Sir George Simpson students made first contact with an astronaut this week after placing a phone call to the International Space Station (ISS). Now, if only those darned Romulans weren’t jamming the signal …
About 10 junior high students from Sir George Simpson got to talk with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield Tuesday afternoon about life in space. The students spoke with Hadfield aboard the ISS by radio for about 10 minutes, with the rest of the school’s 550 students listening in.
But it almost didn’t happen. Severe technical difficulties almost scrubbed the event (the land line didn’t work, so they had to route the call through a teacher’s cellphone), and heavy static made many of Hadfield’s replies unintelligible.
Still, talk organizer and teacher Tony Rafaat said the event was a success. “If we had been able to hear the answers a little more clearly, or been able to ask a few more questions … I think that it would have made it a little bit better,” he said. “I think for a lot of people here, when they heard (Hadfield’s) voice come over the speaker, they were like, ‘wow, it’s actually him.’”
Rafaat arranged the call to the ISS last fall through a volunteer group known as Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, which arranges talks between schools and the space station to encourage interest in science. “It gives children an opportunity to experience science in a different and exciting way.”
This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to talk to a Canadian hero in space, Rafaat said. “He’s such an amazing Canadian,” he said of Hadfield. “He’s dedicated his life to being an astronaut.”
Hadfield is the first Canadian to command the International Space Station. A prolific Twitter user, he has posted many photos and videos of life in space, many of them humorous.
In one famous exchange last January, actor and Star Trek star William Shatner asked Hadfield, “Are you tweeting from space?” Hadfield replied, “Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain. And we’re detecting signs of life on the surface.”
Tuesday’s call involved a ham-radio operator in Italy, a teacher in Airdrie, NASA, Hadfield, and the students of Sir George Simpson.
The call relied on VHF radio waves, Rafaat said, which can be jammed by excessive solar activity or interference in the ionosphere. “We definitely saw a lot of static.”
At the time, reports NASA, Hadfield was 400 kilometres above the Earth in the rough vicinity of Italy, orbiting at about 27,600 kilometres an hour.
The students asked Hadfield questions in English, French and Russian, including what he would bring back as a souvenir (a spoon) and what bits of Canadian culture he had shared with his crewmates (folk music, such as Stompin’ Tom Conners).
Student Faith Gault asked Hadfield if he got headaches in zero-G. Yes, he replied, particularly when it came to pressure on the optic nerve, which affected his vision.
Charlea Erickson asked if the stars were any brighter when seen from the ISS. “Yes,” replied Hadfield, “because there are no dust particles or water vapour.”
When asked by Caleb Sorensen what he would be if he were not an astronaut, Hadfield said he’d like to be a combination of a university professor and a test pilot.
When Hadfield’s replies became completely unintelligible, the call’s co-ordinators decided to sign off.
That prompted the clearest reply from Hadfield of the entire chat: “Thanks for talking, everyone there in St. Albert. Bye-bye!”
