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EDUCATION International Space Station imagery manager visits North Medford High School NASA's space station imagery manager visits North Medford High School Comment By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune Follow @@RyanPfeil MailTribune.com By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune Follow @@RyanPfeil Posted Apr. 8, 2016 at 2:32 PM Updated Apr 8, 2016 at 3:01 PM By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune Follow @@RyanPfeil Posted Apr. 8, 2016 at 2:32 PM Updated Apr 8, 2016 at 3:01 PM » Social News "Who wants to be an astronaut?" A handful of North Medford and Crater high school students in North Medford High School's planetarium raise their hands in response to Carlos Fontanot's question. Fontanot, imagery manager for NASA's International Space Station, scans the crowd. "We need astronauts," he says. "You guys. We have jobs. Our next-generation astronauts, folks your age, are going to Mars." NASA scientists have already started to blaze the trail to Mars, starting with the International Space Station. Fontanot will give presentations at several Rogue Valley schools over the next several days, focusing on the station's history, day-to-day life and scientific study on board, and how the football-field-sized, low-orbit structure is helping to advance how far out into space we can go. "Astronauts on the orbiting laboratory are helping us prove many of the technologies and communications systems needed for human missions to deep space, including Mars," the NASA website says. "The space station also advances our understanding of how the body changes in space and how to protect astronaut health." Fontanot's contribution to this complicated journey is receiving, processing, archiving and distributing pictures and video taken from the space station, which is used by 15 countries. Whether it's high-definition video or still photography, the constant stream of images taken inside and outside the station is analyzed, catalogued and archived. "Lots of these images are taken because people on the ground need them as part of their science or to troubleshoot, or to document activities," Fontanot says. "Or lots of the astronauts, they live on the station, so they take pictures of themselves — let's say 'selfies — for their families. They send them down, and the family on the ground knows that their dad or their husband or whatever it is is doing well aboard. It's my responsibility that that imagery is available." Most of the images are categorized as "shared imagery," Fontanot says, made readily available on the NASA Web pages for the public to see, download and share. "I do it all the time," North Medford planetarium director Robert Black says with a smile. Fontanot has been with NASA for 25 years, working in public affairs, education and outreach, NASA TV programming, and image processing and archiving. Born in Mexico City, he studied communications, radio, television and film in college. He worked at TV stations and produced training programs and manuals before going to NASA. Fontanot will participate in a question-and-answer session at the Ashland Independent Film Festival following a showing of "Cinespace," a series of short films curated from a recent competition put on by NASA and the Houston Cinema Arts Society . Entrants in that competition had to make short films using official NASA footage. Richard Herskowitz, who serves as artistic director at the Houston Cinema Arts Society, is also director of programming for AIFF. "NASA is just so generous with their educational programs that they offered to send someone here,” says AIFF Executive Director Cathy Dombi. That "someone" turned out to be Fontanot, who also agreed to do some educational talks at schools while he's here. "I thought it was really cool. I really liked all of the slides that he had and how much description was in all of them," says 16-year-old North Medford student Ashley Ripplinger. "I just liked the pictures that he showed, especially of the Earth time lapse." Life aboard the station was also of interest to students. "It's really interesting learning more about the International Space Station, because we haven't really gone over it," says 18-year-old Gabby Rosales. "It was cool to learn how they live in space with no gravity and trying to wash their hair. It sounds like such a simple thing, but it's actually really hard to do." And because of Fontanot, you don't have to work at NASA to check it out. "Cinespace" will be shown at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Historic Ashland Armory. To purchase tickets, see www.ashlandfilm.org . Reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at 541-776-4468 or [email protected]. Follow him at www.twitter.com/ryanpfeil . By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune Follow @@RyanPfeil MailTribune.com By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune Follow @@RyanPfeil Posted Apr. 8, 2016 at 2:32 PM Updated Apr 8, 2016 at 3:01 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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