We Train A Lot For Space Walks, So Hundreds Of Hours Underwater In The Pool, And We Spend A Lot Of Time

So on the ISS we have a wake-up time.  There's not really any predetermined time because we're orbiting the Earth every ninety minutes.  But you have to pick a time scale, so we actually picked GMT, which is close to London time.

So we wake up, we have a normal conference call with the ground, we talk about things that are going on the space station, what we're going to do that day, and then we have a plan that tells us what we're going to do down to every five minutes on board.  And so it depends on the day.  

A lot of time we're doing science experiments, sometimes we're doing maintenance on the space station, sometimes we're even getting ready to do a space walk.  Those are the best days.  But every day is something new and different up there.

What does a normal day for you consist of?

Over my 28 years here, I've had the opportunity to work a number of different critical missions at NASA, particularly as a flight director.  And each one of those missions has been an amazing honor to have the public's trust put in my hands.  

But one of the aspects I like the most about it, which is also the scariest, is the fact that people's lives are in my hands.  Decisions that I make can impact the lives of the crew members, the integrity of the vehicle, and the success of the mission, and I liked having that responsibility.  I was honored to have that responsibility.

And I think if you are a flight director and you ever lose track of that, then it's time to stop being a flight director.

Before my question I would like to congratulate you on your career at Nasa, it must be amazing to work there even if you didn’t achieve your dream of being an astronaut, you can still lead missions from the ground. (Sorry if my punctuation is a bit off) as for my question, what has it been like to work at nasa all of these years and get to help with so many missions? Do you ever get nervous for the people who’s lives are in your hands? Signed ~ Phillip

I think it's actually just an incredible thing that we have picked a line-up of space-walkers--we've taken the most qualified people--and we happen to have enough female astronauts that we have two women doing a spacewalk now.  I think it really is a testament to NASA's inclusivity in their selection process.  

The last several classes we've seen a lot more women applying in these classes and also being selected.  And so I think everybody can look at that and say, "You know, that could be me someday!"

As an astronaut who has been on a spacewalk before, what does the all-woman spacewalk mean to you?

I thought, um, I actually thought The Martian was pretty good.  They do a good job there of kind of showing the challenges of working in a space environment: some of the isolation, how do you troubleshoot problems, the kind of interactions that crews would have.  I think that's a movie that captures somewhat the feel of space exploration.

What popular film is the closest to reality for you?

On a daily basis?  That's a good question, because when you think of people that might be dressed in flight suits and things or have the duty title of a pilot, that's not all we do.  

Most of our time is actually spent working, coordinating with teams, whether it's scientists with different objectives, learning what they want to do so that we know how to translate that into where we need to put the airplane, to put their instruments in the right place to measure what they want to look at.  Or with engineers, when we're redesigning or modifying aircraft so they can perform the way we want.

That combination there is really pretty amazing.

What do you do on a daily basis?

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?

Joy is great motivator to do things to do.  And that's actually some advice that I have is whatever you're doing in life, make sure that it brings you some joy.  But there's a lot of reasons that people do things, and I think one of the really great things about being an astronaut is getting a chance to explore.  

We get to do things that are absolutely amazing.  And when we see the planet, we explore outer space, and we get to do all these things and we can come back and we can tell people about it.  So I think it's the thrill of science.  I think it's the lure of discovery.  And then the opportunity to share that with the world is really amazing.

Other than joy, why do you do the things you do?

"So, I think we're studying them simply because they're fascinating.  This is how a lot of pure science is motivated.  What are the questions about the world around us that fascinate us, and for me at least black holes is at the top of that list.  If we're looking for more technical applications, like is it going to make the next new cell phone work better?  Probably not.  

But a hundred years from now we really never know where some of these pure science ideas are going to go.  For example, if you think about electricity and magnetism and quantum mechanics a hundred years ago, similairly in the pure pure science realm and now they dominate every aspect of our lives."

Why are we studying them? What’s purpose of this field for us on earth?

My mother gave me the best advice I'd ever received, and it was "trust your instincts."  I've applied that when I was afraid to go away to college, and she told me, "Trust your instincts, stay at home."  

I've applied that every time I take on a new position where I'm afraid: I think I can do it, I'm not sure if I know everything that's required, but I'm pretty sure I could do it.  So trust your instincts, even though you don't have all the information, believe in yourself and you can achieve great things.

What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received?

"So, one of the really cool things about black holes that I've been working on recently is using black holes to study another aspect of astrophysics which we don't really understand called dark matter.  Dark matter pervades the entire universe. It's probably five, six times more populous than regular matter, and yet we still have no idea what this stuff is.

The only thing we know about dark matter is that it reacts to gravity.  And if you really want to push gravity to the extreme, of course the way to do it is with a black hole.  So we're trying to understand how dark matter and black holes interact together."

What is the most fascinating thing about black hole research for you, personally?