Nudging students to reach for the stars
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams visits Galt school
Wearing a blue flight suit sporting patches from her two missions to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams showed an audience of seventhgraders at Robert L. McCaffrey Middle School in Galt pictures of Earth taken from outer space, including a few of her hometown of Boston, Mass., during a Friday morning assembly
“This is the view we had from the space station, so if anyone here doesn’t think the world is round, it is. I remember looking out of the window on the observation deck for the first time and my first thought was, ‘Holy moly, it is round!’” Williams said.
Williams told the students that pieces of the space station were manufactured in various countries around the world, and were assembled in space almost 20 years ago. She emphasized the importance of teamwork from all of the countries, saying that only by sharing technology with one another were they able to successfully construct the space station over the course of 10 years.
Despite her love of being an astronaut, it was not Williams’ first career choice.
While she had originally planned to become a veterinarian, she said, she enrolled at the United States Naval Academy at the age of 17 after being rejected by several colleges.
“I really liked it because there were a lot of team activities there. I wanted to be a Navy diver, but there was no space in the program. ‘Top Gun’ was out, so I went to flight school where I learned to fly helicopters and change their engines and rotary blades,” Williams said.
Williams later became a test pilot for the Navy, she said, which is where she first met an astronaut and sparked her interest in space travel.
Williams spent 21⁄2 years training at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, she said, where she practiced using tools such as a robotic arm, used a large swimming pool to simulate microgravity and learned how to repair almost every part of the space station, inside and out, before she joined the crew of Expedition 14/15 in 2006 for her first mission.
“The space station is like your house. Sometimes things break and you have to fix them and sometimes you get to just chill out and take pictures,” Williams said.
Williams returned to Earth after 61⁄2 months in space, she said, before heading back to the ISS in July 2012 as a part of Expedition 32/33, where1 she would stay for another 4 months. While onboard, she studied the long-term effects of microgravity on plant growth as well as the human body, she said, as part of the preparations for a human expedition to Mars in the next 5 to 10 years.
“There has been this idea for quite some time of ‘Let’s go to Mars, find out what’s happening on Mars and maybe see if we can even live there. Of course, we have to eat, so plants are very important. That’s all an idea right now, but it’s actually becoming a reality. Part of all this is imagination — coming up with ideas — then putting them to the test,” Williams said.
Williams then answered questions from the audience, starting with her first trip to outer space, saying that it takes approximately 71⁄2 minutes to get to space on a space shuttle, and her first experience with microgravity.
“It’s pretty weird. You take your glove off, you’re used to putting it in you lap, and it just floats. It’s so much fun. It’s like being a bird, but also like being a fish because you’re sort of swimming as you float around,” Williams said.
Due to the lack of gravity, Williams’ spine expanded, she said, causing her to grow about an inch. When she returned to Earth, however, gravity caused her to shrink back to her normal size. She also told the students that the ISS orbits Earth once every 11⁄2 hours.
“In one day, you get to see 16 sunrises and sunsets, so that’s pretty cool,” Williams said.
To compensate for the changes to the astronauts’ sleeping schedules, Williams said, the space station runs bright lights for 16 hours to simulate daylight, before turning them off while they return to their sleep stations where they keep books, family pictures and other reminders of home.
Although she could not answer questions about Area 51 or the existence of aliens, Williams did let the students in on one secret: The source of their drinking water. Due to the lack of natural water sources, she said, the space station recycles the astronauts’ sweat and urine, running it through a filtration system to render it safe to drink.
“We do a lot of maintenance on the system, because we have a vested interest in making sure it works,” Williams said.
When a student asked about the requirements to become an astronaut, Williams said that a degree in the science, technology, engineering and math fields is the first step. Candidates must also be in good health, she said, and must learn how to treat various injuries and illnesses as there is not always a doctor onboard the space station.
Experience as a pilot is another useful skill, Williams said, as the controls for space shuttles and the robotic arm are quite similar.
“I think the biggest thing is that you have to be open to learning something new, because where else can you learn about space other than being there?” Williams said.
As Williams drew her presentation to a close, McCaffrey’s principal Ron Rammer thanked her for sharing her experiences before presenting her with a challenge coin bearing the school’s bulldog mascot as well as a motto, which he read to the audience.
“Every accomplishment begins with the decision to try. On behalf of McCaffrey Middle School, I want to thank you for coming here today,” Rammer said.
Norman Lewis, a professor at Washington State University who works with NASA to study plant growth on the ISS, helped Kathy Lucchesi, a seventh-grade math teacher at McCaffrey to not only take part in the study, but also to bring Williams to speak at McCaffrey.
“I wanted my students to have this opportunity. My students are experimenting with oxygen and plant growth, and tying it in to math and science. When Norm said this could happen, he put me in contact with NASA, who brought (Williams here),” Lucchesi said.