>> Station, this is Houston.
Are you ready for the event?
>> Houston, this is station.
I am ready.
>> Asbury ELEMENTARY school this
is MISSION control in Houston.
Please call mission control for
voice control.
>> Station, this is asbury
ELEMENTARY school.
How do you hear me?
>> Asbury, ELEMENTARY school,
iss has you loud and clear.
Welcome on board.
>> Hello.
We are so excited to be
wuchristina.
This is asbury ELEMENTARY
school.
This is christina koch from the
international space station.
I am from ERIE news now one of
the local television stations
here and a graduates of the mill
creek school DISTRICT.
We are are are so excited.
You can hear us loud and clear?
>> We are excited too and I can
hear you loud ask clear.
>> Can you give our students
a nice big wave?
We are so excited to see you!
There we go.
We know we will watch the hair.
That's one of our favorite
parts.
>> This is our little buddy the
earth that keeps us COMPANY.
He flew up here ON THE Spacex
MISSION and has been here ever
since.
>> I think I can see us all the
way in ERIE, Pennsylvania THERE.
We will get started with
questions.
Are you ready?
>> I am ready.
>> I am in FIFTH grade.
Why do you think being an
ASTRONAUT is important?
What made you decide to be an
ASTRONAUT?
Why is it important for
ASTRONAUTs to land ON THE moon
in 2024?
>> Thank you very much for that
question.
I think it's important to be an
ASTRONAUT because there has to
be people that are willing to
carry out our country's goals
and the world's goals for human
space flight and EXPLORATION.
People willing to do the thing
its takes to fly in space and to
be stewards of places like, THIS
this wonderful station STAOEUGZ
carry out goals like science in
space and doing things like
space walks to keep up the STAYS
station in great working order.
It's important to have people
that are ASTRONAUTs because
those people can carry back to
the EARTHthe experiences they
have AND everyone can
participate on this amazing
endeavor we are on.
It's important to go back to the
moon by 2024.
It is not only GOING to inspire
people, but be a great economic
impact on our technology in the
United States to put us in the
leadership position for future
space travel.
>> Hi.
I am in fourth grade.
How can a kid in ELEMENTARY
school prepare to train to be an
ASTRONAUT?
>> Well, you can start now to be
an ASTRONAUT.
I know my dream to be an
ASTRONAUT started when I was in
ELEMENTARY school.
How I did that when I was your
age, I startedks MORing the
world around me in the ways I
could.
I got spited about my -- excited
about my science KWHRASZ miss
school and explored in the woods
and played outdoors.
I worked on projects.
My dad and I would build things
together.
ANYTHING that involves you
learning MORE about the world
around you.
Obviously doing great in school
is really important and making
sure to follow things your
teachers tell you.
Just having that EXPLORATION
SPIRIT AT this point is what is
really important.
Look AT the world around you and
think about all the things that
you can learn about it.
>> Hi.
I am in third grade.
My question is.
Can you DESCRIBE what it is like
to space walk?
>> Yes, I can.
When I first thought about space
walking before I did it, I
thought it would be a daunting
experience.
Almost scary.
But it turned out it was just an
incredibly beautiful experience
I was well trained for.
I felt very calm during my space
walk and I felt very well
prepared because I HAD done
a lot of practice and hard work
to know the tasks that I would
be doing and to know what to
expect out there.
It's a really great feeling to
be part of a team.
Our team that works on space
walks includes thousands of
people on the ground.
The team on board with our crew
mates that make it possible to
get suited up and go out the
door and to be part of
a teamworking towards one goal
together was a really special
feeling.
>> Hi.
I'm in second grade.
My question is: How do
ASTRONAUTs EXERCISE in space?
>> That is a great question.
Now on earth some of the ways we
EXERCISE GOING for a run,
lifting weights, riding
a bicycle.
Up here without gravity, we
can't even walk, much less go
running and lifting weights
wouldn't work because NOTHING
weighs ANYTHING.
We have special equipMENT
designed by people exactly for
us to be able to EXERCISE up
here.
