Inuit students talk with astronaut

Cosmic-Minded Inuit Chat with NASA Astronaut in SpaceInuksuk High School went cosmic on February 8 when nearly 700 students, elders and community leaders packed the auditorium to snych with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Nunatsiaq News reported on the event, organized by the group Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), a NASA educational program whose volunteers link schools with the orbiting astronauts. The idea is to get students to think about careers in science, technology, engineering and math, the newspaper said.Astronauts tell Iqaluit students to work hard, dream big

“Go after your dream. No one is going to come and say here is your job”

By Dean MorrisonAbout 50 Inuksuk High School students submitted questions about life in space, from which 20 were selected.

The students were then connected to NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, who arrived on the space station Dec. 12 for a six-month stay.And:Omole said she’s now thinking about becoming an astronaut herself.

“At first I wasn’t, but now I am definitely interested in becoming an astronaut and going into space,” Omole said.Comment:  This is literally how far away from reality the Suzuki dog-sled commercial is. Inuit students are talking to astronauts via computer and thinking of becoming astronauts themselves.

Yet the media constantly shows them living in igloos, wearing parkas, and driving dog-sleds. The idea that they use computers--or cellphones, or cars--is inconceivable to most people.

For more on the subject, see Eskimos: The Ultimate Aborigines.