“Houston, this is station, are you ready for the event?”
About 150 Boston Public School students listened Tuesday morning to a livestream of a NASA astronaut floating in the International Space Station, according to BPS and NASA officials.
Astronaut Loral O’Hara, a former research engineer in Woods Hole, Mass., appeared through video chat at 9:55 a.m. Tuesday while in orbit 420 kilometers above the Earth, officials said. O’Hara was launched to the International Space Station on Sept. 15.
“It was really really amazing,” said Brendan Brett, a 5th and 6th grade science teacher at the Harvard-Kent Elementary School. “The way it was set up was very dark, and I think the kids really got the experience of being in space watching on the projector and seeing the astronaut actually address their individual questions.”
The event was a partnership between BPS, NASA, and researchers from the Neural Systems Group and the Center for Space Medicine Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital, according to a BPS statement.
O’Hara answered pre-recorded questions from students at Harvard-Kent Elementary School and Warren-Prescott K-8 School in fourth through sixth grade, all while her hair was suspended in the air and her feet were tucked under a hand rail.
The questions ranged from, “What are the major defense mechanisms that keep the space station safe from space junk, asteroids, or anything else that might harm or impact the station” to “How do you shower or bathe.”
One student asked, “Do you like your job and what do you do when you’re done working?”
“I love my job,” O’Hara replied. “Everyday is different. It’s always a really fun mix of science and maintenance activities on space station. After I’m done working, I’ve gotten really into photography up here, of course we have beautiful views of Earth from space station. I also like to hang out with my crew mates, and I read a lot.”
Brett heard one student whisper, “That’s so cool, I want to do that one day.”
After the livestream, students participated in five different stations around the gym led by an in-person team from the Center for Space Medicine Research, officials said.
Students participated in live demos and had the opportunity to try on portable and wearable devices used to monitor brain activity, heart rate, and blood pressure, BPS said in a statement.
Vladimir Ivkovic, a neuroscientist at MGH, said the newly formed Center for Space Medicine Research group is working to demystify concepts in stem, biomedicine and spaceflight for kids.
“The downlink event was a way to connect NASA, us as researchers, and our immediate community,” Ivkovic said. “And also introduce the idea that these kids can actually be a part of all this.”
Brett said he was “really surprised” at how quiet the kids were at the event.
“The kids were really engaged,” Brett said. “Just the idea of lasers going through their brains to monitor their vital systems and learning how your seven senses are affected by being in zero gravity. It seemed to sink in, the gravity of it all.”
Ivkovic noticed the same reaction in the students. He said the labs at MGH are in Charlestown, right down the street from the schools, and the kids have no idea they work with NASA and astronauts.
“They were genuinely interested and attentive to what was going on,” Ivkovic said. “That really to me was fantastic because it’s something that shows you the power of how cool science can be and what it can do.”
After the event, Brett walked into the cafeteria, usually filled with video game conversations, and heard the students discussing what they had learned.
Ivkovic hopes the event will be the first in a series where the Center for Space Medicine Research will engage kids of various ages from K-12 to community colleges and college kids with the goal of “increasing science education for the kids.”
Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_.