As Tim adjusts to life onboard the International Space Station (ISS), Kevin Fong’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES will take us on a journey from planet Earth into Low Earth Orbit and beyond.
This is the story of human survival against all the odds; the story of how science, medicine and engineering come together to help answer our biggest questions about Life, the Earth, the Universe and our place in it.
From artificial gravity and greenhouses in space to plasma drives and zero-G surgical suits, the Lectures will reveal how what once was the stuff of science fiction is fast becoming today’s science fact.
Throughout the three-part series, Kevin will be accompanied by special guest appearances from ISS astronauts who will reveal what daily life is like 400 kilometres above the Earth, demonstrate the technology and techniques that help them stay safe and healthy, and explain the scientific experiments they are part of that are helping to stretch the limits of our understanding of human physiology and survival in a way that no experiment back on Earth could.
Lift off! – Lecture 1
http://www.richannel.org/lift-off
In the first of the three annual CHRISTMAS LECTURES space doctor, Kevin Fong, explores and probes second by second what it takes to ‘Lift off’ into space.
With Tim Peake, Britain’s first astronaut on the International Space Station, only days into his 6 month mission, he’ll be helping Kevin answer what keeps astronauts safe and on track as they’re propelled into orbit.
How do you control the energy of 300 tonnes of liquid fuel?
What happens to your body if you don’t wear a spacesuit?
And how do you catch up with a space station travelling at 17,500 mph to finally get inside?
With explosive live experiments, guest astronauts in the Theatre and planetary scientist, Monica Grady, direct from the launch pad in Kazakhstan, we’ll learn this and more as we recreate those thrilling minutes of ‘Lift off’.
Life in orbit – Lecture 2
http://www.richannel.org/life-in-orbit
In the second of the three annual CHRISTMAS LECTURES, space doctor, Kevin Fong explores ‘Life in orbit’ on board the International Space Station.
As British astronaut Tim Peake settles in to his new home on the Station he’ll be sending special reports about what it takes to live and work in space.
400 km above the Earth, hurtling at a speed of 17,500 mph, astronauts’ bones and muscles waste away, the oxygen they breathe is artificially made, they face constant threats from micrometeorites, radiation and extreme temperatures.
If a medical emergency strikes, Tim Peake is a very long way from home!
In its 15 year lifetime, the International Space Station has never had a major accident.
With a British astronaut in orbit, gravity defying experiments and guest astronauts in the lecture theatre Dr Kevin Fong will show us how to survive ‘Life in orbit.’
In the third and final of the Royal Institution’s annual CHRISTMAS LECTURES, space doctor Kevin Fong explores the ‘The next frontier’ of human space travel.
In a series finale, live from the International Space Station hurtling at 17,500 mph, 400 km above the Earth, British astronaut Tim Peake will answer questions directly from the children in the lecture theatre audience.
With Tim’s help out in Earth’s orbit, Kevin will investigate how the next generation of astronauts will be propelled across the vast chasm of space to Mars and beyond.
So, how will life be artificially sustained as we travel the millions of kilometres to the Red Planet and on into the cosmos?
How will our food last for 3 years or more?
And what is waiting what for us when we finally land?
With earth shattering experiments, top space scientists and our astronaut live from space, Dr Kevin Fong will reveal how we’ll survive that voyage to space’s next frontier’ and beyond…
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Thank you. Mr Gonsalves
I have learned that astronauts cannot live in space without special training or equipment. So that is why it costs a lot to go to space.
Lecture 2 I have learned that a tiny object can be very powerful at 17000 mph, and it’s so fast that it can go straight through your body.
In the first of the three Christmas lectures I learnt that when the rocket goes into space it has to use a bit of fuel from the earth’s rotation to get into space and that if a voice is very high it can shatter the glass. In the second of the three lectures I understood what a parabolic flight is and that you can only eat tea if you’re weightless. In the last of the 2015 Christmas lectures I learnt that the tardigrade has a superior repair mechanism making them repair their DNA much more effectively than humans and they can stand huge doses of radiation which would be very bad for humans and it would be harmless to the tardigrade.
It was very interesting that a when a rocket has one fuel and two gas, that comperes in to the rocket fuel and then makes spark in the fuel, to go up of the ground.
After watching the videos I learnt a lot of how they travel to safe.
-How they travel with oxygen with no risk of any explosions.
-How they built the space station in space by rockets and robots.
-How the life in the international space station is.
-How they electricity by absorbing the radiation of the sun.
I really enjoyed watching the science videos, and I learnt a lot.
What I learnt in lecture 1 was that Helen Sharman was the first British astronaut in space. Her space suit is now on display in the science museum in London and a replica in Leicester. Helen said the space suit weighs 10kg on earth and barely weighs anything in space. Dr Dan Martin has been one of the people who has climbed Mount Everest. He has held the record of the lowest blood stream in any human being which is really bizarre!
I watched the first lecture and learnt that a lot of pressure is forced around you and if you’re not protected by a spacesuit and you would explode. I also discovered that if you throw an object it will try to go into orbit but the Earth is in the way and since it is solid matter the object can’t get through. Another new fact I learnt is that you can set anything alight, anything, with oxygen, heat and fuel !
I’ve learnt that the Space Station hurtles at a speed of 17,500 mph, 400 km above the Earth. I’ve also learnt that oxygen becomes a liquid at -183 Degrees Celsius and if you are falling or are off the ground you become weightless. Citric acid and bicarbonate of soda put together create carbon dioxide.
I learnt that oxygen becomes a liquid at -183 degrees Celsius.
I also learnt that the lowest pressure of oxygen in a human’s blood is 2.5 kPa and that record is held by a summiteer and intensive care doctor called Dr Dan Martin.
I’ve learnt that an animal named a tardigrade can survive in space,
because it can repair itself quickly when it gets large doses of radiation. I’ve also learnt that astronauts train on a special plane which can cause weightlessness. The plane goes up and down continuously, this is called a parabolic flight.
I enjoy waching the chrismas lectures.
I lernt that when you are in space you weigh three times as much if you were on planet Earth.
Tim Peak is going to space for six mounth he is going to plant a seed in space and come back to Earth to showif the sead grew or not . If it grew they can grew ther own food in space.
The Apollo 13 was very interesting because it taught me about the dangers in space and I loved watching and answering the questions because I sometimes think there’s a problem but when I watched it in parts I think that there’s lots of dangers . I always feel excited before i want to know what happens .
I really liked the Apollo 13 movie and I learned the dangers of travelling through space and how important everything is .I have learned various different things such as everything weighs 3x as much on Earth. I also know that gravity has an important role in space
I really liked lecture . I learned about what are the dangers of space travel and what to do to fix the problem if anything went wrong. I learned that the boiling point of water is 100 degrees
Watching the Christmas lectures about Space was amazing!
I’ve learnt that one has to exercise so there are some facilities in the rocket which can be used by the astronauts to keep fit, like Tim Peake ran the London marathon using the treadwheel in Spaceship.
I have learnt that the longer you stay in Space, the weaker you get. Space walking is really, really hard and if one’s hand slips off the handle whilst space walking, one could let go and float in Space!
Did you know that tardigrades can survive an extended stay in the cold, irradiated vacuum of outer space?
Also the Sun is a million times hotter than the Earth.
Tardigrades are microscopic animals more commonly known by their non-scientific name, the water bear.
Irradiate means expose (someone or something) to radiation.
The Christmas Lectures 2015 were on how to survive in Space with doctor Kevin Fong. I enjoyed watching the lecture from the start. I was fascinated by how he did his experiments and learnt a lot from them like you needed sodium chloride to get rid of carbon dioxide and all the things you needed to go into Space. Christmas Lecture fans will enjoy how to survive in space, life in orbit. From now on I think I will watch the Christmas Lectures every year.
This series of Lectures are my favourite because I love the topic space I learnt a lot from these Lectures.
After watching the space Christmas lectures I learnt that there are many different difficulties you have to face when going in to space. Even before you go in to space you have to have months of training to learn all the basic things you need to know, and you have to be really fit because when you go in to space you get quite weak because you are always floating and not doing thing like running and walking like every one else down on Earth. I enjoyed the part in lecture 3 when they used a radioactive machine and measured how radioactive a book was but my favourite part was in lecture 2 when the astronauts where training on a special plane that moved up and down and had zero gravity. I liked that part the most because it was interesting watching the astronauts float around in the plane while trying experiments like eating tea and playing table tennis.
I am reviewing the video “Space Lecture 1, Lift Off”, which was produced at the Royal Institution in 2015, the year Tim Peake set off on his journey to the International Space Station (I.S.S). The Space Christmas Lecture was presented by Kevin Fong. This informative video explains how to travel to the I.S.S. It also features astronauts talking about their voyage and experience in space.
