Astronaut speaks to Camas students from space station

Camas students experienced a rare opportunity last week, when they were able to connect to a NASA astronaut living on the International Space Station (ISS).

Dr. Michael Barratt, a 1977 Camas High School graduate who has been living on the space station since March, connected to a live-streamed feed Thursday, May 23, to talk about life on the ISS and answer questions posed by students from each school in the Camas School District.

Though the feed allowed Camas students — and members of the public watching on the school district’s live feed — to see Barratt, the astronaut could hear but not see the students or the chat’s host, retired Camas High School physics teacher Dale Croswell. Of course, the lack of visuals didn’t stop Barratt from recognizing his former teacher.

“Mr. Croswell! I have trouble calling you anything but … ‘The Cros,’” Barratt, 65, said, laughing, and recalling that Croswell, who retired in 2014, had taught him physics during the teacher’s first year at Camas High. “It’s great to be here with you guys. … I’m ready to take your prompts, Mr. Croswell — as I did the first year you were teaching.”

The students asked Barratt about daily life inside the space station.

“What is your favorite spot on the space station?” asked a fourth-grader from Grass Valley Elementary.

Barratt said that would be the cupola, or observation area, where he comes during his breaks to take in the beauty of space and a view of Earth.

“The galley, where we eat, is my second favorite, and third is my sleeping bag,” Barratt added.

One student, a fifth-grader at Helen Baller Elementary, wanted to know how being in space affects people’s mental health.

“I love being up here,” Barratt, who is on his third trip to the ISS, said. “It makes me very happy. Some days are very busy and we have frustrations about how to make things work, but I like to be really tired and happy with the giddiness of success.”

The astronaut — who earned his medical degree from Northwestern University in 1985 and is board certified in internal and aerospace medicine — said researchers have studied the mental impacts of space travel and found the net results to be positive.

“We’ve actually studied that among astronauts and cosmonauts,” Barratt said. “There is a very positive effect of being in space.”

Other students wanted to know more about the physical realities of living on a space station.

“Can you get wet?” one student wanted to know.

“Do your hands or feet swell in space?” asked another.

Barratt answered every question in stride.

“You can’t have water in the cabin because it’s zero gravity,” he told the students. “So, we can’t take a shower up here, but we do have bags (of water) and we can take a sponge bath. You just have to be able to control the water.”

As for the swelling, Barratt said the zero-gravity aspect of space station living makes the opposite happen — instead of his feet swelling, he said, his feet tend to get smaller and his head looks bigger.

“The fluid goes to the upper part of the body,” Barratt explained, “so your hands don’t change that much, but your face might. My face is rounder and more pumpkin-y than it is on the ground. Gravity has a lot to do with that.”

Camas Mayor Steve Hogan asked Barratt if he’d been told in middle school that he would be doing what he’s doing — traveling to the ISS and working as an astronaut — would he have believed it?

Barratt said none of his teachers were discouraging, but that opportunities for space travel were much more limited when he was going to Camas schools in the 1960s and 1970s.

“The opportunities to fly in space are so much greater now,” he said, adding that he would encourage any student dreaming of becoming an astronaut to pursue those opportunities.

“There are more opportunities now, so anybody who really loves this stuff can start exploring different niches of space flight. Find something useful to the space program and something you really love. Get to know the community. Keep in touch with us and ask questions. There are more people to ask questions of than when I was (young),” Barratt, who worked as a project physician, flight surgeon, medical operations lead and lead crew surgeon throughout the 1990s before becoming a NASA astronaut, said.

The Camas School District event had a couple surprises for Barratt, including Croswell, his former physics teacher; Gail Welsh, Barratt’s former sixth-grade middle school teacher who retired in 2011 after 42 years of teaching; and Gary Abrahamsen, a system engineer for the school district who was Barratt’s classmate.

When Barratt heard his old friend Abrahamsen’s voice, he looked astonished and thrilled.

And Abrahamsen asked his friend about the discoveries they’ve made on the ISS that could have big implications for life on Earth.

“We do a lot of discovery science up here,” Barratt said. “What we’re seeing and doing is still so unknown. We’re understanding things about basic physiology that we had no idea about — how the cardiovascular system is regulated (in zero-gravity environments) … and about sodium storage. To me, these things are amazing, but you tell the average person and they’ll probably get glassy eyed.”

Barratt, who will be living on the ISS until November, added that he enjoys studying the physical impacts of space travel.

“We want to know … how we as humans adapt to zero gravity … before we go long distances,” Barratt told the students. “We want to be able to test our systems … so the space station becomes (a place where we can) test everything.”

The ISS, he said, “is, more than anything, a stepping stone to go further” into space and stay in space longer.