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Virtual Field Trip
Linda Godwin a NASA astronaut shared her experiances with us
Linda showed us a video shot on her most recent mission: An expedition to visit the Russian space station Mir. We witnessed the whole mission and shared in Linda's personal experiences.
We had a window on life on a shuttle mission, including a look at the experiments that are conducted, as well as the day to day complications of living weightless in a confined space. The students were invited to ask questions.
LINDA: "It doesn't matter how well you get along with people, it is going to be a mental challenge and I think some of those challenges are going to be as difficult as the technology problems that we have to figure out it, would be interesting to see how that all works out, but it really comes down to each individual that tries very hard to get along with people." Linda then guided us through the facilities at the Johnson Space Centre. We were able to observe astronauts training in the water tank, in real time.
STUDENT "I would like to know why you do experiments in space? LINDA: "Some experiments are better done on earth but it is better to go to space where the effects of gravity are not felt."
"The technology looks quite complicated but it is very easy to set up, you just need a digital ISDN telephone line at each side and the connection is made up by simply dialing up a regular calling call which is twice the cost of a telephone call. As long as the others that you are connecting with have a similar system to yours, you just simply dial them up". Marius Coetzee from Telkom spoke about his view with regards to video conferencing, " "Video conferencing has a huge potential, contributing and getting experts in a room, for instance, students, video conferencing is the essence that makes these cross continental communications, real communications because you can see the people you are talking too, you can see there body language, when they smile or frown. These are the elements that make video conferencing superior the normal telephone call or mail that we send out". Lets get an Idea of what the students experienced. James Wilkinson from St Stithians Collage commented, "It is amazing the technology involved to get the link up between South Africa and America". Refilde Brandt from Letsibogo Girls High School shared her Joy " It was great to see women astronauts, I didn't know that there were women astronauts and I am proud to see a women there". In a country where remote locations isolate so many children from adequate learning, the possibilities of distance learning through video conferencing are endless. This technology means that children can go literally anywhere in the world even, the sky is no longer the limit. Contacts
sheila.bass1@jsc.nasa.gov |
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Contents and images © 1998 All rights reserved |
Remember when a school field trip meant carrying your soggy sarmies around the zoo for the hundredth time? Well, those days are gone. Without leaving a room, school children will be going on a fully interactive hour-long field trip to the Space Station in Houston, Texas. And you're invited to come along..
LINDA: "Hi, my name is Linda Godwin, It is early morning here and I guess it's afternoon there":
LINDA: "Lift -off is very exciting, 7million pounds of thrust lifting about 5 million pounds of weight off the launch pad is an incredible experience".
STUDENT: "How important is someone's psychological make-up if he is going to be in the space station
LINDA: "Even before we did my space walk on my mission, we spent many hours in the big water pool going through the whole run which is the best way we could simulate, floating for these kind of tasks. I remember being impressed when we went out the hatch to do our space walk it all looked very familiar, which I think the training was very good to prepare us for that."
Video conferencing is not a new technology - it's been used in business and by universities and colleges for years. Paul Servant of Videre explained how the technology operates.