If all goes according to plan, then by the end of this year,
astronauts aboard the International Space Station making contact with school
groups via ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station - will be
able to supplement their voice transmissions with digital video and audio.
Plans were under way to send the necessary equipment up to the station in
August, according to the ARRL Letter. The program is being spearheaded
by AMSAT-Italy.
Two potential difficulties are that receiving the video downlink
will require a 4-foot dish antenna and that each location's "window"
for video reception would be limited to three-to-four minutes. Program planners
are working to develop a network of ground stations that could create a
"chain" of receivers to pick up signals as the space station passes
over them.