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The ARISS team, from left: Front 鈥� Megan Jordan and Rebekah Clark. Back 鈥� Ocean Bowling, David Tutinzhu, Aiden Price, Joseph Hayes, Tony Lope and Jaiden Stark.

Space Hardware Club

Eight area sixth and eighth graders will be placing a long-distance call to lower Earth orbit when they dial up the International Space Station (ISS) via ham radio on April 7.

The students from New Hope Elementary, Sparkman Middle and Mountain Gap Middle schools will get a rare live interview with the ISS astronauts from the SHC Communications Lab in the 麻豆精品视频 Engineering Building, courtesy of a Space Hardware Club (SHC) team at 麻豆精品视频 (麻豆精品视频) and the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program.

The SHC team took on the project after a proposal was submitted to ARISS by Amber Porteous, a junior in aerospace engineering at 麻豆精品视频, a part of the University of Alabama System. Advised by Dr. Richard Tantaris, a mechanical and aerospace engineering lecturer, and Dr. Gang Wang, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, SHC has been involved with ARISS before, most recently in 2017.

鈥淲e luckily got the contact,鈥� says Porteous, a Mobile native. 鈥淚n May of 2021, we heard from the ARISS organization that we were one of nine organizations that had been accepted for a contact in the spring of 2022.鈥�

ARISS worked to schedule the contact while SHC worked on organizing the ham radio station.

Porteous served as the SHC鈥檚 outreach manager last year and says she developed a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education.

Rebekah Clark, a junior aerospace engineering major from Tampa, Fla., who is the current SHC outreach manager, says her passion for outreach began when she was a Girl Scout for 13 years in grade school and hosted team and individual service projects to win awards for community service. They often involved educating younger Girl Scouts or students younger than herself.

鈥淎fter finishing my time in Girl Scouts, I came to 麻豆精品视频 and began to miss being involved in service projects and I missed the opportunity to be in front of students,鈥� she says. 鈥淪oon I heard of the vacancy for the SHC outreach program manager position, as well as Amber's successful application to the ARISS program, and I immediately wanted to jump in headfirst as this is a major program that Amber and I could not have completed without each other."

ARISS鈥� David Jordan is the team鈥檚 technical advisor.

鈥淗e鈥檚 been able to walk Amber and I through the logistical process and paperwork needed to be approved for ISS contact,鈥� Clark says. 鈥淜athy Lamont serves as our ARISS educational advisor and has been able to help us organize our educational day presentations for each middle and elementary school.鈥�

She says ARISS contact veterans, 麻豆精品视频 alumni and former SHC members Beth Dutour and Mark Becnel helped the team, as well.Through its outreach programs, the ARISS effort has affected many more than the eight students invited to participate in the ISS contact, Clark says.鈥ㄢ��

鈥淒uring our educational visits to the schools, the 麻豆精品视频 SHC ARISS team was able to teach approximately 800 students about STEM topics such as rocketry, high altitude ballooning, ham radio and the history of the ISS,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n addition to this, the ARISS contact event will be publicly streamed and we hope to reach even more students beyond Huntsville and Madison County.鈥�

The students who will speak to the astronauts were selected by the SHC ARISS team after a blind question submission process.

鈥淥ne of the biggest rules we gave the students when submitting questions was, 鈥業f you can Google it, it's too easy a question,鈥欌�� Clark says.

Once the team narrowed the submissions to around six or eight questions, a poll was created for SHC members to vote on which questions they liked the best, she says.

鈥淥nly after this double vote would we return to find the names of the students and reach out to the school to let them know who was selected.鈥�

ARISS SHC members are:

• Sam Morrison, Ham Radio Team Lead, senior, physics, Grant, Ala.
• Ocean Bowling, Contact Team Lead, freshman, aerospace engineering, Louisville, Ky.
• Areeb Mohammed, Education/Contact Team, junior, computer science, Brentwood, Tenn.
• Megan Jordan, Education Team, junior, aerospace engineering, Mobile, Ala.
• Alexandra Federigo, Contact Team, senior, mathematical science, Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Spencer Christian, Education Team Lead, junior, aerospace engineering, Nixa, Mo.
• Victoria Tarpley, Education/Contact Team, junior, mechanical engineering, Roxana, Ill.
• Tristan Carter, Education/Contact Team, junior, mechanical engineering, Haleyville, Ala.
• Michaela Tarpley, Education/Contact Team, junior, aerospace engineering, Roxana, Ill.
• Joseph Hayes, Education Team, senior, aerospace engineering, Helena, Ala.
• Aiden Price, Education Team, sophomore, mechanical engineering, El Dorado, Ark.
• Taylor Borden, Education Team, sophomore, aerospace engineering, Lawrenceburg, Tenn.
• Shivani Patel, 麻豆精品视频 Rocketry Senior Design Team, senior, aerospace engineering, Lebanon, Tenn.

鈥淲e have had some really great support for our ARISS project,鈥� Clark says. 鈥淲e have had a lot of Space Hardware Club members volunteer for our educational days.鈥