welcome back did you know you can train
like an astronaut through Houston's very
own Space Center University this is so
cool it's a place where both kids and
adults can be inspired by the wonders of
space exploration well from robotics to
thermal protection systems even scuba
diving stephanie gonzales is showing us
what it's like to train like an
astronaut if you've ever wondered what
it takes to be an astronaut today we're
showing you how Space Center Houston is
a leading science and space exploration
learning center as well as the official
visitor center of NASA Johnson Space
Center students and educators come here
from around the world to be part of
their huge education programs this is a
five day engineering design program and
we really want the students to look at
problem solving and overcoming obstacles
working with the team collaboration and
communication and accomplishing their
mission and get this you can train like
an astronaut through their Space Center
University program and I have signed out
your we're going to be doing a space
walk a simulated space log using scuba
gear and so you'll be putting together a
mock airlock and going out to an
asteroid and recovering samples and
bringing them back with your team it's
now time to join my new friends who flew
in from China just to train like an
astronaut first up we get to perform a
thermal heat test
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we're staying actually pretty stable at
29.9 degrees right now students are
working to protect a bear extra not this
is a great opportunity for the students
to get to explore house caramel dynamics
work so the heating effect that might
happen on a shuttle capsule or inside of
their suit from daylight changes from
rotating on the ISS extreme heat
difference from shadow to sunlight is
one of the ways that we test here with
different materials that we have and the
egg represents the astronauts extra
extra not yeah and how does the
temperature work what do you start it
off with and what's the ideal
temperature so the ideal temperature
that you would want to reach is
hopefully no more than a 1 degree
difference that way the cooling suit
that astronauts might have on or a
capsule that they have can regulate
itself properly kids really love it it's
something that they enjoy doing and then
they'll as you could see they were
getting loud excited very mad excited so
it's only fair for me to attempt to
create my own thermal heat shield right
here we have built batting
have insulation wax paper cork or some
steel wool plastic screen after cheating
so they can have four materials of steel
wool they have four individual slices of
wire screen whatever works best so what
should I use okay
over the years we found that the density
of the material really helps so we have
the pork board if you sandwich two
pieces of cork board and then between
use two pieces of batting I had actually
sandwich them together it seems to work
that's it then we get from a maximum
amount all right
and now the moment of truth will I be
able to protect my extra knot
two minutes two minutes on the clock
now you see you starting to see the
smoke no I'm through ready to be an
astronaut
so there you go and your egg
ah it's still cold I did it my extra
knot is safe and sound now let's chat
with my new friends who are visiting all
the way from China just train like an
astronaut it's really exciting because
it's my first time in NASA
I have came to American before bound
never came to Houston it is actually a
little bit surprising because I thought
NASA was just a place for astronauts is
actually consisted of many other drops
like engineers my favorite part is
building a rocket with my teammates and
we just chose all the items we need and
the budgets and just let it fly so
something that we just learned is that
astronauts dive into the water to
perform a spacewalk and we're about to
go try it out come on
up next the moment I've personally been
waiting for training like an astronaut
by diving underwater yep I'm talking
about scuba diving astronauts go
underwater to practice spacewalks this
simulates conditions very close to the
weightlessness of space your body works
very differently underwater heavy
objects move with ease and your body
feels light and tense to drift and float
this is similar to how it feels to be in
the microgravity of space astronauts may
spend up to seven hours a time
underwater and although astronaut
candidates may have their college
degrees school is just beginning for
them when they are selected a team of
divers who work with the astronauts were
there to help us out so I felt pretty
safe also we have to work underwater as
a team by building things I loved every
second of it training like an astronaut
at Space Center University is something
that I recommend to everyone who wants
to get a glimpse of what it's like to be
an astronaut
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such a cool assignment if you'd like to
sign up to train like an astronaut just
visit Space Center org