An International Space Station Expedition 14 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at the Juvenile Space Club in Tatsuno, Tatsunomachi, Nagano-pref, Japan on Saturday, March 24, 2007. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 00:39 UTC.

Station 8JOT in Japan will call NA1SS at approximately 00:39 UTC.

This rather smaller sized town, which has about 22,000 populations is located about 2,450ft high from sea level and surrounded by several mountains. These mountains are called as part of the roof of Japan's.

In the town, there are 5 elementary schools and one junior high school. Because plenty of natures remaining, it is good habitable place, but most children are living in a closed or isolated area, geographically and even from the information lines.

Under these circumstances, now 20 children, gathered from 3 elementary schools, are now ready to make contact with an astronaut on the ISS, after about 7 months of extra studies.

Before the August 2006, they did not know that the ISS exists and several astronauts are working in the space. Of course there was no opportunity to speak English.

After started extra classroom, they opened their eyes for space and absorbed much knowledge concerning the ISS, Space Shuttles and Space and English as well, like a sponge sucks up water.

The members consist of 8 girls and 12 boys, who are from 10 years to 12 years old.

As you can see, queries made by boys are rather on the Hardware of ISS and many queries by girls are regarding the human life in the ISS, say, Software.

From the April, all 12 year old children will go to the same junior high school in the town and subjects like natural science and English will newly be started for them.

However, those children, who are member of this Space Club, will enjoy learning the new subjects because they already have opened the first door for those by them self.

The extra classroom is assisted by 8 Amateur Radio Operators who all of them are quite familiar with the Satellite Communication.

The special lecture, given by the JAXA personnel in the September 2006 has surely brought a confidence for them to start new school life.

Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1. On the ISS, can you watch normal television programs on the earth ?
2. In the ISS, is the bath system installed ?
3. Have you aver had any arguments among the astronauts in the ISS due to heavy stress built up,?
4. How will you do in case of the ISS gets damaged and faces breaking up, ?
5. On the ISS which countryfs time zone is used, ?
6. Display of the fire works are held on the earth. Can you see those fire works from the space,?
7. After your return to the earth, what will be the very first thing you do ?
8. What is the room temperature inside of the ISS ?
9. Do you always wear the same clothes while you are living in the ISS ?
10. During your stay for almost half a year in the space, do you not feel lonely ?
11. Has the ISS had ever been struck by meteorites ?
12. What is the hardest thing about your work on the ISS ?
13. How do you dispose of waste from the ISS ?
14. Does you body weight fluctuate during your stay in the ISS ?
15. Is it possible to make a phone call from the ISS to anyone on the earth, ?
16. How often do you talk to your family over the phone ?
17. Have you ever seen shooting stars from the ISS ?
18. Do you have time to read books during your stay in the ISS ?
19. Was it your dream to be an astronaut when you were a kid ?
20. Do you have any wish to have another variety of space foods in the future, over ?
21. Can you now cultivate and eat any vegetable on the ISS ?
22. Is it possible to catch other satellite by hand during the space walk ?
23. Did you take any special celebration on the last Christmas day in the space ?
24. I am 12 years old. If I have decided to be an astronaut in my mind, are there any particular things which I have to do now for it ?
25. Why ISS does not maintain more higher altitude from the earth ?

For everyone's information and future reference. When any ARISS event is supported through the IRLP "Discovery" Reflector 9010, audio is automatically streamed to the Internet. It is then available via the "Discovery" Reflectors companion web site www.discoveryreflector.ca . Once on its main page, select "Audio Library" (left sidebar). The prompt to join the audio stream is posted at the top of this page. More directly the URL is as follows: www.discoveryreflector.ca:8000/listen.pls

Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact can be found at 'NextContact'.

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website www.rac.ca/ariss (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).