Helen Sharman, who has travelled to the space in the past, was one of the guest speakers at the Royal Institution. She talked about her trip and how it felt to be at the space station. It was very interesting to hear an astronaut’s point of view about travelling into space. A male astronaut told the audience that “as you are strapped in properly you do not feel the G-Force as much” during the journey and the pod in which the astronauts travel into is small in comparison to the I.S.S. Helen Sharman also explained about replica of the space suit she worn on her space travel. This was demonstrated by a girl from the audience, by wearing a trainee’s suit which she described as very hot and heavy.
The video also had a recording of Tim Peake’s take off, which was stunning to watch. The best part of the video was when Tim Peake ended the lecture with a speech from space.
I enjoyed the video about space and I have learnt a lot more facts about this topic.
Here are some of the facts I have learnt:
1. Rocket fuel is very dangerous and you can also use biscuits as rocket fuel.
2. The four things you need to power a rocket are heat, liquid, oxygen and fuel.
3. You weigh three times as much as you weigh normally on Earth in space.
4. A Russian man called Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space.
5. The first British atronaut to go to space was Helen Sharman.
6. The second British astronaut to go to space was Tim Peake.
I found the facts very interesting and helpful and I really liked the video.
Watching the Christmas Lecture, I have a lot about space and my knowledge has increased. I found it very interesting.
I have learnt that the longer you are in space, the weaker you get. This is why Tim Peake has had to have lots of training to become fit enough to reach the ISS.
Here are some of the facts that I came across which helped my learning during the video:
Principia is the name of Sir Isaac Newton’s book and it is also the name of Tim Peake’s mission.
Rocket fuel is extraordinarily dangerous, due to its easy combustion and explosive factor.
You can use biscuits as rocket fuel but you need much more than that to power a whole rocket. ( The experiment was really funny.)
Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
To make a rocket go you need fuel, liquid,oxygen and heat.
The space station travels at 17,500 mph. The space station was built by 18 members. It took 15 years to build the ISS. ( The international space station.) In the 6 months of this space mission over 265 experiments will take place.
The lecture was amazing and I learnt a lot about going and living in the space. For example while doing a space walk, one has to hold on to a railing all the time and then while you float one has to use hands. There were lots of different experiments and my favourite one was the one where it was explained how the sensors in our body work, just like sensors in modern electronic gadgets and machines work. I would like to know about the ISS a bit more like how was it planned to be built, how long it took to build and is it built to survive forever?
Well done Tim Peake on your mission ‘Principia’ success. As we all probably know, Tim is the second British astronaut in Space(Helen Sharman was the first, onboard Space station Mir in 1991 as part of Project Juno)!
In space, you weigh less than on Earth(3 times less I think?).
Due to the g-forces, life in space becomes extremely difficult, there are also the bad bits. In space you don’t use your muscles as much as usual so Muscles loss and fatigue can happen, so astronauts need to exercise regularly to prevent this from happening.
In the ISS, astronauts often have to ‘donate’ themselves to scientific experiments like blood samples, urine samples and faeces samples(mentioned in Tim Peake’s book ‘Ask an Astronaut’)!Also,this can have side effects. Some experiments include activities such as attaching your feet to handrails,which happens so much that the skin on your feet becomes flaky and as time goes by, the dead skin falls off-YUCK!
Here are some key facts and bits of information:
The Soviets launched the first Artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 , in 1957. They also launched the first animal into space(please bear in mind that the Americans launched a rhesus monkey named Albert in a V2 rocket in 1947, but remember that the rocket reached the Karman line, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and Space)onboard Sputnik 2, but unfortunately the animal, a street dog named Laika, launched during orbit. Cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin become the first man in Space in 1961 when he launched onboard the Vostok rocket on the Vostok 1 mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome.America’s first man in space was alan Shepherd, launching from Cape Canaveral to become thte second man in space just two weeks after Gagarin, on a sub-orbital flight.The first American in orbit was John Glenn in 1962. America’s first satellite was Explorer 1, launched on the Jupiter C rocket in 1958. Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon in 1969 onboard Apollo 11.
V.t
Class 6G
I watched The Next Frontier (lecture 3) and learnt that it is very hard to live in space when going on a mission. My favourite part was when they they did an experiment and measured how radio active a book was. I really enjoyed watching these Christmas Lectures.
I enjoyed the lecture because of the interesting facts that I learnt.
There’s a machine that makes you float for 23 seconds. That machine
is a plane. It goes for a steep climb and then goes back down.
I really enjoyed the Christmas lecture Lift Off and I learnt a lot . The experiments were fascinating especially the one they did to tell us what happens to us if we don’t wear a space suit when we go into space. It can be dangerous . I also learnt that the boiling point of oxygen is -183 degrees Celsius . You weigh 3 times your body weight when u are in space. I also learnt that for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction. I found it very exciting when Dr Dan Martin told about his adventure when he climbed Mount Everest. The normal oxygen level is between 10-12 but he survived with 2.5 oxygen level. The experiment I found exciting was when the lady used her loud voice to break the glass.
I have learnt the following scientific facts:
– Professor Kevin Wong works for NASA to help astronauts keep safe.
– Getting to Space is like popping a balloon because when
you pop a balloon lots of energy comes out and when
you’re trying to get to space you need a lot of energy.
– The first British astronaut to go to space was Helen Sharman and second Tim Peake.
-The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin
– Isaac Newton discovered that if you threw something it would orbit the earth.
– Rocket fuel is what rockets need for energy to get into space similar to how humans use biscuits for energy.
-You need fuel, heat and liquid oxygen to release energy.
– It takes more than 8 hours to reach the space station.
-The Earth rotates faster at the equator than at the North or South pole.
– During lift off the forces going through your body make you 3 times heavier.
– It is possible to control the air pressure within an
astronaut suit.
I learnt in the Christmas science lecture that you have to do lot of training to go into outer spaces.
To make the rocket go you need fuel, liquid oxygen and heat. Never do this experiment at home.
I have watched Lift Off presented by DR. Kevin Fong. The video was around one hour long.
It was very interesting because there were plenty of exciting experiments. There were a few volunteers from the large audience. DR Fong was talking in a funny way of how to survive in space and when you are going to space. The video had famous astronauts such as Tim Peake from the past. He also talked about a Mount Everest climber whose blood pressure was measured only two and a half when he was at the top of the mountain.
I learnt that the rockets go east to get space easier. It is because the Earth rotates eastwards. I also learnt that a light object would go further than a strong one.
Overall, I found the video very interesting and I have learnt a lot about space.
When I watched the Christmas lectures , I learnt that there are a lot of different things that you need to face when you go into space . I also learnt one of Isaac Newton’s laws of motion which was ‘For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction . ‘
I watched lecture 1 of the three videos. I found it extremely interesting and I learnt quite a few facts. Here are some of them;
* I learnt that Tim Peake set off in the Soyuz rocket in Baikonor, a very historic place.
* Baikonur is the place where Yuri Gagarin set off.
* Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
*The only thing that is stopping everything going into orbit is the Earth itself.
* Principia is the name of Tim’s mission and also the name of the book which Sir Isaac Newton wrote.
* Principia is written in latin as all the other academic books then were written in that language.
* Principia dates back to 1713.
I learnt a lot from this video. For example that the rotation of the Earth helps give rockets enough energy to leave the atmosphere and reach where they want to go.
Lecture 2
The second lecture was very interesting describing the endless possibilities of what could happen to you in space. I enjoyed Kevin’s experiments and loved the part when he compared the helicopter’s safety equipment to the ISS’s. This video included some great facts that I had no idea about before.
Lecture 1
In lecture 1, I have learnt that to turn a gas into liquid you have to get it below its boiling point. I also learnt that when Tim`s rocket was being launched, it turned east because it needed to borrow some extra energy from the rotation of the Earth. The energy is borrowed when the Earth spins from west to east. This is how the rocket borrowed some extra energy. Another thing is that Sir Isaac Newton discovered that whatever we throw wants to get into orbit, but the Earth gets into the way of it. After this he wrote a book called `Principia` in which he wrote the three laws of motion. Astronauts can get into Space because of one of these laws.
During the half term I watched (Life in orbit) Lecture 2. I enjoyed the part when he went on the zero-G plane. I also enjoyed the part when he got volunteer to come down and they lit the candles and then poured carbon bi oxide and it put out the candles.I have learnt that there are many difficulty’s to face when your in space.
Lecture 1 : Dr Kevin Fong shared numerous facts about how to survive in space and I really liked the part when he did a demonstration using biscuits as rocket fuel, using liquid oxygen combined with ordinary biscuits used for human consumption. I was intrigued to find out what had happened after the reaction and to my amazement it blasted into flames which was very exciting to watch.
