Starry-eyed surprise FRIDAY, 07 OCTOBER 2011 21:51 PIONEER User Rating: / 0 PoorBest

Starry-eyed surprise FRIDAY, 07 OCTOBER 2011 21:51 PIONEER User Rating: / 0 PoorBest
by Sudhir Mishra on Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 7:17am
DEAR all
I enclose a story published in the Pioneer for your perusal.
Yours
SudhirMishra/Pioneer/Balangir
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Starry-eyed surprise
FRIDAY, 07 OCTOBER 2011 21:51 PIONEER
User Rating: / 0
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US spacewalker Mary Ellen Weber says her team never saw the Great Wall on her astronaut mission. She spoke to Shana Maria Verghisabout the next phase of human travel outside Earth’s orbit
Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei had said way back in 2003, that he never saw the Great Wall of China from space. Astronaut Larry Chiao took photos of a glistening Lake Nasser in Egypt from orbit, that have mistakenly been identified as the Wall. And US astronaut William Pogue supposedly said he thought he saw it too. But what he observed, was apparently the Chinese Grand Canal.

The whole deal around The Wall and space increasingly sounds like a space-age fib. A fact, confirmed by another astronaut, Mary Ellen Weber, who was at the American Centre in the Capital, during what has been declared as International Space Week.

Weber, who did two space flights, in 1995 and 2000, was primary contingency spacewalker on the first flight and also belongs to the first class of 14 international astronauts of 1992. The former bronze and silver medallist in skydiving, who took part in what was apparently the world’s largest freefall in 2002 (with 300 people), commented that when the shuttle passed over China “we eagerly looked but saw nothing. But we decided to say we saw it during the 45 minutes when the ship was in Earth’s orbit.” To the question about what other astronauts saw, she told us, “Maybe they wanted to see it, but couldn’t. And decided to do the same. The fact is we saw nothing. And it was daytime.” She added, “Night time viewing sometimes provides better results. From a glimpse of the world’s city’s, none stood out, except Las Vegas. It was colourful because of lights from all the signage.”

Weber said during two years of training, before her first flight, much of her time was in simulators, experiencing zero-gravity “where they give you devious situations to problem solve. Though it is never like real experience.” As for mental fitness, the lady remarked, “We’ve got health support but you are to handle everything yourself and rise to the occasion. However, divorce is often an issue with astronauts. Couples tend to be separated for longer durations. Even living in different cities.”

Weber, who was interested in the CERN project and its quantum physics aspect “from a scientist point of view “was unaware that about 100 Indian scientists are involved in it.” She added, “Till the shuttle programme ended, space flights were about pilots and aviator, rather than the domain of pure scientists. All that will change. Future mission will have physicists and science experts.”

She knows that NASA studies currently are “into different life-sciences. And that there are also some sections devoted to astrophysics. As well as to different earth and planetary sciences.”

Her experience comes from flying planes with expertise in space-station and space craft systems.

Weber’s face lights up, remembering the thrill “of flying a P-38 Jet,” to get a feel of “real-time environment.” P-38’s were the only US fighter aircraft to be made (by Lockheed) during World War II.

She also shared that the main reason she left NASA, was over the size of the space suits.

“They made budget cuts. A casualty was the medium-sized space suit.”

Weber, who is barely about five foot two something “found that I didn’t have enough reach and could not get my arms around the pack of the large-sized ones they now have.” She explained further, “Space-suits are expensive to maintain. Since they are designed almost like mini-spaceships with protection against meteors and other forces. So the idea was to reserve them for taller people.”

As for effects of space on her body. She remarked, “Various studies show it is affected by micro-gravity. Eye-sight gets diminished too. There are other effects like radiation which causes cancer, as there is no protection against solar winds.” Weber went on, “Some people take days to recover in hospital. Another big thing is in space, something happens called ‘fluid shift. Which means there is one-third less of water in your body and your weight decreases in orbit. So if you want to lose weight go to space! When we get back to Earth, we need fluid in our bodies to stand up and be conscious. Lucky for me, I felt great, except that sensors in my ear for balance were messed up for a little bit.”

She said the future of space-travel next could be Mars. “We went to the Moon. We couldn’t keep going there, because people lose interest. So that’s what’s in store for a space-faring civilisation.”

“We are getting better at operations, since the time we started to fly with the Wright Brothers. Now we have to focus on other aspects like traffic control. The shuttle programming and the risk involved, taught us valuable information about leaving and returning to a place. Is there more we could learn from it? Yes. But is a trade-off. Like picking a career. You have to focus on what you are good at. So NASA decided to end lower orbit missions into space (upto 2000km from Earth), for new orbits and asteroids.” All human space missions have been Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

The astronaut continued, “There are two people with different ideas about the next course. NASA is to build its own rockets. And the commercial sector to build space ships. Now it looks like there will be public and private sector partnerships. And also more international ventures.” She concluded, “I developed a greater respect for saving the environment after my spacewalk. And because of international aspects of space travel, I think I’m competent to talk about successful future collaborations.”
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