China astronauts float water blob in kids' lecture

[Buster's Uncle]

China astronauts float water blob in kids' lecture
Associated Press – 11 hrs ago..

Elementary school students are reflected on the screen of a television showing a lecture delivered by Chinese female astronaut Wang Yaping onboard the Tiangong 1 prototype space station, in Taizhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province Thursday June 20, 2013. China held its first classroom lecture from its orbiting space station as part of efforts to popularize the successful manned space flight program among young people. (AP Photo)


In this image taken June 20, 2013 and made from CCTV, Chinese female astronaut Wang Yaping shows motion behavior of two spinning objects in micro-gravity

 
BEIJING (AP) — Astronauts struck floating martial arts poses, twirled gyroscopes and manipulated wobbling globes of water during a lecture Thursday from China's orbiting space station that's part of efforts to popularize the space program among young people.

Wang Yaping demonstrated principles of weightlessness and took questions live from among the 330 grade school kids gathered at a Beijing auditorium during the 51-minute class from aboard the Tiangong 1 space station. Her fellow crew members Nie Haisheng and Zhang Xiaoguang answered questions about living, working and staying fit in space.

"I want to know how you know which way is up," said one student.

During one playful moment, Nie adopted the mythical cross-legged lotus position familiar to all fans of Chinese martial arts films.

"In space, we're all kung fu masters," Wang remarked.

In a later demonstration resembling a magic show, Wang injected droplets into an increasingly larger suspended ball of water, drawing exclamations of "wow" and polite applause from the students, another 60 million of whom were watching the live TV broadcast in their classrooms. The astronauts also spun gyroscopes and swung a ball on its tether to show how weightlessness affects objects in motion.

The lesson was "aimed at making space more popular," Zhou Jianping, designer-in-chief of China's manned space program, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. "The spirit of science among youth is an important drive for the progress of mankind," Zhou said.

China's second female astronaut, Wang smiled her way through the carefully rehearsed class, which more closely resembled a children's TV science program than Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's recent free-wheeling YouTube videos from the International Space Station.

The lectures come as China's human space program enters its second decade, after going from a simple manned flight to space lab link-ups in a series of methodically timed steps in just 10 years. China launched its first crewed mission in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the U.S. to achieve that feat.

The current Shenzhou 10 mission is the second crewed trip to the Tiangong 1, launched in 2011 and due to be replaced by the larger, three-module permanent station, Tiangong 2, seven years from now.

The future station will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station. China was barred from participating in the International Space Station, largely on objections from the United States over political differences and the Chinese program's close links with the military.

http://news.yahoo.com/china-astronauts-float-water-blob-kids-lecture-063822404.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Chinese Astronaut Becomes New Social Media Darling
By Melissa Knowles | Trending Now – 3 hrs ago..


Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield made quite a name for himself while he was a commander on board the International Space Station by releasing fun and informative videos of how everyday activities are carried out in space. Hadfield is perhaps best known for his music-video remake of his own version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." He took his expeditions seriously but also made it a point to reach out the masses via social media and educate us non-space travelers.

There's a new superstar in outer space. Meet Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping. She and two other astronauts are currently on board the Chinese space lab Tiangong 1.

Just yesterday, Wang taught a science class for the enjoyment of 60 million Chinese schoolchildren. Just as Hadfield did, Wang got in touch with her audience via social media. Her lecture contained awe-inspiring examples of what makes physics in space so interesting.

Users of the Chinese service Weibo, which is a lot like Twitter, became enamored with Wang. Users wrote such comments as "The experiments conducted are really impressive. We've seen quite a few fantastic phenomena."

Wang's mission just launched last week, so maybe there will be more videos on the horizon.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/chinese-astronaut-becomes-social-media-darling-182318861.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Chinese Astronauts Beam 1st Science Lesson from Space
By Miriam Kramer | SPACE.com – 6 hrs ago..

A video screengrab shows the Chinese astronauts aboard space station Tiangong-1 prepare for the space lecture to be delivered by Wang Yaping on June 20, 2013.

 
Life in space is fun, and the three Chinese astronauts currently in orbit have shared their first lesson on space living with students and countrymen on Earth.

The Shenzhou 10 astronauts (or "taikonauts") beamed down China's first live space science lesson video to 330 elementary and middle-school children in Beijing from their position onboard the nation's Tiangong 1 space module. More than 60 million students and teachers also watched the televised broadcast from around China, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.

Nie Haisheng and Wang Yaping — the second Chinese woman to fly to space — demonstrated the high points of weightlessness during the lecture while Zhang Xiaoguang photographed the lesson, which was broadcast live on China's state-run CCTV news channel.

"In a weightless environment, we are very skillful marshal artists," Wang said after Nie floated around the lab in various positions.

Wang showed the students how water behaves in space, creating a bubble of liquid to demonstrate the properties of surface tension while in microgravity.

"Okay everybody, this is where magic happens," Wang said as she held up a bubble of water trapped within a metal ring.

Wang engaged the students by asking questions throughout the nearly hourlong lecture. Students discussed how they weigh themselves on Earth before the taikonaut demonstrated how the space flyers weigh objects in microgravity.

The astronauts also took questions from their student audience.

"Do you enjoy any view that's different from what you can see on the Earth?" one student asked Wang. "Do the stars twinkle, and do you see the UFOs?"

"From the window, we can see the beautiful Earth and the sun, the moon and the stars, but we haven't seen the UFO," Wang said. "As we are now in outer space without the atmosphere, we can see the stars shining brightly, but they do not twinkle."

China's Shenzhou 10 crew launched into orbit on June 11 for a 15-day stint in space. Tiangong 1 is expected to remain in service for another three months, after which it will be deorbited or destroyed, experts have said.

This trip marks China's fifth manned spaceflight. China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, launched into orbit in 2003, making China the third nation to launch astronauts into space using its own vehicles after Russia and the United States.

The Tiangong 1 space lab has been orbiting Earth since September 2011 and is considered China's first step on the way toward building a large space laboratory by about 2020.

http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-astronauts-beam-1st-science-lesson-space-video-161037524.html

[JarlWolf]

I am glad there is more media devoted to space exploration, getting the next generation enthralled with it is what we need to boost its support.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes.