American astronaut describes her feelings in space

American astronaut who will visit UC later this year describes her feelings in space

July 17, 2013

An American astronaut, who will be the key speaker at the first New Zealand starlight festival in Tekapo later this year, today described her first mission into space.

Marsha Ivins, who has travelled almost 27 million miles in space, spent more than 55 days in space and has orbited the earth 990 times. She was a veteran of five Shuttle missions, including one to the International Space Station.

On her first NASA mission in early 1990, Ivins said the thought crossed her mind that she was, in fact, off the planet.

``When you talk to someone about flying in a plane, it’s really no big deal. We accept flying in planes as part of daily life. But flying in space is still a `wow’ moment, even if you’ve worked in the space programme, supported other space flights, and spoken to everyone who has flown before you. So I had to take a pause to realise I was off the planet.

``The acceleration of launch on the shuttle was only 3G (three times your body weight). The Soyuz rocket and the Apollo rockets accelerated to 5Gs.

``The direction of this force is what they call `eyeballs in’, meaning, as you are lying on your back facing the top of the rocket, it feels like a gorilla is sitting on your chest. This 3G force only sustains for a few minutes at the end of the ascent portion of the flight but it’s noticeable.

``Many folks do not feel well for the first day or so in space with no gravity. It’s hard to predict who will feel sick and who will not but everyone adapts after a few days and is fine in orbit.

``Adjusting back to life back on earth is not difficult. It is somewhat of a physiological challenge for a few days, or in the case of the long duration flights on station, a few weeks.

``Even after exercising every day, your body still has a big adjustment to re-adapt to gravity again. Some muscles need strengthening and your balance is totally out of whack. We have a great rehab team which works individually with the long duration crew members to get them into shape to fly and back in shape when they get home.

``On a shuttle mission we trained for one to two years for each mission, usually closer to one year. At the end we were working probably 70-80 hours per week. Then we are working essentially non-stop for the duration of the shuttle mission, around 10-14 days.

``And when we get back we have debriefings, rehab, PR and our reports to do so we keep working even after we are back. Then we got a week or so break and were assigned to another ground job.

``The space station crews train for four years for each mission. Most of that time is spent away from home and out of the country. Crews train in the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and a number of locations in Europe. When they come back from flight they have closer to a six month period to get their lives sorted back to regular Earth living.’’

Recently retired Ivins will visit the University of Canterbury (UC) and give a talk about space at the October festival which is being organised by the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve Board in partnership with UC.

The October 11 to 13 event has been organised to celebrate the creation of the International Dark Sky Reserve in the Mackenzie Basin and at Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.

The Dark Sky Reserve has been approved by the International Dark Sky Association which is the international body giving accreditation for Dark Sky Reserves and Dark Sky Places world-wide.

Its formation is recognition of the pristine skies of the Mackenzie which are free of light pollution. UC is part of the Dark Sky Reserve, being the operator of the observatory at Mt John above Tekapo.

Marsha Ivins, up  in space

ENDS

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