Astronauts Work Out
Posted on May 21st, 2021 by Mary Lord
Everyone knows that it’s important to exercise to stay in shape. When you’re in orbit, exercise is absolutely vital! Astronauts aboard the International Space Station work out 2 hours a day to maintain muscle mass and bone density in zero gravity.
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Tags: astronaut physical fitness, International Space Station, muscle mass, Space, zero gravity effects on human body
Like NASA engineering teams, students learn about and then follow the steps of the engineering design process to design and build original model devices to help astronauts eat in a microgravity environment—their own creative devices for food storage and meal preparation. 
Built for engineering and science discovery, the International Space Station’s cupola also delivers awe and inspiration. Get a glimpse of the engineering behind this iconic addition to the ISS along with classroom activities and resource links as we celebrate 20 years of human habitation in space.
When the Space Shuttle Discovery made its final flight May 12 and landed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space annex in northern Virginia, it marked “a very emotional, poignant, bittersweet moment” for former astronaut Mike Mullane. A few short weeks later, a spacecraft named Dragon made history as the first commercial vehicle ever to successfully berth at the International Space Station.
Move aside, cute kitties and other viral video hits. A new NASA contest could turn science into the next YouTube sensation. Space Lab, the competition announced by YouTube and computer manufacturer Lenovo on Monday, offers students the chance to make video pitches for experiments to perform in the International Space Station’s zero-gravity environment. 
NASA’s “Kids in Micro-g” student experiment design challenge for grades 5-8, is aimed at giving students a hands-on opportunity to design an experiment or simple demonstration that could be performed both in the classroom and by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Students in grades 5-8 are invited to participate in Spaced Out Sports, a national design challenge that applies Newton’s Laws of Motion in the design of a game for astronauts of the International Space Station to play in space. The goal is for students to learn the “science behind the game” on Earth and in microgravity. Deadline: February 1, 2011.
Astrobiology Magazine is a NASA-sponsored online popular science magazine, with stories that profile current exciting news across the wide, interdisciplinary field of astrobiology — the study of life in the universe. The magazine publishes new stories daily, and, in addition to a large article archive, offers a catalogue of podcasts, notes from the field, blogs, and other types of multimedia.
In this activity, middle school students use tracking software available on the Internet to monitor a very large satellite, the International Space Station. Using information from this online resource, students predict and graph the motion of the space station at their location and create a 3-D display of its path through the sky.
