1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,120 Do you copy, Josh? Over. 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,840 The ISS is currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean. 3 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:10,000 This contact will be performed using the Amateur Radio Telebridge Network. 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:13,440 Josh will be talking to students at schools in eight countries 5 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:15,360 of the Caribbean and Central America. 6 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:19,040 These students sent questions related to disaster and natural hazard 7 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:22,480 monitoring, such as hurricanes, volcano eruptions, 8 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:25,360 tsunamis, coastal erosions and climate change. 9 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,720 Okay, I am calling now. 10 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:32,720 Here it is. 11 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:34,400 That’s us, that’s us. Got’em! 12 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:36,680 Welcome aboard the International Space Station. 13 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:37,360 Good. 14 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:39,120 Good afternoon, Josh. 15 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,120 You're signal is loud and clear. 16 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,480 If you are ready, I am going to pass the microphone to the first student. 17 00:00:45,480 --> 00:00:46,240 Over. 18 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,720 I have you loud and clear and I'm ready for questions. 19 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:50,400 Over. 20 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:52,480 Raul from Panama. 21 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:55,240 What is the International Space Station? Over. 22 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:56,840 Hello. 23 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:00,520 Well, the International Space Station is the largest spacecraft 24 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:02,320 that we've ever built. 25 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:04,480 It is a floating laboratory. 26 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:09,920 It's about the size of a football field, about about 100 meters across. 27 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:14,480 And in the part that we live in, it's about the size of a six bedroom house. 28 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,920 And we're traveling at over 17,000 miles an hour 29 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:21,720 or just about 250 miles above you. 30 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,880 And, in fact, just a couple of minutes ago, we passed over South America 31 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,240 and will be over Saint Lucia in less than an hour and a half. 32 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:33,360 Santiago from Costa Rica. 33 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:41,920 How do you see meteorological events from space 34 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,720 and what is it like to be there? 35 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:47,800 Over. 36 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:51,440 Well hanging from the bottom of the space station 37 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:55,240 is something that looks like half of a soccer ball. 38 00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:00,600 And each half of each face of that soccer ball is a beautiful window 39 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,840 that we can look out and see our beautiful planet. 40 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,800 And so we love to spend a little time there whenever we can, 41 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:11,920 because the view of our planet is really breathtaking. 42 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:17,000 And I'll tell you, when I'm in there, it is never, ever boring. 43 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:21,920 There is no part of this planet that I don't absolutely love looking at over. 44 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:24,880 Willow from Antigua and Barbuda. 45 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,560 If a hurricane is happening, can you see it in space? 46 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:29,680 Over. 47 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:32,280 In fact, we can see hurricanes from space. 48 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,560 We are only 250 miles above you 49 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,720 and racing around the planet so we can see these big storms. 50 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:42,640 We can see them from the cupola. 51 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:47,520 We can take high resolution photography and we can see when they're coming. 52 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,040 Lucia from the Dominican Republic. 53 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,320 How long did you study to become an astronaut? 54 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:54,600 Over. Hello Lucia. 55 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,440 In fact, I feel like I've been studying my whole life to be an astronaut. 56 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:00,760 And I don't know that I'm ever going to stop 57 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,960 because I really, really enjoy learning new things. 58 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:07,440 In my previous life, I was a physicist. 59 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:10,680 I studied physics, and then I became a pilot in the U.S. 60 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:14,760 Navy and then eventually a test pilot before I became an astronaut. 61 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,920 And so the best thing about this job is there's always something new to learn, 62 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:25,080 whether it is how to live and work in space and get better at that, 63 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,800 or if it's helping our researchers do their experiments and learn 64 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:31,920 new things about their fundamental science that they're doing. 65 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:32,880 Over. 66 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,400 Gabriel from Cayman Islands. 67 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:37,880 What do you do in space? 68 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,160 Over. Hello Gabriel from the Cayman Islands. 69 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,800 Well, I'll tell you, every day is different up here. 70 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:46,960 Some days we're doing 71 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,480 research and helping run those experiments that we were just talking about. 72 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:53,440 And those experiments go from everything from biology 73 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,400 to physics to research on the human body. 74 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,240 Or sometimes we're doing maintenance on the space station, and sometimes we 75 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:06,560 have to do even more adventurous things like go grapple and catch a cargo vehicle 76 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,080 with a robotic arm or go outside and do a spacewalk. 77 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,040 And in fact, just last week we did a spacewalk 78 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,800 and we built some new apparatus that we can put a solar array on. 79 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:19,800 And we're going to go put solar arrays on next week over. 80 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:22,040 Daena from Saint Lucia. 