Mactown Photo Gallery 3
hello,
some people have requested more photos...not being one to disappoint, here ya go.
[Mactown Photo Gallery 3]
also, i had one of those 'once in a lifetime' experiences yesterday that i thought i'd share. it seems that from time to time special events happen over at the crary lab. if you read the post from a day or two ago, you'll see that yesterday's special event happened to be a phone call from the international space station. one of the researchers over there has a friend who is an astronaut (mike finck) who has been up there for about 6 months with a few russian cosmonauts doing a multitude of experiments. who am i to pass up a chance like this...a second time?, so i went, video camera in tow, uh-gain.
we had tried this the day before to no avail and upon our second attempt we were showered with the truth of the matter regarding the failure the day before. it seems there was a typo (i won't name names) if you can believe it when the phone number was e-mailed to mike up at the space station. that typo kept roughly 50 people in suspense for more than an hour.
the turnout for the second attempt was roughly half of the first attempt. 'the boy who cried wolf' comes to mind for some reason. anyway, we get there, form the chairs into a circle around the speaker phone and wait. 15 minutes later the phone rings and it's mike the astronaut.
during our wait for the call, we were told to reach under our seats and if we had a yellow stickie with a number, we could ask a question. i wasn't as lucky this time with regard to pulling a winning number so it seemed i wasn't going to get to ask my question after all. that was, until the nice woman sitting next to me offered up her number 2 slot. she said she was content to just sit back and listen. i graciously accepted her kind offer.
after a quick greeting, the first question was asked. my question quickly followed:
Q: if there was any one aspect, either negative or positive that you could take away from your experience there in space, what would it be?
in a nutshell
A: he's taken about 20,000 pictures of the surface of our beautiful earth. it is worth the ride just to look at the planet, so i'm taking that back with me. he said he was blessed to be able to see our beautiful world from that perspective.
I JUST HAD A PHONE CALL WITH A SPACE MAN!! what the?!?
more questions followed in quick succession:
Q: how long would a medivac take?
A: from the international space station, they could be on the surface of the planet in 45 minutes if there was a serious emergency. if they had to plan a landing location and not land randomly, it'd take about 3-4 hours. lastly, it'd take roughly 8-9 hours to go from the space station to a chosen hospital.
in the winter down here in antarctica you can't even get that kind of service. makes ya think.
Q: what was the most unusual or surprising aspect of being in space that you weren't expecting?
A: he didn't realize how much he'd like it.
Q: what do you think about putting tourists up there? do you think it would help to change the way people view the earth and treat the earth having done it yourself?
A: he is in favor of space tourism and wondered if his children would get the opportunity to visit space. he'd also like to visit space with his wife.
Q: what are his aspriations/goals now?
A: he wants to see his newborn daughter for the first time then give his son and wife a big hug and kiss. he said pizza and beer are also in his future. he'd also be up and would love to go to the moon at some point; even if he's a junior officer who has to clean toilets. (no i did not put him up to that comment).
Q: does he have vodka or cavier?
A: alcohol is prohibited and cavier doesn't keep very well.
Q: have you done any science in association with antarctica and if not, what has he been able to work on?
A: they did an extra space walk which was frought with little hurdles relating to russian space suits -vs- american space suits. they've used ultrasound to map the bodies changes in microgravity over time (anything from bones to internal organs). they've investigated soldering - liquid metal behaves differently in space. they've taken blood samples - inflight analysis of how their bodies are changing.
Q: what's the barometric pressure up there?
A: 1 atmosphere. we keep it at around 23/24 celcius. weather is the same everyday.
and that pretty much rounded out our conversation with mike finck who was orbiting the planet in the international space station.
something tells me that that was the beginning of what i'm guessing is going to be one of many very cool things to see and do down here. again, i highly recommend this experience for anyone who is looking to change things up a bit. i think right now i'm one of about 20,000 individuals who have actually come to mcmurdo to live and work and chances are, i'll probably be back.
will you do me a favor? so this blog isn't so one sided and a bit more fun for all, will you hit the comment link and let me know what you would have asked the astronaut if you had the chance. i'm interested in hearing YOUR questions. i think it'll be interesting and fun.
oh, a quick thanks to 'SAS' and the 'noise' gang for the parcel that is being sent. much appreciated!!
some people have requested more photos...not being one to disappoint, here ya go.