Just like you might run on
a treadmill ON THE earth, we
have a treadmill here too, but
in order to make us be able to
stand on it, we have to wear
a harness we bungee down to the
treadmill and give us a feeling
of weight on our feet and we
with run.
Lifting weights is MORE
complicated.
They have to find a way to make
resistance so when your muscles
pull they have something to pull
against.
Something you could think about
would be large rubber bands that
have a resistance to pull.
That used to be part of the
MACHINES they would exercise
with in space.
Now we have a different way of
doing it that is kind of like an
ENGINE piston with a vacuum
INSIDE and it's hard to move it
out.
That creates something for us to
pull against.
We have specialized equipMENT to
stay healthy and exercise even
in space.
>> Tell our students here how
long have you been in space if.
>> I have been here for almost
three MONTHs.
And I have got about eight MORE
to go.
>> Hi.
I'm in third grade.
My question is: How does it
feel when you go through the
ATMOSPHERE?
>> Well, I can describe how it
feels to go up through the
ATMOSPHERE.
I have only flown to space once.
This is my first space flight.
I have never flown through the
ATMOSPHERE on the way down.
But I can tell you ON THE way up
it's an aweSOME feeling.
The main thing you feel is the
acceleration of the rocket.
The rockyet is GOING -- rocket
is GOING faster and faster and
faster the entire time you are
in it.
You know when you are on
a roller coaster or in a car
speeding it up and you are
pushed in your seat.
It is like that but stronger.
It rumbles too.
That was the main feeling.
The best feeling is after the
rocket ENGINE shuts off and you
know you are in space because
you start to float.
>> Hi.
I am in FIFTH grade.
My question is: What happens if
someone has a medical emergency
on the space station?
>> That is something very
important that we think about
quite a bit.
As you know, there are only
a few people living on board the
space station.
Right now we are very fortunate
because one of those people
happens to be a medical doctor.
We have expertise.
We can't always count on that.
Not only are we all trained in
basingic medical -- basic
medical, delivering medical
attention and especially
emergency medical attention, we
have special kits we use.
In addition we have doctors ON
THE ground in mission control
waiting to be able to assist us
in those situations.
This is an example of our
emergency medical kit.
And if we open this up it has
everything you need to take care
of a trauma situation.
We feel very safe and well
prepare federal that were to
happen.
-- if that were to happen.
>> Hi.
I am in third grade.
My question is: How do you do
laundry in space?
>> Well, I can tell you up here
in space we are very lucky
because we don't even have to do
laundry.
Because DOING laundry would be
complicated because water
doesn't have gravity to keep it
down in the washing machine, we
just basically use our clothing
for a long period of time and
then we THROW it out and get new
clothing.
This is an example of what we
call in space a two-week brick.
And that is a PACKAGE of
clothing that we will use for
two weeks and it includes
everything we mede for wearing
on board day-to-day in our work
and also EXERCISE.
We just open a new one up every
two weeks and don't ever have to
do our laundry.
>> You can see the kids in
asbury have really great
questions.
>> Hi.
I am in third grade.
My question is: Will you name
five things you do on the space
station?
>> Five things that we do on the
space station.
That is a great question.
Well, in a lot of ways what we
do is just like regular LIFE
LIKE you have down there.
I would say NUMBER one we eat
meals.
We have breakfast, lunch and
dinner up here just like
everybody else.
We can talk about that in
a little bit.
The second thing we do is
science.
So because the space station
exists in micro gravity we have
the opportunity to do a lot of
special science that cannot be
conducted on earth.
Our primary focus here as
ASTRONAUTs is working doing
science.
Another thing we do is
maintenance.
We have to keep the station
running healthy AT its peak
performance and are constantly
upgrading, fixing things and
preventative TPHAEUPBTinance on
things -- maintenance on things.
We sleep.
Just like you guys,EV night we
go to sleep and have very
peaceful sleep here, in my
opinion.
I sleep really well in micro
gravity.
We can talk about that MORE
later.
