Lancaster students talk to astronaut at International Space Station

LANCASTER — As the International Space Station orbited Earth, a group of elementary school kids waited anxiously to be connected to one of the astronauts inside.

Their eyes widened when they heard U.S. Astronaut Dr. Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor respond via amateur radio. The communication could only last about nine minutes until the space station was out of range for the antenna to pick up.

There were nineteen children lined up with prepared questions ranging from how astronauts shower and what an orbital sunrise looks like to how many years it takes to become an astronaut.

Auñón-Chancellor explained what her day is typically like on the space station, telling them they wake up 6 a.m. and get to work by 7 a.m. She said they spend the day doing science experiments and repairing the space station, likening it to fixing "an old house." Work finishes at 7:30 p.m. and they're in bed by 10 p.m.

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When asked where she would most like to travel, she said she would take a three-day trip to the moon where she'd want there to be an established moon base to help astronauts get to Mars. The plan, she told them is to get to Mars in the next 10 to 15 years.

In the moments building up to making contact, it wasn't clear who was more excited, the kids or the adults.

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Elementary Principal Jake Campbell said he couldn't sleep last night thinking about the opportunity.

"Last night I couldn't sleep because it was Christmas," he said. "It felt like Christmas ... This is something that's forever."

The elementary school is one of between 15 to 20 groups selected every year to communicate using amateur radio equipment, which was purchased through Fairfield County Foundation grants.

The application process for the program is competitive. It requires the purchasing of special radio equipment and providing additional Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programming for students to coincide with the event. 

It took a year to organize the brief communication with NASA and the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARRIS, coordinators, said it was worth it. Diane Warner, of Afterschool Programs of Lancaster, initially started the project, getting help from the Lancaster and Fairfield County Amateur Radio Club of which she is a member.

Radio club members had been practicing leading up to Wednesday's event, which required radio operators to aim their antenna in the exact location of the space station, which is traveling 17,500 miles per hour.

John Hilliard, a ham operator for about 45 years, said he had never done anything of this scale before. Hilliard remembers when he became interested in radios and space, recalling a moment when he was three years old, and his father took him outside to see Sputnik, the Russian satellite cross the sky in 1958.

"I was amazed that he was able to point that out and I was able to see it," Hilliard said.

Perhaps children at Tallmadge experienced something similar when they were connected to the space station Wednesday. That's the reason Gordon Scannell, of ARISS, said the program exists.

Scannell is a volunteer ARISS mentor, helping connect schools, groups, and museums to the space station. Since 2000, Scannell estimates there have been 1,500 amateur radio contacts to the space station across the world.

"There are students from the 2000s — in that era — that became amateur radio operators and others who got their pilot's license," Scannell said. "They are getting involved as a result.

"It truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a lot of these kids and the community," he added.

If anyone interested in becoming an amateur radio operator, Hilliard said they're invited to learn more information at K8QIK.org.

sremoquill@gannett.com

740-681-4342

Twitter: @SpencerRemo