Helping to wrap up the World Science Festival was Sunday morning’s presentation “Astronaut Diary: Life in Space” at NYU’s Rosenthal Pavilion, featuring NASA astronauts Sandra Magnus and Leland Melvin (notably the only pro football player to become a NASA astronaut) in person, and Tracy Caldwell Dyson in a pre-recorded segment from her current mission at the International Space Station. “Astronaut Diary” was a kid-friendly event; the downside was that the issues and tone of the presentation therefore tended to be fairly simplistic.
But the kid-centric of approach “Astronaut Diary” played off nicely against a point raised in the WSF event I covered on Friday: “The Science of Star Trek.” Consensus among the Star Trek panelists was that human exploration of space was in general a bad idea – they noted that humans aren’t designed for space travel, that the manned space program was diverting resources from more cost-effective robotic space missions, and that space exploration could be better done via telepresence. One useful thing they thought astronauts did was to inspire schoolkids to think about space exploration, based on the number of hands that went up when “Astronaut Diary” moderator, CNN’s Miles O’Brien asked “who wants to be an astronaut,” I’d say the Star Trek panelists were right on that account.
In response to a question sent in by a student, Tracy Dyson offered her rebuttal to the robot question (of course without knowing that it had been discussed at the Star Trek panel), which basically touted the intangible benefits of human space exploration. Yes, many of the same missions could be accomplished by robots, but Dyson argued that the history and cultural development of mankind have been driven by exploration – that humans by our nature are explorers; therefore exploring the “last frontier” of space is something vital for humans to do, and is ultimately something will improve life on Earth. Her comrades echoed her argument, based on their experience on the International Space Station (ISS). Leland Melvin recounted his experience of sitting (or more accurately floating) down to a communal meal once his Space Shuttle mission docked at the ISS with African-American, Asian-American, European and Russian astronauts, an example he said of how the ISS project could bring together people from around the world. Sandra Magnus expanded on that thought, talking about how the construction of the incredibly complex ISS managed to successfully unite nations and people from around the world to work collaboratively on a common goal.
The astronauts provide interesting points to ponder – do we as humans have an innate need to explore, and if we run out of places to explore, since much of the Earth is pretty well documented at this point, will we lose something of ourselves? Do space missions offer a unique setting for nations of the world to cooperate – free from Earth-bound concerns of political borders – and can cooperation in space then translate into cooperation on the ground? And even if the answers to these questions are yes, do they justify the risk and huge costs of manned spaceflight? Personally, I’d love to get the Star Trek panelists feedback on these questions…
Getting back to the “Astronaut Diary” presentation – even though the answers and explanations trended towards the simple, it didn’t mean they weren’t interesting. There were numerous discussions about eating and sleeping in space, what the Earth looked like from 300 miles up and how mundane substances on Earth behaved in zero-gravity. Water, for example, forms into jelly-like spheres when floating in zero-G, and – thanks to the phenomenon of surface tension – will cling to the skin of your hand like a glove. And astronauts, taking advantage of the zero-G behavior of these items, apparently love to play with their food. There was, of course, the discussion of how one goes to the bathroom in space. The short answer is carefully – no one wants to clean up after a “mistake.” In practical terms, vacuum pressure and airflow take the place of gravity in waste removal. Leland Melvin explained that to help train astronauts in usage of the equipment on the ground, NASA uses a toilet with a video camera inside to check on a trainees “positioning” (and you have to wonder just how badly do you have to screw up at NASA to get stuck watching that video feed?).
Also appearing yesterday was MIT’s Dava Newman, who has been working with NASA on designing a next generation spacesuit. As the astronauts explained, a spacesuit is basically a spaceship you wear – clothing to protect the astronaut from the unsurvivable void of space. But the suits are also big, bulky and make it difficult to do precise work. Miles O’Brien said that after a long spacewalk, it wasn’t uncommon for astronauts to emerge from their spacesuits with bloody fingers from hours of fighting against the pressure exerted on their hands by the spacesuit gloves. Newman showed off a new, sleek design for a silver-and-red suit that almost resembled the form-fitting spacesuits you’d see in a 1950s era sci-fi movie. The new suit, ultimately designed for a manned mission to Mars, offers the same level of protection as the current suits, but with much more mobility and comfort. If any of the kids in the audience at “Astronaut Diary” are inspired enough to try to make the grade as an astronaut (here Leland Melvin’s story is inspirational: after his football career was ended by an injury almost as soon as it began, he returned to school and his love of science, and worked as an engineer for a decade before being accepted into NASA’s astronaut training program) they may be wearing Dr. Newman’s suit once they get to Mars.
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