GUEST LECTURE BY COLONEL JAMES DUTTON (ASTRONAUT)

The NASA astronaut COLONEL JAMES DUTTON paid a visit to Oakridge International School on September 25^th 2013 to enunciate to the students of Grade XI, XII and the faculty members, about his recent flight aboard space shuttle Discovery as well as revisit cherished memories.

 

This programme was graced by the presence of the Vice Principal Mr. Biju Baby, the Sr Secondary Coordinator Ms Rajani Mandava and the Team Leader Mr. Mirza Baig.

A speech was given by the Sr Secondary English Teacher Ms Anjum, to welcome the distinguished guest and introduce him to the students, who applauded with joy on hearing his achievements. The students seemed to be very excited and thrilled to hear about the inspiring words of the famous astronaut and sharing his expertise.

Col James opened the session by informing us about his team members, their qualifications and experiences in the field of Aeronautics. Dutton was selected in May 2004 as one of 14 members of the 19th NASA astronaut class.

In February 2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. In 2010 Dutton was the pilot on the crew of STS-131 and has logged over 362 hours in space.

He further stated that, NASA had assigned the crews for space shuttle missions STS-130 and STS-131. The STS-130 mission delivered a third connecting module to the International Space Station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The STS-131 mission will deliver research and science experiment equipment, a new sleeping area and supplies to the station in a logistics module carried in the shuttle’s payload bay.

The audience was treated to a film of the mission; Colonel Dutton flew on to the International Space Station, while he regaled them with stories about living and working in space. The students were mesmerized and spell bounded whilst they were watching the video. The photographs taken from the cupola were picturesque with beautiful images of the Earth from different angles. 

The children ooh'd and aah'd at the photos of the United States and United Kingdom taken from 200 miles above the earth. They laughed when they saw a picture of the 493rd FS mascot, Spank the Gorilla, floating in space, as well as movies of the crew playing with water and M&Ms in zero gravity. Col James shared a video of his colleagues enjoying a Japanese Dinner where they ate Sushi and kept themselves in good condition to gain muscle power by exercising regularly. A clipping of the video which showed the astronauts playing cricket made the students laugh and enjoy the match. The presentation ended with cheers from students and teachers alike. "Living in zero gravity was fun," Colonel Dutton told the crowd. "By the third or fourth day it felt like you'd been born there." Col James was quite impressed with the students specially Megha Melhotra and Jayesh who were able to answer questions he posed to the students. He invited students to ask him question and the students asked him various questions about NASA, his experience and how was his school life. It was a very interactive session which created interest in students to take up this path as their career. For some it was a realization of a dream which they aim to achieve.  "It's great to inspire people to work hard toward their goals and go after whatever their dreams are," he said. "It was great, my favorite part was the M&M bit," said Puneet a student of grade XI, who added that seeing a real NASA astronaut has made him more interested in space. Students like Devansh, Jayesh, Anuj, Aryaman, Bharat of Grade XI, and the girls were highly impressed and motivated by the achievement and some of them discussed about the opportunities of getting to work with NASA, and have now decided to become astronauts. Colonel Dutton said that while it's fun to come back to old haunts and share news about the space program, he hopes that his visit will motivate people as well.

It was very evident that the class greatly appreciated the opportunity to have him answer any doubts, queries or reservations they might have and be part of an open discussion wherein pressing issues from the field were discussed. I think it was an exceptionally informative session that allayed some of our fears and cleared up some of the foggy impressions we had about space travel.

The session came to an end by Mr Biju Baby, giving a vote of thanks to Col James Button for sharing his experience and expertise and encouraging the students to work hard and reach their set goals with strong determination.