Curiosity is where learning begins, astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to travel to the International Space Station, told 50,000 students across the country and abroad on Friday.
He was in an online session connected to almost 1,000 classrooms.
One of the four astronauts of the private Axiom-4, which returned to earth on July 15 after an 18-day stay at the ISS, Shukla started his address on Friday with his launch experience.
"When you look at a rocket launch standing outside, it seems slow because it is a huge structure, about 70m tall, and you are standing at a far distance and looking at it. But inside, things are happening at a rapid rate. It was so fast that I was finding it difficult to keep up with the system for the first few seconds...you are going from 0km per hour to a speed of 28,500km per hour. So we got launched into space in eight and a half minutes."
Shukla went on to describe the experience of "microgravity" — the feeling of weightlessness and the changes in the body.
"You are not designed to stay in an environment of microgravity. When you experience it for the first time, there are lots of changes in your body. For instance, when you get to the station and you have sustained living in space in the environment of microgravity, all the blood and fluid from the legs shifts and goes to your head and the head becomes bigger. Your heart slows down because your heart doesn't have to pump the blood against gravity to your brain and you become taller and your spine elongates."
The body gets used to the environment in four to five days.
Shukla described his 18-day workplace as the "office with the best view".
"When you leave the planet, the planet becomes your identity, and it is such a strong feeling. The entire planet, the earth, feels like your home. You do not zoom into a particular continent, a particular country, region and say this is where I live. You look at the earth and say this is where I live. The unification of what we have is very strong."
India is a beautiful sight to see from space this is where we have grown, this is where all our friends, family live, he said.
"Just the sight of the peninsular lit up specially at night, is an extremely beautiful sight."
The 90-minute session was part of CISCE's Inspire webinar series — Igniting Minds, Exploring Frontiers: The Convergence of Space, Education and Industry.
