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MENLO PARK / Tribune News Service
With a microphone floating in zero gravity, three astronauts aboard the International Space Station chatted with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg via live video about life in space.
The social media company has been ramping up its efforts in live video this year, taking on Twitter-owned Periscope. The recent event was the first time the tech firm has used Facebook Live outside Earth.
“When you’re building products to try to connect everyone in the world, connecting folks who are out in space is about as extreme and cool as it gets,” Zuckerberg said.
Taking questions submitted on NASA’s Facebook page, the 32-year-old CEO asked NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams, and Tim Peake from the European Space Agency, about the research they are conducting, what they do for fun aboard the station, using social media in space and even if food tastes
different.
As of Wednesday morning, the 20-minute video had more than 1.5
million views.
Kopra, the commander of the International Space Station, said they’re still trying to understand the impact of zero gravity on the human body, including the negative effects. The station, which can often be seen from Earth with the naked eye, serves as a laboratory for microgravity research and is the largest artificial body in orbit.
The six-member crew exercises a couple of hours every day to combat the loss of bone density and muscle mass in space and they routinely get their eyes scanned, said Kopra, who has been working in the station for more than 160 days.
“In large measure, we’re an experiment,” he said.
Like people on Earth, crew members said they also use social media to share photographs and their thoughts during the mission though the internet connection isn’t as fast.
British astronaut Tim Peake said all the training they do doesn’t prepare them for the experience of seeing the first orbit of planet Earth, the sunset and all the seasons aboard the station.
“You can’t put into words how beautiful the planet is from up here,” he said.
Doing back flips at one point during the video, Williams said he never gets tired of viewing Earth from the window. Most astronauts will say that their taste does change in space, that food is more bland and they prefer spicier foods.
For fun, they also play with their food and water, observing what happens in zero gravity.
“We all get to be kids again,” Williams said.