Thiruvananthapuram, July 3 Around 200 students and parents in Kerala, on Thursday, were excited after interacting with the country's astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla via video conferencing from the International Space Station.
It was only after the entire interaction concluded at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation here in the state capital city that the media came to know about it.
The students were able to interact with Shukla for around 10 minutes and each one of them went back elated and excited of hearing him answer the questions that were raised by the students about his 'new' life abode the International Space Station.
The students were selected based on their work with science clubs and on their performance in the Upper Secondary Scholarship examinations.
Fifteen-year-old B. Sanghavi, who came with her parents from Kozhikode, is yet to come to terms with the experience she got when all the questions put to Shukla were answered.
"He showed us how he is able to float and was answering all the questions we had raised," said Sanghavi.
Incidentally, it was only the students who were driven to the VSSC campus, while the parents had to wait in the city and it was after the event concluded, the children were sent home with their parents.
"My son is in Class X and has been an avid fan of our former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam, who worked at the VSSC for long. He was impressed by his simplicity and asked me more about him and I explained and slowly he started to follow Kalam and probably that's why he got attracted to space and was lucky to come here for this," said an excited parent.
The students also sought to know about the benefits of the space programme and what part of the space visit is most enjoyable.
During the interaction, Shukla described the launch experience of the Axiom Mission 4 as "amazing" and "dynamic".
“It is fun actually, because in space there is no floor and no ceiling. So if you were to come and visit the station (ISS), you would find someone sleeping on the walls, someone on the ceiling,” he told students.
When asked what astronauts eat, the Lucknow-born astronaut said most of the food is pre-packaged, and adequate care is taken to ensure that astronauts have enough nutrition.
"Different food items are laid down and astronauts get to taste all of those and whatever they prefer is packed," Shukla responded.
When a student asked what happens if someone falls ill in space, Shukla replied: "It is so easy to float up and tie yourself to the ceiling. The challenge is to be found at the same place where you slept at night and to ensure that we tie our sleeping bags to ensure we don't float away to some other place”.
When a student asked about the impact of space on mental health, Shukla said modern technology has ensured that astronauts get to connect with family and friends. "It helps a lot," he said.
Inside the weightless environment of space, digestion slows down. Shukla also described how fluid shifts in the body affect digestion.
“My body has now kind of adapted to microgravity, but when I return to Earth, my body would have to readapt to gravity. This is a challenge again,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shukla is working to develop a brain-computer interface in the orbital lab, said NASA on Thursday.
He is on a 14-day scientific expedition on the ISS as part of the Axiom-4 mission, along with three other astronauts from the US, Poland, and Hungary.
The crew is conducting around 60 scientific studies and commercial activities in microgravity representing 31 countries, including the US, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations across Europe.
India, through ISRO, has contributed seven carefully selected studies to the mission.
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