81 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,880 Do you study and measure climate change from space? 82 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:25,760 Over. 83 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:29,160 Well, we can certainly take photography from the cupola 84 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:32,480 like we were talking about, and we can see the effects of climate change 85 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:33,720 from time to time. 86 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,080 But primarily we have instruments that are mounted on the outside 87 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:42,520 of the space station that are used to collect data on the planet itself, 88 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,680 whether that be surface temperature or atmospheric content. 89 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:51,000 And that helps us give information back to the researchers and the scientists 90 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:53,640 to help us understand where we are, where we're headed, 91 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:55,080 and what we can do about it. Over. 92 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:57,520 LeAnn from Antigua and Barbuda. 93 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,720 When a volcanic eruption happens, can you see the effects from space? 94 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:02,600 Over. 95 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:03,600 Hi LeAnn. 96 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:04,920 We absolutely can. 97 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:07,640 In fact, we did have an astronaut a couple of years ago 98 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:11,200 who saw a volcano erupt and he actually made 99 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:15,240 a call down to Alaska and let them know what he saw. 100 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:17,120 And they didn't even know it was erupting yet. 101 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,160 So, yes, we can absolutely see volcanoes from up here. 102 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,440 Over. Benaniah from Saint Lucia. 103 00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:26,480 What are the impacts of space hurricanes and does it affect us here on Earth? 104 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:27,320 Over. 105 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:30,560 Well, space hurricanes 106 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,000 are a little different than the hurricanes we're familiar with on Earth. 107 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:36,120 You know, the 108 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:39,680 hurricanes on Earth are based on water and rain 109 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:42,960 and pressure differences and even the rotation of the Earth. 110 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,360 The space hurricanes tend to come from 111 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:49,920 energetic electrons that are coming from the sun, 112 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:54,240 and then they collide with oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere. 113 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:54,600 And that's 114 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:59,480 what makes those beautiful colors, the greens and the blues of the aurora. 115 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:01,080 And that's actually some really, 116 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,600 really neat quantum mechanics that makes that happen. 117 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:08,520 And sometimes very rarely, but sometimes the magnetic field of the earth is such 118 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:13,080 that it actually makes a swirl of that aurora and makes it look like a hurricane. 119 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:18,800 But the good news is that doesn't have an effect on us, on the planet. 120 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:20,040 There's no threat there. 121 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,840 It does sometimes maybe affect our satellites a little bit. 122 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,920 But I haven't seen a space hurricane yet, but I'm keeping my fingers 123 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:29,040 crossed for sure. Over. 124 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:31,120 Joash from Saint Kitts and Nevis. 125 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,600 Do other planets have volcanoes? Over. 126 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:36,280 Hello, Joash. 127 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:40,480 Yes, there are other planets with volcanoes. 128 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:45,360 We see a lot of old dead volcanoes around the solar system. 129 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,280 In fact, I think it's just Earth and maybe Jupiter's moon Io 130 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:52,440 that have active volcanoes right now. 131 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:55,680 We think that there might be some on Venus 132 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:02,040 and maybe on another one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, but we're not quite sure. 133 00:07:02,280 --> 00:07:06,120 But yes, there are definitely volcanoes throughout the solar system over. 134 00:07:06,840 --> 00:07:08,440 Nicole from Costa Rica. 135 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:09,680 When does 136 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,720 the Sahara sand cross the Atlantic Ocean? 137 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:13,480 Over. 138 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:15,960 We haven't seen it yet because that tends to happen 139 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:19,080 in the middle of the summer., but I'll keep an eye out for it. 140 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,080 Over. Christian from Panama. 141 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,320 What does the moon look like up close? 142 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:27,760 Over. Great question. 143 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:28,800 If you go Google it, 144 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,600 there are some incredible images of the moon that we've taken just this week. 145 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:33,880 Those pictures are breathtaking. 146 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:35,080 Over. 147 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:36,960 On behalf of Hieem from Trinidad and Tobago. 148 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,360 What can I do to make sea levels stop rising? 149 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:40,360 Over. 150 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:41,360 I think you just did it. 151 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,440 I think the very first thing we need to do is ask what we can do. 152 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,480 We are absolutely in a spot 153 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:52,080 where we're affecting the planet and we hope we wish that wasn't true. 154 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,520 But wishing that it's not true doesn't help us solve the problem. 155 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:58,320 So I think that humans are smart enough and resourceful enough to fix it. 156 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:04,200 And if we're all together, we can actually solve this very hard problem over. 157 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,040 We have a loss of signal. 158 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,840 Ladies and gentlemen, we just shared a moment in history. 159 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:10,760 Ciao from Italy. 160 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,280 Thank you. Bye. 161 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:34,040 Subscribe for more space.