I am ready welcome students over oh we love to play with our food here it's a lot of fun I think
my favorite is slices of apples actually because they spin really interestingly they're regularly
shaped and it's a lot of fun over oh it's so amazing to see just how delicate and fragile
our atmosphere is it's so thin and unlike my spaceship where we have a metal hull to keep
in our atmosphere on the earth it's really just it seems so delicate when we look at it from up
here over it's a lot like floating in the ocean or floating in a bathtub maybe it is actually
really relaxing sleeping here while we're floating
you sleep in a sleeping bag that is tied to the wall and so I don't float away and it feels
really cozy that way over oh we have so many fun things to do here already but I'm really grateful
that my mom actually sent me a toy walrus that I had when I was a kid and it reminds me of what
it was like to be a young child and have a lot of curiosity and imagination about exploring which I
now get to do for a job over yes great question
it is true because your spine has a little bit of a curve in it when we're up here and we're
weightless that curvature stretches and so most people grow about one or two inches or a couple
of centimeters and unfortunately we go back to normal height when we get home to earth over
yeah great question to us if I just close my eyes it feels like I'm perfectly still the same way
maybe if you close your eyes on a really fast train or a really fast bus you don't realize how
fast you're going until you look out the window it's all relative over I really love all of the
research we do on our own human bodies because this is important as we get ready to go back to
the moon for long durations and onto Mars knowing how the human body operates in space is really
important but as astronauts we also experience a lot of the same changes that people who are aging
or have certain diseases on Earth experience and so this research is also really helpful just having
a little time off at the front desk to think about what I can do about that and showing it in the
Research helps the people at home, too.
Over.
In some ways, I think I was used to it right away.
It felt really natural and really fun to be floating.
But I've definitely gotten better and better at moving around up here the longer I live here.
I think the hardest thing is trying to turn around quickly if you realize you forgot something.
It's hard to stop and hard to turn around without bumping into stuff.
Over.
I've never actually seen it from Earth.
I've only seen it from space, but it is so beautiful.
We can see it extending from about 80 kilometers above the Earth all the way up to 300 kilometers above the Earth.
And we can see from horizon to horizon.
It's so big and so beautiful.
We've had a lot of great aurora lately.
Over.
The hull of our space station actually flexes and expands and contracts a little bit,
especially when it goes in and out of really hot sunlight.
Just like if you have maybe...
a barrel at home that sits in the hot sun.
Sometimes it will make a really loud noise when it expands suddenly.
And we hear those same kind of bangs and pops here on the space station.
Over.
We do see satellites.
Luckily not too close, but we can see them going over the horizon.
And they look like shooting stars.
It's beautiful.
Over.
I haven't done a spacewalk yet, but I hear it's incredible.
And we use special tethers, kind of like a retracting leash,
and really small tethers to keep us close to the surface.
Over.
We can't take showers here, but you can just squeeze a little bit of water into your hair
and use just a little bit of soap.
It's a great practice for being very conservative with water.
But it works pretty well.
Over.
I'm a biologist, and I would love to research some of the possible life
that could be existing on the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
So I would love a space station out there.
Maybe someday.
Over.
Over.
Over.
Over.
That's a great question.
I really miss the feeling of wind blowing on my face.
I really miss weather.
And I really miss the sensation of sitting on a very comfortable chair.
Over.
That's a great question.
When we look down at Earth, of course, we can't see borders.
We can't see individual people.
But we can definitely see the impacts of what people do as a whole on the Earth.
We can see forests or the lack of forests.
We can see airplane contrails.
And I think it's very important to remember that even though we are very small,
we do have a big impact on our Earth, and we should take care of it.
Over.
Oh, thank you so much for having me talk with you.
Thank you for the great questions,
and congratulations on making contact with the International Space Station.
I hope you all continue to pursue the things that make you really curious.
I think that will bring you a lot of joy.
Thank you.
Thank you.
