"So Most Of The Descriptions That I've Seen About Black Holes In Science Fiction Get It Pretty Close

So this was a really neat project.  This was a partnership with hospitals all around the world, and there are kids that are in the cancer units in these hospitals.  And as part of their care they do art therapy.  So they paint, they draw, and they get to express themselves.  

So part of the project was that each kid got a little patch, and they got to paint or draw or color whatever they wanted.  They then sewed all of these patches together to make this space suit, and we got to fly it to the space station.  So it was really neat--all these children got to see their work flown in space.  

But it's so colorful because each individual patch represents a little artist's contribution.  And so I got a chance to meet some of these kids and hang out and do some art with them and it was so incredible.  It was just really a joy to see.

Why's your suit so colorful?

"Every job that I have had here, I have had to overcome challenges in order to succeed in it. Whether it's somebody telling me I can't be a flight director because I've never been a flight controller.  Or I can't possibly manage a significant amount of budget and personnel because I've never been a low level line manager before.  

And my--the way I live my life is you never know until you try.  And a lot of people that take on these jobs are never fully prepared when they first start.  But as long as you are fully prepared to acknowledge where you fall short and willing to go off and seek help from people who are masters in those areas, then you will succeed."

What challenges have you overcame to get to the job that you have now? Love from Ireland ❤️

Yes, there’s several paths to get to where I am right now and where the other researcher pilots are here at NASA.  We have some that come up through civilian flying and they’re educated in different areas.  Typically most of us have engineering or STEM related degrees in college, and usually Masters degrees on top of that. 

The flying portion, most of us actually come from a military background because that’s the best way to get a lot of intense experience very quickly.  So most of us are retired military pilots from all different services, but then we do have several pilots who have grown up flying corporate jets, larger airplanes and became test pilots for companies like, say, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, things like that.  And then they get hired at NASA based on their depth and breadth of experience.

 So several paths to get there, but these are the most common.

I want to pursue a career in aeronautics and want to get into NASA. Any advice?

So when I was inside the space station, one of my favorite things to do was go in the Cupola, which is an area that has a whole bunch of windows.  You can actually get your whole body into the Cupola and just see the Milky Way and the universe from the Cupola.  And that was amazing.  

It was, um–you know terrifying is almost a good word because it was so awe-inspiring to just be in the universe and see the stars–but it was one of the most interesting things to do because it was always changing.  Your view was changing as you go around the planet; even at nighttime you can see different aspects of the planet at night as well. 

And so whenever I could, I would spend a few minutes when we were in a dark orbit and just try to poke my head into the Cupola and see the stars. It never got old.

What is like to be surrounded by the stars and darkness? Is it terrifying or calming?

In my 28 years here, I've been able to participate in a lot of exciting missions, but out of all of the future missions we have planned the one I'm looking forward to the most is being a part of boots on the moon in 2024.

What future missions are you looking forward to the most?

So one of the things I didn't know about being an astronaut was all of the different kinds of skills we need to learn.  You come in and you're kind of a baby astronaut trainee, and they teach you things about like how to fix the electrical system and the plumbing on the space station.  You need to learn how to train in dangerous environments.  We learn how to fly airplanes.  We learn how to do spacewalks underwater.  

So one of the most surprising things was just the variety of skills we need in order to be successful expedition pioneers on board the space station.

What's something you didn't know about being an astronaut before you actually became one? Do you have any words of advice for young astronauts?

The first time I saw Earth from space I couldn't even talk; I was absolutely speechless, as were my crewmates.  The three of us were just silent it seemed like for thirty seconds, it was such a beautiful sight.  And one of the things that was really interesting to me was how different it was seeing it out the window with your own eyes versus seeing the picture.  

I think I had this idea in my head that I knew what Earth looked like because you've seen so many videos, but they're all photographic images, so the dynamic color spectrum is a little bit dulled.  When you see it with your own eyes, it's so much brighter.  It's so much more vivid than I could have imagined.  It's just this beautiful blue planet.

What was your first thought when you first saw earth from space? And what realizations did you have?

So a lot of the research that we do on board the International Space Station has a relationship to an Earth-based disease.  For example, we worry about bone loss; that's got a relationship to things like osteoporosis on the ground.  All of the things we need to do to keep the human body healthy in a confined environment in the long term we're learning about on the International Space Station.

The things that we do on our six-month missions would build into year-long missions, would build into even longer term missions, for example going to Mars.  So we need to know about things like radiation and the effect on the human body, bone loss, how people are going to be able to work and live together in a confined isolated system for so long.  How we're going to get enough nutrition and getting the right balance of nutrients in a really long duration mission.  And then also, how are we going to keep people healthy?  What kinds of medicines can survive that long in space and how do you treat any illness or injury that occurs?  

So all of these things are actively being researched on board the International Space Station and a lot of them have a component to human health on Earth as well.

How could your research in diseases help missions to the Moon, Mars and other places in our solar system?

Yeah, so the human body changes a lot when you're in space. There's things that happen like fluid shifts, since you don't have gravity drawing the fluid down into your legs, all that fluid shifts upwards.  And the body can adjust to this, it does this by just getting rid of the excess fluid.  When you come back to Earth, however, you're a little bit dehydrated.  So one of the things we do is get fluid in right away.  

Another thing that's concerning is things like bone loss aor muscle loss, so what we do to prevent most of that on board is actually just work out a lot.  We have a device called ARED, which is a Resistive Exercise Device, and we have a whole gym's worth of weight-lifting exercises.  We do that, we do running, and we do cycling.  And that can counteract most of the muscle loss and the bone loss we see on board.  We're really successful in returning astronauts in pretty good health these days.

Is your health affected from being in outer space?

When I learned that I had been medically disqualified from consideration of being an astronaut, I was devastated.  My whole life, since I was five years old, I had set my sights on becoming an astronaut, and now I was told that would never happen.  I was- I wanted to quit NASA. I wasn't sure what to do.

But then I took a step back and I realized: maybe I'm twenty-six years old and I don't know everything.  Maybe there are other careers for me here at NASA that I've never considered because I was never aware of them. And I'm very grateful for the fact that I did take the time to think that because you know what? It was true. 

Because I was not able to be an astronaut, I have been able to have what I think is a more fulfilling and impactful career here at NASA.  So for those of you watching, if you have a dream that gets taken away from you, take a step back, reconsider it, and acknowledge that maybe you don't know everything.  And there could be something even greater waiting for you out there.

How did you deal with the disappointment of being medically disqualified for astronaut candidacy?