Joy Is Great Motivator To Do Things To Do.  And That's Actually Some Advice That I Have Is Whatever

"So I think what we mean when we say a "gentle" black hole is probably that there's not a lot of hot gas, x-rays, gamma rays, relativistic jets around the black hole.  That makes it safe to go closer to.  In terms of that actually, the supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*, is a pretty gentle black hole.  But even so it still would be far too dangerous to get close to and survive."

Is there such thing as a ‘gentle black hole’ (as in Interstellar) that would one day be a candidate for sending probes? Or is it a lost cause?

Yeah, we had to troubleshoot problems pretty much every day.  So, we have our tasks that we’re doing every day: a science experiment or some maintenance, but things don’t always go as planned.  So that’s one of the really interesting things about science experiments is that sometimes you observe things that are different and that’s how science gets done.

One of the experiments I worked on was actually doing a chemical reaction with some small little pockets of–they’re plastic kind of tubes that contain pockets of water.  And we heated the reaction and we noticed that there were bubbles being formed.  When we did this reaction on Earth we didn’t have the same thing, so we had no idea was to expect when we did this on board.  So we documented this and actually found it to be a really interesting phenomenon.  The scientists took that back and that ended up being part of our analysis of the experiment.  

Sometimes you’re just troubleshooting equipment because things aren’t working.  So I was working on one of the vacuum furnaces one day, and it has these quick disconnects that you can use to supply power or water to the vacuum furnace.  And I tried to do one of the quick disconnects and all of a sudden the connection–the valve–stayed full open and there was water spreading everywhere.  

So that was some really quick troubleshooting, I had water going in my face and I wasn’t really sure what to do so I closed the thing as quickly as possible, backed off, got the water out of my eyes, and then I called the ground and we did a lot of troubleshooting that day.

Have you ever had to troubleshoot a problem in space?

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?

"Short answer: No.  Long answer: Definitely no."

Science fiction sometimes makes it seem like it’s possible to live in a black hole. What is the truth behind this?

"Time works like a lot of things in Einstein's Theory of Relativity: it's relative.  The way that time works according to, say, a person in a spaceship flying into a black would look pretty normal. An astronaut could look at his watch and it would be going more or less normally.  

But the time connected to the outside world, outside of the black hole, would just break down entirely.  It's essentially forming a wall between inside of the black hole and outside of the black hole. And the time on the two sides of that event horizon are just going to be completely different."

How does time work in a black hole?

“Black holes are just...pure gravity.”

Whats the best metaphor/ explanation of blackholes youve ever heard?

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?

Ah, that's a really good question!  I think I would say, study as much as you did, but also try to have a little bit of fun.

Hey, Kate! What would you say/what advice would you give to your younger self? ✨

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?

Mission Control is a unique environment.  The people who work there are the cream of the crop.  The tops in their graduating classes, the high performers in industry.  And so working in Mission control, my favorite thing is that I get to work with such uniquely talented people, and of all ages.  So it's a place where we can all come together, everybody with their own skill set, and solve the day's problems.

What was your favorite thing about working in Mission Control? (Also, you are the best