Andy Thomas on Mir
Astronaut Andy Thomas, nearing the completion of 100 days aboard the Russian Space Station Mir, took time from his science activities to answer questions that had been submitted by Australian school children.
Astronaut Andy Thomas, nearing the completion of 100 days aboard the Russian Space Station Mir, took time from his science activities to answer questions that had been submitted by Australian school children.
Question 1, from Chinchilla State High School Tara Road, Chinchilla, Queensland:
What is the most memorable thing that has happened since you've been up there? What sort of foods can you eat whilst in space? i.e. are there any specific vitamin requirements because of weightlessness?
Answer: The most memorable thing IS the weightlessness, being in zero gravity 24 hours a day and living and functioning on a continuous basis in zero gravity is really an extraordinary experience and it's a lot of fun, too. Take it from me. We have a variety of food, Russian food and American food. They're the kinds of food you might have on a camping trip: freeze-dried food, canned food. They're very good. They're very nutritional. As a consequence we don't really need to take additional vitamins because of the weightlessness. In fact, you need to be careful not to have too much minerals in your blood stream in a weightless environment because it can cause problems.
Question 2, from Amy Affleck, Year 5M, St Joseph's School, Busselton, Western Australia:
Dr Thomas, I know that you have special food while in space but do you also have special drinks or do you have water and where does it come from? Also, is there a favourite meal that you are looking forward to having when you come home? I would also like to know what does it feel like to look at your home planet from Mir.
Answer: We carry water up here on the shuttle to resupply the vehicle, and we recycle water on a daily basis up here from the air conditioning system too so that we make maximum use of the water that we have. Favorite meal? That's going to be a tough one. I think roast beef is probably pretty high on the list though. And what's it like to look at the home planet? You know, it's strange, when you look at the planet, and being a long way from it, you might think that you were distant, but you actually feel very close to it because you see it ina very familiar view. You see it in the way you are are accustomed to seeing it in maps and you can see the lay of the land and the continents the way you see them in maps. So it actually looks very familiar, and you actually feel a lot of empathy and feel very close to the planet.
 Andy Thomas on Mir |
Question 3, from Gavin Hamilton, 1st year multimedia, KvB College, Sydney, New South Wales:
I was wondering. Can astronauts see stars while in space?
Answer: Well, yes, of course you can. You can see them just for the same reason you can see them at night. We circle the earth 16 times a day, and when we're on the dark side of the planet, when there's no sun, then you can see the panorama of stars much like you see on Earth. When we're on the light side, the sunlit side of the Earth, you can't see them because the sunlight is so bright it washes them all out, just as it does during the day on Earth.
Question 4, from Year 7 classes at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne:
Do you ever feel alone, and has being in space changed your dreams and ambitions?
Answer: No, I don't feel alone. I'm always with my crewmates. You do feel a sense of isolation sometimes, that's certainly true, and a sense of confinement. You never feel claustrophobia. I don't know if it's changed my dreams and ambitions, but there's a lot of time for personal introspection up here and a lot of time to think about what you're doing with your life and the way things are and what you want to do and what the next step, and it's a good time for thinking about things like that.
Question 5, from Richard Drummond, Year 11, Geelong College, Victoria:
How is your Russian? Do you have problems communicating? What do you miss most from Australia?
Answer: Right now I miss the weather and the sunshine, and I would have to say a walk along one of those Australian beaches in the sunshine would feel awfully good, and I'm looking forward to doing that perhaps later in the year.
Question 6, from Graeme Healey, Year 10, Gosford High School, New South Wales:
Are you at risk of any disease or infection on the space station, or is it a sterile environment without any of those problems?
Answer: I know Gosford. I went there once when I was very young. Graeme, you're right. It is actually a sterile environment and we're at fairly low risk from picking up an infection because there's no way an infectino can come into this environment. In fact, at this time of year, which is spring time in the northern hemisphere, I'm often plagued by allergies and hay fever and things like that. This year I have no such problems because of the sterility of the environment that we have up here.
Question 7, from Mark Larance, Year 12, St. Columba's High School, Springwood, New South Wales:
Do you get much free time, when you can just relax and watch the earth go by, or are you consistently at the science and other work aboard MIR?
Answer: Yes, we do have free time. We have a work day that's 8 to 10 hours of work and the rest is rest and recreation and I use that time on a lot of occasions to look out the window, particularly after I've done exercise. I try to exercise about once a day in the middle of the afternoon, and I usually go to the window after the exercise with a casette player or a CD player, listen to music and cool down a bit from the exertion and just watch the Earth go by. It's a very relaxing moment.
 Andy Thomas on Mir |
Question 8, from Rhiannon Miller, Year 1, St Michaels Lutheran, South Australia:
My dad says Mir goes over Adelaide about six times a day but says there are only some days we can see it. Is this right? If it is, why?
