Astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Kayla Barron shared their experiences on the space station with students. (photo courtesy of NASA)

Students at The Center for Early Education in West Hollywood had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on Jan. 24, when the students connected with NASA astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station.

Astronauts Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei fielded an array of questions in zero gravity from students at the independent day school after being patched through in Houston. The astronauts and students even collaborated in a guitar jam session.

“Every single day, we’re doing things that can benefit humanity back on Earth and also prepare us to explore even further into the solar system,” Barron said. “We’re doing experiments on ourselves, learning how human beings can stay healthy in space. We’re developing new technologies that help us control our life support systems, like reclaiming and purifying water, and that could actually be used as technology on Earth for communities who don’t have access to clean water. So everything we’re doing to live in space can also help human beings live better on Earth.”

One student asked about the astronauts’ favorite experiment on the space station.

“My favorite experiment on the International Space Station was the one that I got to eat,” Vande Hei said. “It was us growing hatch chili peppers in our plant habitat, and they grew over a long period of time and some of them [were preserved] to go back to [Earth], but many got to stay with us, and we ate them. They were good.”

Another student asked if it was possible for people to live in space permanently.

“We are working toward that goal every day here on the International Space Station,” Barron said. “There have been human beings living and working aboard the International Space Station for more than 20 years now. And we’re preparing to go back to the moon to stay as part of the Artemis program. We’ll need things like permanent habitats, ways to develop power and harness resources from our environment, and we’ll also be preparing to push even further on a trip to Mars, which will be a three-year round trip. I don’t know when NASA will be sending human beings, other planetary bodies, to live there permanently, but we’re certainly preparing for longer and longer duration missions.”

Vande Hei said the space station can still detect the weather on Earth, because the Northern Hemisphere is where most of the planet’s land mass lies.

“We see a lot more snow as it gathers up on that land,” he said. “We can see it, and it’s fun to watch things as they say get greener and greener as the summer comes around.”

When asked how a mission is determined to be successful, Barron said a good mission requires teamwork.

“During our six-month mission up here, and Mark’s year-long mission, we’re doing hundreds and hundreds of science experiments and also working every single day to keep the space station systems healthy, so that human beings can continue to live and work here,” she added. “For us, I think we always want to leave the space station better than we found it – in better working order hopefully – and also accomplish some amazing science objectives. We’ve been doing that a lot lately because we just had a cargo vehicle up here that brought us a lot of really cool experiments.”

But how do astronauts stay engaged?

“My favorite thing to do on the space station right now is to turn off all the lights when it’s dark outside,” Vande Hei said. “Even closing the screens on laptops to make sure we don’t get any extra light, and to look out at the stars and see auroras and the city lights, especially when there’s a full moon out, it lights up the terrain as well. The Earth is magnificent.”

The cupola, a small, dome-shaped module has seven windows – six around the sides and one on top – provides the ultimate scenic view.

“It’s looking towards the Earth, and so when I look to the left or the right, I see the horizon of the Earth and if it’s daylight out, the background looks inky black from the darkness of space, but the constantly changing terrain on the Earth – whether it be ocean or land deserts or beautiful glaciers – it’s constantly varied and always interesting.”

One student asked what she could do as a fourth grader to prepare for a career in space.

“The most important thing you can do is find things that you’re passionate about and keep working at them,” Barron said. “Astronauts can take so many different paths to becoming astronauts. The only thing you really have to do is have a degree in a STEM field. So, keep studying hard in science and math classes. But, I think, for all of us, we found opportunities that would challenge us, but also that we enjoyed. For me, I was always seeking out the best team of people to work with, because I knew I was going to push myself to the edge of my abilities and I was going to make mistakes and, in order to grow, I wanted to be around people who would give me honest feedback, who would support me and who would teach me how to be better at my job and at school. I think the most important thing you can do is follow your passions and continue to push yourself every single day.”