Here are some of the findings that I came across which helped my learning during the video:
Principia is the name of Sir Isaac Newton’s book and it is also the name of Tim Peake’s mission.
Rocket fuel is extraordinarily dangerous, due to its easy combustion and explosive factor.
You can use biscuits as rocket fuel but you need much more than that to power a whole rocket.
Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
Another interesting fact that I discovered were that at the north and south poles while the earth is turning. The earth is not rotating very quickly. This is due to the position of the axis in the equator and as you go down towards it the speed of rotation is going at about 1000 miles an hour.
Overall, an incredible video to watch.
Christmas Lectures
Lecture 1
Lift Off
In this lecture Dr Kevin Fong explains all the different strategies to survive in space.
The Lectures were even given the second edition of Principia to look at. Principia was also the name of Tim Peake’s mission.
Dr Kevin Fong, with the help of his volunteers, displayed many experiments. My favorite experiment was the one where he took Toby’s temperature. His temperature was 36.8 degrees Celsius. On Mount Everest the boiling point of water decreases so it can go to 37 degrees Celsius. You could boil yourself! Dr Kevin Fong had made a model of Toby. He used a marshmallow for the head and a balloon for his lungs. He filled about a quarter of a beaker with water and the water was the temperature of Toby’s body but it was still cold. He had another bottle which was the water in his blood. The water has a a cover, at least in your arteries. It has a muscular wall which acts like a pressure cooker which will stop it from boiling. Next they covered it with a vacuum chamber and they sucked out all the air. This will make it think it is going to space. They started the pump and the more air that was sucked out, the water in his stomach began to boil. Toby’s marshmallow head began to swell. Unfortunately, Toby’s balloon lungs popped. At the end of the experiment Toby put his finger in the water but the water was still cold. The water was cold because boiling is not about temperature it is a process. The molecules were leaving and going, but not because it was hot but because of pressure. Dr Kevin Fong put more pressure to save Toby’s marshmallow head but it ended up shrinking.
In this Christmas lecture two astronauts came. One was Michael Barratt who had been in space twice! The second was Helen Sharman. She was the first British astronaut to go into space. The next is Tim Peake. First British astronaut in 25 years. In this lecture various different videos were sent from Tim Peake.
I found these lectures fascinating and interesting. I am looking forward to the 2017 Christmas lectures!
I watched the third lecture. I have learnt that asteroids and meteorites travel about 11km per second!
When a meteorite or an asteroid hits Earth, bits of Earth can shoot up into space an onto the moon. By going to the moon again, we could find out about Earth earlier on in life.
These are some facts that I learnt from the first lecture:
Every object when you throw it will try to go into orbit, but the earth blocks it (an orbit is when something falls forever.)
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
There is 21% oxygen in the air.
When launching to space you weigh 3x more than your normal weight.
The lowest level of oxygen ever recorded in a human’s body is 2 and a half.
You can propel yourself forward by throwing something behind you.
The closer you are to the earth in an orbit the quicker you go round.
I think the video was very good and I learnt a lot.
I really enjoyed the first of the three videos. Dr Kevin Fong tells us how Tim peak was felling and gives examples about why rocket boosters fall of. He also talks about why the earth gets in the way of things getting in orbit. He also tells us that Tim’s mission is called principia, principia is also the book newton wrote. It is written in Latin and Newton’s third law is every action has an equal and opposite reaction. He also gave us an example of why rocket fuel wont light without liquid oxygen and vital elements of the fire triangle. He also tells us what everyone is doing before launch.
Science Homework: Lift Off
LW
The 2015 Christmas Science Lecture taught me how to survive in space. The first episode was about how to travel into space and had lots of interesting facts about Science, Technology and Engineering. Kevin Fong, the presenter, described Tim Peake’s journey into space. In 2015, Tim was the first British astronaut in a quarter of a century since Helen Sharman became the first British women in space. Tim’s mission was called Principia, the same Latin title as Sir Issac Newton’s book about the 3 Laws of motion, which are:
1. Things at rest stay at rest and things in motion stay in motion
2. Force equals mass times acceleration (F=MA)
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
Newton had a theory how to travel into space:
1. You had to throw an object hard enough.
2. You had to throw something one way in order to travel the other way.
And the thing you need to throw is, of course, fuel from a rocket.
Now, to make a rocket lift off you need fuel, (as Kevin demonstrated with a great British biscuit) heat and liquid oxygen. To produce liquid oxygen you must change it from a gas to a liquid. And to get any substance to become a liquid from a gas you must get it below its boiling point. The difficult thing with getting oxygen below its boiling point is that its boiling point is -183C. Luckily, one of the liquids you can use to transform oxygen is liquid nitrogen (-196C)
Astronauts must wear a spacesuit at all times when they are in the vacuum of space because there is no oxygen in space and without oxygen you can’t survive. The Lecture video showed Helen Sharman’s spacesuit and she described what it felt like – she said it was every warm and when spacewalking, she had to keep adjusting the temperature to keep her cooler.
Here are some of the other amazing facts I learnt throughout the Christmas lecture:
• The air that we breathe only contains 21% oxygen.
• The International Space Station (ISS) is in orbit 400KM above the Earth.
• Everything you throw on Earth tries to get into orbit but Gravity gets in the way.
• A medical oxygen tank contains around 200 times the amount of the air in the lecture hall where Kevin was giving the talk.
• Tim Peake lifted off in a Russian Soyuz capsule in Baikonur, the same place in the Republic of Kazakhstan where Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, launched from.
• It takes everything we know of from the fields of Science, Technology and Engineering to get people into space – you need 100s of 1000s of people to get a crew up in space.
In conclusion, Kevin Fong has told me so much about rockets to Tim Peake to Newton’s way of thinking but most importantly, how to survive in space.
Lecture 1:
I have learnt a lot from watching this lecturing about how hard it is to take off to live in the ISS (International Space Station) and without Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion, which were written in the book ‘Principia’. Tim Peake’s mission is named after the book Principia using the help of the three laws of motion. On every astronaut’s spacesuit there is the ‘Principia’ logo as it was only because of those laws of motion that astronauts can go to space.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered that everything we throw wants to get into orbit, but the Earth gets in the way.
Although the lift off for astronauts seems to be very gentle and light for them, they are actually three times their normal body weight. This happens when the forces in their chests react.
Moving on, Dr Kevin Kong told us about the lowest ever recorded oxygen level in a human being is 2.5 and a healthy person has an oxygen level of about 10! This can only happen on one place in the world and that is on the peak of Mount Everest. Even if the oxygen level in a human drops to 6 it is a major problem but 2.5 is astonishing to survive in! When a man is at the top of Mount Everest the oxygen is very scarce, so they would have a very low oxygen level.
Then we were told about if a space rocket catchs fire and what the astronauts would do. They is a small, pointy rocket at the top of the actually rocket. It will launch the astronauts away from the main rockets as far away as possible so the astronauts are safe.
Going up to space is dangerous enough but going without a spacesuit is hazardous. Your head would swell up like a balloon; you would boil up as water in space boils at our body temperature 37 degrees centigrade.
As I can now know that to get into space safely many things even tiny things have to happen at the same time so that you can launch off safely and soon launch into orbit and much much more.
Overall, I have enjoyed watching the ‘Lift Off!’ Christmas Lecture and have learned a lot about launching into to space and how astronauts sometimes have to play with their lifes.
Lecture 1:
I learnt a lot of interesting facts from Dr. Kevin Fong.
The most intriguing ones were:
– As you travel higher up into the atmosphere, the boiling point of water decreases. For example, on the summit of Mount Everest the boiling point of water is only 72 degrees centigrade. When you are 18,000 metres up in the atmosphere, water will boil at 37 degrees centigrade meaning you will boil yourself.
– The first British astronaut to travel to Space was Helen Sharman. She was also the first woman to travel to Space and took off in 1991.
– A Space suit weighs 10kg on Earth!
– You weigh 3 times your body’s mass in Space.
– If any thing went wrong with the rocket Tim Peake was in, the capsule he was sitting in would have shot off to Kazakhstan.
This lecture taught me a lot about how to survive in Space and I learnt a lot from it.
I watched the first Christmas lecture and I thought it was amazing. I learnt a lot of facts.
It took 15 years to build the ISS.
Biscuits are a type of fuel and you could use it to build rocket fuel but it wouldn’t be powerful enough to launch in space.
The three elements in a fire triangle are fuel, heat and oxygen.
To get liquid oxygen you need to boil oxygen below its boiling point. Oxygen’s boiling point is -183 degrees Celsius so to get below that temperature, you use liquid nitrogen
The colour of liquid oxygen is pale blue.
