NASA Social: Astronaut Health, Fitness & Rehabilitation Pt.1

Yesterday, on July 17, I attended the NASA Social meetup at Johnson Space Center.  It was so much fun!

For those who may not know, JSC was established during Project Mercury, the very beginning of the era of human space flight, to be NASA's base of operations for training astronauts. In addition to all US astronauts training here, all international astronauts and cosmonauts come to JSC to train together as a crew, a process that I believe takes about two and a half years, before heading to Star City, Russia, for their final preparations and launch.

Expedition 37 mission patch

The theme of yesterday's Nasa Social meetup was astronaut health and fitness, and it coincided with the Expedition 37 Press Conference and the launching of the new Train Like Mike program. The "Mike" in question is Astronaut Mike Hopkins, a former Air Force engineer and lifelong advocate for sports and fitness, who will be flying aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in September to live and work aboard the International Space Station until March 2014.

The day began with the NASA Social attendees meeting at the Gilruth Center, JSC's gym and fitness center.  The attendees were a mix of professional media, those with a professional interest in fitness, and folks like myself who are just enthusiastic about NASA and it's mission of exploring the stars. We were guided by a team from JSC's Public Affairs Office, and they had a very busy day planned for us!

ISS Mockup in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility.

The first thing we did was that which I was most excited for - visiting the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. This facility is a vast room that houses life-size mockups of all kinds of things the astronauts will encounter in space.  In addition to a mockup of the International Space Station, the building also housed things like a practice space toilet (not actually a toilet, thankfully!) and a pretend hatch to SpaceX's Dragon capsule.


Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside the ISS Mockup as it was being used for training during our visit, but we did meet Astronaut Doug Wheelock, who flew on both the Space Shuttle and Soyuz, and lived on the ISS to equal a total of over 178 days in space, and 43 hours of spacewalking to repair a pump that broke while he was aboard the ISS.

Astronaut Doug "Wheels" Wheelock, who answered questions about the ISS and shook my hand!
Beside him is a mockup of the ISS's Cupola.

There's cozy, and then there's Soyuz cozy...

We also met the engineer who trains the astronauts on the Soyuz spacecraft, who spoke fluent Russian and was very enthusiastic.  I had heard Soyuz was cramped and very small, but I wasn't prepared for how small. You definitely have to be friendly with your crewmates!  It's just a good thing that they now can get the Soyuz to the station in a few hours, versus the three days it used to take them. Can you imagine spending three days in there with your two closest friends?

Next we met an engineer working on the new Orion capsule. Orion looks rather like an Apollo capsule, only twice the size. It's purpose is also the same - to take astronauts beyond low earth orbit, be it the moon, an asteroid, or even Mars. It is still in development, as is the companion rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), that will also be about the size of the old Saturn V's.  This is the program the Space Shuttle was de-commissioned to fund, and is the next step to getting crewed American rockets back in space.  That is, unless the private sector beats them to it.

Discussions centered around the EVA console.

Our next stop was Mission Control! There are several control rooms within the Mission Control Center. First we viewed the control room for the ISS, which was a cool nerd moment for me because I often watch a show called Space Station Live on NASA TV which shows live shots of this room as well as activities on station.  Yes, I am THAT nerdy. The control rooms have visitors galleries from which you can see the activities from the other side of a piece of glass.  It's not often that visitors are allowed to view an operational control room. We were briefed by a woman who works at one of the consoles in the control room about her job.  To be honest, the neatest thing was to see the Flight Director and two other gentlemen gathered around the EVA console, having very serious discussions.  Perhaps trying to figure out how water got into Italian Astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet on the spacewalk the day before.

After that, it was time for another huge nerd moment, but this time a historical one!  We were brought into the Apollo era Mission Control room. It is a National Historic Landmark, and though it was used until 1992, it has been restored to the state it was in during the Apollo era. This was the room from which Neil Armstrong was supervised making the first steps onto the moon, and from which the best minds of the day tried to bring the Astronauts of Apollo 13 home. Unfortunately, I also suspect this was perhaps the control room being used when we lost Challenger. It's a heavy place, and everyone in the room was both in awe and totally thrilled to be there.

The view as you enter the control room.

Yours truly sitting at the Flight Directors console.  If Gene Kranz's autobiography, Failure Is Not An Option, wasn't on my reading list before, it sure is now!

Lunar Module control console, located in the front row, right hand side.

Stay tuned to this blog for Part 2! After the lunch break, we learned much more about health and fitness in space and on the ground, and met more astronauts. Much more astronauts!

How I Look at the Sky

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about telescopes because I was informed that I'm allowed a very nice (aka expensive) birthday present. I've been drooling over things I can't have and agonizing over what would be the best addition to my very modest existing gear. My birthday isn't for several weeks, but I thought I would share with you what I do have.

My Orion StarMax90

My telescope is an Orion StarMax 90, which is a 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain on a tabletop mount that came with 10 and 25mm Plossl eyepieces. I also bought at the same time a kit of 4 filters, and a 2x barlow lens.

