American Made Advocacy: Smart Policies Can Ensure AI Data Centers Are Secure
Beyond the Board: Early Engagement Means Faster Prototyping for Defense Programs
Defense Speak Interpreted: The Autonomous Plane Battle—Skyborg Vs. Loyal Wingman
Amateur Radio Hits Milestone on the Orbiting Laboratory
March 15, 2016 | NASAEstimated reading time: 4 minutes
On Thursday, March 10, 2016 astronauts on the International Space Station logged their 1,000th educational contact with the ground. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra answered questions posed by the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium in Grand Forks, North Dakota. No matter how many times it happens, talking directly with someone orbiting above the Earth remains a thrill for students.
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) works through an international consortium of amateur radio organizations and space agencies in the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe. Amateur, or ham, radio operators set up hardware on the ground and call NA1SS, the space station's radio call sign. The suspense is palpable as those on the ground await a reply from space.
A few students prepare and ask questions while hundreds of others, along with teachers, parents and members of the community, listen in from classrooms or auditoriums. The overall goal of this long-running experiment is to interest young people in mathematics and science, and inspire the next generation of explorers.
Crew members typically answer from 10 to 20 questions. These frequently touch on current research and life aboard the station, along with a wide variety of topics from emergencies, whether a human heart beats faster or slower in space, how food is stored on the station, whether astronauts ever get fresh fruit and vegetables, and what returning to Earth is like.
One participant from the 1,000th call asked Kopra what kind of experiments he was conducting on the space station.
"We have lots of different kinds of experiments," Kopra responded. "Many of our experiments have to do with the effect of zero gravity on the human body, because it can be hard on the body - our muscles, our bones and our eyes. We'd like to learn how to solve those problems so that we can stay healthy and go into deep space, perhaps go back to the Moon or Mars someday."
Page 1 of 2
Share on:
Testimonial
"The I-Connect007 team is outstanding—kind, responsive, and a true marketing partner. Their design team created fresh, eye-catching ads, and their editorial support polished our content to let our brand shine. Thank you all! "
Sweeney Ng - CEE PCBSuggested Items
Better Sustainability Policies for Electronics
10/29/2025 | Diana Radovan, Global Electronics AssociationI joined the Global Electronics Association in August 2025 as the director of sustainability policy. Since then, much has happened in terms of geopolitics and in the development and re-envisioning of sustainability policies in the industry. While the European Commission has released several legislative packages to simplify sustainability requirements (“omnibus”), these developments haven’t yet settled and are not in effect. Given the many recent and ongoing public consultations, with often conflicting input from a broad range of stakeholders, final negotiations remain rather polarized among policymakers.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
10/24/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007This week, we have quite a bit of international content in this week’s list of must-reads. Nothing happens in a vacuum, including electronics manufacturing and design, and this has been quite an eventful year. How many of us are now tariff experts? I’m certainly not, but that hasn’t stopped me from opining about the situation.
FCT Leverages Flex Design and Total Build Solutions to Drive Innovation
10/22/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineWhat’s hot in flexible circuits right now? At PCB West, I spoke with Ben Savage, business development manager at Flexible Circuit Technologies (FCT), about their flex design services and end-markets where FCT sees the most flex activity. We also discussed the company’s focus on providing supply chain resiliency, as well as the constant search for new flex engineers. If you’re looking for a new opportunity in flexible circuits, FCT is hiring.
Elementary Mr. Watson: Chasing Checkmarks, Not Signal Integrity
10/01/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonFor the September 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine on signal integrity, I explored how the PCB is similar to a military obstacle course: walls that sap energy like impedance mismatches, barbed wire that cuts like crosstalk, and mud pits that drag a signal down like attenuation. The takeaway was clear that a PCB is not a flat drawing; it's an electromagnetic ecosystem filled with hazards that test every signal that dares to cross it. The real danger lies not in the obstacles themselves, but in the fact that many designers never see them.
Planet to Open New Satellite Manufacturing Facility in Berlin
09/26/2025 | BUSINESS WIREPlanet Labs GmbH, a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, announced plans to begin production of next-generation, high-resolution Pelican satellites in Germany.