Dan Martin climbed Mt Everest in 2007 and the level of oxygen in is blood was 2 1/2. This was the most lowest level of oxygen in blood ever recorded.
Helen Sharman was the first British and female astronaut ever to go to space.
You should never go to space without a spacesuit because the pressure in the vacuum of space is so low that the boiling points of the liquid inside your body decreases below our normal body temperature 37 degrees Celsius causing us to swell up.
I watched Science Lecture three- The Next Frontier. Here are some facts that I learnt:
* In the future, we could be going anywhere in the Solar System.
* Asteroids could chip bits off Earth which could hit the Moon.
* Never eat radioactive things.
* Tardigrade can survive in Space and they love radioactive things. They are also known as Water Bears.
* Water weighs a lot but if you put it in your Spacesuit it can protect you.
* It takes one and a half to three years to get to Mars.
* A spacewalk is very dangerous as you could get lost. The Moon is bigger than you think!
* It took fifty years to build the International Space Station.
* Mars’s atmosphere is 99.9% Carbon Dioxide.
The lecture was very inspiring and I learnt a lot. We are part of the next frontier!
Lecture One:
Dr Kevin Fong taught me how to survive when you’re going into space.I learnt Principia (Isaac Newton’s book) explains the three laws of motion.This helps astronauts in space.For a rocket to work,you need heat from fire,rocket fuel and oxygen to breathe.
The rocket Tim Peake boarded was called the Soyuz Rocket.He stayed in the International Space Station.After 6 months in orbit,he finally came down to Earth.The first Russian astronaut was Yuri Gagarin.The first British astronaut was Helen Sharman.Whilst you’re in space,your body weighs heavier due to the amount of force pushing against you.The air is only made up of 21% oxygen.
Are you ready for a “LIFT OFF” adventure!!
Howdy, all futuristic scientists, so have you ever been curious as to what keeps astronauts safe and on track in space!! Ever imagined how it feels like, to get to space in one piece with all your bones in tact, alive and kicking, well here’s how!! Imagine this…..you being an oversized balloon, that’s filled with hydrogen and oxygen, it’s the energy that’s required to get us into space!!
Lets look at the basics of moving around in space…..this came to realisation by Sir Issac Newton’s Three Laws of Motion: 1) A body will remain at rest or in motion in a straight line, unless acted upon by a force. For example, a space rocket doesn’t go anywhere unless you fire up it’s engine. A standstill rocket will stay still, unless forces act on them. 2) Change in motion is proportional to the applied force and parallel to it. When a force acts on something, it makes it accelerate (go faster, change direction or even both). So when you fire up a rocket engine, this creates the force that accelerates the rocket for it to go BOOM into the sky. 3) To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction!! Rockets move upward by firing hot exhaust gas downward (the action) creates an equal and opposite force (the reaction) that speeds the rocket UP, UP and AWAY!!!
So, how does one control energy of 300 tonnes of liquid fuel??
Well it’s not rocket science, it all comes into play when you have the right conditions to release energy, using fuel, heat and liquid oxygen. To get something to become a liquid when it’s in a gas form, you have to get it below boiling point -183oC to get it from a liquid to a gas and collect the oxygen. By controlling these substances combined together, in precise amounts and in the correct manner, this aids to propel you and your crew into space, instead of tearing your spacecraft and crew apart!!
Have you ever wondered what might happen to your body in space without a spacesuit, and by you, NOT looking like a “Michelin Man”? Is it really as horrific as the movies make it out to be? Would you literally EXPLODE? Could you survive the ordeal?
Without a space suit you will not be protected against the heat and cold, you will be unable to breathe so you can kiss your life goodbye once and for all!! Spacesuits are pressurised and are full of air to protect your body and they even have a built in toilet, so there’s no need for you to worry about those trickling accidents along the way!!!;0))
You will find your muscles will shrivel, your bones could weaken, your genes become damaged and state of mind become totally confused. Your body will swell up, burn, mutate, pass out and your lungs might even explode. Lovely!!! But don’t worry, if you’re ever in this sticky situation, you’ve probably got a solid minute or two to be rescued before you die, so chin up…. their is light at the end of the tunnel!!
Life in space accelerates at a high speed, so how does one catch up with a ISS travelling at 17,500 mph to finally get inside??? Speed and where you are is inseparable, when you are closer to Earth you go faster. The higher you are going like the ISS, the slower you are travelling. Speed is not independent of your position!! Therefore, you have to drop to lower orbit and catch up by getting up closer to the ISS and eventually getting right inside!!
Finally, I am thrilled to say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the “Lift Off” Christmas Lecture it broadened my knowledge about launching objects and people into space.
I’ve learnt that we breathe 21% of oxygen but when you are blasting a rocket, I’ve learnt that you need LIQUID OXYGEN, heat and fuel to make a fire reaction. The same procedure applies for a rocket engine to make it blast off into space.
i really enjoyed this lecture
Lecture one was very exciting when the rocket launched and I learn’t Sir Isaac Newton’s book was called Principia and it is amazing that liquid oxogen’s boiling point is -183 degrese
A few facts to share about lecture 2
It took 15 years to build the ISS (international space station).
In space there is no gravity so it is very difficult to walk because you keep floating in the air. Your muscles are not functioning properly so when you get back to earth it takes a long time to get walking again. It is a good idea to do exercise for at least 2 hours a day in space.
I really enjoyed this lecture and learnt many facts about it.
I thought that the first Christmas lecture was amazing !
I loved the experiments and who knew that biscuits could be used as rocket fuel ? {You would need a lot of biscuits!}
I also found out a lot of cool things like Isaac Newton wrote a book in the dead language of Latin, Principia which was also the name of the mission astronaut Tim Peake was assigned to.
I`ve learnt the boiling point of oxygen is -183°C and the colour of liquid oxygen is pale blue.
Also, Dr Helen Sharman was the first British astronaut to go to space.
Lecture 1:
I have learnt that many things need to happen in order to get to space. Sir Isaac Newton discovered that everything we throw wants to get into orbit but the Earth gets in the way. He wrote the laws of motion in a book called ‘Principia’. On every astronaut’s spacesuit there is the ‘Principia’ logo as it was only because of those laws of motion that astronauts can go to space.
The actual lift-off of a rocket seems very gentle to astronauts but they actually weigh three times their normal body weight when lifting off because of the forces in their chest!
The lowest ever recorded oxygen level in a human being is 2.5 and a healthy person has an oxygen level of about 10! Many people suffer a lot if their oxygen level is at 6 and doctors need to help them immensely so at 2.5 it is very uncomfortable! When a man is at the top of Mount Everest the oxygen is very scarce so they would have a very low oxygen level.
If space rockets catch fire, there is a pointy mini rocket at the top of the main one and that launches the astronauts as far away as possible from the main rocket so they are safe.
If you go to space without a spacesuit, your head would swell up; water in space boils at 37 degrees centigrade so you would boil if you didn’t have a spacesuit on. Boiling doesn’t happen when things just get warm, it happens when molecules leave a liquid and go to a gas.
As you can see, many things need to happen in order to get to space: you have to have a safe spacesuit, something forceful enough to launch you into orbit and much more.
Overall, I have enjoyed watching the ‘Lift Off!’ Christmas Lecture and have learnt a lot about launching into to space.
Lecture 1: Lift Off
The rocket Tim Peake went to the ISS in was called The Soyuz Rocket. He stayed in the ISS for 6 months before coming back home. Yuri Gagarian was the first astronaut in space. Helen Sharman was the first British astronaut in space. Astronauts stay in a pod capsule when flying into space. Whilst flying up into space, your body weighs 3 times as much as it usually does because of the acceleration pushing through your body.
The air is made up of 21% of oxygen. If you go up Mount Everest, and if you go high enough, you will find that the boiling point of water is 70°C instead of 100°C. You can even get to a point where you can boil yourself!! Boiling isn’t just when it gets really hot, it is also when molecules of a liquid leave and go into the gas.
From lecture 1, Dr Kevin Fong shows how to survive getting into space. I learnt that Issac Newton’s book was called Principia, which is the name of Tim Peake’s mission. The three laws of motion from the book helped us to be in space now. I also learnt that you need rocket fuel, heat and lots of oxygen for the engine to work in a rocket. Also, you have to be trained to go and take yourself in space and that when you are in an astronaut’s suit, there are things to help you if you are in a situation.
I watched lift off Lecture 1 and I liked the experiment when they made rocket fuel with biscuits.I enjoyed learning about why they go East on lift off.I also liked learning that Dr Dan Martin was the person to have the lowest amount of oxygen ever recorded in your blood stream.
Lecture one was very knowledgeable especially when they call many people in to talk about space in great detail ,and
all the brain popping experiments teaching children many facts.