[Mactown Photo Gallery 3]
also, i had one of those 'once in a lifetime' experiences yesterday that i thought i'd share. it seems that from time to time special events happen over at the crary lab. if you read the post from a day or two ago, you'll see that yesterday's special event happened to be a phone call from the international space station. one of the researchers over there has a friend who is an astronaut (mike finck) who has been up there for about 6 months with a few russian cosmonauts doing a multitude of experiments. who am i to pass up a chance like this...a second time?, so i went, video camera in tow, uh-gain.
we had tried this the day before to no avail and upon our second attempt we were showered with the truth of the matter regarding the failure the day before. it seems there was a typo (i won't name names) if you can believe it when the phone number was e-mailed to mike up at the space station. that typo kept roughly 50 people in suspense for more than an hour.
the turnout for the second attempt was roughly half of the first attempt. 'the boy who cried wolf' comes to mind for some reason. anyway, we get there, form the chairs into a circle around the speaker phone and wait. 15 minutes later the phone rings and it's mike the astronaut.
during our wait for the call, we were told to reach under our seats and if we had a yellow stickie with a number, we could ask a question. i wasn't as lucky this time with regard to pulling a winning number so it seemed i wasn't going to get to ask my question after all. that was, until the nice woman sitting next to me offered up her number 2 slot. she said she was content to just sit back and listen. i graciously accepted her kind offer.
after a quick greeting, the first question was asked. my question quickly followed:
Q: if there was any one aspect, either negative or positive that you could take away from your experience there in space, what would it be?
in a nutshell
A: he's taken about 20,000 pictures of the surface of our beautiful earth. it is worth the ride just to look at the planet, so i'm taking that back with me. he said he was blessed to be able to see our beautiful world from that perspective.
I JUST HAD A PHONE CALL WITH A SPACE MAN!! what the?!?
more questions followed in quick succession:
Q: how long would a medivac take?
A: from the international space station, they could be on the surface of the planet in 45 minutes if there was a serious emergency. if they had to plan a landing location and not land randomly, it'd take about 3-4 hours. lastly, it'd take roughly 8-9 hours to go from the space station to a chosen hospital.
in the winter down here in antarctica you can't even get that kind of service. makes ya think.
Q: what was the most unusual or surprising aspect of being in space that you weren't expecting?
A: he didn't realize how much he'd like it.
Q: what do you think about putting tourists up there? do you think it would help to change the way people view the earth and treat the earth having done it yourself?
A: he is in favor of space tourism and wondered if his children would get the opportunity to visit space. he'd also like to visit space with his wife.
Q: what are his aspriations/goals now?
A: he wants to see his newborn daughter for the first time then give his son and wife a big hug and kiss. he said pizza and beer are also in his future. he'd also be up and would love to go to the moon at some point; even if he's a junior officer who has to clean toilets. (no i did not put him up to that comment).
Q: does he have vodka or cavier?
A: alcohol is prohibited and cavier doesn't keep very well.
Q: have you done any science in association with antarctica and if not, what has he been able to work on?
A: they did an extra space walk which was frought with little hurdles relating to russian space suits -vs- american space suits. they've used ultrasound to map the bodies changes in microgravity over time (anything from bones to internal organs). they've investigated soldering - liquid metal behaves differently in space. they've taken blood samples - inflight analysis of how their bodies are changing.
Q: what's the barometric pressure up there?
A: 1 atmosphere. we keep it at around 23/24 celcius. weather is the same everyday.
and that pretty much rounded out our conversation with mike finck who was orbiting the planet in the international space station.
something tells me that that was the beginning of what i'm guessing is going to be one of many very cool things to see and do down here. again, i highly recommend this experience for anyone who is looking to change things up a bit. i think right now i'm one of about 20,000 individuals who have actually come to mcmurdo to live and work and chances are, i'll probably be back.
will you do me a favor? so this blog isn't so one sided and a bit more fun for all, will you hit the comment link and let me know what you would have asked the astronaut if you had the chance. i'm interested in hearing YOUR questions. i think it'll be interesting and fun.
oh, a quick thanks to 'SAS' and the 'noise' gang for the parcel that is being sent. much appreciated!!
4 Comments:
- So you're driving around town, and you see a space man... What do you do?
- You park in it, man!
B
What is one thing that you wish you could have taken with you, that you couldn't?
-jenn
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=193436
Should be hitting the post office here in Wellington in the next 48 hours, just getting people sorted.
-=Sas=-
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