This is not your average long distance call.
Students at Ste. Jeanne D’arc Elementary School in London, Ont. had the opportunity of a lifetime Thursday when they chatted live with astronaut Mark Pathy, who is onboard the International Space Station.
Grade six students took turns asking questions, including 11-year-old Eleni Lambrinos, who asked, “Hi, my name is Eleni. Which experiments that you will be doing are you most excited about? Over.”
Pathy replied, “I’m really excited about all of it, but I think the most exciting I’ve worked on so far while I’ve been here has been a technology called holoportation.”
The gymnasium was filled with excitement, as 30 or more children hung on every word coming from outer space.
“I like the feeling when his microphone turned on, and then all of a sudden we realized, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re talking to a real astronaut, like this isn’t a dream, it’s actually happening,” said Eleni.
Pathy, a businessman from Montreal, is part of the first private crew of astronauts to take a rocket to the International Space Station.
Dr. Adam Sirek, who is part of Western University’s space program, Western Space, set up the historic meeting and helped prepare the students for the chat.
“Learning about the ISS and learning about living in space, and we did that here at the school a number of times with the students seeing how people live and work in space, what was going on, what the mission was all about, they watched the launch, they watched the hatch opening ceremony,” said Sirek.
“And so they became more involved in the mission than just a quick phone call saying ‘Hi’ and then ‘Goodbye’ and off they go,” Sirek added.
The chat lasted about ten minutes, and interestingly, it was made via amateur radio. A Zoom call from the classroom was linked to a radio station in New Hampshire, which connected with the ISS.
Sirek said they had a ten minute window to work with in the carefully planned communication.
“So we knew from the ground track where it was going to be. The ham station called up, made the contract,” said Sirek. “Mark picked up right away and was right there for us, and then ten minutes later it disappeared over the far horizon. We lost that contact.”
Part of the goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists, and get youngsters like Eleni reaching for the stars.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if there wasn’t any gravity and you could just float around, and take pictures of the Earth, and discover new things about the Earth that you could never see on Google Maps, that you are living it right there,” she said.
