Washington, 21 mar (EFE).-two Spanish students today have experienced the same feeling that the astronauts from the international space station (ISS) in an environment with zero gravity, as a reward to the draft submitted to the contest YouTube Space Lab, that could also be taken to the space complex.
The Galician Laura Calvo and MarÃa Vilas, both aged 15, lived an intense day full of activities with enthusiasm and with the hope that his work will be selected among the six finalists to be sent to space.
If reached the space station “would be one of the best things that we can spend, because it is something we have done us, to which we have devoted many hours and would bring our very far,” said Laura in statements to Efe.
Both are students of 4th ESO public school multilingual two say in Rois (A Coruña), a rural town about 20 kilometers from Santiago de Compostela, where learn subjects such as technology in English, as well as studying others in Spanish and Galician.
His work, which has been selected among more than 2,000 from 80 countries, has earned them a trip to Washington and to experience a flight with zero gravity which allowed them to eat candy in the air, pass through a ring in full flight and do all sorts of stunts before visiting the Udvar-Hazy Aerospace Museum.
“A unique experience”, said Mary smiling, after making 15 parables to more than 10,000 meters in a modified Boeing 727 to experience zero gravity, and encouraged young people of his age to participate in this type of contest “certainly”.
“if we can them also and with a little effort and work all we can,” commented.
The two are friends from small, share hobbies, music and this year, his last in that school, they wanted to take to participate in all possible activities, so when his teacher of technology, Javier Mendez, proposed them to participate in YouTube Space Lab is it did not think twice.
Mendez, who has accompanied the students on the trip, stressed that they are students “responsible, very joyful, loaded with energy, dynamic and involved in many projects”.
Furthermore, Susana RodrÃguez, Professor of computer science and also moved to Washington, he noted the satisfaction of seeing the success of her students and also the rest of his classmates, to those who were very present with a flag of Galicia that floated in weightlessness.
Young women raised if the lack of gravity affects the way they interact different liquids, such as water and oil, mixing with compounds that decrease the surface tension, in this case dishwasher, which weakens the barrier between the two and makes that one place above and another below by gravity.
On the website of YouTube Space Lab in collaboration with the technology manufacturer Lenovo explains that his work could help understand different concepts, from the construction of semiconductors from a computer to the prediction of time.
Space Lab, in collaboration with NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, be granted the opportunity for two teams of six finalists (Egypt, Spain, New Zealand, India and USA) that his experiment is carried out and that YouTube disseminated it over the Internet from the ISS.
Zahaan Bharmal, promoter of the contest, told Efe that when he was the same age as many of the participants was fascinated with science and space.
“but did not have many opportunities to get involved in (activities with) the space”, so when it came to join Google, owner of Youtube, he thought: “Let’s give these young people a chance”.
Winners will be announced on Thursday in a ceremony at the Newseum in Washington, one of three teams from the category of 14 to 16 years, to which belong the Spanish, and another participant from 17 to 18 years.
The Spanish Laura Calvo (d) and MarÃa Vilas
(i), both aged 15, pose for a photograph before experience the same feeling that the astronauts from the international space station (ISS) and fly in an environment with zero gravity, as a reward to the draft submitted to the contest YouTube Space Lab. EFE
