STEAM Academy competing to speak with astronaut

MIDDLETOWN – The All Saints STEAM Academy is one of 14 semifinalists competing for the chance to speak with an astronaut on the International Space Station next year via amateur “ham” radio.
If All Saints is chosen, it would be a first for a Rhode Island school.
All Saints, a Catholic pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school with a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics focus, is competing with schools and educational organizations around the country for the radio contact opportunity.
The radio contact is being arranged through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project which links schools around the world with chances to speak with astronauts aboard the space station. Last year, ARISS scheduled 20 events with U.S. hosts and another 40 for schools outside the country.
Mike Cullen, All Saints’ technical adviser, said the school is working on submitting detailed equipment plans that will demonstrate its ability to carry out the amateur radio contact.
He said they will soon be assigned an ARISS technical mentor and must submit an equipment plan by Aug. 24. Mid-January would be the earliest date for the radio contact, he said.
Under All Saints’ proposal, which was submitted in April, it said it had the potential to draw large numbers of Rhode Island participants and could integrate the radio contact into a “well-developed STEAM educational plan.”
Recently, five of the school’s middle school students passed the Federal Communications Commission’s amateur radio examination and earned call signs: Mac Cullen, Paula Perez, R.J. White, Xavier Lora and Kevin Krause.
Cullen, a longtime “ham radio” enthusiast, obtained the FCC call sign N1ASA to be used by the school’s newly formed amateur radio club.
Voice contacts with International Space Station crew members use FM ham radio frequencies in the VHF range and last approximately 10 minutes.
Next school year, All Saints students will participate in space-themed activities in preparation of the potential call, including discussions about space “trash” management, debates about the value of space exploration and the creation of robotic tools that could be used by the space station.
Cullen said the chance to speak with an astronaut has implications for all the students, and not just those at All Saints.
The middle school students with the ham radio licenses will get “thrust into the role of system architect and system operator of a reliable, high-powered space communications ground station whose antennas will need to automatically track an object moving at 17,000 miles per hour.”
All other students will see firsthand how STEAM thinking can be applied on a grand scale, and he said if the school is picked for a radio contact, there’s a chance it could be live-streamed to other state schools.
The Newport County Radio Club will provide the school with technical mentors. Also assisting with the project are: KVH Industries, R.I. Department of Education, ATC Tech and FabNewport.