The first thing  I have to say about this telescope is that it's tiny and adorable! Yeah, ok cuteness isn't a common feature on most telescopes, but Orion offers quite a few very small yet somewhat respectable scopes.  I'm an apartment dweller, and at the time I wasn't sure that I wanted to put up with trying to store a large tube and a clunky equatorial mount.

I have to admit, I don't entirely have the science of telescopy worked out yet.  I point it at things, think "cool!" and then try looking at it with a more zoomy eyepiece. When it comes to clusters and faint objects, I spend a lot of my observing time just trying to figure out what it is I'm looking at. So basically, I can't write the sort of detailed, technical review you might find on Cloudy Nights.

The full moon, photographed through my StarMax90
using my cell phone of all things.
Taken March 26, 2013. 

I can tell you, however, that the moon looks fantastic, Jupiter has stripes, and Saturn has rings, but I see no Cassini Division.  Most nebulae are usually pretty difficult to see, and my absolute favorite things to observe are open clusters.  I feel like last fall I spent the vast majority of my observing time looking at M7. I have yet to see a galaxy. It should be noted that I live in a heavily light polluted area, and all but the brightest stars and planets are rendered invisible to the naked eye.

I started out looking south from my balcony with my scope sitting on a tv dinner tray. This worked fine, but I got bored looking at the same constellation (Scorpio) every night, and I eventually moved to an apartment with a great view of a streetlight instead of Scorpio.  I honestly haven't used my StarMax much since moving, and have only been able to see the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn.

It's difficult to find a place to go to that is both dark and safe in the city. Being female, these things seem mutually exclusive to me. Also, the fact that I would  have to haul out a chair and a table as well makes me think that staying at home and playing Skyrim instead is a better idea. Yes, I am both lazy and paranoid.

My Bushnell Legacy
10x50 Binoculars

My other toy that I have is a pair of Bushnell Legacy 10x50 binoculars. I love them.  It has a nice field of view, a long enough eye relief that I don't have to take off my glasses, and it's fog resistant as well as waterproof. I love looking at the Pleiades with these binoculars, as well as checking out the positions of the Galilean moons.

I sometimes grab the dog and these binoculars and head out for just a quick look. Unfortunately, the dog has no appreciation for astronomy and assumes I keep looking up because there's something scary up there, so we have to go back inside fairly quickly, but that's what binoculars are great for.

The moon is usually a bit too bright through them (I use a moon filter on my scope) and I did catch the ISS with them, but couldn't resolve it's shape. It was also very bright.  These binoculars are fairly heavy, and it's uncomfortable to wear them on the strap around my neck.  I typically just keep it on in case I drop them, but don't often let them dangle there for long.  Another minor complaint is that the lens caps always fall off very easily.  I'm very surprised I haven't lost one yet.

And sadly, thats all the optical gear that I have.  So what's the next step?  Initially I wanted a reflector on a tripod with a goto mount, and while there are somewhat affordable options for these, my research gave me the feeling that telescope makers did a lot of skimping to bring the prices down on them. Instead, I'm thinking of asking for a great huge monster of a light bucket - an 8" Dobsonian. I have a couple of places in mind to bring it to, and I'm already planning on spending my evenings this fall in some dark parking lots.

Coming up: NASA Social

Today I got some very exciting news! I've been selected to attend the next NASA Social event at Johnson Space Center! On July 17, myself and (I believe) 29 other social media users will meet with the folks at NASA to learn about "Astronaut Health, Fitness, and Rehabilitation".

This is amazingly cool! I'm beside myself with excitement. In addition to getting to see ISS Mission Control (the tour only took us to the no longer in use Space Shuttle Mission Control room), it sounds like we may get to go into the ISS training modules, which I have only seen from the other side of some very sticky looking glass.

Me with ISS training modules on a tour in 2012.

I also now need to go learn everything I can about Expedition 37, since we will be able to participate in their Crew News Conference that afternoon, followed by a watching of Astronaut Mike Hopkins do a Google+ Hangout, which I know you're all going to watch!

So watch this blog in the days following July 17th to hear all about it!  You can also follow me on Twitter, and on Instagram for live updates as it happens!

In the meantime, if you have any burning questions about health in space, toss them in the comments and I'll see if I can get them answered for you!

Space Podcasts I Love

Like many people, I sit chained to a desk all day doing the bidding of The Man until the clock strikes 5. I maintain my sanity by listening to a lot of podcasts while I work, most of them having to do with space and science.  I'd like to share my favorites with you, and if you know of some amazing show I'm missing out on, please post it in the comments so I can check it out. I have plenty of time to do so.

Astronomy Cast

Astronomy Cast was the first space podcast I got into, and is my favorite for learning stuff. The podcast is hosted by Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today, and Dr. Pamela Gay, of  Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Project Director of CosmoQuest.

To me, this show feels like a free college course without a test at the end. The format generally follows Fraser asking Dr. Gay questions about the weekly topic, though you do realize at some point that Fraser already knows all these things, and is just asking what he thinks listeners would find most interesting. Topics include physics concepts and theories, the history of astronomy and space exploration, and what science knows so far about... everything!

