At the end of February SUSU students sent a call signal to the International Space Station. From the orbit the flight engineer of the ISS-46 crew Sergey Volkov answered the students’ questions.
The duration of a communication session depends on the crew location in the radio coverage zone. This year the spaceship has made one orbit around the Earth, therefore the call duration was 20 minutes.
Schoolchildren were also present at the session apart from students and their supervisor, Dr.Sc. (Engineering) Nikolay Voitovich representing the Department of Design and Production of Radio Equipment of SUSU. The majority of schoolchildren are students of children’s radio clubs. According to Viktor Chernobrovin, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region and a radio amateur, today there are several radio clubs in the city, and a high level of interest to radio communication can’t but make happy.
The student of the study group KTUR-339 Roman Sukhogolovy says, “Most of the time I was near the radio station. When I was given an opportunity to communicate, I asked the cosmonauts whether they observed the northern lights from the space and asked them to share their impressions. The crew members told me that from the space one can see it clearly, and this is a really fascinating sight”.
As for the schoolchildren, during the conversation they expressed a desire to become cosmonauts and asked what they should do to fulfill their dream.
It should be emphasized that SUSU students have already communicated with the ISS crew members. For further details on the session of April 2015, read the material.
Photo: STS-Chelyabinsk and Rustem Minyazov