Answer: I don't know if it's about six times day, but it's only a few times a day that we're in the range of sight of Adelaide or any other ground site and that's because we're orbiting around the Earth, and as we're orbiting around the Earth, the Earth itself is rotating on its axis, and it's only when those two rotations come into synchronization and line up at the right point that we're above a certain site that you'd be able to see us. And then, of course, you have to have the right light. It has to be, usually, early evening or early morning so the sunlight is just right, reflecting on us so that you can see us. But yes, you can see us, perhaps a couple of times a day, although it changes.
Question 9, from Fraser, Year 7, Burnside Primary School, South Australia:
What sensations do you feel when you re-enter Earth's atmosphere?
Answer: Well, of course, I haven't reentered the atmosphere yet from this mission, but I did on my previous mission two years ago. The thing it feels like most is a sensation of being really heavy and really pulled down. If you can imagine stepping into a lift, and as the lift starts to rise up, you feel your stomach being pulled down, and you feel that heavy sensation, it's like that only much, much stronger and much, much longer lasting. And that's what if feels like to come back to Earth. Of course I'm going to get to do that again in June, after having spent four months up here, so I imagine it's going to be a very intense feeling for me. It's going to be interesting to see how it goes.
Question 10, from Isaac McLeenan, Grade 5, St Pius Primary School, West Dubbo New South Wales:
How could a 10-year old boy from Australia achieve entry into the NASA space program? What study do I need to do?
Answer: I studied engineering, but there are career opportunities in the space program for most of the professions -- engineering, science, physics, medicine. Very often postgraduate study's useful. Strong technical qualifications can lead to opportunities in the space program.
Question 11, from Yvette Pointon, Year 12, Methodist Ladies' College, Perth, WesternAustralia:
The Chaplin at my School was involved in NASA before he came to Perth a few years ago. He has gotten us very interested in 'Space'. I was wondering how did you become involved in NASA? Can anyone join NASA? How can I become an Astronaut?
Answer: The key is to get good education because NASA seeks people who have the best professional credentials. So the best thing you can do is get a good education and enjoy the work that you do and that can lead to opportunities in NASA and in other fields too.
 Andy Thomas on Mir |
Question 12, from Damian Jones, Year 11, Chinchilla State High School, Queensland:
Hi, my question is if you took a water gun up into space, opened one of the space ships doors and squirted it out - would the water keep on travelling straight ahead or would it turn into thousands of little crystals.
Answer: Damian, you're right. It would turn into thousands of little crystals. As soon as it would hit the vacuum of space, the droplets would immediately freeze into lots and lots of little crystals. In fact, we do something just like that in the shuttle. We have a lot of waste water in the shuttle that we vent overboard and you can see it when it goes out. It's a stream of ice crystals going out into space, white, shiny ice crystals. So we know first hand what happens.
Question 13, from David Hamilton, Year 10, Melbourne High School, Victoria:
Hello, I want to ask Dr Andy if it is harder to get to sleep in space than on the ground?
Answer: No, it's not actually. In fact in some ways it's easier because when you're in space, you're floating, just like I am now and so you don't need a mattress and you don't need a pillow because your head's not going to fall back. You just float. You do need to tie yourself down with some straps, some Velcro or something, or you'll float away, but there's no pressure points on your body and you lie there so it's very comfortable and you can actually sleep quite easily. I was very surprised when I first flew in space at how easy it is to sleep.
Question 14, from Joshua Clulow, Year 7, Merewether High School, New South Wales:
Do you think that large groups of people could live in space for extended periods of time with our current technology?
Answer: Yes, Joshua, I see no reason why that couldn't be done in principle. We have the means to sustain living conditions up here, for example in the space station, for a handful of people as we've done, and there's no reason why that technology couldn't be expanded to a larger scale. It's really not a question of technology, it's a question of motivation and a question of economics as to whether or not we will in fact do that. I'm sure that in years to come that that will eventually happen. It may be some years away, but it will eventually happen.
Question 15, from Ben Gebbie, Padstow North Public School, New South Wales and Ashleigh Gebbie, Mount Saint Joseph College, Milperra, New South Wales:
Dear Andy, what do you do physically each day to maintain your normal muscle mass and to physically tire yourself. Also does the lack of gravity affect the digestion of your food?
Answer: We do exercise each day to keep the msucles working. We work with rubber expander cords, bungees, to stretch the leg and arm muscles, and in order to get a cardiovascular workout we do physical exercise on a treadmill and we also have a cycle ergometer that we can use to exercise and we do that on a regular basis to prevent some of the deterioration that goes with being in zero gravity. The last part of the question about does zero gravity affect digestion of food, no it doesn't seem to. When you first enter zero gravity you have a bit of queasiness in the stomach because your vestibular systems a little bit out of balance, you feel a little strange, but that passes fairly quickly, and then you feel normal, like I do now, and you're able to eat and drink food just as you would on Earth. in fact, we all have a very healthy appetite up here.
Hear Andy sign off after answering the questions (1.3Mb .wav file).