Last Thursday, 14/4/2022, an event was held at the Herzliya Science Center in which students from several schools in Israel spoke with the Israeli Eitan Stiva during his stay on the International Space Station using a radio amateur device
Seemingly something routine, because it is easy to contact the space station through NASA's ground and satellite transmission and reception systems and even in high band (with prior coordination of course), but nevertheless the students returned to the days of radio. But it's not just a conversation, it was preceded by many technological preparations because the students themselves operate the ground station that is usually used by them to communicate with the Earth's satellites (and before that, Dukifat).
This evening too, it was the students themselves, students of grades XNUMX-XNUMX who prepared the infrastructure and had to overcome a malfunction that caused the antenna to not synchronize with the space station and they did so successfully while losing three minutes out of the ten minutes that the station passed over Israel.
Mika Ben Ari, an XNUMXth grade student at the Engineering and Physics School at the Science Center in Herzliya described how the training they receive - projects that have to be dealt with from A to Z is better than the usual blackboard and chalk method.
"Instead of sitting and listening to the teacher, we come here to the satellite laboratory at the Science Center. We communicate by radio with the satellites, and everything starts from zero. We have to plan everything from A to Z. If there is a problem, we go and solve it. Unlike normal schools that are built more on memorization - even in subjects like mathematics.
Learn from dealing with failures
"We prepared for a long time for this communication with the space station. You never know what the problem will be. We prepared backups upon backups and planned the solutions for possible malfunctions, yet there were problems at the beginning, not everything went smoothly and you have to think about where the problem could come from and how to solve it. We were able to hear Stiva until the space station reached an altitude of four degrees and there the antenna was not locked. First we disconnected a device from the computer and when we reconnected the antennas did not synchronize. Two students together with the instructor David Greenberg managed to overcome the problem. We were afraid that after all the effort and preparations we would miss the opportunity. For example, I built an electric circuit that I programmed from scratch, I even drilled and soldered. that's how you learn.
In the conversation, Ben Ari asked Stiva what was the hardest training he went through and how he felt when he saw the Earth for the first time. "It's hard to believe that we are talking to someone on the space station and he is answering but to us during the mission." she said afterwards (the answers: training camp in Alaska, excitement).
Absolutely great excitement. This is an experience I will remember. The whole program gives me direction in life. From the XNUMXth grade I learned things I never knew I would do - build satellites that fly into space. It's wierd. This program helps me in many areas, whether it's in professional knowledge or whether it's speaking in front of an audience, working in a group, managing the social aspect, having a lot of friends, a transformer, I love
Shlomi ben Avraham, ben Kitatan says that the project helped him learn about the field of frequencies, a lot of concepts. There are very few such programs in the education system in Israel, but they also do not come close to what we do here. Ben Avraham changed his city of residence and school in the middle of the XNUMXth grade - from studying biomedicine in Holon he moved to study engineering sciences in Herzliya and is therefore relatively new to the satellite project. "When I heard about the program I was intrigued. I did not believe that children could build satellites. At school they helped me complete the material but they didn't give it to me on a silver platter. I have to research things and prepare the experiments myself.
Moshe Inger, a representative of the Radio Enthusiasts Association, with whose help the broadcasting operation was carried out, said that the radio enthusiasts are the heart of the project. "The astronauts on the station are all radio enthusiasts. Those who promote technology today are eccentric people who deal with broadcasting and developing new products, as well as solving problems. Why freaks? There could have been many more, but unfortunately the professional schools disappeared for one reason or another and we need events like this to educate the youth and adults in space sciences, communication sciences and the field of electronics."
Inger also added, because he sees the enthusiasm of the students, "Once I came here at nine in the evening. The children were working on a robotics project, and the parents brought them dinner on a whim."
On Saturday night, the students once again held a night of preservation - this time due to the surprising renewal of the connection with the Dokifat 3 satellite after about two years of disconnection (See exclusive news on the science website).
More of the topic in Hayadan:
One response
This is how young people are educated that it is good to abandon the future of humanity to the mercy of the arbitrary will of people whose only talent is the ability to make money for themselves (sometimes in questionable ways such as arms trading and more).