August 11, 1999
SAREX: Science Education from Space
Click on the images for larger views.
Image Credits: The Goddard Amateur Radio Club (GARC), NASA, and Paltamo High School, Finland.
"SAREX" stands for Space Amateur Radio Experiment. Flown on selected space shuttle missions and on the Russian space station Mir, SAREX has allowed astronauts in orbit high above the Earth to talk with many thousands of students and ham radio operators around the world, and to share their adventures and experiences in real time.
Here is an example of a conversation between astronaut Jay Apt onboard the space shuttle Endeavour and two students, Janne and Virva, at the Paltamo High School in Finland on April 12, 1994:
This is Virva speaking: "You have been in space quite a long time. What is your most exciting experience? Over."
"Going outside of the spacecraft on EVA. That is my most exciting experience. Over."
This is Janne speaking: "I understand that astronauts become taller in space. How does that feel? Over."
"It gives most people back pain. Over."
"Have you seen other satellites? Over."
"Yes, we have seen two. We've seen an unidentified satellite and the Russian Mir station. Over."
Virva: "What have you eaten today? Over."
"Shrimp cocktail, beef patty and spaghetti. Also some cookies and some cashew nuts."
"Do you need more sleep in space than on Earth? Over."
"We need less."
Janne: "Are your heads down or up? Over."
"Looking around the cockpit, two are down and two are up..."
The final flight of SAREX onboard a shuttle mission took place last July with the flight of the space shuttle Columbia (mission STS-93).
The program will continue, however, onboard the International Space Station (ISS) in the form of the multi-national "Amateur Radio on the ISS" (ARISS) project. Flight hardware for ARISS is now being prepared for launch to the ISS. Until it becomes operational, an interim amateur radio station will be used from the ISS beginning early in 2000.
More Cool Stuff
- For more information on SAREX and ARISS and additional links, go to these projects' homepages:
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http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/sarex/
http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/~ariss/ariss.html - To access the complete exchange between astronaut Jay Apt and the two Finish students as well as the preparations that went into making this exchange possible, go to the following Web site of the Paltamo High School:
- http://www.paltamo.fi/~oh8uv/sarexpa.htm
- SAREX is sponsored by NASA, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), and the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). Here are their SAREX-related Web sites:
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http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Educational.Services/NASA.Education.Programs/
Educational.Technology/Space.Amateur.Radio.Experiment.-.SAREX/.index.html
http://www.arrl.org/sarex/
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sarex/sarex.html - We have featured SAREX before: "Hello, Shuttle, this is the sixth grade calling. Over?":
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1996/ootw_960731/ob960731.html
As part of its Learning Technologies Project (LTP), NASA supports a number of educational Web sites that have excellent material on the space sciences: