If you want to Go to page Blast off into outer spaceAstronaut5 Cook up some out-of-this-world food Intergalactic Chef9 Take a spin on the Red PlanetMars Rover Driver13 Call the shots from here on planet Earth Mission Control Operator 17 Build a rocket bound for MarsRocket Scientist21 Make a fashion statement in outer space Space Suit Designer 25 Imagine your future in outer space Write a Fun Career Adventure 29 Get some help with tricky words Glossary31 Locate specific information in this book Index32 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
Astronaut needed for six-month mission aboard the International Space Station Transportation provided aboard a rocket that blasts from 0 to 17,500 miles an hour in eight and a half minutes Duties include living working and exploring on a spacecraft that orbits Earth every 90 minutes Job involves working with other astronauts from around the world Ready to take on this challenge Turn to page 6 Want to explore a career as an Intergalactic Chef instead Go to page 9 Rather consider other choices Return to page 4 Blast off for some online space exploration at www nasa gov audience forkids kidsclub flash ASTRONAUT 5
Congratulations NASA officials just picked a new team of astronauts to send to the International Space Station and guess what You made the list There is no need to pack your bags just yet It will first take two years of super intense training to get ready Beware Microgravity One of your biggest challenges as an astronaut is learning to live with very little gravity The 925,000-pound 419,573 kilograms space station travels at a superfast speed of about 5 miles 8 kilometers per second At the same time gravity pulls it toward Earth’s surface The result is a condition called microgravity This is why people and objects seem weightless in space Floating around all the time can be kind of fun But it takes practice to get used to it Fortunately NASA offers a great crash course in microgravity Step aboard the Vomit Comet It’s a special aircraft where you will experience the joys of weightlessness It won’t take long to figure out how this training aircraft got its nickname It moves very fast then plunges for short periods of about 25 seconds During these plunges you feel weightless and um you might feel a little sick Don’t worry though It comes stocked with plenty of barf bags 6
Space Travel Under the Sea You passed all your training classes with flying colors Now it’s time for a test run You won’t be going up into outer space not yet You’ll be heading down about 62 feet 19 meters beneath the surface of the ocean For the next three weeks you will live aboard the Aquarius Reef Base laboratory Aquarius is the world’s only undersea research station Aquarius is located a few miles off the coast of Florida and is part of NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations program NEEMO Its habitat provides a convincing substitute for space exploration as astronauts simulate living on a spacecraft And it’s a lot easier to get there Ready for Blastoff Your months of training fly by You work hard and learn much You are now a well-trained astronaut The only thing left to do is buckle up wave good-bye and blast off 7
