Would you go to outer space?
I was reading BBC’s website today (because I don’t trust getting my news from the communist news network) I ran across an article about today’s launch. Not only is Endeavour bringing the new Leonardo module to double the living space on the space station, they are also bring a water regeneration system. This new system distils, filters, ionizes and oxidizes wastewater into fresh water for drinking. So basically the astronauts are recycling their piss into drinking water, which after all the reverse osmosis is perfectly safe it reminds me of my two favorite questions I get about working at NASA.
Whenever I meet someone new they always ask me the same questions:
1. What do I do at NASA and 2. Would I ever want to be astronaut/go into space. I just combine those questions together because I think they are essentially the same thing. I will answer the first question when I have more time and you can check out my portfolio for a more formal answer. So this brings me to my second question, would I ever want to go to space? From all my experience working here he answer is simple. I most definitely would not want to fly in space. Don’t get me wrong it would be awesome to experience living on the moon and mars for a few days, maybe a few weeks but I would miss everybody I knew back home on earth. Not to mention you would barely have any leisure time. You would constantly be checking and rechecking all the equipment making sure everything is working correctly (life support, guidance, propulsion). The food would always be room temperature because there is no refrigerator and no microwave. It is super noisy with all the computers and machines running and above all you have a water shortage. Now I think that if I had to I could get over drinking my own pee to survive. But now I ask you… would you be able to drink someone else’s pee? They say that you can taste of smell anything but I’m sure it’s still hard to swallow knowing where this water came from.
JSC vs. Ike
| Johnson Space Center |
| Effective since: Sunday, September 14, 2008 1:30 PM EDT |
| NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston remains closed and likely will be limited to recovery operations for the next week. Johnson may not be open for normal operations until the week of Sept. 21.
The 65-member team that rode out Hurricane Ike at Johnson has begun to transition to recovery operations, cleaning up debris, restoring power and other center facilities and infrastructure. A damage assessment team determined that the Sonny Carter Training Facility near Johnson appears to be undamaged. The International Space Station continues to be controlled by NASA flight controllers who were dispatched to the Austin, Texas, area and Huntsville, Ala., prior to the onset of the storm. It is too early to know what effect, if any, the hurricane will have on upcoming space shuttle launches. Johnson employees are encouraged to call the JSC Emergency Information Line locally at 281-483-3351, or remotely, toll-free, at 1-877-283-1947, for updated information, including when they should return to work. In the meantime, employees will continue in an excused leave status until the Center reopens. Please call the Marshall Hotline at 877-470-5240 to check-in and give your location. We want to account for all employees as quickly as possible. In the event employees may require additional time off to secure their homes (e.g. regain utilities) , supervisors will have the ability to grant additional excused leave. We’ll provide more guidance later in the week. |