The explanations were amazing telling us about the smallest details and encouraging me to study about space.
The fact that we got to see the first British Astronaut Dr.Shaman and Newton’s real book around two hundreds of years old (written in Latin)was incredible.
I’ve learnt that you could boil if you are going to space with no protection.Another fact is, if you make the rocket blast off the way the earth spins it would be easier to get to space.
“Lift of” increased my knowledge about space and helped me in my general knowledge . This was my favourite science video!
Lecture 3
I think that it is probably the best lecture of them all as it has wonderful facts and an even better conclusion.
The conclusion was awe-inspiring and short, the last line was great and I am glad to have been a part of the amazing adventure of the 2015 Christmas Lectures how to survive in space. Throughout all of these lectures, I have learnt quadrillions of facts and am now pretty experienced on the way to survive in the desolate location that is space. Thank you Kevin Fong for sharing all of your knowledge about well, everything.
The best part was when Kevin did an experiment about what you need to launch a rocket. This was definitely my favourite part as I never knew this.
Lecture 1
I have learnt that we breathe 21% of oxygen. You can use liquid oxygen, fuel and heat to blast a rocket. Liquid Oxygen is -183 Degrees Celsius. At first, the rocket blasts of in vertical direction straight up in the air and it then travels to the East.
I’ve learnt that Isaac Newton told us that the force of gravity was the attraction between two objects that depend on how massive those objects were and far apart they were.
All of us have been weightless because when we jump you can be weightless but only for the amount of time your in the air.
Astronauts have to exercise because they need to be fit and you will have to go everyday for about 2-3 hours so they can cope with the standard and health that we do.
When Tim Peake was in space his head felt full and all the fluid in his body has shifted upwards and he felt like he had a blocked nose.
And I also learnt several other facts such as their are only a couple of bones in your body that actually support a lot of weight
Lecture 2 comments
Lecture 2 wasn’t as marvellous as lecture 1 but it still was fantastic.
My favourite part was the compare between the air ambulance and the ISS’s equipment and when he talked about the health and safety of the ISS.
He, as usual gave the best facts and made the most fabulous experiments.
He also called in great astronauts and other people.
***CHRISTMAS LECTURES-LIFT OFF! BY DR. KEVIN FONG***
Hello everyone,yet again it’s a blog comment by V. T . This time it is about LIFT OFF! , which is about how astronauts survive and stay healthy whilst in Space , onboard the ISS!
Over the last 50 years , ever since Yuri Gagarin’s historical adventure into Space , we have had to push science , technology and engineering to their limits to get man into space.
In this lecture , Astronaut Timothy Peake is preparing to launch into Space onboard the Soyuz rocket.Kevin Fong explains how the energy needed to reach space is way more than a hydrogen – oxygen balloon being popped.
The station floats 400km above Earth.
In this lecture, we view live footage from Baikonur Cosmodrome where rocket enthusiasist Monica Grady is, when the rocket is being driven to the launch pad.
***THE WEIRDEST THING THAT HAPPENS IN SPACE***:
Astronauts drink their own URINE!
V.T
Alpha Preparatory School
I learnt that when you throw things they try to orbit but the earth gets in the way.
On the Moon you can jump much higher than on Earth because there is much more gravity on Earth than on the Moon because in space there is no gravity. On the Moon you can jump ten feet [3 meters] of the ground that is how high you can jump.
For Lecture two.
Oh, and even oxygen even though it is about space
Kevins’ friend that has been 132 days in space and as been there two times is Dan Tarny.
In the first lecture, Kevin Fong really made it fun as he taught everyone the importance of being safe and how you do that in the lethal place that is space. I liked all of his incredible experiments and loved seeing the breathtaking launch of the rocket. I was extremely happy when I saw that he had called real astronauts and a conqueror of the great mount Everest.
I also loved all the fascinating facts about Newton, rockets, Principia, boiling of water, rocket fuel, Tim Peake, Etc.
The astronaut who went to space two times was Mike Barrot.
England’s first astronaut to go to space was Helen Sharman.
The third law of motion is, for every action there is equal and opposite reaction.
Lift Off!
I watched the first Christmas lecture and I learnt some new, interesting facts about space. Some examples are:
The International Space Station (ISS) is 400km (250miles) above the Earth, travelling at 17,500 miles an hour.
Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
Sir Isaac Newton wrote a book called “Principia” over 300 years ago. His third law says “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. He also discovered that if you throw something hard enough it would travel long enough and a shallow enough arc that it would fall and never land on the planet (it would fall forever around the Earth – orbit the Earth).
The boiling point of oxygen is -183 degrees Celsius. Liquid nitrogen is -196 degrees Celsius.
Rockets use RP-1 rocket fuel. During take-off you experience 3G’s – which means it feels like you weigh 3 times more than normal.
To launch a rocket, it is best to take off from the Equator. Launching from the Equator allows you to borrow energy from the rotating Earth (1,000 miles an hour).
The Earth’s atmosphere is so thin that if the Earth was the same size as a football, the atmosphere would be less than a millimetre thick.
At the summit of Everest, water boils at 72 degrees Celsius. At 63,000 feet (18,000 metres), water boils at 37 degrees Celsius – without protection astronauts would die.
It took Tim Peake 8 hours and 55 minutes to travel to the ISS.
First Lecture
From the first lecture I learnt that over ten thousands people have to look after the astronauts,
you are 400km above the surface when you are in the international space station,
Rocket power is helped by the rotation of the earth and A space suit is heavy.
Lecture 1:lift off.
Great video!I have learnt that rocket fuel is extremely flamable and is manly made up of by carbon atoms and hydrogen.I have also learnt that we breathe in 21% of the airs oxygen and that the average pressure of oxygen in our arteries is 10-12 pascals.
From watching the second Christmas Lectures I learnt that in the ISS it smells like metal, on the ISS there is a range of experiments going on, you travel 250 miles from Earth to the ISS weight is the reaction of your body falling off the ground and one suit to go to space costs around $50 million.
I’ve learnt that you need to follow the rule of fire (fuel, heat and oxygen) to get to space and out of orbit,(the world has a gravity field to keep us on the ground). Also, you can use biscuits as fuel.
I found it so interesting to find out about Isaac’s book the Principia. It gave me so many facts like Tim’s mission was named after Isaac’s famous book. It was very extraordinary to see Tim’s rocket burst into orbit.
When I watched the first Christmas lecture I learnt that when you are going to space you need a lot of power so you can make it up there and that there are three laws of motion , one of them is every action is a law of motion.
I have watched the Christmas lecture Fuelling the Future : Let There Be Light.
After watching this, I have learnt: Energy can never be created nor destroyed, it only converts from one form to another. Electrons carry charge. There are fossil fuels such as coal, oil and methane. We use fossil fuels because they contain lots of energy and they are also buried under our feet so we can dig them up. Energy gets converted into heat, heat into motion and motion into electricity. A turbine can spin 50 times a second and the blade tips spin at 1250 mph, which is 1.6 times the speed of sound. Millions of years ago oil and coal used to be plants and animals and these plants and animals got their energy from the Sun.
There is a creature called Tardigrade, which can sometimes live in space,it can stand radiation unlike us it can withstand almost anything.
Here are a few other facts:
-If there was a Solar Particle event astronauts would not be aloud out in Space because it would be immensely dangerous.
-Water is a good shield if you had it running through your Space craft.
-The Earth has an Electric Field and atmosphere.
-Electrons and Neutrons shower down on the Earth.
-And particles come from the Galaxy.
I was amazed that water could be a protection shield. I was very surprised to hear that you should wear a bullet proof vest for safety in space. I also learned that rocket fuel is a very perilous substance and if you get injured in space you don’t have a very big medical support so your life is at risk. I thought the sunrise would be a long and beautiful experience but instead it is a brief and beautiful experience which was quite shocking. Overall I think space is a dangerous journey but it is an amazing achievement to go just like Tim Peak.
I have learnt that Earth has a magnetic field which guides electrons and charged atomic particles. Thin glowing lights, known as the Northern lights or Aurora, block out the effect of galactic charged particles.The Sun itself is an amazing particle accelerator. When an energetic particle appears, it can reach Earth in about half an hour.Water and Hydrogen are good examples of shields that block out radiation. Tardigrades can survive doses of radiation that none of us can. Radiation can cause all sorts of problems with your DNA and can damage your cells. I have also learnt that in space they recycle up to 98% of their body water by using a special machine which removes toxic chemicals. I understand why they do this as its hard to gather enough supplies of water to last very long. I am looking forward for seeing next years lecture.
cont
4.It takes everything we have in science and technology to create strong rockets to exit the Earths gravity.
5.Tim Peake was ready to go to go to space he is the first British astronaut.
