It’s been 40 years since the first astronaut called a radio ham to Earth. His name is Owen Garriott, who on December 1, 1983 called Lance Collister in Frenchtown, Montana. The call was made when Garriot was part of the crew who spent 10 days in space aboard Spacelab-1 and was the first communication between an astronaut and a non-NASA person. All were possible thanks to radio amateurs.

Most of the astronauts aboard the Artemis 2 mission, which will send a quartet of people around the Moon in late 2024, are certified radio operators and, according to an interview posted in SpaceThere is great chance that the astronauts can call home from space.

“We think it’s important for everyone, especially children, because it determines what they want to do with their lives, to have the opportunity to speak with astronautssaid Phil A. McBride, president of Radio Amateurs of Canada. After four decades of communicating with low Earth orbit, he added, the hope is that radio amateurs will go further: to the Moon.

Currently, today’s amateur radio operators communicate with astronauts through the station of the International Space Station (ISS), with the main purpose of allowing students to speak directly with astronauts. In 2022, NASA reports that more than 100 crew members have been connected with 250,000 participants on earth through this.

At the moment it is not clear if on board Artemis 2 they will have the amateur radio equipment since the mission manifesto has not yet been decided. In theory, however, the main requirements would be adequate power and storage space for radio equipment, free time for the crew to radio during their 10-day mission, and line of sight to Earth. All this possible.

The call of science

Three of the four Artemis 2 astronauts are certified radio amateurs. The other crew member, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, was studying for an amateur licensing exam in 2019 when her year-long mission was postponed six months earlier. Koch delayed certification to complete training for the mission for his stay of 328 days which ended on February 10, 2020. This indicates that Koch could also possibly connect directly to our planet from the Luan.

According to McBride, amateur radio tends to inculcate valuable interdisciplinary skills in the community. Math skills are essential, as well as technology. The current ISS collaboration involves all major partners: NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Roscosmos (the Russian agency) and the Canadian Space Agency. Artemis will have a similar international focus for its crews, so presumably if it becomes takes the radio amateur aboard these missionsseveral countries will be involved and will be able to participate.

The astronauts themselves have spoken of how much this kind of contact means to them. “I get excited every time I read a contact report radio amateur – concludes NASA astronaut Sunita Williams -. You go through the questions and it looks like there are only 10 kids, then you read a report on how many people attended this event and how much preparation and time the kids took. It’s good to know that it has such a big impact.”

In the same way that the Moon landing caused an increase in applications to pursue scientific careers, being able to speak with an astronaut who is on the Moon at the time can change the lives of thousands of boys and girls take this example and follow it.