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  • I'm Don Pettit. I'm a NASA astronaut

  • and I'm on the International Space Station

  • We're currently

  • about 240 nautical miles above the surface of Earth.

  • [...theme music starts...]

  • (242.5 nautical miles, NM) (almost 450 kilometers, KM)

  • I S S

  • [...music intensifies...]

  • [...music fades out...]

  • Space Station is a serious place.

  • We're doing serious researches,

  • scientific research and engineering research.

  • We have a Regenerative Life Support system,

  • which is a fancy way of saying

  • that we've got a toilet that you use,

  • and then a machine that goes,

  • "Chugga chugga chugga chugga.. chug,"

  • and then you go to the galley

  • and you make yourself a cup of coffee.

  • And that's exactly... what you are thinking it is.

  • (in-n-out by recycle)

  • And this is the kind of engineering research

  • that we're doing on Space Station.

  • It's needed so that

  • when we go to Mars, we won't run out of water.

  • And of course...

  • not only would you have angry birds

  • if you ran out of water,

  • you'd have "Angry Human Beings", too.

  • I want... to do some physics demonstrations

  • that involve some of the things

  • that you might see in the Angry Birds Game.

  • And, of course, I've got my Angry Bird here,

  • but we need a pig.

  • [...blowing sound...]

  • [...game melody starts...]

  • Well, I'm not very good at art.

  • It's a good thing I decided to be a scientist and an engineer

  • instead of an artist 'cause

  • I'd... I'd probably be starving by now.

  • Ok, Here... here is Pig.

  • And, of course, Pig is the archenemy of Angry Bird.

  • And Angry Bird, had...

  • some eggs!

  • [...piggies oink...] .

  • And Pig...

  • stole the eggs.

  • And don't ask me

  • how... I got the eggs on Sapce Station!

  • [...game melody goes...] .

  • I've got a bungee

  • spread across the hatchway...

  • And this bungee... is kind of like a slingshot.

  • And I'm gonna show...

  • the trajectory... that Red Bird is gonna have when I fire him with this orbital slingshot.

  • [...whistling melody...] .

  • Launching... Red Bird

  • into the space...

  • Well.. hey! we're already in the space!

  • [...gear tightening...]

  • (springs+Bird screams) Wohoo!

  • Look at that!

  • [bang!] Whoa, all..the way down!

  • [...whistling melody...] .

  • That's an example of a trajectory.

  • It's straight line... from our perspective here.

  • Gravity... will attract an object if it's moving in a straight line,

  • and it will no longer move in a straight line.

  • It gets bent... and goes in a curved trajectory.

  • And... guess what?

  • Astronauts have to worry about these things

  • because if you're in a rocket, and say...

  • you're trying to get... from one orbit

  • and rendez-vous a space station,

  • you end up going in curved trajectories,

  • and you need to know

  • how to fire your rocket engines

  • so that you can go from where you are

  • to where you want to be.

  • [...game melody goes...] .

  • And if you understand the math,

  • if you understand the physics,

  • it will allow you to go out...

  • and get... a neat job.

  • A job sort of like mine

  • where you're an astronaut

  • and you can fly in space.

  • (So) Learn about these subjects in school.

  • You can also learn about these subjects while you're playing games.

  • (And...) What happens...

  • when... something like an Angry Bird

  • gets their eggs

  • [bang!] gets their eggs

  • stolen by pig?

  • This is all that's left of Pig after Pig got exploded.

  • And we got to see all of this in a weightless environment,

  • which is what the Angry Birds Space game is going to be like

  • with gravity fields from planetary bodies.

I'm Don Pettit. I'm a NASA astronaut

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