Greetings from space

Three MIT alumni with something unusual in common — they were on the International Space Station (ISS) together for eight days last month — co-star in a new video offering extraterrestrial congratulations on the Institute’s 150th anniversary.

 

                                MIT庆祝150周年的第146天，2011.6.1 MIT主页
Two of the three, Greg Chamitoff PhD ’92 and Mike Fincke ’89, are crewmembers on Space Shuttle Endeavour, scheduled to return to Earth today, June 1. The third, Cady Coleman ’83, spent five months on the ISS, returning to Earth May 24 in a Russian Soyuz craft.

Chamitoff — who has previously found ways of incorporating his alma mater into NASA missions — reached out earlier this year to William Litant, communications director for the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, seeking to bring astronaut alumni into the MIT150 celebration.

“There is no more enthusiastic MIT alum than astronaut Greg Chamitoff,” Litant says. “He has used both his visits to the International Space Station as an opportunity to connect with MIT."

For this mission, Litant and Chamitoff came up with two ways of commemorating MIT’s myriad contributions to space travel: the video tribute from space, and the inclusion in Endeavour’s payload of a 1961 letter written by longtime MIT professor Charles Stark Draper, whose navigational systems have guided space shuttles and the ISS.

Before settling on these ideas, Litant and Chamitoff considered several other iterations. Endeavour’s initial launch date would have had the craft back from its final mission by mid-April, so their original plan was to bring all seven crew members to campus for the MIT Open House on April 30. Then, when the launch date was moved to April 19, that plan was scuttled in favor of a video featuring Chamitoff, Fincke and Coleman.

“The T-shirts were Greg’s idea,” Litant says of the trio’s attire in the 158-second clip. “I ran over to the Coop, bought three shirts, and FedExed them to Greg in Houston just in time for him to include in his personal cargo.”

Inspiration for much of the astronauts’ commentary came from the speech given on April 10 at the 150th Convocation by David Mindell, the Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing.

“We particularly liked David’s references to William Barton Rogers’ emphasis on learning by doing, and the importance of hands-on experiences,” Litant says, adding that the wordsmithing went down to the wire: “We were tweaking the remarks until about a day before Greg and Mike launched.”

  

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/astronauts-iss-150-video.html 博友vividfn翻译了上述报道，参考译文如下，谢谢vividfn！ 来自太空的祝贺 MIT宇航员校友从200英里高空祝贺MIT建校150周年     近日，麻省理工的三名校友为自己的母校送上了一份出人意料的贺礼。上个月，他们一同在国际空间站呆了整整八天的时间。期间，他们联袂为母校建校150周年录制了一段视频。     他们中的两位——MIT92级的Greg Chamitoff博士与89级的 Mike Fincke同为“奋进”号船员——将于今日（六月一号）返回地球。而另一位名叫 Mike Fincke，为麻省理工83级毕业生，在国际空间站待了5个月的时间，已于5月24日乘坐俄罗斯联盟号返回。     Greg Chamitoff之前就希望能在宇航局的工作中为母校送上祝福。年初，他联系上航空航天部公关主任William Litant，试图让宇航员们也能参与MIT的150周年庆典。     “众多校友里，他绝对是最有热情的，”Litant说，“驻留ISS则成他的机会。”     这次，他们设计了两个途径来记念麻省理工及其为太空航行作出的巨大贡献：一是在太空录制视频，二是一封1961年被带上奋进号的信——写信人是麻省理工的Charles Stark Draper教授，他的导航系统对航天飞机与空间站贡献颇多。     期间，他们也是波折不断。原定“奋进”号将于4月中完成任务并返航，其后他们一同7名机组成员会在4月30号的MIT开放日前往学校。但后来启航日期被推迟到4月19号，所以原计划流产了。取而代之的是由先前提到的三人在太空录制祝贺视频。     说到他们三人在158秒的视频中穿的T恤，Litant说：“那是Greg的主意。我跑到超市买了三件T恤，又快递给身在休斯顿的Greg，刚好来的及让他写上自己的标语。” 他们的灵感来自于4月10号，David Mindell教授与研究工程和设备制造历史的David Dibner教授在150周年会议上的发言     我们特点喜欢David教授就威廉•巴顿•罗杰斯为例所说的：亲自动手，方能有所收获。谈到他们在最后关头才写上标语时，Litant说：“我们在Greg和Mike出发的前一天才定下我们的标语。”