| Year 5
Year 5 learned about training and living as an astronaut.
This term in STEM lessons, Y5 have been finding out space and the possibilities of space travel. We were lucky to be able to invite Mrs Frassl-Kew into school to tell us a little about her work as a psychologist for the European Space Agency (ESA) in previous years.
We learned that the European Space Agency is now recruiting for its next group of astronauts and what they are looking for in a good astronaut. We discovered how astronauts stay healthy in space, both psychologically and physically and were amazed to learn that fizzy drinks are not a good idea in a space station!
Mrs Frassl-Kew explained that for astronauts to get used to zero gravity and for scientists to begin to test their ideas and experiments, they take part in a series of parabolic flights. This involves an aircraft flying up and down at 45 degree angles - at the top of the curve there is a 20 second window where there is microgravity. This is enough for the astronauts to get used to being weightless, as well as any experiments to be done. Unfortunately the nickname of this kind of flight is the ‘vomit comet’ and we think we can understand why!