Students in Toms River got an out of this world experience recently chatting with two astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

They took time out of their busy schedules to answer science, technology, engineering and math questions.

Teaching students how they can apply what they're learning in class to the real world.

Even if it's not in our world.

Ted Goldberg has the story.

It was really interesting.

I didn't know someone my age could have that kind of opportunity.

That opportunity for Toms River students asking questions to astronauts in space and getting answers in real time.

How does it feel going to space?

Well, let me give you a quick demonstration.

Like Superman.

When we were like watching it in the lecture hall, it felt like a moment of like happiness and my joy because, like, everybody was clapping while, like, listening to my video.

And it was like a good experience.

It was something that I've always seen other people do and I wanted to do for myself.

Lucas Lowery and several other students in the Toms River Regional School District spoke with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

What are the primary scientific projects you are currently working on?

Human physiology and human science.

The students are part of Toms River, Steam Academy, Science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

If you can't tell from his hoodie, Lowery wants to be an astronaut when he's older.

A very specific kind.

I want to be an aerospace engineer now.

So working on rocket engines and entry descent and landing to like land to land and Mars.

Would you want to be the one who walks on Mars?

Not the first.

Maybe like 50 years.

Enough time to work out the kinks.

Weird things happen to your body in space as these students learned.

The body does do very many changes.

They say, you know, and you can kind of feel it a little bit that your internal organs kind of shift up into your body a little bit, which is good because it makes you feel thinner.

I know a lot of things about space, but I didn't have the like, your organs kind of shift around, which it does make a lot of sense because there's quite a bit of space in your body.

The astronauts were more than happy to share their experiences.

Some might say overshare, but the students weren't turned away during their 20 minute conversation.

I don't mind sharing this for some reason, and I'm not the only once you get a little rash when you first get to space.

We're not sure why.

We have research studies dealing with how effective our pharmaceutical standard pharmaceutics goals that you might use on Earth.

And when you get in a weightless environment, they don't seem to affect human physiology the same way.

The students had different takeaways for what they thought was the most interesting thing they learned.

One thing that was like knowledgeable for me was like when they they need like a certain amount of exercise.

So their muscle muscles like, don't cramp up.

We spend a minimum of 2 hours a day, see how buff Don is getting.

We have a resistive exercise device, also a bicycle, and also a treadmill where we put on a harness and strap us down so we can actually run as if we were on earth.

The thing that really stood out for me was the fact that they don't take like turns sleeping.

They have a very strict schedule and they both like sleep at the same time.

As for breathing in space, the astronauts explain the machine that makes that possible, at least aboard the ISS.

It takes electricity and water and makes hydrogen and oxygen.

We breathe the oxygen and we take the hydrogen.

And we can combine that with carbon dioxide, and we end up making methane and recovering some more water from that.

This Zoom call was set up as part of a series that NASA does with schools nationwide, getting kids interested in space and giving a great experience to kids already interested.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.