Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will communicate with three astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will stream the live video call through Facebook. People can join the event and make questions to astronauts.
The video call will take place at 12:55 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. During 20 minutes, Zuckerberg will talk with NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams, and Tim Peake from the European Space Agency.
NASA has already published a list of questions that would be answered on Wednesday.
“What is it like to live and work in microgravity orbiting the Earth? What sorts of out-of-this-world science is underway in the space station’s laboratories? How does the research in space help prepare to send humans on a Journey to Mars?,” wrote NASA on Facebook.
People can sign up at the event here, to write questions that will be asked by the entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday. More than 131 users have already joined the debate. Luc Obadiah from Madagascar has made a query about minerals available in the moon.
Other Facebook users have written doubts about living conditions up there, and curious things such as what happens if an astronaut sneezes in a helmet in space. The ISS is currently the most important laboratory for space research.
Space Agencies from Canada, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and Europe are carrying out research about microgravity and space conditions, in order to better understand how humans can coexist in space. Data obtained from the station would be used for future Mars exploration.
Nasa has established an inflatable compartment at the International Space Station
On Saturday astronauts at the ISS installed the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM). The module was carried to the station on the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft on April 8.
“It is the first expandable component to be attached to the ISS,” said NASA on Youtube.
The BEAM is a prototype of inflatable habitat, to be explored in the future by space agencies. It measures 11.6 feet per 10.5 feet and is expected to remain there for two years. Astronauts at the station will enter the inside part of the platform to check its systems every certain time.
NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams and teams carried out a 7-hour operation to install the BEAM on Saturday. Videos of the process can be seen on NASA Television.
NASA celebrates memorial Day
The space station has posted a Youtube video to celebrate the United States memorial Day. NASA said it remembers Americans who have made “sacrifices to preserves the freedoms, safety and liberties of Americans” across the world.
Currently, there are two American astronauts at the ISS, Tim Kopra, and Jeff Williams, who are jointly working with astronauts from Russia and the U.K.
Tim Kopra joined NASA in 1998 as a retired colonel of the U.S. army. He served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, said Space.com. Jeff Williams, who is also a U.S. retired colonel, worked as Army aviator before becoming an astronaut.
Source: NASA Press Release