Posted May 29, 2017 07:00:22 <\/p>\n
When Australian Air League cadets get a rare chance to speak with the crew of the orbiting International Space Station this week, they will have a precise window of time for their conversation. <\/p>\n
Organiser Marc Lelliott said it was important they did not waste time with well-worn questions of the space adventurers. <\/p>\n
\"The only thing NASA says is to get the cadets not to ask how the astronauts go to the toilet,\" he laughed. <\/p>\n
\"Apparently that's one of the more common ones. We can talk about whatever else we want to talk about.\" <\/p>\n
The link on Wednesday evening, between the aviation museum at Port Adelaide and the space station, will be precise in duration, Mr Lelliott said. <\/p>\n
\"[The space station] will actually be over Santa Rosa in America, we'll have 10 minutes and 38 seconds exactly,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"We're going to use what's called a telebridge, which is like a speaker phone really. <\/p>\n
\"A phone line is plugged into it, NASA will ring us at the museum, once that is established they will transfer our call to a ground station at Santa Rosa, they will convert the signal into radio and beam it up to the space station.\" <\/p>\n
Cadets across Adelaide submitted potential questions, they were judged and culled into a final list and this was formally submitted, to give the astronauts and cosmonauts a chance to prepare answers and make best use of the window of time. <\/p>\n
Mr Lelliott said the hook-up would be truly international. <\/p>\n
\"You've got 20 Australian cadets, a French astronaut who will be in the Russian segment of the space station, in orbit over America,\" he said. <\/p>\n
Cadets also spoke with the space station team back in 2014. <\/p>\n
\"That worked reasonably well, the antenna they used on the station was partially covered by a solar panel so the signal wasn't perfect,\" Mr Lelliott said. <\/p>\n
\"But it was good enough to hear the astronaut and he was able to hear the cadets.\" <\/p>\n
This week's hook-up starts at 7:05pm ACST on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Topics: space-exploration, science-and-technology, education, community-organisations, community-and-society, astronomy-space, port-adelaide-5015, adelaide-5000, sa, australia, united-states <\/p>\n
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\nInternational space station hook-up planned with Australian Air League cadets - ABC Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"