Have a Question About Space? Ask an Astronaut

By Nancy Atkinson - August 13, 2008 02:07 PM UTC | Space Exploration

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Astronauts are usually gregarious and quite pleasant people who like to share their experiences of living and working in space. Current International Space Station resident Greg Chamitoff is no different, and he is now ready and waiting to answer any burning questions you may have about human space flight. NASA offers a

"Ask the Expert"

website for many of its human missions, where the public can submit questions and astronauts or other NASA personnel answer with written and/or audio replies. But the past few space shuttle missions have been so jam-packed with ISS construction activities, there hasn't been time in the schedule for astronauts to answer any questions from the public. However, Chamitoff will be on board the ISS for a couple of months, and he has some time to answer a few questions. Questions will be transmitted to Greg from Mission Control each week and his answers to a few of them will be available

here

.

Don't know what to ask? NASA has a few guidelines:

Try to avoid asking a question that has been answered often on previous missions.

Normally the questions most often answered are those more specific to the current crew and mission.

Do your homework and review information about the station and current activities when you compose your question.

Check out the archives of past questions answered

here

. There you can even listen to audio of questions answered by the

STS-107 crew of Columbia

. They really were a great crew.

NASA also has a few rules about asking questions:

Stay on topic.

No profanity, sexually explicit or discriminatory material.

Basically, be nice. So, ask away!

News Source:

NASA

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com