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“I just thought it would be cool,” she said.
The program is run though Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, an international organization supported by NASA and the space agencies of Canada, Russia, Japan and Europe.
There’s amateur radio equipment aboard the space station that allows astronauts and cosmonauts to communicate with students all over the world without taxing official NASA communications channels.
NASA teacher coordinator Lori McFarlane said the program had brought space talks to schools, children’s hospitals and other organizations. Typically, children have in-person learning sessions about the International Space Station before they start to iron out what questions they’ll ask the astronaut.
McFarlane urges students to think carefully about their questions — the astronauts have been asked too many times about how to use a space toilet and how they sleep. But the Ottawa students have come up with an interesting set of questions, she said. One student wants to know if COVID-19 is a concern for astronauts.
The astronauts enjoy talking to students as well. “Let’s face it, it’s a nice break from all the serious work they do,” McFarlane said. “Sometimes it gets cancelled because they have to do something serious.”
This will not be a long conversation. The space station travels so fast that the astronauts see 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. The Ottawa students will have only a 10-minute window to talk to Hopkins before they get cut off.
The goal of the program is to get students interested in science, engineering and technology, satellite communication, wireless technology and radio science.
Often, students are amazing at how clearly they can hear the astronaut’s voice, McFarlane said.
“Our goal is to have the kids dream. Anything is possible, even talking to people who are not on the Earth.”
Students and members of the public listen to the conversation on YouTube. The program starts at noon Friday and the discussion with Hopkins will start at about 12:40 p.m.