6.On Earth you can throw a bag but it will not travel as far as if you throw a bag in space.
7.The earths atmosphere is less than a mm thick.
Science christmas lectures
Lecture 1
1. To learn more about the cosmos and space we need to find a way to live away from the Earth.
2. Astronauts need to survive the launch of a rocket firing beneath them.
3.When Kevin Fong lit the ballon flames came out that is a tiny fraction of the energy we need to travel to space
From lecture 3, I learnt that tardygrades are the only creatures that can survive radiation without a spacesuit -it’s known that they even like it a bit. In space you have to recycle to get water. You guessed it, astronauts have to drink their own urine. YUCK! Although they filter it , it still tastes of urine.
The space station travels at 17,500mph . 18 members built it. There war 265 experiments that took place. i learnt a lot about the ISS (INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION)
I learnt that if you trow something in space it will not fall. There is a lot less gravity in space than in the Earth.
Lecture One
Rocket fuel is very volatile but it needs 3 elements for it to work;
1. fuel
2. heat
3. oxygen, but for a rocket fuel you need LIQUID OXYGEN (oxygen coverts from a gas to a liquid at -183 degrees Celsius)
The rocket is fired and it travels towards east. This is so that it spins in the same direction as planet Earth. Isaac Newton’s third theory was that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction. it takes more energy for a rocket to leave earth initially (because of gravity) but then separates and requires less fuel (energy) to continue on its journey.
I was amazed to learn that water boils at 37 degrees at 18000m above the Earth. Water boils at 100 degrees at home but the higher you go the boiling point of water drops.
It is VERY important for an Astronaut to wear a space suit. The higher an Astronaut goes up the pressure surrounding the Astronaut increases and the space suit keeps the air pressure similar to Earth air pressure so that the human survives in space.
A space suit on Earth weighs 10 kg but in space it weighs nothing as gravity does not exist in space. This is why everything floats in space.
Tim Peake is a British Astronaut who has flown to the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is 250miles above the Earth. The rocket that took Tim Peake to ISS was very small compared with the ISS which is about the size of 747 jumbo jet.
The Christmas Lectures were very interesting as they included many things about Tim Peake’s recent lift off. In the first Lecture,Kevin was talking about lift off and the different stages of the rocket and how each stage drops off as the rocket goes into space.In the second Lecture, he talks about life on board the space station and he talks about how they look after themselves in space including medical emergencies.In the third Lecture, Kevin talks about going back to the moon to look for information about Earth’s past geological history.He also talks about recycling water and shows that urine can be recycled.
I have learnt that ,Tim Peak is going on a mission and he will return in 6 months time. Tim is the first British male astrounaut going on the international space station.
Tim will be keeping some seeds in space and will be bringing it back to London. Dr Kevin Fong is doing a Christmas Lecture about Tim going to space. I enjoyed the little experiments that Dr
Kevin Fong was doing with the children during his seminar. I loved hearing about Helen Sharmen’s experience in space and how she felt about the lift off.
I also learnt that you need to exercise at least three hours a day to keep your muscles and bones strong. if you dont the density of the bones become weaker.
Oxygen gases are stored in cylinders in space and carbon dioxide gases are recycled to produce oxygen.
I really enjoyed this year’s Christmas Lecture and I am looking forward to next year’s .
The videos of the lectures have been very useful. I have learnt that the longer you are in space, the weaker you get. This is why Tim Peake has had to have lots of training to become fit enough to reach the ISS. Once there, he is going to use the gym on the station.
Going around the ISS can take only 45 minutes! this means that they see a sunrise at the beginning of this time. In order to do this, they have to go at a speed of 17,000 kilometers per hour!Somtimes, the astronauts can get a bit dizzy.
I have learnt that Tim Peak,is going to send seeds into space and after that he is going to give them to schools on Earth for them to examine the reaction.If Tim did get an injury it would be severe because he would be very far from home.I have also found out that to push an object forward you need fuel to push behind.
The Christmas Lectures
Lecture 3
The Next Frontier
For decades scientists have been preparing for the next step in space exploration. Already unmanned spacecrafts have discovered the secrets of the Solar System. Even some have landed on comets! However when are we (humans) going to get on a rocket and blast off to neighbouring planets, when are we going to get a glimpse of the Red planet?
Now in 4 years time, NASA have been funded and given the go to go to start a new space program which in 2020 will see the first few astronauts make this trip for the first time to Mars.
This however is the most trickiest challenge NASA has ever faced. First of all, There are some challenges or problems that we face all the time like lift off and sickness. But there is also stuff that we have needed to think about. For example the usual packeted food will not be able last at least one and a half years (time taken to travel to Mars) and we will not be able to have supplies from other ships. To overcome this challenge, NASA have smartly come with an idea which still being tested out at the ISS. This was to use plants. This would never turn stale it would be nutrious so it will keep the astronauts fit and healthy.
If the astronauts reach Mars in one piece, they then face the challenge of re-entering Mars’ atmosphere. Back in the Apollo missions, there wasn’t much chance of the moon capsule crash landing as the moon doesn’t really have an atmosphere but unfortunately Mars’ does. One of the previous unmanned spacecraft missions which successfully landed on surface of Mars broke the record for the fastest re-entery ever Mac 2 (twice the speed of sound) . This would of been suicidal but somehow it worked. This was because of the parachute design. Usually a parachute would be one whole length but this parachute was special. It had two sections, it had a gap to help.
This marks the end to the Christmas lectures of 2015. Hopefully Tim Peake will have a safe time at the ISS and I wish him the best of luck.
I found these lectures fascinating as I loved hearing about the first hand experience from the astronauts particularly from Helen Sharmen.
I learnt some interesting facts including :
_the boiling point of a substance relates to the point at which a liquid turns into a gas. The boiling point of water is lower in space due to the change in pressure.
_ Newton divised the Three Laws of Motion including for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I have learnt how the Earths’ magnetic field and atmosphere protects us from radiation, how radiation can damage DNA which prevents you from growing new blood cells, a mission to Mars could take up to 1000 days and how solar flares can be dangerous.
I found these lectures incredibly interesting and I look forward to the next Christmas Lectures.
I have learnt that when you can see it the ISS is brighter than the moon, every 45 minutes the ISS sees a sunrise/sunset, how the carbon dioxide can be removed using hydroxide,that your exhaled air can only reach the scrubbers if you have artificial draughts,astronauts have to train for 2-4 hours every day if they are to return to Earth healthy because if they didn’t they wouldn’t be able to stand, normally astronauts are sick or feel sick for 48-72 hours (2-3 days). (Lecture 2)
I’ve learnt that if you launch a space rocket in the opposite way of the wind direction it would go totally out of shape. I have also learnt that Doctor Dan Martin holds an uncomfortable record for lowest amount of oxygen in the bloodstream in a human being 2.5. (Lecture 1)
I have learnt that there is a lot of difficulties in space and training to be an astronaut is hard. Here are some here are some facts about space.
– At the top of a rocket you sit in a capsule -where Tim Peake was sitting in in the last few seconds for lift off
– People need to triple check that everything is all set up in the rocket and everything is ok
– When the rocket takes off it soars straight into the sky then changes direction turning East as it is following the way the Earth rotates which is anti-clockwise;it leaves a cloud where it changes direction
– You get electricity from the Sun in space
– Bones become weaker in space because your bones bearing the most weight is your calcaneus, your femur and the bones on your lower back, but in space you are weightless and you float around. Your bones therefore don’t really need to carry the weight of your body but it is a problem as your bones start getting weaker
– A space suit is very heavy and costs a lot of money
– When you take off from Earth in a rocket it feels quite gentle
– You know that you have left Earth by seeing all the clouds below you.
– An orbital tracker shows us were the space station is; it has a funny shape because the Earth goes in an anti-clockwise direction but the international space station is in an awkward position and is a little bit tilted and at a funny angle
In the last lecture ‘The Next Frontier’, Kevin Fong investigates the challenges our generation of astronauts face while making their way towards Mars and beyond. I have learnt :
* If a solar particle event is happening you should not moon walk. You should stay inside ISS to protect yourself.
*It would take 1000 days to get to Mars.
*Earth has a magnetic field which protects us from radiation.
*The solar rays can be very dangerous for astronauts and can damage their DNA.
* In an experiment Kevin Fong showed us that by spinning you could create gravity in space.
*If you spin faster you get more gravity.
* When packing to travel into space astronauts recycle 98% of body water because they can’t take so many supplies with them.
*For food they tried to grow their own food by growing plants in space with artificial lights.
* Stopping at Mars is the hardest thing to do so the astronauts had to use a parachute which weighed 100 pounds to slow down the rocket so that you can land safely.
