ASTRONAUT ESPOUSES EDUCATION; GODWIN TELLS STUDENTS ABOUT SPACE JOURNEY

GODWIN ADDRESSES PRESS CONFERENCE: Astronaut Linda Godwin speaks at a press conference Monday at Southeast Missouri State University. The banner that she carried aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis will be permanently displayed at the university.

JACKSON Students at West Lane Elementary School asked astronaut Linda Godwin Monday how it felt to blast into space, to float around the craft and to come rocketing back to Earth.

During Godwin's first trip home since her April flight aboard shuttle Atlantis, she visited Monday with students at Jackson, Oak Ridge and Southeast Missouri State University. Today she is scheduled to visit Jackson High School and Cape Girardeau Central High School.

Godwin said, "It feels good to have the first flight down, and hopefully I will be reassigned."

During the flight, Godwin, a physicist from Oak Ridge, was responsible for deploying the Gamma Ray Observatory using the shuttle's robot arm. She said the Gamma Ray Observatory should begin sending back scientific data this month.

While visiting area schools, Godwin is talking about more than just the mission.

She said: "I'm here to tell what I did with my education after leaving here. But I just represent a small segment of what students can do with their education.

"I would recommend that students choose an educational field they like and enjoy, then apply those skills. There are so many different jobs just at NASA."

At West Lane Elementary School, Godwin showed a series of slides to the students and then answered their questions.

Godwin's cousin, Lindsey Walker, is a fifth-grade student at West Lane School.

As she showed some of the thousands of photographs taken during the mission, Godwin told the students, "I found out I needed to learn a whole lot more about world geography." During the mission, the crew took over 4,000 photographs of Earth.

She said, "It was always beautiful when we looked out, no matter what time of day it was."

She explained that the food was served in trays attached to the legs of the flight suits. "We could float around and eat," she said. "Here we are a adults, and we go up and play with our food."

But what students really wanted to know was how astronauts go to the bathroom.

"In NASA we have acronyms for everything," Godwin explained, taking the question and ensuing giggles in stride. "So we don't say bathroom; we say waste control system, WCS. If you think about it there are two kinds of wastes, liquids and solids, and you don't want either kind floating around the shuttle."

She said the liquids are collected in a cup and the solids are collected in a container attached to something like a toilet suit. "That is one of the things the engineers had to work the hardest on," she said.

In response to questions, students learned that Godwin lives in Houston, as do all of NASA's 100 astronauts. It takes about 30 minutes to don a space suit and the shuttle has no shower. Godwin said astronauts take a sponge bath and shampoo their hair with special shampoo.

"In space, does water really form a sphere?," a student asked.

Yes, Godwin said. And she said, when taking a sponge bath, if all the water is not absorbed it floats around in little balls until an astronaut catches it.

She was asked if astronauts worried about accidentally bumping into things like buttons and switches while floating in the shuttle.

"Yes, we could bump into things while floating around, but the engineers thought of that," Godwin said. "The buttons and switches have guards around them to help prevent them from being accidentally pushed."

A student asked how long she went to college before she could be an astronaut.

"You definitely have to go to college," she said. "And you need to study something in science or math. There are so many people who want to be astronauts. Almost everyone has a graduate degree."

Godwin, who holds a doctoral degree in physics, told the students she went to college and graduate school a total of 10 years.

Godwin responded to a question about the Challenger shuttle disaster. She said flying in space is dangerous. "Anyone in the space program has to realize there is a chance of something happening, but accidents also happen on airplane flights and in automobiles."

Students at the elementary school honored Godwin with a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers and a rendition of the song "You're My Hero."

After the program, students in Andrea Sachse's fifth-grade class talked about Godwin's visit and space travel.

Erica McQuay said: "The definition of a hero is being courageous, and you definitely have to be courageous to be an astronaut. So she is a hero. I think it would be fun to play with water balls."

Justin Walker said, "I think Linda Godwin is lucky she got to go up there."

"I would like to go up and float around," said Josh Wiseman. "And I would like to see a bunch of stars and planets.

Jennifer Burton said, "I think it would be neat up there floating around, but I don't think I could go that long without a shower.

Amanda Webb said she would spend 10 years in college to become an astronaut. "To be able to see the things she has, it would be worth it."

Kevin Carnell agreed. "To see the Earth and all the stars I think it would be worth it."

Jamie Boitnott said: "I think it would be scary to be in a whole new place and to sleep on the walls. I think the launch and the landing would be scary. I'd be afraid we would crash."

But Dustin Macdonald said he was ready for a space flight. "I think it would be fun to try out that toilet."

Jenny Brents said: "It would be neat to be an astronaut. They can discover things."

Emily Ressler said, "I think it's neat that she is from our home town."

Amanda Webb added, "It's not every day that someone from Jackson is known nationwide worldwide."