ESA astronaut brings water in space down to Earth

When you add an ice cube to a glass of water it floats to the surface, but what happens in space? Nearly 300 Belgian schoolchildren discovered the answer to questions such as this during a special International Space Station (ISS) Day on 6 October.

The children, aged 10-12 years, gathered at the Free University in Brussels for a day of activities that taught them about life on the ISS. How do the astronauts wash? How do they brush their teeth? What and how do they eat? And how do they keep fit and healthy?

The highlight of the day was a live video linkup with ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, speaking from the Space Station as it swept overhead at 25,000 km/hour. De Winne, a Belgian citizen, has just become the first European commander of the ISS. He is also a leading supporter of the UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) campaign. Not surprisingly, ISS Day focused on the scarcity of water in space and in many places on Earth.

Water is vital for everyone’s health, both on Earth and in space. During the ISS Day, the children were shown the link between the need to use water very carefully in space and the problems of water shortage facing millions of people on our planet.

During the live linkup, De Winne performed three simple demonstrations to show how water behaves in space. At the end of the call, he had time to answer questions from five children in the audience.