April 23-25, 2010
Boise, Idaho
Saturday Evening Banquet
"There’s
No Air Out There!"
with
Guest Speaker: Dave Marquart
Saturday, April 24, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Cost: $40.00 per
person; includes sit-down dinner
Dinner Menu: Dinner consists of your choice of Rib Eye Steak, Pesto Chicken, or Idaho Salmon, served with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Warm Rolls with Butter, Green Salad with Dressings, Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis, Iced Tea and Coffee Service.
Our guest speaker, Dave Marquart, W7VT, presents "There's No Air Out There!", a short history of the Past–Present–Future of Ham Radio in Space.
When astronauts, cosmonauts and mission specialists from many nations fly on the international space station, they will have amateur, or ham, radio as a companion.
Since its first flight in 1983, ham radio has flown on more than two-dozen space shuttle missions. Dozens of astronauts have used the Space Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment, or SAREX, to talk to thousands of kids in school and to their families on Earth while they were on orbit. They have pioneered space radio experimentation, including television and text messaging as well as voice communication. The Russians have had a similar program for the cosmonauts aboard the Russian Space Station Mir. When U.S. astronauts were aboard Mir in preparation for the long duration missions of the international space station, they used amateur radio for communication, including emergency messaging while Mir was in distress.
As human space flight moves into a new uncharted era, an organization called ARISS, which stands for Amateur Radio on international space station, has been formed to design, build and operate equipment. In 1996, delegates from major national radio organizations and from AMSAT, which stands for the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, in eight nations involved with the international space station signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form ARISS.
NASA and the Russian space organization Energia have signed agreements that spell out the place of amateur radio on the station. A technical team, called ISS Ham, has been officially established to serve as the interface to support hardware development, crew training and on-orbit operations.
In the United States, the American Radio Relay League, which is also known as ARRL, and AMSAT provide leadership and consultation. They also donate and build hardware as well as making sure safety and qualification tests are successfully completed so the equipment can fly. The Russians have provided ports so that antennas can be mounted on the station's Zvezda Service Module — the space station unit that provides living quarters for the astronauts and cosmonauts. United States and Russian teams have trained the astronauts and cosmonauts to operate the equipment. The Italian team has designed and built antennas. The German team has built sophisticated repeater stations that will allow crews to make recorded reports on their daily activities and permit hams on Earth better contacts with men and women aboard the station.
The initial space station operations will be mostly voice and packet, a text messaging device. The first initial radio station was flown onboard the space shuttle Atlantis on STS-106. The crew transferred the ham radio gear into the space station for future use by the Expedition One crew.
More than 40 missions over five years will be required to assemble the international space station on orbit. The astronauts and cosmonauts will work hard on these missions, but they plan to take some time off for educational outreach contacts with schools. NASA's Division of Education is a major supporter of the amateur radio activity.
The sponsoring agencies have stated that they consider access to a ham radio system a requirement for psychological support of the crews, by providing family and general contacts for people who will be in space many weeks at a time.
As the international space
station takes its place in the heavens, the amateur radio community is prepared
to do its part by helping to enrich the experience of those visiting and living
on the station.
About Dave Marquart: In 1985, David Marquart was selected as an Idaho representative to the NASA Teacher-In-Space project, and was chosen as one of the ten national finalists. Dave worked with NASA Education while domiciled at Ames Research Center in California. Following the Shuttle Challenger accident, Dave continued his NASA involvement by designing curriculum and speaking to students, teachers, and educational organizations in the eleven western states. He returned to the classroom in the Boise School District in the fall of 1988 and continued teaching in various capacities until retirement.
In 1994, as part of SAREX (Space Amateur Radio Experiment; now called ARISS, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), Dave provided leadership to over 300 students in the Treasure Valley for the opportunity to talk to Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle. This Amateur Radio activity, sponsored by NASA, AMSAT, and the ARRL, encourages students and teachers to study mathematics and science courses. SAREX was held at the Discovery Center of Idaho and was a success with a record of twenty-two students having the opportunity to ask questions of Shuttle Astronauts. Dave also assisted as a back-up station when McCall students talked with Astronaut Barbara Morgan via amateur radio. Dave provided leadership to the Emmett School District for another NASA/ARRL/AMSAT/ARISS communication activity with the International Space Station and has continued to provide leadership to other schools around the western states as they plan their own ARISS projects.
Dave serves as a board member for the Warhawk Air Museum, provides technical assistance to the Civil Air Patrol for their electronic communications division, and is Project Director for the Idaho STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Aerospace Scholars, a State of Idaho education program.
Dave has a Bachelor’s Degree from Minot State University and a Master’s degree from the College of Idaho. He is married with two adult children and two grandchildren, and currently resides in Meridian, Idaho.
Updated:
Thursday, March 04, 2010