Episodes last approximately 30 minutes and are usually recorded weekly on Mondays, depending on Dr. Gay's busy schedule.  They are recorded as a live Google Hangout On Air that you can watch if you are able, and there is usually a Q&A time at the end that is not included in the recorded podcast, which is a great time to get some of those burning astronomy questions off your chest. 

As of the writing of this post there are 301 episodes.  I've been listening to them backwards in time and got about halfway through before I felt like I needed a break from this show.  Overall, I have to say that I LOVE this show and have learned so much from it.  Fraser and Pamela are huge assets to the online space community, not just for this podcast, but for everything they do.  They deserve a blog post all of their own, and I'm sure they'll get one at some point.

Star Talk Radio

Star Talk Radio is the podcast of Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Badass Extraordinaire. How cool is that!? This show is about as different from Astronomy Cast as you can get and still have the same topic. Well, even then I should say that not all episodes are about space. They ARE all about science, however, and they are all interesting.

Star Talk has attitude, loud music, and of course Dr. Tyson and his very passionate opinions. The usual format is Dr. Tyson interviewing someone, often a celebrity, intercut with his discussion about the interview with a co-host.  The co-host is usually plucked from a rotating lineup of stand up comedians. Particularly sciencey shows usually also have an expert in the field of science being discussed.  For example, in an episode featuring an interview with Anthony Bourdain, the discussion was joined by a professor of Gastronomy.

Periodically Star Talk does a "Cosmic Queries" episode, where the co-host presents Dr. Tyson with questions from listeners sent via social media.  As you may imagine, these episodes actually are all about space, and are very entertaining, but to be honest they rarely contain information I didn't already gain from listening to Astronomy Cast.

Episodes run around an hour long and are usually released three times a month. And for the record, Eugene Mirmon is SO my favorite co-host!

Planetary Radio

I am a member of the Planetary Society, and I have to admit that Planetary Radio is the main reason why. Hosted by Matt Kaplan, Planetary Radio has been in production since 2002, and is carried by some radio stations and both XM and Sirius satellite radio carriers. Thankfully for me, the show is also released as a podcast!

I look forward to Planetary Radio every week. The show usually features a check-in with one of the Planetary Society's main people, followed by an interview with a scientist or engineer that's doing something cool. The show is wrapped up with a segment called "What's Up" with Dr. Bruce Betts, where he gives you pointers on what's currently good to look at in the night sky. Dr. Betts then shares with us a Random Space Fact, and then a trivia question, where the winner can get things like a t-shirt, a Fisher Space Pen, or Bill Nye's voice on your answering machine. (People have answering machines?)

I enjoy this show because it's fun to listen to to people as jazzed about space as me.  Not that the other podcast hosts aren't jazzed (they are!) but getting people excited about exploring space and learning all the science we can is what the Planetary Society is all about. The society and it's podcast are great at not only making this stuff exciting, but also making you feel like you are an integral part of it. As Bill Nye says so often, "Together we can change the world(s)!"

This show usually runs around 35 minutes is released weekly. 

Europa Report

So I'm apparently a month behind the times, but I just discovered the trailer for Europa Report, a movie coming to theaters August 2, that seems to have been made specifically for ME. Behold.




Word on the interwebs is that the science is spot-on, and it even has the endorsement of Phil Plait. So exciting!  It's great to see science fiction that is based in reality, not just because of the suspension of disbelief factor for us space nerds, but I hate it when fiction misinforms the public.  It's cool to imagine different possibilities (yay, Star Trek!) but it's not cool to take advantage of an uneducated public's wishful thinking (boo, mermaid "documentaries"!).

Anyway, according to Universe Today, the premiere for this film is going to be at the Hayden Planetarium. How cool is that!? There's even a cool promotional website to make the whole thing look real.

There was already a lot of movies this year that I was excited about, but this just took the top of the list.

For the Love of Space

MA-9 "Faith 7" Mercury capsule flown by Gordon Cooper
May 15, 1963 on display at the Johnson Space Center.
Photo by Lizz Clements

I had originally thought an introductory post for this blog wasn't necessary, but as you can see, I changed my mind!  This blog is meant to be an expression of my personal experience as a space nerd, and so I imagine that getting to know the person behind it a little bit would be a good thing.

First off, I'm not a scientist, engineer, professor, or any sort of space science professional.  I'm not even a writer. I'm an artist, and not even the cool kind.  I'm the behind the scenes kind of artist nobody thinks about, who gets paid very little, considering a bachelors degree is needed to get a job.

What I also am, is a huge nerd.  Not just the kind of nerd who can tell you the company that produced the TIE Fighter (and what TIE stands for), but can also tell you about the company that produces the Falcon 9 rocket. In school I wasn't very interested in science and hated math. I did enjoy my Physical Science class my freshman year, but was so disgusted by Biology my sophomore year that I dropped science altogether. I had to take Algebra 1 twice in school to get through it, and took Accounting to avoid Geometry and still get enough math credits to graduate.