Facebook Live
Facebook Live — from Space! Astronauts Talk with Mark Zuckerberg
Three space station astronauts chatted live today (June 1) with Facebook's founder about experiments and joy in space, the things that training can't prepare you for, and the true astronaut ice juice.
The live-streamed movie marked the very first use of Facebook Live in space, and the discussion among Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Tim Kopra, and British astronaut Tim Peake garnered hundreds of thousands of views as it was happening and Two.6 million views as of press time.
Zuckerberg read off questions asked by Facebook users, throwing in a few of his own as well, delving into how the astronauts spend their time in space. [Amazing Space Photos by British Astronaut Tim Peake]
Besides running experiments that take advantage of the lack of gravity — "physical science experiments that range from combustion to fluid flow to microbiology," Kopra said — the astronauts discussed how their existence itself is an experiment to measure microgravity's effect on the human figure. So they're permanently exercising and measuring the switches in their physical attributes, like eyesight.
All three astronauts trained to prepare for those effects and the tasks they'd have to accomplish on orbit. But some aspects of life in space were unlikely to convey through training, said astronaut Tim Peake, who's almost six months into his very first space mission. (Peake is the very first British astronaut to stay on the International Space Station.)
"As a rookie astronaut on my very first flight, there were so many fresh practices," Peake said. "The training is phenomenal, and we have a wonderful training team all around the world, in all our international sites. [But] it's the real practice of launching in a Soyuz rocket, observing that very first orbit of planet Earth going through a sunset, witnessing a moonrise, witnessing a sunrise — you can't put into words how beautiful a planet is from up here.
"And also having the privilege of watching it switch over the almost six months that we've been up here now already, and eyeing the Northern Hemisphere going from winter to summer, watching thunderstorms at nighttime, the aurora — it's just absolutely incredible," he continued. "It's all of those kinds of elements that the training just can't prepare you for."
The trio also discussed communicating with the other astronauts, using English, Russian or a mix of the two; the internet service in space, which is relatively fresh and amazingly useful for keeping in touch, albeit much slower than on Earth; and the cool fresh virtual reality tech they've been testing out in the space station's halls.
The astronauts also delved into what they do for joy. Williams, who is on his third long-duration stay on the station, mentioned he also particularly likes viewing the Earth: "All the different seasons and stuff that goes by, the different lighting conditions and weather patterns, and all the geography and geology and the ocean currents, and thunderstorms, eyeing lightning ripple across a weather system — that's a lot of joy," he said. "So we spend a lot of time in the window," he said.
Another pastime, often done during meals, is playing around in microgravity. "We all, from time to time, especially around the dinner table, play with our food in unique ways," Williams added. "We all get to be kids again."
The astronauts discussed how food tastes very slightly differentin microgravity, very likely because an increase of fluid in the head makes the astronauts feel slightly "slammed up." They particularly love spicy foods for that reason, Williams said.
And Zuckerberg asked another food-based question, getting the information that indeed matters: Is astronaut ice fluid a real thing?
"We know that the astronaut ice fluid that you buy in the bounty store, that powdery stuff — yeah, that's not real," Kopra said. "But we've had ice juices on board. When SpaceX came up, they delivered a bunch of ice juice and a freezer, so that's been fairly the treat. I think we're down to our last few bars. We're attempting to ration it."
The three astronauts won't have much longer to save it, however; Kopra and Peake comeback to Earth June Legitimate, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and Jeff Williams will head down in September with cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.
June 24, three fresh team members will join the orbiting lab: American astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. But they most likely shouldn't count on any leftover ice fluid.
Facebook Live
Facebook Live — from Space! Astronauts Talk with Mark Zuckerberg
Three space station astronauts chatted live today (June 1) with Facebook's founder about experiments and joy in space, the things that training can't prepare you for, and the true astronaut ice fluid.
The live-streamed movie marked the very first use of Facebook Live in space, and the discussion among Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Tim Kopra, and British astronaut Tim Peake garnered hundreds of thousands of views as it was happening and Two.6 million views as of press time.
Zuckerberg read off questions asked by Facebook users, throwing in a few of his own as well, delving into how the astronauts spend their time in space. [Amazing Space Photos by British Astronaut Tim Peake]
Besides running experiments that take advantage of the lack of gravity — "physical science experiments that range from combustion to fluid flow to microbiology," Kopra said — the astronauts discussed how their existence itself is an experiment to measure microgravity's effect on the human assets. So they're permanently exercising and measuring the switches in their physical attributes, like eyesight.
All three astronauts trained to prepare for those effects and the tasks they'd have to finish on orbit. But some aspects of life in space were unlikely to convey through training, said astronaut Tim Peake, who's almost six months into his very first space mission. (Peake is the very first British astronaut to stay on the International Space Station.)
"As a rookie astronaut on my very first flight, there were so many fresh practices," Peake said. "The training is phenomenal, and we have a wonderful training team all around the world, in all our international sites. [But] it's the real practice of launching in a Soyuz rocket, witnessing that very first orbit of planet Earth going through a sunset, witnessing a moonrise, witnessing a sunrise — you can't put into words how beautiful a planet is from up here.
"And also having the privilege of watching it switch over the almost six months that we've been up here now already, and observing the Northern Hemisphere going from winter to summer, watching thunderstorms at nighttime, the aurora — it's just absolutely incredible," he continued. "It's all of those kinds of elements that the training just can't prepare you for."
The trio also discussed communicating with the other astronauts, using English, Russian or a mix of the two; the internet service in space, which is relatively fresh and amazingly useful for keeping in touch, albeit much slower than on Earth; and the cool fresh virtual reality tech they've been testing out in the space station's halls.
The astronauts also delved into what they do for joy. Williams, who is on his third long-duration stay on the station, mentioned he also particularly likes viewing the Earth: "All the different seasons and stuff that goes by, the different lighting conditions and weather patterns, and all the geography and geology and the ocean currents, and thunderstorms, witnessing lightning ripple across a weather system — that's a lot of joy," he said. "So we spend a lot of time in the window," he said.
Another pastime, often done during meals, is playing around in microgravity. "We all, from time to time, especially around the dinner table, play with our food in unique ways," Williams added. "We all get to be kids again."
The astronauts discussed how food tastes very slightly differentin microgravity, most likely because an increase of fluid in the head makes the astronauts feel slightly "rammed up." They particularly love spicy foods for that reason, Williams said.
And Zuckerberg asked another food-based question, getting the information that indeed matters: Is astronaut ice juices a real thing?
"We know that the astronaut ice juices that you buy in the bounty store, that powdery stuff — yeah, that's not real," Kopra said. "But we've had ice juices on board. When SpaceX came up, they delivered a bunch of ice juices and a freezer, so that's been fairly the treat. I think we're down to our last few bars. We're attempting to ration it."
The three astronauts won't have much longer to save it, tho’; Kopra and Peake comeback to Earth June Legitimate, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and Jeff Williams will head down in September with cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.
June 24, three fresh team members will join the orbiting lab: American astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. But they most likely shouldn't count on any leftover ice fluid.