The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

CAMAS — Life in space really can be pretty down to earth at times.

You play with your food. You worry about your weight. You call home from the office. You take bathroom breaks.

Mike Barratt shared that side of life in orbit Monday with students at Liberty Middle School in Camas — the same place where the astronaut went to school some 35 years ago.

Barratt’s visit to Liberty Middle School was part of a brief break between space missions. Barratt returned from 199 days on the International Space Station on Oct. 11.

Barratt will return to space in September for what is scheduled to be NASA’s final shuttle flight, so he hasn’t had much time to relax.

In an afternoon assembly, Barratt told the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders he wanted to offer a snapshot of day-to-day life in orbit: “A candid view of the human element in space,” he said.

Spicing things up

The topics touch on aspects of life everybody can identify with.

“Space food is pretty bland. We use a lot of pepper and chili sauce,” Barratt said. He was happy Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata was on the mission because his nation sent along some pretty tasty food.

Barratt said he watched his weight — but not for the typical earth-bound reason.

“I tried to keep my weight up. I ate 5,000 calories a day for the first few weeks. I exercised two hours a day,” he said.

Zero-gravity meals also gave astronauts a chance to play with their food. A diner with a steady hand could flick a macadamia nut a dozen feet into the mouth of a crew mate.

Even liquids were fair game, since they form into spheres in zero gravity.

“If you were really good, you could release a ball of juice and blow it” across the table, Barratt said.

The topic of food, of course, eventually leads to a discussion of the bathroom.

There is no gravity, “So air flow blows whatever you want in the direction you want,” Barratt said. “The fan works well, but alignment is everything.”

The two topics do have another link.

“We don’t have an abundant water supply,” so the water recycling system turned urine, sweat and other moisture back into drinking water.

“You turn yesterday’s Kool-Aid into tomorrow’s Kool-Aid,” he noted.

A typical day can include calling home from work, even though the office is traveling at 17,500 mph.

“We have Internet protocol phones, and I can dial any number on the planet,” Barratt said. “I’ve called my kids’ cell phones, and lots of their friends didn’t think they were talking to someone in space.”

Barratt illustrated his discussion with photos taken from space. One shot showed two pyramids near Cairo, clearly visible as pointy-topped squares and another showed a volcanic explosion in a remote island chain in Asia.

But some were close to home — images his audience members really could identify with. One was an aerial view of Mount St. Helens taken from space.

Another photograph showed Camas, taken from more than 200 miles straight up, with a “You Are Here” tag at Liberty Middle School.

The building was Camas High School when Barratt attended classes as co-valedictorian of the Class of 1977.

But the middle-schoolers are sitting in classrooms Barratt studied in, and somebody is using his old locker.

That connection appealed to several students who went up after the presentation to get Barratt’s autograph.

“He was going to the same school I’m going to,” seventh-grader Sam Chosa said.

Dahlia Vu even got a hug.

“He had the same experiences we’re having,” Vu said.

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