Ultra Long-Distance Call Between Explorers This Friday

You thought your long-distance charges were high?

NASA and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, are hosting a call between International Space Station astronaut Sunita Williams, orbiting 220 miles overhead, and marine biologist Tim Shank, in his Alvin research submersible two miles under sea, this Friday at 2:45 EST.

The two will compare notes on science and exploration in extreme environments and on the value of firsthand exploration. They will also field questions submitted by students and educators from around the world about their research programs, their common and uncommon experiences, and the challenges of working in space and under water.

Both work in small, confined spaces, looking out into vast, unpopulated expanses.

A tape-delayed broadcast of the call will be available on NASA Television, following the conclusion of a station status media briefing from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA TV downlink, schedules, and streaming video information is available here. NASA TV is carried on Direct TV, the Dish Network, and by most cable providers.

Williams, a commander in the Navy, served as a diver and helicopter pilot prior to being selected as an astronaut. A member of the 2002 NASA crew that lived underwater for nine days in the Aquarius habitat off the Florida coast, she boarded the space station on December 11, 2006, as a flight engineer for the Expedition 14 crew.

She is conducting and continuing experiments in plant, animal, and human biology in the extreme environment of space. She also deploys and tests technologies and materials for outer space exploration, much as oceanographers are using advanced technologies to probe Earth's inner space. Williams will spend six months at the space station and maintains on online journal available to viewers on the NASA Web site.

A marine biologist, Shank is currently conducting research diving in the Alvin at the hydrothermal field on the East Pacific Rise. He is leading a National Science Foundation-funded research expedition as part of the RIDGE2000 program.

FMI: www.naa.gov/station, www.whoi.edu