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What Would You Ask An Astronaut In Space?

Ask An Astronaut

First Posted: 01/05/12 01:15 PM ET Updated: 01/05/12 01:15 PM ET

On Friday morning, I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, thanks to our Innovations Editor here at The Huffington Post, Jake Bialer. I'll be sitting down for a chat with two NASA astronauts, Daniel Burbank and Donald Pettit. But here's the coolest part: they will be talking to me FROM SPACE.

Burbank and Pettit are currently working at the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits the Earth 240 miles above its surface and travels at 17,500 miles per hour. So, I want to reach out to you, our readers at HuffPost Science.

What should we talk about? If you could ask an astronaut in space any question, what would it be?

Leave your questions in the comments section below, or tweet to me @CaraSantaMaria, using the hashtag #spacechat, and your question could be transmitted all the way to the ISS. Then meet us right back here at HuffPost Science on Friday, January 6th to watch the entire satellite interview.

Here's a little bit more information, straight from Houston, about the two brave astronauts that I'll be speaking with:

Daniel Burbank, a veteran of two space shuttle missions to assemble the station, will launch with Russian crewmates on a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan on Sunday, Nov. 13. Arriving at the complex on Nov. 16 for a four-month mission, Burbank will command the Expedition 30 crew through mid-March.

Donald Pettit will join Burbank in late December when he launches from Kazakhstan with Russian and European crewmates in another Soyuz spacecraft. Pettit will remain on the station for five months, returning to Earth in mid-May after serving as part of the Expedition 30 and 31 crews. He is a veteran of a long-duration mission on the station as part of the Expedition 6 crew in 2002 and 2003, as well as a subsequent space shuttle mission to assemble the station.

You can read more about ISS missions, including the current flight crew, here.


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On Friday morning, I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, thanks to our Innovations Editor here at The Huffington Post, Jake Bialer. I'll be sitting down for a chat with two NASA astronauts, Daniel ...
On Friday morning, I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, thanks to our Innovations Editor here at The Huffington Post, Jake Bialer. I'll be sitting down for a chat with two NASA astronauts, Daniel ...
 
 
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09:15 AM on 01/16/2012
Practical mathematics plays a central role in your training and activities. If asked to teach, what would be the first differential equation you would introduce to your class?
05:29 AM on 01/07/2012
Have they found Major Tom yet?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MoscowMoo
Mooing for a better America
01:53 PM on 01/06/2012
Question #1:

In terms of spending, accomplishments, presence, and technology, I have always considered America to be the undisputed world leader in terms of space exploration (with Russia a close second). Now that Bush and Obama have put America’s manned space presence on indefinite hold (other than being at the mercy of Russia allowing us to hitchhike along on their vehicle), does this mean that we can accurately say that America is no longer the leader in this field? And, if not, what arguments would support the contention that we have not lost our place as leader? I mean, at a time when all these other nations (China, Japan, and etc.) are developing all kinds of launch and exploration capabilities, I can’t imagine that us dropping back to punt for a while could not affect our standing.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MoscowMoo
Mooing for a better America
02:23 PM on 01/06/2012
Question #2:

Along the same lines of question #1, is it important for America to be the leader in space? I mean, what advantages do we get as being the leader that we wouldn’t get if we were in, say, fourth or fifth place?

I ask this because I truly am worried about Bush and Obama’s decision to let America slip back. America has been getting so lazy for so many years that we are no longer the leader in everything we used to be. Space was one of the few things left in which we could say that we were the undisputed leader. I look at the decision by Bush and Obama to give up that advantage as being equally as short-sighted as the ban on stem cell research in the early 2000s (i.e., anytime a nation just hands over the opportunity to other countries to be scientifically superior to them, it can’t be good). Please assuage my worries by telling me why it is not essential for America to remain #1 in space exploration.
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frank GIJOE
01:52 PM on 01/06/2012
Are you able to JO and how does it feel?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MoscowMoo
Mooing for a better America
02:21 PM on 01/06/2012
Good grief, grow up.

This author has a really neat opportunity, and he's invited HuffPo readers to share in that opportunity with him. And you (and a few others below) have used the opportunity to tell the equivalent of fart jokes and make crank phone calls. Surely there is a junior high with an empty seat in a classroom somewhere in your neighborhood . . . .
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Geauterre
Writer, Author, Commentator and Humorist.
10:24 AM on 01/06/2012
Which sense is most heightened?
09:19 AM on 01/06/2012
How do we get down from here !
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marian Bailey
screamin demon
04:02 PM on 01/06/2012
DA, You don't! You get down from a duck. I know! Old joke, but I cldn't resist.
04:15 PM on 01/06/2012
"haz anyboby seen the duck"
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jf12
When I saw her I marveled greatly.
08:45 AM on 01/06/2012
How's the weather up there?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
anthonytaurus
don't f&f me. you dont' know what I'll say next
05:02 AM on 01/06/2012
What's it like to get high in zero G??? Not that crappy man-made chemical high either. I mean a good natural marijuana high.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
bar1ed
midnight toker!
05:02 AM on 01/06/2012
Have you seen my house keys!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
John Shuck
Properly used, profanity is punctuation.
04:37 AM on 01/06/2012
What's the mission? Where can a species that needs the amount of food we do, that excretes most of it expect to go in this vast universe? I've heard talk about going to Mars and colonizing it from supposedly knowledgeable people. They invariably resort to Star Trek-like fantasy to make it all work. Even at light speed we are a cumbersome and troublesome species to explore space.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
pixeloid
Reality has a liberal bias.
03:50 AM on 01/06/2012
How's it floating?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
vidian6
Consultant with hard advice
10:31 AM on 01/06/2012
LOL, to funny
02:39 AM on 01/06/2012
Do you experience hearing 'disturbances'? hear more hissing/ringing sounds?
Does being out there change your sleeping and dreaming habits?
Do you remember dreams more often or lesser?
Do you experience more nightmares or pleasant dreams?
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
J-Ho
Fancy boys put Happy Bunny quotes in their bio
11:02 PM on 01/05/2012
What's your favorite curse word?
10:54 PM on 01/05/2012
Giving you enough fuel, will you be back?
10:35 PM on 01/05/2012
How about, when you are sleeping in space do you ever experience "that sensation of falling" that you can experience sometimes here on Earth ?