By Eileen Oldfield Staff Writer
Though he hasn’t been assigned to a crew for any upcoming space launches yet, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn’s experiences including backpacking through the wilderness, playing football in a zero-gravity simulation, and traveling at speeds greater than sound had 250 Hillsborough Middle School seventh-graders entranced when he visited the school Monday.
Dr. Marshburn, 47, of Pearland, Texas, spoke to students about becoming an astronaut, and his experiences.
”I was intensely curious about math and science, and journeys, (during school),” said Dr. Marshburn. “I didn’t think I could become an astronaut, but I ended up here.”
Dr. Marshburn spoke about his training and showed videos of the training classes. Though students may have thought training starts in the air, Dr. Marshburn proved them wrong training starts with land survival, before moving to water survival and training in jets.
Though the tasks can be daunting, teamwork helps the astronauts get through it, he said.
”The best thing about training for space is the people; working with other people,” said Dr. Marshburn. “What you learn is a lot of self-confidence. You have to do it and you do.”
He said the initial training takes two years: a year for shuttle training, and a year to learn space station functions. If he’s launched to space, Dr. Marshburn will undergo another year of training with his assigned crew.
Though he hasn’t been to space yet, Dr. Marshburn began training for space flight after NASA selected him for the program in 2004. As an emergency room doctor prior to selection, Dr. Marshburn worked as a flight surgeon before being selected to become an astronaut.
Though captivated throughout the program, the students did have questions for Dr. Marshburn, including whether he knew “what every button on the shuttle does,” and how long it takes for muscles to recover from space flights.
Though putting the students a step closer to the final frontier and boldly going where no man has gone before, and having the students clamoring for autographs and handshakes after the presentation, Dr. Marshburn brought his experiences closer to the student’s lives.
”Some of the best jobs in the world put you back in the classroom all the time,” said Dr. Marshburn. “That’s why it’s so important to learn how to learn.”
Organized through U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson’s office and NASA, Dr. Marshburn visited several high schools and middle schools in New Jersey’s 7th District this week.
