Astronaut speaks from space to USU students
Utah State University students in the NASA Get Away Special program received an out-of-this-world phone call Saturday.
The GAS team, along with faculty members and students from public schools, participated in a 30-minute teleconference with NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who is currently aboard the International Space Station.
The GAS students used the time to ask Pettit science-related questions as part of his “Saturday Morning Science” routine.
“What happens is these astronauts on the space station every Saturday have free time so they don’t go insane,” said GAS team member Andrew Auman. “Some watch movies or read books. Don actually does science experiments.”
Auman said with the help of USU graduate Ned Penley, who works at NASA and the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium, it was arranged for the students to speak with Pettit during his free time.
The GAS students asked Pettit about a number of subjects, ranging from capillary action to whether a yo-yo would function in microgravity.
“I’ve got a number of yo-yos up here with me that I use for recreation and for doing scientific investigation, if you can consider it that,” Pettit said. “I’ve actually written a couple of papers on this, and I’ve published them in the Yo-Yo Times.”
As the crowd laughed at the astronaut’s comment, Pettit confirmed to them there is such a publication.
“I’d like to make sure I point out on my résumé that I was published in the Yo-Yo Times,” he quipped.
The live teleconference between students and the astronaut was a first, Auman said.
“Typically, groups of students will have teleconferences with NASA, and then NASA will relay the questions to the space station,” he said. “The space station will then relay the questions back to NASA.”
Students attending the teleconference said it left a lasting impression on them, as it was a great opportunity to interact with an astronaut in space.
“I have an opportunity to talk to an astronaut on the space station and ask him questions about the field that I’m interested in. It’s kind of inspiring,” said Michael Mamanakis, a sophomore studying chemical engineering. “I am tickled pink.”
Mamanakis said the chance to speak with Pettit was an excellent way to focus what he had been learning and be able to apply it to real-life situations.
Jeff Duce, a sophomore mechanical engineering student who explained he has been involved with the GAS program since high school, said he got just about everything he expected out of the conference with Pettit.
“The really cool thing was his answers coming back were a lot different than I expected,” Duce said. “It turned out pretty good.”
In the future, Duce said he would like to do a teleconference again and wouldn’t mind who it was on the other end, as long as the person was in space.
“As long as they spoke English. The Russians might be more difficult [to talk to],” he said.
Mamanakis praised the GAS program and the opportunities, like the conference with Pettit and the ability to send experiments into space, it gives to students.
“We’re collecting data that no one’s ever collected before, and we’re just a bunch of college students,” he said. “It’s an amazing opportunity that this program is giving us.”
-str@cc.usu.edu