Kids ask the real question about space
Kids ask the best questions. That’s why we’re turning the mic over to young space enthusiasts wanting to ask an astronaut their burning questions about space exploration.
Veteran NASA astronaut, Winston Scott, joins the show to field questions from our younger listeners about what it’s like to live and work in space.
Our future astronauts asked Scott some basic questions like how he became an astronaut, how to use the toilet, and what foods do they eat. We learned a popular drink from our childhood is also a hit on the International Space Station.
“Everybody in the audience knows what a Capri Sun is. Well, Capri Suns came from the space program because that's the way we drink our liquids and space,” said Scott. "All the liquids are in drink bags like a Capri Sun, you put a straw in the bag, and you sip it. The difference is that when you're done sitting in orbit, there's a clip that allows you to close the straw up otherwise, the rest of the liquid would float out of the straw and out into the spaceship,” Scott said.
One curious participant asked about the tolls spaceflight takes on the human body, and how long it takes for astronauts to return to their normal bone density.
“Your body will leach, give up so much calcium, and you probably will never regain all the calcium that you lost when you're in space,” Scott said. “How long it takes to get back to 100% normal, depends on how long you were up there.”
Even after Scott’s return to earth, he said that he had to be cautious of how he walked, to avoid injures and stress fractures. His muscles were sore because he was carrying his own weight, and over time, he regained his balance.
Boeing’s Starliner is closing in on a chance to bring humans to space
After several delays pushing the mission back for years, Boeing’s Starliner is now cleared for a crewed test flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as early as May 6th.
Since the Space Shuttle’s retirement in 2011, SpaceX’s dragon capsule has been the only U.S. based vehicle to carry crews, ferrying its first astronauts in 2020. If all goes as planned, Starliner could be an additional U.S. based capsule to bring astronauts to the ISS.
Host of space podcast Main Engine Cut Off, Anthony Colangelo, said that this Starliner mission can be beneficial for NASA and ultimately the International Space Station in the long run.
Colangelo said that NASA wants SpaceX and Boeing to be alternate providers for missions to the ISS every six months.
“It's especially important, if one does run into an issue where they have to have some downtime to work on something, we have the other one to still fly up to the ISS. And we don't get into a situation where, [Russia’s] Soyuz would be the only way to the ISS,” Colangelo said. “And up till now that's been the case with Dragon were to have an issue, we would just have the Soyuz again, crew size would be quite limited on the ISS for a while.”
In terms of launch, Starliner should be identical to SpaceX’s mission in May of 2020. The objective of the mission is to prove that Starliner’s crew systems are functional in space.
Starliner is hitching its ride to space on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V, which will be the first time a human will be on an Atlas rocket since the Mercury program of the 1960s. Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will be the first human passengers in the vehicle, with Williams being the first female commanding a human flight of a spacecraft.
“I think all these issues and the state that's Boeing, there's just more pressure on these kinds of missions. They need to make sure everything's right, because this cannot go wrong in any way,” Colangelo said. “It's a really critical moment for the program overall. NASA needs this to work out for their own plans as well. So I think that should give everyone confidence that things are going to go well.”