And another thing we do is call
home.
We keep in touch with our
friends and family AT home.
We are able to do that by phone.
There is a special way we can
call where the phone call
actually GOES through
a SATELLITE DOWN TO earth and is
a phone call to our loved ones.
>> Hi.
I am a special education teacher
and I have my friend.
He is in second grade.
I will read his question for
him.
His question is: Do you think
a disabled person will ever be
able to go to space?
>> Thank you.
I ABSOLUTELY do.
I think that there is no reason
someone who is differently ABLED
or challenged in different ways
wouldn't be able to thrive here
in space and find a wonderful
way to CONtribute here.
One nice thing about the space
environment is it's an
opportunity to see different
ways of doing things.
For example, some of the things
that might make you well ABLED
ON THE earth don't help you here
in space.
For example, if you are a really
fast runner that doesn't help
you float around in space.
I think space is an opportunity
where we can discover that every
different way we are ABLED can
be an advantage depending ON THE
environment.
>> Hi.
I'm in first grade.
My question is: Do you have
phones in space and do you have
good signal?
>> I could not quite understand
that question.
Would you mind repeating that
for me?
>> Do you have phones in space
and do you get A good signal?
>> Now I got you.
We actually do not have phones
like you think of, ones you
hold, but the really smart
software ENGINEERs AT NASA
FIGURed out a way to use our
COMPUTERs as kind of like
a phone.
What we can do is, we just bring
up a piece of software on our
COMPUTERs and it looks like
a picture of a phone and we can
call people that way.
On the earth the people pick up
their phone like it's a regular
phone call, but it's me in space
and my COMPUTER with a head set
on.
>> Hi.
I'm in second grade.
My question is: How do
scientists decide what types of
food to send ASTRONAUTs ON THE
space station?
>> That is a great question.
What we eat in space is very
important because what you share
when you share meals with people
is time to CONNECT with people
and it's IMPORTANT to enjoy that
time.
I think the scientists on earth
think about not only what is
NUTRITIONally important for us,
but what foods do we love from
home that we might be missing up
here that make us feel like, you
know, comfort food.
I have a couple examples for
you.
Most of our food is DEHYDRATed
and comes in packets like this.
How many of you like hamburgers?
I can't hear you, but I bet you
do.
I will show you a space burger.
The first thing we do is open up
the packet and there is another
packet INSIDE that is designed
for us to be able to add water
to it to re-HYDRATE it.
This is what a DEHYDRATed burger
LOOKS LIKE.
We would take this and attach it
to our water dispenser device
and put the right Amount of
water in and wait a while and
before we know it, we have
a great burger to eat.
>> Mix the reaction on whether
or not they would try it.
>> Hi.
I am in fourth grade.
My question is what does water
feel like in space and does it
feel different?
>> Water does feel different in
space.
It tastes the same but feels
different ON THE skin.
The reason is there is no
gravity pulling it down and it
sticks to your skin like you
wouldn't believe.
Let me show you what I mean.
This is a water packet.
This is what we get all of of
our drinks out of, water,
coffee, ANYTHING.
I will show you what it does
when it comes into cop tact with
our skin.
as you can see, water kind of
behaves a little differently up
here when there is no gravity to
pull it down.
>> A little bit.
Wow.
This has been amazing.
Christina thank you so much for
talking with us today.
These are the studentS WHO HAD
aweSOME questions KNEW we are
running out of TIE.
CAN YOU give her a big thank
you?
>> Thank you!
>> I'll have the camera pan to
the rest of the students.
We want to give christina
a really big hand.
>> Can you wave?
[cheering]
Christina from all of us in
ERIE, Pennsylvania from asbury
ELEMENTARY school.
We thank you for spending time
with us today.
>> And thank you to everyone AT
asbury ELEMENTARY.
It is my pleasure to have you on
board the international space
station.
>> This is Houston ACR.
That concludes the event.
>> Thank you to all participants
from asbury ELEMENTARY school.
Station, we are now resuming
operational audio