Feed your Fascination with Space

Listen to me read this post


There is something about Space that fascinates people and inspires passion.  Neil Armstrong lived for flight and his passion took him all the way to the moon.  It all started when he was 2 years old and his father took him to an air show.  The sight of the airplanes flying overhead filled him with excitement and fascination.  As he grew so did his passion.  He built model airplanes in elementary school.  In high school, he took flying lessons and got his pilot license at age 15.  By the time he was 20 years old, he was flying jets off of aircraft carriers.  After years of studies, he choose to become a test pilot to continue flying the most advanced airplanes available.     That job led to his participation in the Apollo Project and his trip to the moon.  When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon surface he ignited the fascination of millions of people around the world, a fascination that continues today. 

Feed your fascination by watching NASA astronauts perform experiments live from the space station.  You can watch them live on YouTube.  Here is the link.

Language Link

According to dictionary.com, to fascinate means the power to attract by raising curiosity or interest and fascination is a powerful attraction, interest or curiosity with someone or something.  Other words that mean the same thing as fascination are allure, attraction or appeal.  If someone is extremely fascinated with something or someone we can say they are obsessed or they have an obsession.  

Informally, when people are fascinated with something they say they have "a thing for" it.  For example, your friend asks you, "Are you reading another book about Neil Armstrong?"  You can say, "Yes, I have a thing for space travel.  I can't read enough about it."    

Thanks for listening.  This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.  

Movies about the Space Program

There are many wonderful movies that you can watch that are based on the theme of space.  Of course, there's lots of Science Fiction films like Aliens, Star Wars, or Men in Black but today I want to recommend 3 dramas that are based on true stories.

DIY Space Program

Listen to me read this post


Yesterday I led a Conversation Hour at the American Center Hanoi about Neil Armstrong.  One of the questions that came up during the discussion was - Are there cheaper ways to run the Space Program?  Well, when I got home I turned on the TV and CNN was on talking about DIY Space Programs. So, I asked Google to show me the links and here are some pretty cool Space experiments you can do yourself on the cheap*.  
   
Send a camera (or object) in to space.  In the show notes you will find a link to a video about a father and son who did just that.  They attached a video camera to a weather ballon and launched it from Brooklyn, New York.  It made it all the way to space and back safely. The images are pretty cool. 

Join a citizen scientist project.  You don't have to be an expert in engineering or science to participate in Space Exploration. At Spacehack.org you can find a list of different projects run by different groups and organization that you can help out with. 

Google also brought me to this interesting article related to another question brought up in our discussion - Should the space Program be run by private corporations instead of the government? It could be the next wave of the future*.  

The article mentioned a small company called ArduSat which is using Kick Start to fund their small satellite project.  Check out their video that explains their project. 

I'm always impressed with the great thoughts, questions, and ideas brought up during the conversation hours.  Language learning allows us the opportunity to share and learn from each other.   

*Language Link
On the cheap is an idiom that means something done for not a lot of money.  

Wave of the future means a trend that will become popular in the days ahead.  

Thanks for listening.   This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.