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On the morning of Friday 4th November 2016, the I’m an Astronaut competition culminated with the school and Astro Support team winners taking part in a live chat with British astronaut, Tim Peake. We’ve pulled together some of the highlights from the chat below. If you’d like more, take a look at the abridged version of the full transcript, pulling together all of the questions and answers. 27 Things We Learnt in Debrief Zone live chat 1. Giving birth in Space would make a lot of mess Fowey – Event Horizon:@all What would happen if someone was born in space? Jenn@Fowey – Event Horizon a massive mess 2. Naughty kids can be scientists Fowey scientists: @Charlie how hard do you have to work to in school to be a space physiologist Charlie: @Fowey scientists I was a little bit naughty at school but had a passion for science. I finally … Continue reading →

The I’m an Astronaut competition culminated with the school and Astro Support team winners taking part in a live chat with British astronaut, Tim Peake. We also announced the overall winner of the event, as voted for by students. Below is an abridged* transcript of the live chat, pulling all of the questions and answers. Take a look at this post for just the chat highlights.   NAME MESSAGE ModAntony Hi everyone, before we start the chat we are going to announce the overall Astro Support Team winner as voted for by all the students who took part in I’m an Astronaut this past year! So hold your questions for a sec, please:) ModAntony @all Will it be Jenn, Beth, Julia or Charlie who takes home the £500 prize to use for more space outreach? ModAntony @all We’ve counted the votes, checked them about a million Times, and now can announce….. … Continue reading →

More than 2,000 students have taken part in I’m an Astronaut this past year and put their questions to the Astro Support Teams. And the event is far from over. In the Debrief Zone winners from the four rounds of the I’m an Astronaut competition will come together and take part in a live chat with British European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Tim Peake. At 09.45am on 4th November, students will put their questions to Tim Peake himself, as well as the Astro Support Team winners from the Training, Launch, Orbit, and Touchdown Zones. And of course, there is the matter of the over-all winner, and the £500 prize to settle. Let meet the people taking part… Tim Peake More than 300 schools applied to take part in the I’m an Astronaut competition, for the chance to win a live chat with Tim Peake. Tim is an ESA astronaut of British … Continue reading →

Read the full report here The Touchdown Zone was the fourth round of I’m an Astronaut funded by the UK Space Agency’s Principia grant scheme and took place at the end of Tim Peake’s mission on the International Space Station. The Astro Support Team was made up of Vinita, a Space Operations Engineer at the European Space Agency, Kirsty, a PhD student researching how to keep astronauts’ backs healthy, Col Ops, who were a team of flight directors and ground controllers for the ISS, Charlie, a space physiologist and Andrea who is a Eurocomm for the ISS. As Tim Peake returned to Earth halfway through the event, there was a lot of discussion about his time on board the space station and what life will be like for him after he lands. This zone had the highest amount of questions approved out of all four I’m an Astronaut events, with … Continue reading →

Charlie Laing has been voted the winner of the Touchdown Zone, the fourth and final round of the I’m an Astronaut competition. Charlie goes on to join Tim Peake, and the winners from the Training, Launch, and Orbit Zones, in the final live chat, where the overall champion, and winner of the £500 prize will also be revealed. Here’s what Charlie had to say to the students in the Touchdown Zone after they voted him the winner: Hello! What a great few weeks that was chatting to all of you and speaking about one of my favourite topics – space! The questions you came up with were fantastic and it was great to see how engaged and knowledgeable you were already about Tim Peake’s mission. From aliens taking over our planet and the sun destroying our solar system to Tim’s poor bones and his liking of pizza and beer ; your questions were sometimes morbid, always original, … Continue reading →

The Touchdown Zone, the fourth round of I’m an Astronaut, Get me out of here, begins on the 13th of June, with students from 25 schools located all over the country connecting with the Astro Support Team! From 13th–24th June, school students will challenge the Astro Support Team through fast-paced live chats and probing questions, before voting for their favourite Team member. For the latest news and announcements about I’m an Astronaut follow @iaagmooh on Twitter and look out for the hashtag #Principia. Let’s meet the schools and the Astro Support Team who’ll be interacting in the Touchdown Zone… The Astro Support Team Andrea Boyd | EUROCOM, ESA’s European Astronaut Centre, Germany I’m a Mechatronic Engineer working at the European Astronaut Centre as an ISS Flight Controller. We have to have a good technical overview of all of the experiments and also be good friends with the astronauts Charlie Laing | Scientist, German Space Agency (DLR), Cologne Using artificial gravity to … Continue reading →

Read the full report here The Orbit Zone was the third round of I’m an Astronaut funded by the UK Space Agency’s Principia grant scheme and took place at the halfway point of Tim Peake’s mission on the International Space Station. The students in the Orbit Zone interacted with the Astro Support Team: people whose jobs related to human space missions like Principia. The Team consisted of an astronaut instructor, an astrobiologist with an experiment on board the ISS, an ESA research doctor based in Antarctica, a robotics engineer whose experiment Tim has been doing and a team of ISS flight controllers, Col Ops. Discussions in the zone covered a wide range of topics related to space with a specific focus on humans living on the ISS and the work of the Astro Support Team members. There was a particularly high number of comments from students on ASK questions.

We asked the Orbit Zone Astro Support Team to select a student, and the school whose live chat stood out for them; the school and student they thought asked the best questions, or engaged most. In each round of the competition, students from the winning school, and the individual student winner will go on to take part in the final live chat with Tim Peake and the Astro Support Team winners in the summer. So, for fantastic engagement, for posting brilliant questions and comments, the winners are… School winner: Hillcroft Primary School Student winner: Soyuz Guru, St James CE Middle School Well done to everyone who took part. There were so many interesting questions, comments, and live chats but there could only be one student winner, and one winning school. Join us for the next round, Touchdown Zone, running 13th–24th June!