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Kids get glimpse of astronaut health challenges at Campbell library
CAMPBELL
Children learned what it takes to maintain astronaut health and fitness during many months in the weightless environment of space in a Friday public library-sponsored program.
The program was presented at the Campbell public library branch by Jason Swiatkowski, education coordinator at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta.
Swiatkowski donned an Apollo-style spacesuit, then doffed it to reveal a more comfortable space shuttle-era flight suit he wore beneath it.
“In space, everything you do is more difficult because you have no gravity holding things in place,” he said.
The free program will be repeated at 3 p.m. July 22 at the Boardman branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, 7680 Glenwood Ave.
“It was fun,” Michael Yasechko, 12, of Campbell, said of the program, which included a wind tunnel exercise and tests of teamwork and reaction time.
“I thought this would be a learning experience for my little brother,” said Michael, who rode his bicycle to the neighborhood library with his 8-year-old brother, Anthony Castorena.
Michael said he was previously unaware of the bone-density loss an astronaut would suffer without exercise on a long space mission.
“I think it’s good,” Anthony said of the program. “I didn’t really know about space,” he added.
“I’ve liked space since I was 4,” said Ali Grant, 12, of Canfield.
His goal is to “become an astronomer, not an astronaut,” when he grows up, he said.
“It’s harder than it looks, putting pieces together,” he said of a teamwork exercise, in which he was blindfolded and coached by someone else to assemble puzzle pieces.
The July 1969 Apollo 11 mission, in which Neil Armstrong, of Wapakoneta, became the first person to set foot on the moon, lasted a little more than eight days from launch to splashdown.
That was a short mission compared with the current six-month assignments of astronauts at the International Space Station and any future 12-14 month round-trip to Mars.
Aboard the space station, astronauts work out two hours a day on a weight machine, a treadmill and an exercise bicycle.
The goal is to combat the muscle weakness and bone- density loss associated with long-term weightlessness.
“Two hours a day to keep your muscles strong and to keep your bones strong so that, when you come back to Earth, you’re not a jellyfish, you’re not injuring yourself, and you’re not stuck on a couch because you can barely move,” Swiatkowski told the six children in the audience.
“That’s only going to get worse as these space missions get longer,” he said. “If we ever go to Mars, you’re probably going to have a full gymnasium on that ship,” he added.
“Kids are fascinated by space, and many will never have the opportunity to see an astronaut, or to learn, firsthand, what is involved in becoming one,” said Josephine Nolfi, the library system’s director of youth services and programs.
The museum’s programs always have been popular in the local libraries; and, with the renewed focus on science, technology, engineering and math education, library officials thought this was a good opportunity to combine summer learning and entertainment, Nolfi said.
The air and space museum is part of the state-owned Ohio History Connection system of museums and historic sites.
The museum, which resembles a future moon base, contains the Gemini VIII spacecraft, Armstrong’s Gemini and Apollo spacesuits, a moon rock collected during the Apollo 11 mission; two aircraft Armstrong flew, three simulators and the Astro Theater housed under the museum’s 56-foot central dome.
Swiatkowski’s advice to young people aspiring to be astronauts: “Be physically fit. Don’t get into trouble of any serious nature, and study your sciences and your engineering.”
He concluded: “Be very good at something that will be useful in space.”