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DR DUNBAR FROM NASA

Dr Dunbar is an Astronaut from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) who has flown on a space shuttle five times. Although she came from America and lives in Oregon, her grandparents were Scottish.

Dr Dunbar talked to us about what NASA is and what a space shuttle is like. NASA is an organisation which specialise in space flight and this is one of the most technological advancing areas nowadays but, unbelievably, more money in America goes towards make-up, cigarettes and alcohol, than space.

Many experiments take place onboard space shuttles. The Discovery shuttle, on which Dr Dunbar has flown, has its own 'lab'. One experiment carried out in space was burning a candle. On Earth a candle always burns upwards, with more

 heat on the inside of the flame. In space, where there is no gravity, a candle burns in a spherical shape and is blue, because it's not as hot.

The last shuttle Dr Dunbar went on. Discovery, took supplies to the Russian space station, Mir (which is actually coming down today - 23RD March 2001). It also swapped a shuttle crew

member for an American Mir crew member.

On Discovery's journey back to earth, two of the crew members filmed a video about space, for the Schools' where they live. One of the more interesting bits was a ball of strawberry juice floating around at first, then the crew member drinking it!

When Dr Dunbar had finished her talk, we were invited to ask questions. .

No one did at first because we were nervous and couldn't think of anything to say. Then, Ciara Watson thought of something and stood up to ask Dr Dunbar. Soon, lots of people wanted to ask questions, in fact, we didn't actually have time for everyone to ask their question

Here are some of the questions we asked

Dr Dunbar:-

Q: What do you eat in space?

A: You can't the normal way you do on Earth, all the food and drinks come in pouches and you have to suck it out.

Q: Have you ever met Neil Armstrong?

A: Yes, I have.

Q: How could you become an astronaut?

A: You would have to take all the hard subjects, unfortunately, like Physics and Geometry. Also, you would have to write to your Government to get them signed up for the International Space Station. They would need to send up some astronauts, so maybe you could be one.

Q: Did you ever want to be like another astronaut when you were little?

A: Yes, John Glenn was sort of my hero. He was the first American in space, and recently became the oldest astronaut in space.

There were a lot of other questions as well. At about 3.00pm, Dr Dunbar left the Theatre, and one of the best talks I've ever heard was over.

To find out more information about NASA and space, Dr Dunbar told us we could go to the NASA website at http://www.nasa.org.
CATI MONTI - S1

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