Nasa astronaut to kids: You can do anything

Anahita Mukherji & Srinivas Laxman | TNN

Mumbai: What’s it like to fly a space shuttle? How do you eat your food while floating in a space ship? And after two weeks in space, how do your legs feel when you’re back on earth? These are just a few of the questions that former Nasa astronaut Joan Higginbotham fielded while visiting schools in Mumbai on Friday. Mission Apollo, an Indian company working for space education, got Higginbotham to India to motivate kids to study math and science.

In a session with nearly 1,000 school children from 103 schools across the city at Nehru Planetarium, the children learnt, to their surprise, that apart from technically participating in a space flight along with Indian-American astronaut, Sunita Williams, she had also played the role of a “barber” to Sunita, on this mission. This unknown aspect of the space shuttle flight (STS-116), which operated between December 9 and 22, 2006, was revealed by Higginbotham during a media interaction after her presentation to students.

Said Higginbotham, “During the space flight, Sunita had grown her hair. She wanted it trimmed and I decided to cut it. Sunita’s cut hair was later donated to an American programme known as ‘Locks of Love’, which helps people suffering from cancer.”

Higginbotham was also a close friend of Kalpana Chawla, the Haryana-born Indian-American astronaut who died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster seven years ago. “Kalpana was a very well-respected and giving person. She flew to space before I did and was very ready to share her knowledge as well as the mistakes that were made while flying,’’ said Higginbotham. She and Chawla were both avid readers and would often recommend books to each other. “There was this one book that she had recommended, and I forgot the title. I meant to ask her about it later, but sadly never got the chance.’’

Her message to children in India — “You can do anything.’’ The sky is not the limit, quite literally. “I’m not saying that all kids should become astronauts. All I’m saying is that they can do whatever they want to in life.’’

Both children and teachers got to see video footage of Higginbotham’s 13-day stay on board a space ship, in a bid to understand what it’s like in outer space. While images of dinner time, where the crew got together, some towards the floor and some sitting near the ceiling, flashed on the screen, Higginbotham spoke of what it was like to eat and drink on a shuttle. The liquid simply floated in the shape of little spheres which the astronauts would get into their mouth.

As for exercise, the shuttle had a cycle for the crew, as they barely used their legs while ‘flying’. One of the crew members even got a frisbee along for fun. Higginbotham showed her audience pictures of two of her team-mates tossing her about like a ball as she floated around the space-ship.

In response to a question on how it felt like to walk after 13 days in a spaceship, she said she felt like an elephant. “We had to get used to walking the way newborn kids do. I felt so heavy,’’ she added.

“What is the criteria for becoming a Nasa astronaut,” asked a student. Replied Higginbothams: “You have to be an American citizen. You should just not have academic excellence, but you should be well rounded. A lot of emphasis is laid on intrapersonal relationship, she said. To a question about space tourism she said: “I think we have to carry as many people as possible to space. But, they must realise that space flight is dangerous.”

Answering a question about the possibility of a manned mission to Mars, she said, “Before we get to Mars we need to develop technology which will get us to the planet in a shorter period of time. Now it takes nine months,” she said and pointed out that Nasa has no immediate plans of embarking to the Red Planet.

SPACE JOURNEY: Joan Higginbotham interacts with school children at Nehru Planetarium on Friday