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Word from the Space Station: "We really are explorers up here"

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Previous story, part 1

Oct 22, 2004 22: 41 EST
In a transcript of a NASAWatch.com Interview Tuesday with NASA Astronauts Fincke and Chiao aboard the International Space Station Tuesday, we learn that Space travel and modern adventure has much in common. The astronauts battle dead laptops, missing spare parts, and consider “tinkering very important for exploration." In this part 2, we present a part of the interview that really hits close to home at ExWeb:

How do these guys compare themselves to us - the "traditional" explorers? What about the risk - and the cybercast of death? And why do they label their missions "expedition"?

A risk symposium

Cowing (NASA): OK, switching gears a bit, a couple weeks ago there was a symposium in Monterey, California - a risk symposium ["Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea and the Stars"]- where folks from a wide variety of exploration "venues", I guess you could say, mountaineers, divers, submarine drivers, and astronauts got together. Everybody talked about what it is they did and the risks that they encountered.

I have kind of a two part question here. One - how would you two compare the risks that you are taking (as we speak) as you fly to the station, as you come home - and how would you compare them (if you can) to other feats of exploration such as going down in submarines. Do you see an equivalence? Have you learned personally from any one else- such as mountaineers or Antarctic explorers? Are there any lessons that you have learned from them?

"I think there are a lot of similarities"

Chiao: Personally I haven't talked to any mountaineers or any other kinds of explorers like that. I am sure there are a lot of lessons to be learned. The similarities, I think, would be planning.

There is a lot of planning involved, getting the right gear, doing the right kind of research to determine what kind of equipment you are going to need, thinking through the whole plan, and then executing it. I think there are a lot of similarities between other types of exploration and the kinds of things we are doing.

"You've got to be able to deal with any contingency"

Some of the other things that are very similar - if you are out in the middle of nowhere - and you've got your team and your equipment, you've got to be able to deal with any contingency that comes up - any kind of repairs that need to be made so that you can get back to where you need to go. So I agree, there are a lot of parallels.

"I had a chance to live under the water"

Fincke: I would like to add that I was commander of the second NEEMO mission - NEEMO stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations. That's the one with the National Underwater Research Laboratory - part of NOAA. This is the Aquarius habitat which is underwater.

We have the seventh NEEMO mission happening right now. I think there are some aquanauts underwater right now. So I had a chance to live under the water. It’s not quite a submarine, but I was underwater for a space analog mission.

There are definitely a lot of similarities - whether we were in an extreme environment living in an underwater habitat or on a space station. This definitely got me ready for my first space mission which was a long one. I had a lot of the tools you need - both emotionally and as well as training to be able to handle a space station mission. So there is a lot of similarity. I definitely think I am a better astronaut because I was on the NEEMO mission.

"My risk is different than your risk"

Cowing: Back to the issue of risk - and the meeting we all had out in Monterey. One of the other things that came up was sort of like "my risk is different than your risk" and how some people perceive what I do as risky, other people view as being fun or as being nuts. It’s always a matter of your perception of risk.

The public readily accepts some risks such as race car driving where, if you turn on the TV, it is quite possible that you'll see someone get into a horrible accident - yet they let the kids watch - and they tune in the next week.

Why it is that people react differently?

Yet when we have a horrible accident in space travel, for some reason, people have a reaction that is totally different. I'd like both of you, if you could, to expound on that. Do you have any personal idea why it is that people react differently?

Is it because one is something you see every day or is something you view as being special? What is it that caused so much of a national remorse with the Columbia accident that is different from things that happen every day?

Whole collective symbol of the U.S.

Chiao: That's an interesting point you bring up - and I really haven't thought that much about it. Something like the space shuttle is a national treasure. It is something that is symbolic of the nation - of the country. And the folks that fly upon it - we're specially selected of course - and we have to go through a lot of training and we're a part of that whole collective symbol of the U.S.

You bring up a good point with race car driving, and things like that. There are much more accidents and it is no less horrific than what happened on the Columbia. But I think the national psyche just gives a little bit different response because the space shuttle - and NASA - is a symbol of America.

As human beings we like to watch everything

Fincke: I agree with Leroy. As human beings with such good eyeballs we like to watch everything. The miracle of television has really enhanced that. But it always goes back to the beauty that forms in our hearts as we watch sport.
"Sport" meaning human beings going higher and faster and stronger and better. And there is a beauty to watching the human form and all the wondrous things that we can do. That's why everyone likes to watch sports, I think - including race car driving and space flying. But there's something different. Just as Leroy was saying, the U.S. isn't used to making mistakes and when we do it really hurts.

This term 'expedition'

Cowing: I am going to ask you a question I asked Mike Foale - as a matter of fact, Mike; I think you were floating around when I asked him this during the handover. There is this term 'expedition' that you guys affix to each one of your stays on the station.

Now, the word "expedition" is usually associated - at least on Earth - with going somewhere - to a destination. Not to denigrate what you are doing, but you guys are going in circles. And eventually you come back more or less to where you started from. How do you reconcile the use of this term "expedition" with what you are doing? If you are not going to a place, are you going to a level of knowledge? How do you justify the use of that term?

"We can't get this experience anywhere else"

Fincke: Well Keith, we are 225 miles closer to the stars. We are humanity's only outpost at this time. That is something very special. I made a few remarks the other day in a teleconference to an astronaut reunion.

I had this question a little bit in mind saying "people - critics - say that we're not going anywhere." Well sure we are. We're building up a lot of experience - and we can't get this experience anywhere else - experience so that we can really go to places - to the moon and to Mars.

Watched over by the mission control centers

And on this expedition we showed it. Mike Foale's expedition showed that you can do a two person EVA and leave the station untended without a human being on board - but being watched over by the mission control centers.

"We showed that we can fix our Oxygen generator"

We showed that we can take that [two person] EVA even further and we had four of them. We showed that we could take the best parts of American suits and Russian suits and go anywhere on the space station with the Russian suits. We showed that we can fix spacesuits on board. We showed that we can fix our Oxygen generator.

We're the farthest up that anyone else is

So all this kind of experience - everything that we are gaining from it, is really going to be applicable so when we go farther away than just our back yard (as we are now) to the moon and to Mars that we'll really have things going.

So we really are explorers up here. We are building up that corporate knowledge - that knowledge of how to do these things. And we're doing it together in an international sense, we're doing it symbolically. We're the farthest up that anyone else is and so this is definitely an expedition - and I am very proud to have been a part of Expedition 9. Wow. What a trip!

We've got to get smart enough to know what spare parts we need to bring with us

Chiao: Keith, I agree with Mike. Physically, we are going around in circles, but in a very real sense we are going forward. Not only are we learning more about science and the effects of microgravity on the human body, we're also learning about spacecraft.

If you are going to go to Mars, we need to build better, more reliable spacecraft - more maintainable spacecraft. We've got to get smart enough to know what spare parts we need to bring with us so that we can repair [that spacecraft].

We're going to have to be able to do everything ourselves

Because when were way out there beyond Earth orbit we're not necessarily going to have the ground to depend on - we're going to have to be able to do everything ourselves. So, we are learning, we are pioneering - Mike and Gennady did some amazing things with the Oxygen generators - and they're now back on line. This is the kind of thing we're building up. So, you're right, we're not literally going somewhere right now, but we are adding bit by bit, one step at a time, towards [going] back to the moon and then on to Mars.

Chiao and Sharipov will spend six months on the Station, while Shargin will return to Earth October 24 with the Station's current residents, Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke.

Image of an Astronaut floating in Space and an Antarctic explorer working wearable computer technology. NASA/ExplorersWeb.

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