Russian astronauts start 6.5 hour spacewalk

Although they may be floating up the Earth incredibly high above the planet, they are not entirely out of reach, in fact, they can be quite easily reached with a simple home radio set-up.

The global Space Station is located over 200 miles above the Earth and communicating through the orbit a pretty tough job. Another complication is the other ham radio operators trying to do the exact same thing you are, complicating the bandwidth.

To start, you need a radio (pdf), but before you run off to order one you should know that depending on your country, there are different licenses you may need to transmit on it. In England, for example, it’s fine to listen in without a license, but sending radio messages requires first passing an exam. The most common times to find a crew member making casual periods are about one hour after waking and before sleeping, when they have personal time.

Because not everyone has the opportunity like he does, the veteran who is on his tenth excursion out of the worldwide Space Station celebrated his moment by taking a selfie during his spacewalk.

After getting the appropriate licenses, the selection of frequencies come next. “The swabs are kind of a type of terry cloth”, spacewalk specialist Devan Bolch said in a NASA video published before the walk. NASA allows you to easily determine when the space station will be in your location, or you can try this pass predictor from AMSAT. You can convert UTC to your local timezone with this tool.

Then you’ll need to get yourself some proper equipment.

NASA said that the idea behind the out-of-this-world fare is to provide future astronauts with sustainable food supplements especially for long-distance trips, like to Mars. The communication of the astronauts and the people via ham radio does not interfere with the system that the experts used between them. And just think, any Earthling that makes contact would technically be speaking with extraterrestrial life.