I thoroughly enjoyed these three lectures because they not only provided me with a great deal of information but also had fascinating and astonishing experiments which made learning so much fun. I am really looking forward to next year’s christmas lectures.
Kevin Fong explores ‘Life in Orbit’ and informs us of all the threats and dangers Tim Peake faces and how he survives in space. I have learnt:
* Oxygen the astronauts breathe is artificially made.
*They face dangers from micrometeorites , radiation and also hot temperatures.
*It takes 10 thousand people to keep someone safe in space.
*It took 15 years to build the ISS.
*The force of gravity on Earth’s surface is 1G.
*There is 0.92G in the ISS.
*In space you cant take oxygen because it is risky so astronauts take water by adding hydrogen with it.
*A spacesuit cost around 50 million dollars.
*First Aid service is better on Earth compared to in Space because many injuries which happen on Earth do not happen in Space.
*There is no gravity in Space so everything is weightless. Hot air cannot rise and cold air cannot sink.
* There are no draughts in space.
*Bones and muscles are not used in space to move around so they start to waste and lose mineral density and become weaker 1 or 2% per month.
*Astronauts have to exercise in space for 2-3 hours to maintain their health otherwise their muscles and bones will start to rot away.
*Fluid is pushed from legs to the head thats why you feel dizzy when you are in space.
*ISS spots a sunrise/sunset every 45 minutes.
* You need 2 visors to protect your eyes.
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures were inspiring as they made me consider the dangers of getting into space. Dr Kevin Fong who used to work with NASA explained it very well by making the lecture interactive with the audience and getting former astronauts to come in like Helen Sharman. From the International Space Station Tim Peake sent messages describing his life since he has arrived on board.
There were quite a few things I didn’t understand but it all became clear once Dr Fong carried out experiments which explained the fact or process. The part I found most disgusting was when Dr Fong drank his own urine but luckily it was filtered which took out any toxic chemicals. I understand why they do this. It is because the astronauts have to reuse everything to go to Mars as it takes three years just to get there and people couldn’t build a rocket to carry that many supplies! When I am older I want to see one of the Christmas lectures live in the Royal Institution in London. Interestingly enough my dad has given a lecture in the same hall as Kevin Fong!
I look forward to listening to the Christmas Lectures next year.
The Christmas Lectures
Lecture 2
In this lecture Dr Kevin Fong tells us about life in space. Weightless can be a very bad problem, it means your body fluids are always at your head. Your muscles are not functioning properly so when you get back to Earth it takes a long time to get walking again. Your bones are not as strong. To help your body it is a good idea to exercise for at least 2 hours a day.
You need lots of oxygen tanks for space walks and for the air in the ISS. You can’t just put 50,60 oxygen tanks in an ISS supply rocket and send it to space, no, it would be too dangerous because of the pressure of the oxygen. Instead you bring oxygen up as the form of water (2 hydrogen particals and 1 oxygen partical) to then seperate them you need a special machine and electricity.
One of the most hazardous points of the space station though is that there is a lot of carbon dioxide which means you can get sick in the ISS but as carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen there are special filters aboard the ISS that can tell if it is oxygen or carbon dioxide by the weight.
When you have to get back to Earth however you have to enter back into the Earth’s atmosphere – it is called re- entery. As you start and continue this stage the Soyuz capsule starts to burn up. Many adults and children think it is because there is so much friction between the rocket and the particals outside. However when you think of it the rocket is going in a straight line so it compresses everything in the way of it which means it starts to burn up due to the speed it is going at.
The final lecture.
Dr Kevin Fong has made a great series discussing about everything you need to know about space. The last and the best facts are below,
There have been several missions and objectives whilst going to space but only 2 objectives had required humans in space which are : low Earth orbits and landing on the moon. It is important to investigate new things but also go back to the old. By going to Mars humans could see the future human race but going to the moon could show the very beginnings of life. A way we can find the past is because the early Earth rocks have eroded because of our atmosphere but when a meteor comes at hyper-velocity it may chip things and send it to the moon. They may get buried to preserve them. They cannot reach Mars because there is to much radiation going on whilst it travels. Moon rock can have lots of minerals which could also help with medicines. Due to no atmosphere in space you can get re-radiated so to measure how much radiation they have they use the time-pex detector. It makes a sound like morse code when it detects radiation. It measures how many beeps it makes. William Crookes did experiments with radium salts(which are very radio-active) and made the book harmful if you licked or bit it due to radiation. Tim Peake is conducting experiments of how do plants and animals survive in space and here are some facts: tardigrades can live in a vacuum, boiling conditions, freezing conditions, huge amounts of G-force and can survive tons of radiation. This creature is as small as a centipede but is tougher than humans. This evidence of extra-terrestrial life. When humans get re-radiated it is hard to survive for longer because cells find it hard to re-produce. When tardigrades get re-radiated they have a help system. To go to Mars you would need a lot of equipment(approx. 30,000) so the rocket would be so big it won’t become airborne. In space resources need to be re-used so you use a bag which gets rid your waste’s impurities. It may look the same, smell the same and taste the same as urine but it is safe. One way of bringing the water up is in a plant but you need to put chemicals in and ,more importantly, do further testing. You could make pizza in space by taking soya(cheese), tomato(sauce) and anything else for toppings. Space walks can be dangerous also because you might float into space and never go back to the ISS or asteroids ect. When a part of the ISS breaks down astronauts need to manually operate it and fix it before sunset(45 min after sunrise).The ISS is so big astronauts get lost whilst doing a space walk so arrows are painted in the direction of the door. Some circular motion can make 1G so there is artificial gravity. It is discovered every human can withstand at least 4G with out getting dizzy But astronauts need to not get dizzy with more G-force so artificial gravity can be created. When you land on a planet there is so much G-force that a ordinary parachute would tear. The astronauts use parachutes with holes to give stronger resistance. Rovers which land on Mars have several stages. First there is a main rocket which does majority of the work then momentum carries it closer then breaks of. The second stage slows down the speed whilst in the atmosphere by using thrusts. It drops the rover itself and crash lands somewhere else. The rover uses a parachute and lands. The first part of the mission is a success. The series has come to a great end. It involved education and fun and mixed it together well.
Over the course of three Royal Institution Christmas Lectures I learnt a lot of facts about how to survive in space. The lectures were presented by Dr Kevin Fong and Tim Peake. Tim Peake is the first British male astronaut to be staying on the International Space Station (ISS). When his rocket took off the accelerating force was so great that he weighed 3 times as much as he did on Earth. This is called the G force and astronauts have to train on Earth in order to deal with this force.The rocket upon take-off used the rotation of the earth to help it reach the ISS which hurtles around the Earth 17,500 mph. The rotation of the Earth is at its fastest at the equator, and because the Earth is spinning east to west at 1000 mph the rocket can use some of that energy to help propel it further.
After watching Christmas lecture number 3 I have learned alot of things I never knew so let me share some of these facts with you.
*Tim peake went to the ISS[International space station] with Scot kelly and Tim Koffra.
*When you go into space the hardest thing to do is to go into orbit.
Now here are some of the things we have done over the years;
*In 1961 Yuri gugarin went into low orbit.
*By the end of the 20th century we had already gone to the moon.
*In 1964 mariner 4 took the first few photographs of Mars!!
*Doctor Katie Joy explained that we should continue to study the moon for rocks from the early years on Earth and they got to the moon by earthquakes and meteorites.
*When Tim peake went into orbit he studied radiation using a clever device called a timepix detector.
*A geiger tube measures radiation as well and it works by the more radiation the more clicks you will hear.
I really enjoyed this christmas lecture.
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures have been held at the Royal Institution in London every year since 1825. This year, Dr Kevin Fong gave a series of lectures on, “How to survive in Space” (Lift off!, Life in orbit and The next frontier). In the first lecture (Lift Off!) Dr Fong aided with the help from the audience demonstrated the principles to launch a rocket into space:
• Newton’s Third Law (“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”)
• Fire Triangle (Oxygen-Fuel-Heat)
• the use of the rotation (West-to-East) of the Earth to aide rocket launches
• multi-staging as a way to improve the efficiency of the rocket engines
In addition, we were shown some of the dangers of travelling into space, including:
• how the boiling point temperature of water decreases as the atmospheric pressure decreases
In the second lecture (Life in orbit) Dr Fong showed us:
• the true reason for weightlessness in space – you are constantly falling in Space!
