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The Planetary Society BlogBy Emily LakdawallaA Student Astronaut talks with a Space Station astronautJan. 16, 2007 | 09:51 PST | 17:51 UTC
I was originally hired at The Planetary Society primarily to work with the students from around the world who participated in our Red Rover Goes to Mars program. It's always a pleasure to get updates from these young people as they continue to follow their interests in space. Former Student Astronaut Vignan Pattamatta just had the opportunity to join a live conversation with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, specifically Sunita Williams, who is the second Indian-American woman to go to space. (The first was Kalpana Chawla, who perished in the Columbia disaster). Vignan wrote up the following report for his local newspapers. --ESL
Today is a very special day for me, in particular -- I would get to make my first call to space! Incidentally, today also happens to be the day of the successful launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). For the first time, the PSLV was carrying four payloads, two Indian and one each from Argentina and Indonesia. This is also India's first bid at re-entry technology, which marks the first step towards achieving a manned mission to space. The video conference was at an odd time -- ten in the night. But I was surprised to see the American Centre teeming with news reporters and live-telecasting vans. Quite obviously, the Indian public is beginning to get interested in Science and particularly Space Science. This interest actually crept into people with Kalpana Chawla being selected into STS-107. She was born in a small town in India, studied in a local school and went on to pursue Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College. Her stint in space was awe-inspiring to everyone who followed the mission but it wasn't until the disaster that the media began to widely report about her life and mission. She became a household name all over India virtually overnight and her name continues to inspire everyone to aim high. I went in and found a seat in the huge auditorium and had a look at the program schedule. There were some speeches lined up before the actual conference. Surprisingly, these speeches were not as boring as they generally are. Dr. Satish Kulkarni began, talking about the Indo-US relationship in Space Science. Apparently, the cooperation between these two countries in Space Science was at its peak at this time. In fact, the very first rocket that the ISRO launched in 1963 was a US made Nike-Apache sounding rocket. Over four decades later, the Administrator of NASA Mike Griffin came down to the headquarters of ISRO and entered into a deal with Madhavan Nair, the Chairman of ISRO regarding the inclusion of two U.S. instruments on Chandrayaan, India's first mission to the moon which is set for launch in early 2008. There was also an Indo-US Joint Space Working Committee formed that met in Bangalore recently and was to meet for the second time in Washington, DC. Sadly, people are not at all aware of these developments in the Space front. One nuclear deal between India and US would, however, make the headlines for days together. Anyway, Dr.Kulkarni went on to say that India is growing into a powerful space-faring nation that would surely make its mark on the exploration of Moon, Mars and beyond. The next person to speak was Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to step into outer space. Wg Cdr (retd.) Sharma spent eight days in space aboard the Salyut 7 space station in 1984, as part of a joint space program between ISRO and the Soviet Interkosmos. My dad remembers very well the day when the entire country was watching on TV the live confrerence between the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi and Rakesh Sharma in orbit. Indira Gandhi asked Sharma how India looked from space and Rakesh Sharma fondly replied that it was better than all nations. It was a moment of pride for every Indian and was the beginning of public interest in space science. Rakesh Sharma has retired recently after a long career as a test pilot and is now participating in crafting India's space policy. I was very happy to have him talking to us. Rakesh Sharma began with saying that during the Cold War, the Space Agencies of the world were highly competitive. This confrontation of the past has now led to cooperation and Space Science is now a platform for international collaboration. He then went on to narrate his experiences as an astronaut and how he gasped when he first looked at the earth from above. Wg Cdr Sharma then took questions from students ranging from elongation of the spinal cord in zero-g to the way astronauts can experience both the sheer vastness of the universe and the claustrophobia of living in a metal capsule at the same time. Rakesh Sharma's eyes shone as he relived the wonderful moments of those eight days. Rakesh was also the first to practise yoga in space and experiment its effectiveness in combating the debilitative effects of weightlessness. After Rakesh Sharma, Dr. David Mulford, the United States Ambassador to India, who attended the conference with his wife, took over. He said that it was unbelievable how we could talk to people so far away (he laughingly admitted that he did not know how far away) and share their experiences in space.
The first ten minutes of the interaction was with a gathering in Madrid, Spain with Michael Lopez-Alegria taking the questions. Though I couldn't understand what they were saying, I enjoyed observing the astronauts in zero gravity. They were continuously bouncing and the gold chain that Sunita wore was lying horizontal. I was sure that the astronauts were enjoying the zero-gee environment because they were smiling wide throughout the interaction! After the interaction with the Madrid audience was done, Sunita went off screen for a while and came back with a water bottle. I knew what was to come. They pressed the bottle and the audience gasped in surprise. Two drops of water intrepidly ran upwards and had to be eaten (yes, eaten) by Michael. The astronauts were teasing all of us kids here and left us longing for the zero-gee experience.
When my turn came, I started with 'Dear Sunita' and Sunita laughed at that. I told her that every person in the audience would love to go to space but asked what keeps her going every time, what's her driving force? I also asked her if she would like to live permanently in a Space Habitat. Sunita gave me a thumbs-up from space and started that she would definitely want to come back to space another time. Firstly, she said its absolutely fun living up there. She loves floating around the place like Mary Poppins. This cursory thing apart, she is proud of contributing to science and our understanding of space and spacecrafts. To my second question, she said that she wouldn't want to live permanently in space because of the many things she has got to do and many people she has got to visit on Earth. After that, Sunita went on to say something for a couple of minutes but unfortunately, we couldn't hear her. We could just look at her talking something. The connection probably had a problem. The conference was therefore done and though it was for a brief 10 minutes, it was very exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it and so did every one in the audience. After the conference, I talked to Rakesh Sharma and got his autograph. I also had a couple of words with the Ambassador and the Director of Birla Planetarium. The event definitely charged the public with interest in space, particularly the student community. Everyone loved the part of how the earth appears without any borders from space and looks wonderfully blue and serene. If only it was like that in reality! The day thus ends and as I write this report, I am returning to Hyderabad from Delhi. The short interaction was like venturing into a far off dream-land and was a welcome break to my study regime. I now fear that my teacher will scold me for missing school today. Sigh! If only I can get onto the ISS as a permanent astronaut or something.
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