ALL systems were go at Mediacity’s piazza on Saturday 15th October as it played host to British ESA astronaut Tim Peake.
After an exciting six-month mission living aboard the International Space Station, Major Tim Peake gave a talk about his time and answered questions from the family-based audience.
Among the eager space fans were Alfie and his younger brother Ollie.
“I want to be a spaceman because I want to see the moon,” Alfie said – as he also thinks that there’ll be ‘loads of aliens’ in space.
One of the questions he was eager to ask Tim Peake was: “How do you put your space suit on?”
Complementing his hour-long speech, was a presentation of breathtaking photos on the piazza’s big screen.
The talk covered everything from training, to the experience of going into space, to what he did whilst he was there – and even how he used the toilet!
Before his talk, Tim was filmed for BBC’s Newsround and was interviewed by presenters Leah and Ricky Boleto, in front of a group of children.
Tim was then introduced to the crowd outside the studios by Blue Peter’s Lindsey Russell, and was greeted with a loud cheer from the audience – primarily made up of children.
After his presentation, he was interviewed by Newsround’s Jenny Lawrence, who alongside being quizzed by children at the event, asked emailed questions by fans of the show.
Some of the questions from the children that were posed to the British astronaut included:
What was the most interesting thing?
“I think for me, was the capture of dragon vehicle because it was a really high pressure event. If anything it was more high pressured than the space walk because the robotic arm movement was all from you.”
What is it like to float around?
“Yeah floating in space is really liberating. It is fantastic- as you would expect. You’re not really good at it and your legs and arms are flailing everywhere. But we hook our feet into the hand rails. We never use our hands.We never wear shoes; we just wear socks and stable our body with feet so we get to be a bit like a monkey.”
How do you use the toilet in space?
“Right, so in space to keep everything under control you must have airflow. Airflow is the key. You have a little vacuum pump to the loo and that creates the suction so everything goes in the right direction,
“In terms of getting rid of it, we try to recycle everything on the space station. We’re trying to get to the point where we can go to Mars and we don’t need to re-supply with anything. This means we recycle our urine into drinking water. So today’s coffee is yesterday’s pee.”
Tim’s appearance at MediaCityUK was a free-to-attend event, and part of his seven-dates UK tour organised by the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency.
Dates remaining on his tour are: Belfast on October 18th, concluding in London on October 19th.
Further details on venues, timings, and how to attend will be released locally and on principia.org.uk.
This isn’t the only science-themed event happening in Salford in October. Tim’s appearance acts as an exciting trailer for this year’s Manchester Science Fesitval, which is taking place 20th-30th October 2016.
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