WEST BARNSTABLE – NASA Astronaut Daniel Burbank spoke to students at Cape Cod Community College on Wednesday about space exploration and missions to Mars.
Burbank, who logged 188 days in space on missions aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, came to the West Barnstable campus as part of the college-wide reading initiative “One College, One Book”.
During his speech, he discussed what NASA has done so far in space, what it’s like to be in space and what current plans are for Mars exploration.
“You would not believe how much is going, there’s more excitement, more energy, more optimism I think, than any other time we’ve had in any other time during the entire history of the space program,” said Burbank.
Faculty, staff and students are reading the novel “The Martian” about a space-travelling astronaut, and have watched the movie.
Burbank said that he hopes his talk resonated with the college.
“Hopefully it will give them a little bit more to kind of balance what they’ve read and heard about and give them a little food for thought on just what a big challenge it is and how important it is for our future,” said Burbank. “We’re going to get there, but it’s harder than what the movies would let you believe.”
Although born in Manchester, Connecticut, Burbank considers Yarmouth Port home.
He joined the astronaut corps in 1996 and has served as Mission Specialist, Flight Engineer and Commander.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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