; Rosalie has forwarded them to  the Ops Committee. Further discussion was held on prioritization of  applications, and possibly changing the wording of our committee's Terms of  Reference so that it is more generic. We discussed possibly changing the  wording to say something such as: "Once a school submits an ARISS application,  and it is accepted by ARISS, the application is put in the queue. Schools  from around the world will be scheduled in a manner that results in fair  sharing of crew time." The wording will be further discussed by the committee  via e-mail and at the next committee meeting. 

 3.) An update was given by Rosalie and Frank on the ham activities of the ISS  Expedition 5 crew. Crews are always busy the first few weeks of their  Expedition. This crew has been more interested in doing random QSOs than  school QSOs, but has a school QSO scheduled on 2 August (Kansai, Japan). Then  follows the European Space Center, Netherlands Jamboree, Kursk in Russia, and  the Israeli school. The spacewalk where the crew will install our last two  antennas is tentatively scheduled for August 16 and 23. Several days before a  spacewalk, and one day afterward, the crew is totally occupied with this  event. 

 4.) Keigo was asked to forward information to Rosalie about where hams in  Japan can send ARISS QSL cards. Keigo reported that the information is on the  Japanese ARISS Web site, but we will ensure it is posted in other ARISS Web  spots. 

 5.) Rosalie reported speaking again with the ARRL General Counsel about third  party. He will discuss another possible way to interpret the wording of the  third party rules, and will approach the US government on this. Most likely,  nothing will happen quickly, however. 

 6.) The next school group teleconference meeting will be 12 September at  1400Z. Jorg will ask Gaston to take part if Jorg cannot. The next ARISS-I  teleconference meeting will be on 20 August. The next ARISS-I in-person  meeting will be at Goddard Space Flight Center, December 5-8.

 Respectfully submitted,
 73, Rosalie White, K1STO
 Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee

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Minutes of Teleconference Meeting -- October 25, 2001
Attendees: Daniel Lamoureux, Jorg Hahn, Larry Agabekov, Rosalie White, Will Marchant. Kiego Komuro could not attend.

PRIORITIZING SCHOOLS

Will informed the committee that the first dates we need to have a list of schools for, is 19-23 November. The discussion follows.

Commander Frank Culbertson has requested 3-4 non-US schools. A good time for this is while our USA schools are away for Thanksgiving vacation, 19-23 November. That allows enough time for the non-USA schools to get prepared.

Committee members agreed that the order the schools are scheduled in is not important if each region gets an equal allocation. Will stated this allows him to schedule schools based on school vacation, holidays, orbital mechanics. We hope to schedule schools a minimum of one month in advance of the week of their QSO, and earlier if possible.

December:

The Expedition 4 Crew shuttle will be docked during December, and NASA says the crew will be too busy to make QSOs until afterwards. NASA has requested one school per week after that. The committee needs to choose schools for after the December holidays through mid-February.

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Each committee member is asked to look at the next two schools on their region's list to find out: 1. Can the school be prepared for the time frame of late December through mid-February?
2. Is third party a problem for this school?
3. Is a US mentor be needed?
4. Is the radio equipment adequate (do they have more than a hand-held radio and a vertical)? Is the school's latitude too far North? If so, does Will need to set up a telebridge for the QSO. The committee will then develop their school list based on these four items.

TAXI FLIGHTS -- TAXI CREWS ON SOYUZ AND SHUTTLE

Each committee member agreed that they wish to assist their region's astronauts or payload specialists, etc who visit the ISS via the Soyuz or Shuttle, and who wish to make school QSOs. These QSOs would come out of each region's allotment of school selections.

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This committee will determine several months in advance of the taxi flight:

1. Which of these taxi astronauts or payload specialists, etc want to make QSOs.
2. How many QSOs these taxi astronauts, payload specialists, etc hope to make.
3. What ham volunteers will work with the schools.
4. And very important: who at the particular space agency will work with these taxi astronauts or payload specialists etc.?
5. And also important: what space agency person should we work with to schedule QSOs? Will the particular space agency allow time for as many QSOs as is desired by the taxi astronauts, payload specialists, etc.?
We have to be very careful working and coordinating with the space agencies so that they will be pleased with the ARISS program.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

The committee agreed that our ToR should be in a Word document, and made available to whomever needs it. We agreed the easiest and best way to complete a ToR is to start with our committee's Guidelines and fit them into Gaston's work. Rosalie agreed to begin this work, and asks that committee members suggest additions and deletions to her draft.

NEXT TELECONFERENCE MEETING

Each committee member is asked to check the calendar - is November 29 at 1400Z a good time for you?

Respectflly submitted,
Rosalie White, K1STO
Chair, ARISS Educational Outreach Committee
October 25, 2001

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