It is day three of our mission to space with Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo Treasures Family Space Camp. Yesterday was an exhilarating day as we learned all about forces and some of the types of training involved to get to space. Today’s mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out about living in space.
Did you know that space begins about 100km above us? If you were to drive that distance it might take approximately 100 minutes in a car, but in a rocket, this would take approximately three minutes to reach after blasting off from the launch pad.
There are amazing things happening above our heads all the time. You can see other planets in our solar system, stars burning brightly and galaxies swirling around containing their own stars and planets. Much closer to home we also have a network of human-made machines called satellites circling above us. One of the most impressive space projects ever undertaken is of course the International Space Station (ISS) and it is right now orbiting our planet with astronauts living and working on board every day.
The ISS is the largest human made object in space and it is about the size of a football field, travelling around 400km above earth and at a speed of almost 28,000 km/h. It circles the Earth about every 90 minutes so the astronauts on board see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day.
Today you’ll be learning all about the astronauts on the ISS and how they live in a microgravity environment ... it will all make sense by the end of the episode, trust us. Everything from how they sleep, to how they exercise and to how they shower will all be covered in today’s episode.
Norah and Mark are also going to tell you about spacesuits. We will learn about the big bulky suits that are used for doing spacewalks and are essentially a life support unit for the astronaut, providing everything they need to survive in space. We’ll also be speaking to Norah’s former classmate at the International Space University, Ana Diaz; she studied the design of the spacewalk spacesuits and she’ll be telling us a little bit more about that.
Today’s make-and-do is also inspired by those astronauts living in space and we’re going to be showing you how to make a jetpack. When astronauts go on spacewalks they have jet packs in case of emergencies and it gives them power to steer themselves. So, for today’s at home challenge, here’s what you’ll need*:
- 2 large plastic bottles
- Party hats
- Duct tape
- Felt sheets
- Crepe paper
- Safety scissors
- Glue
So you’ve learnt about living in space but let’s not forget one very important element ... food. To tell us more about eating in space we have another special guest joining us, Sian Proctor, an analog astronaut and space chef. Sian is going to talk about her research and how eating in space is different to eating here on Earth.
Sian is also going to demonstrate a food challenge to help us prepare ourselves for the food and eating in space part of our mission. You can give it a go yourselves at home too.
Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to join us again tomorrow for day four of our mission to space with Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo Treasures Family Space Camp.