• that every 45 minutes the ISS sees a sunrise / sunset
• how the carbon-dioxide we breathe out can be removed from the air using sodium hydroxide to help recycle the air
He also explained some of the challenges of long term space flight including:
• the medical effects of weightlessness including muscle wastage, difficulties in balancing and bones becoming brittle. Astronauts need to exercise every day to prevent this conditions getting worse
• when the Soyuz capsule returns the Earth’s atmosphere it is the pressure of the Earth’s atmosphere that causes the capsule to get hot. But using an ablative shield the astronauts are kept safe
In the final lecture (The next frontier) Dr Fong showed us:
• how the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere protects us from radiation and how solar flares can be very dangerous for astronauts (can cause radiation sickness)
• how radiation can damage your DNA and this prevents you from creating healthy new cells
Finally, Dr Fong went onto describe the challenges of travelling for long periods of time and what you would need to visit Mars:
• a mission to Mars could take up to 1000 days!
• using a spinning system, it could be possible to create “artificial” gravity to avoid the problems of weightlessness on the human body
• how to use the 99% carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere and a Sabatier reaction to create methane and water to create the fuel necessary to come back to Earth
I found these lectures very enjoyable and look forward to next year’s lectures!
I have learnt that Tim Peak is going to keep some seeds up in space then distribute them to schools on earth. People will try to grow the seeds and then we will be able to see if we can grow plants in space. Also, if Tim Peak gets an injury he would be a long way away from home. Another interesting fact I learnt was the ISS (international space station) has never had a major accident in its 15 year lifetime!!!
I never new that water could be a good shield.
The Christmas lectures
Lecture 1
Lift Off
In this lecture Dr Kevin Fong tells us about the first of the crucial stages of how to survive in space. He briefly explained a rocket launch as a balloon being filled by hydronoxide and being lit to be a fraction of how powerful the launch is.
Isaac Newton facts
Everything has an orbit but the Earth’s gravitational field gets in the way of it.
Newtons 3rd law of motion is every action has an equal reaction.
Dr Kevin briefly before an experiment said that rocket fuel is long chains of carbon, atoms and hydrogen. He then experimented on whether you could realise energused any type of fuel so he used biscuits (powers the human body). He said that to realise energy t
( carry on) you need to have heat, fuel and liquid oxygen. Liquid oxygen is 200 times the pressure of normal oxygen
(21% in the air). They didn’t have liquid oxygen so they made it by boiling oxygen below its boiling point (-183 degrees) so they used nitrogen (-196 degrees).
Launching a Rocket
Launching a rocket can be very difficult. You need loads of power to even make it of the ground without needing to taxi on a runway. You can however have a little help from the Earth. If the rocket near the Equator, the Earth’s rotation will propel the rocket without using up all of the fuel
Lecture 2
The series is useful for learning and here are some facts : the ISS (international space station) was built in different pieces and it took 15 years to build.I realised that many people claimed they have never been weightless but everybody has. Weightlessness is when your body is not pressurising a source of gravity. A simple example is when you jump.Some people say there is 0G(1G=the force of gravity on Earth’s surface) in space. They are wrong because if you are in orbit or not you would be constantly be falling to the Earth or Sun. There is 0.92G in the ISS. To experience weightlessness and less than 1G for a lot of time (and not leave Earth’s surface) ride the Vomit Comet. It is a aeroplane which goes up and down several times. In less than 1G life could be easier and harder. It is very dangerous to take oxygen (O) to space so the astronauts take it up as H2O (water) by putting hydrogen with it. At space they take oxygen out and breathe it and the throw helium into space. They charge the particles with electricity until the particles part. Your breath has got carbon dioxide (CO2) which can poison you if too much is inhaled . Sodium hydroxide is a chemical used to get rid of carbon dioxide and re-breath air. On the ISS it is harder to put carbon dioxide in the filter because there is no natural air current and pressure because space is a vacuum . The ISS use artificial draughts. If you do not exercise in you bones start rotting because your body does not use them. On average you should run 20 miles on a treadmill to keep bones from rotting.IN space your body does not known where the ground is so it has no point of reference ,you might feel ill but the effects wear off soon. The spacesuit is very costly because of all the layers. The whole suit costs around $50million.Kinetic energy is when something goes very fast. In space there is not a very good first aid service compared to Earth’s because some of the most common injuries on Earth would not happen in space. When a space ship comes back to Earth it becomes hot because air becomes compressed and it cannot get out in time. The ablative shield protects the space craft from melting and lets astronauts to have a safe mission.
The space station travels at 17,500 mph. The space station was built by 18 members. In the 6 months of this space mission over 265 experiments will take place. I found the Royal Variation Christmas Lecture very interesting. I’ve learnt a lot more about the ISS [ INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION].
I learnt that if you throw a bag it would not float because gravity is pulling it down but it if you threw it in space it would float because there is no gravity.
I learnt that to propel an object forward you need a fuel to push behind. Isaac Newton’s third law of motion (every action has an equal and opposite reaction) is , therefore, proved correct. In one of the experiments Kevin used biscuits for fuel, liquid oxygen for a gas and a blowtorch to provide the heat. This simple experiment is used to explain how Tim Peak’s rocket is launched – rocket fuel, oxygen and fire from the rocket rear.
Tim Peak’s mission involves tens of thousands of people. This is because, it is a very challenging task. Life in space is very difficult as the air is extremely thin. This makes it hard to breathe without a space suit.
In this years Christmas lecture scientist, Kevin Fong talked about Tim Peake going to space and him living on the International Space Station (ISS). Tim Peake is going to do amazing experiments in space and will be there for six months.
The space station travels at 17,500mph. The space station smells metallic and chemically. The space station was built by 18 members. In the 6 months of this space mission over 265 experiments will take place. I found the Royal Variation Christmas Lecture very interesting.
I learnt that Tim Peake is going to do amazing and life-changing experiments such as planting seeds in space and is going to bring the seeds back to London to give to schools.Tim Peake is on board the International Space Station(ISS).The ISS has had a 15 year lifetime so far and has never had a major accident yet.In this years lecture,scientist Kevin Fong is going to talk about Tim going to space.Tim Peake will be out there in space for six months so lets hope he doesn’t get an injury because he is a long way from home.
In it’s 15 year lifetime the ISS (International Space Station) has never had an major accident .Tim Peake will be 400 km in the Earth,and going 17,500 mph.If Tim gets a medical emergency strikes Tim will be a very long way from home ! I found the Christmas lecture very interesting .
Lecture 1,
I learnt how hard living in space is and how to get there. Here are some facts : the triangle of fire ( heat, oxygen and fuel ) is necessary for space travel. The example of using biscuits (fuel), liquid oxygen (oxygen, bit of fuel) and a blowtorch (heat) was a good way to explain the process of ignition. Showing the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen (probably creation of water) which helped us visualise it better. Also the short volunteering sections gave me a further understanding of space whilst having fun .I as well learnt some of the spacesuit functions and how it feels like inside. G – force, momentum and gravity affect how and where a spaceship could go. Sound is only vibrations but it could be the most dangerous thing in space (only from inside) as the producer of the show proved it could break glass, the only thing separating living and boiling. The final thing is that it is known waters boiling point is 100 Degrees Celsius but in an area with low air pressure can change it. On top of Mt. Everest it would be 37 Degrees Celsius. Without a spacesuit you would boil.
Tim Peake is going to space to do some amazing missions like keeping a seed in space bringing it back to London to see if it grows and if it does then we know that we can grow food in space. Kevin Fong is doing the Christmas Lecture this year about Tim going into space and Kevin takes a big role because he knows all the experiments.Tim is going to space for a long time (6 months) so there must be quite a few experiments. As well as doing experiments he is going to see how The International Space Station is going and to see if anything is faulty.
In the first of the three annual CHRISTMAS LECTURES space doctor, Kevin Fong, explores and probes second by second what it takes to ‘Lift off’ into space. With Tim Peake, Britain’s first astronaut on the International Space Station, only days into his 6 month mission, he’ll be helping Kevin answer what keeps astronauts safe and on track as they’re propelled into orbit.
How do you control the energy of 300 tonnes of liquid fuel? What happens to your body if you don’t wear a spacesuit? And how do you catch up with a space station travelling at 17,500 mph to finally get inside? 400 km above the Earth, hurtling at a speed of 17,500 mph, astronauts’ bones and muscles waste away, the oxygen they breathe is artificially made, they face constant threats from micrometeorites, radiation and extreme temperatures. If a medical emergency strikes, Tim Peake is a very long way from home!
In its 15 year lifetime, the International Space Station has never had a major accident, with a British astronaut in orbit, gravity defying experiments.
So, how will life be artificially sustained as we travel the millions of kilometres to the Red Planet and on into the cosmos? How will our food last for 3 years or more? And what is waiting what for us when we finally land? With earth shattering experiments, top space scientists and our astronaut live from space.
this is amazing and astonishing and I hope Tim Peake makes it back safely.
I have learnt that when you go up to space, there is hardly any air in the space around you. So that is why in space, you weigh three times as much as you would if you were down on planet Earth.