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![Previous (earlier) Story](/images/sty-down.gif "New "Beyond the Repeater" Course in Beta Testing"){kind=small} Previous: New "Beyond the Repeater" Course in Beta Testing |  Next: FCC Proposes to Hike Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Fee |
 Dr Norm Thagard as he appeared during his NASA astronaut days. Thagard logged more than 140 days in space during his career. [NASA Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 26, 2003--Former NASA astronaut and Mir veteran Dr Norm Thagard, ex-K4YSY, did yeoman's duty answering youngsters' questions about life in space after an effort to contact the International Space Station via ham radio failed over the weekend. Thagard spent about 15 minutes during the grand opening celebration for the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee answering youngsters' questions originally intended for ISS Expedition 6 crew commander Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP. NASA said Bowersox had priority duties aboard the ISS that prevented him from being on hand at NA1SS for the scheduled March 22 QSO. The contact was arranged by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program.
"For astronauts in low-Earth orbit, the main entertainment is going to be just looking out the window," Thagard said in response to one of the questions posed by teams of 12 middle school students. Thagard serves as board chairman for the center and is associate dean of College Relations at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering. The Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee is a kindergarten through grade 12 outreach facility of Florida A&M. The 32,000-square-foot facility is located on Kleman Plaza in downtown Tallahassee.
Thagard also explained that surface tension of liquids helps to keep foods in place while eating. "You have to be real careful," Thagard added, recalling a time he accidentally released some hot chocolate into zero gravity.
The weather in space is "always sunny if it's day," he said, because there's no atmosphere. A "day" in space consists of 50 minutes of light and 40 minutes of darkness, as the spacecraft orbits Earth approximately every 90 minutes. "It certainly does foul up your circadian rhythm, your normal sleep-wake cycle," Thagard said. Astronauts can see weather on Earth below, however, such as clouds and storms, he added.
Thagard said he knows Bowersox and Expedition 6 crew member Nikolai Budarin, RV3FB, with whom he trained for his Mir stint in 1994 and spent five days aboard the Russian space station during a crew transition in 1995. He told another pair of student questioners that "folks get along pretty well in space."
The best thing about being in space is "just floating around," Thagard said. "It's like being in a swimming pool but without the water."
Thagard has extensive space experience on several space shuttle missions, and in 1983 was a member of the Spacelab-3 science mission aboard the Challenger. In 1995, he spent four months as part of a Mir crew and conducted several school contacts via R0MIR.
 The Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee. |
Student questioners came from several area schools. The Challenger Center, named to honor the shuttle Challenger crew lost in 1986, uses an aerospace theme to foster interest in math, science and technology and motivate students to pursue careers in those fields. The center features a state-of-the-art space mission simulator and an IMAX theater as well as a domed planetarium. The film Mission to Mir was one of the theater's inaugural offerings.
Perhaps most frustrated by the failure of the ARISS contact was veteran Earth station control operator Nancy Rocheleau, WH6PN, who called NA1SS repeatedly throughout most of the 10-minute window. "That's a tremendous disappointment for us," Rocheleau said afterward, noting it was the first unsuccessful ARISS contact she'd ever experienced. Rocheleau got up at 3 AM Hawaii time to handle the contact from the well-equipped station at Sacred Heart Academy in Honolulu.
ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said he appreciated the fact that Thagard stepped up to the plate to handle the questions. It's not known if the contact will be rescheduled. Audio from the event was distributed via a WorldCom teleconferencing circuit. The College of Engineering's club station KF4LOA also was on the air for the grand opening celebration.
ARISS is an international program with
participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA. For more information, visit the ARISS Web site.
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