Ariss also assisted the cartoonist Hank Ketcham with Dennis the Menace and working on various movie sets, as well as being the set director for the I Love Lucy show.
The relationship between the two families was of long standing: Ariss was the great-grandson of Col. Nicholas Spencer of Cople Parish, Westmoreland, who had patented the Mount Vernon estate with his friend Lt. Col. John Washington.
The idea for this novel OSCAR satellite was first formally discussed at an AMSAT symposium in October 2004, although the ARISS-Russia team is credited with coming up with the idea as a commemorative gesture for the 175th anniversary of the Moscow State Technical University.