"Children, if anyone has questions about astronauts and weightlessness in space, come to the right side of the room. If you don’t, go to the left side of the room where you will be given a fun math worksheet," the teacher, Joan Hunt says. Every single child in the class went to the right side of the room. Maybe, they just chose to go there because they didn’t want to do math!
"Wow, looks like all your previous teachers didn’t talk about this! That leaves a lot of explaining to do on my part," Ms. Hunt says.
Weightlessness is experienced when there is no gravity or minimum gravity. Gravity is the pull that does not let anyone float around. Astronauts that go into space visiting the outer space and live in space stations, experience being weightless. They feel like they are falling, but never reaching the ground. Scientists call that “free fall”. Why do they feel like they are falling? Well, here on earth when we stand on the scale, it gives us a reading. Your weight on earth is actually read by how much you squeeze the scale between you and the earth. If you take away the earth your feet have nothing to squeeze the scale against. But if there were there nothing below the scale you would fall. Hence the term “free fall”.
Lisa asks,"How would weightlessness be like?"
The teacher explains, "Imagine you are riding in an elevator to top of a really tall building. If the cables break( knock on wood!) you start to fall. The elevator and you fall at the same rate, so your brain thinks that you are floating. It would be fun, well until you hit the bottom with a crash."
"Weightlessness sounds like it is pretty much fun! But, are there any dangers to it?" you ask.
Ms. Hunt exclaims, "Very good question! Yes, weightlessness does have a bad effect on astronauts. Their health gets spoilt, especially their bones."
"Their bones? Why?" you ask.
" Here on earth, our bones strain against gravity, so they are strong," Ms. Hunt explains, "If the bones loose their strength and become soft, the person might get osteoporosis. Also, since there is a constant feeling of falling down, the brain sends signals to the fluids in your body, telling them to fall as well. So an5 astronaut gets sinus, which might trigger vomiting."
"Oh, do space shuttles orbit the earth because they are weightless?" Timothy asks.
"Well that is a frequent misunderstanding amongst people. The truth is, they orbit the earth because of earth’s gravity. The space shuttles are falling towards the earth at the correct speed and height so that the gravity doesn’t pull them down. But once the astronauts finish their experiments in space, they lower the space shuttle so that the gravity helps them return to the earth’s atmosphere."
"Astronauts conduct experiments in space to prove many things. On the MIR, Astrobiologists saw the first Earth creature being born in the weightless space – a quail chick. That proved that animals could be born in space where it is weightless. And tests have been made to see how fire would be like when it is weightless. And it turns out it looks like a semi-circle."
You realize that astronauts are affected by weightlessness and that it does affect other elements.
"Ooops! There goes the bell! You better scurry to your next class. I hope you understood what weightlessness is and how it affects things. And I hope I answered all your questions. BYE!!" exclaims Ms. Hunt.
1. THE AMAZING INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, By The Editors Of YES Magazine, Kids Can Press 2003
2. WEIGHTLESSNESS http://www.fearofphysics.com/Zerog/zerog1.html
3. SPACE EXPLORATION, By Carole Stott, Dorling Kindersley Limited , london