Life in space



Responding to Keith's comment on my previous post, I started thinking about what it would feel like to travel into space. I did a Google search for interviews with people who've experienced it. A few highlights:



Here's an interview with astronaut Roberto Vitorri of the European Space Agency. My favorite quote:

In microgravity there is no laying down. Technically you could sleep in any position. The technique is to use a sleeping bag strapped to the walls, roof or floor, and then strap yourself to the bag. This is to avoid a sleeping cosmonaut floating round the station.

Here's an interview with NASA astronaut Dan Barry. A neat quote:

The clouds are so white it is hard to look at them. They're so bright you have to put sunglasses to look at them or your eyes will just close all on their own. Sunrises and sunsets are particularly spectacular, because if you remember we are going around the earth every 90 minutes, which means we see the sun rise and 45 minutes later we see the sun set and 45 minutes later we see another sunrise.

Here's a Scholastic interview with astronaut Sally Ride, where she answers the all important question, "How do you go to the bathroom in space?"

The space shuttle has something that looks very much like a toilet. And on Earth, a toilet works because of gravity. It pulls the water away from your body. In space, you have to use something to pull the liquid from your body, so the space toilet uses air suction. It pulls the liquid from your body, and it works very well.

Here's a Scholastic interview with astronaut Mae Jamison. She talks about what it feels like when the shuttle takes off, among other things:

It takes about eight minutes to get from the Kennedy Space Center into orbit. During the last four minutes, you feel a lot of pressure across your chest. You feel like you weigh about three times what you weigh on Earth.

Here's an audio interview where kids from a Texas elementary school talk to Commander Mike Foale through the International Space Station's ham radio. Many of the questions are pretty basic, but I learned that you can wear contact lenses in space (even in zero gravity, surface tension keeps them in your eyes). This is a fun interview just because of all the perky young voices introducing themselves and asking questions.



And, here's a thirty-eight minute audio interview from NPR's Fresh Air program with Astronaut Captain Jerry Linenger, who spent several months on the space station Mir. (I'm still listening to this, and right now he's talking about the overwhelming feelings of isolation he experienced.)