On February 3, 2006, cosmonaut Valery Ivanovich Tokarev hand-launched the Amateur Radio satellite SuitSat-1 from the International Space Station during an extra vehicular activity (EVA), NASA's term for a spacewalk. A discarded Russian ORLAN spacesuit, SuitSat-1 was equipped with an Amateur Radio transmitter that transmitted telemetry and greetings from youngsters to the youth of the world in several languages. In 2010, an Amateur Radio satellite -- ARISSat-1 -- will once again be hand launched from the ISS. Like its predecessor, ARISSat-1 will transmit messages recorded by students, and teachers and students are invited to "fly a file" aboard this Amateur Radio satellite.

"The ARISSat-1 Team wishes to include a memory stick of files prepared by students on our new satellite," explained Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF. "This should be a .jpg or a PDF of things the student has prepared." He gave such examples as a paper or a study done on a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) topic, a drawing of spacecraft or a schematic, a journal kept on a STEM topic, a story or news article about a STEM subject or a photo of the class doing a hands-on STEM activity. "Having the students' work be a part of ARISSat-1 means the student is a part of the satellite project and along for the spacewalk and deployment of ARISSat-1."

Dave Jordan, AA4KN, will take delivery of these files via e-mail and copy them onto a memory stick and make them available on the Web for anyone to see, Bertels said. "The quantity of files and the size of a file are unlimited, since memory sticks provide for a very large amount of file space."

Bertels said that files must be either in .jpg or PDF format -- no Microsoft Word documents will be accepted. Jordan will ensure that the material sent in is appropriate for students. Files can be in any language, as long as an English translation is also included as a text file.