WEBVTT - Smart Talks With IBM: 355 Days in Space: Finding Meaning with Astronaut Mark Vande Hei 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:05.000 Hey everyone, it's Robert and Joe here. Today we've got 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:06.960 something a little bit different to share with you. It 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.680 is a new edition of the Smart Talks podcast series, 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.319 which is produced in partnership with IBM. This season of 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:18.600 Smart Talks with IBM is all about new creators, the developers, 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.600 data scientists, c t o s, and other visionaries creatively 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.120 applying technology and business to drive change. They use their 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.640 knowledge and creativity to develop better ways of working, no 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.840 matter the industry. Join hosts from your favorite Pushkin Industries 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.560 podcast as they use their expertise to deepen these conversations. 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.800 Malcolm Gladwell will guide you through this season as your 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.040 host to provide his thoughts and analysis along the way. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.600 Look out for new episodes of Smart Talks with IBM 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.040 every month on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.480 or wherever you get your podcasts. And learn more at 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:03.480 IBM dot com slash smart Talks. Hello, Hello, Welcome to 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.480 Smart Talks with IBM, a podcast from Bushkin Industries, I 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:12.080 Heart Radio and IBM. I'm Malcolm Glabo. This season, we're 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.680 talking to the new creators, the developers, data scientists, c 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.160 t o s, and other visionaries who are creatively applying 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:24.119 technology and business to drive change. Channeling their knowledge and expertise, 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.600 they are developing more creative and effective solutions, no matter 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.040 the industry. On the final episode of the season, our 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:37.039 guest is NASA astronaut and retired Army Colonel Mark Bandahi. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.760 Mark holds the record for the longest single space flight 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.679 undertaken by an American. He spent three hundred and fifty 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.640 five days in orbit on the International Space Station, returning 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.280 to Earth on March thirtieth two. During his nearly year 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.240 long stay in space, Mark conducted scientific experiments on behalf 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.320 of NASA, including research where he himself was the test subject. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.720 By documenting the physiological changes he went through, Mark serves 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.480 as an important source of data and understanding the impact 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:14.120 of extended spaceflight on humans. I spoke with Mark about 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.760 his experience as an astronaut and what he learned from 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.560 living in space for a year. He told me about 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.840 performing research only doable in space, times he felt true fear, 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.320 and how seeing Earth from orbit challenged his personal beliefs 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.200 and led him to become an advocate for mental health 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:37.639 and sustainability. Okay, let's get to the interview, So tell 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:39.960 me a little bit. Did you always want to be 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.640 an astronaut? What? What? What drew you to space in 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:47.480 the first place. I was always curious about space, largely 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.600 because just trying to get my head wrapped around how 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.320 we fit into the very grandest scheme of things has 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.560 always been interesting to me. But I always thought of 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.120 becoming an astronaut like trying to become Spider Man, Like 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.480 that's just not a realistic idea. It might sound cool, 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.000 but that's like a superhero thing. So when I first 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.760 joined the Army, my company commander, my boss, handed me 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:15.720 a note because he knew I had a degree in 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.480 in a technical field. That was a message from the 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.440 Army saying that NASA wanted military people with these qualifications 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.360 to apply to the ASTERNAT program. And I looked at 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.720 the list and I had a bunch of them. That 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.239 made me really excited. I thought, that's like, that's a possibility. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.960 And then um, when I went to grad school, had 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.200 a lot of different things to possibly study, and it 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.160 showed space physics, and just randomly the Army said, Hey, 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.960 we're starting a new career field called space operations. I 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.119 signed up and got accepted to go into space operations. 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.320 And I ended up getting loaned out to the Aston 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.400 office at NASA to work in the Michig Control Center, which, honestly, 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.640 I love that job so much that I could be 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.600 doing that till and never having been an astro and 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.520 felt like I was super blessed. Was amazing to live 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.800 in history and just talking to the astronauts in space 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.840 helping them solve problems while I'm listening to what the 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.640 flight control team is doing. That's a fantastic job. I 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.480 absolutely loved it. During the three year period that I 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.960 expected to do that, They're hired another class and that 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.479 was That was the first time I decided to apply, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.400 and largely because my wife said, Mark, come on, you 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.160 gotta try. Because I thought there's no way they would 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.400 ever hire me, so I almost self selected myself out 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.440 of that possibility. So really, I feel very very fortunate. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.760 I could have very easily not pursued this. I'm very 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.520 happy it worked out, and I'm very happy I did 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.719 pursue it. There's thousands of people that could do this 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.040 job that never got the opportunity and may have done 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.640 a better job than I did. I just somehow got 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.880 the job. Yeah, now you had the record for the 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.320 longest time in space. Right, it's the record for an 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:58.880 American astronaut for the longest single flight. So Scott Kelly 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.400 flew for through it in forty days continuously, and I 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.120 threw flew for three and fifty five days continuously. What 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.000 is it about you that allows you to do that? 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.920 Like you know, if you I'm I'm I'm gonna say, 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:13.680 if you put me through the exact same training you 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.960 went through, there's no way I'm spending three days I 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.160 would have I would lose my mind. I think what 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.279 I'm gonna do is compare myself between the first flight 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:22.920 and the second flight. After I came back from the 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:25.200 first flight, I had no desire to go back. The 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.119 big change for me between the first and second flight 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.680 is I paid a lot more attention to my mental health. 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.479 I got in the habit of meditating every day, and 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.880 I think that helped me not only recognize the value 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.440 of trying to appreciate the present moment and try to 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.200 be curious about the present moment, but it also made 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.120 me more aware of what internal habit patterns I have, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.880 and it gave me the ability to kind of almost 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.040 be an external observer of those. So that when I 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.120 I could recognize sometimes that hey, you're making up a 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.640 very negative story and that's why you're grumpy right now, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.640 And that really helped me out with making a mental shift. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.640 Tell me a little bit about what you're doing when 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.880 you're up there. Why is it important to do various 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.360 kinds of experiments and things in space? Yeah, great question. 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.280 That's a really important question too. So it is a 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.599 national laboratory, and it's it's unique because a lot of 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:24.239 dominant forces on the ground are not dominant forces in space. 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.040 So you get pretty interesting effects, like when you make 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:33.520 a flame on the Earth, because of the pressure differentials 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:38.960 and the fact that the hot combustion products are lighter, 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.279 they will rise up and go away from the flame, 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:43.680 and that will draw in the auction rich gases that 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.000 keep the flame going. So in space, those combustion gases 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.559 will just make a ball around the source of the fire. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.400 Turns out that flames in space burn more efficiently and 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.279 at a lower temperature, so there's some potential to have 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.559 a cleaner burning combustion engine. But that just gives us 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.000 a more depth of understanding of how these things work. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:07.800 It just gives us another way to change some of 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.000 the the variables. Another thing that that we can do 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.760 on the space station is sedimentation. If you take a 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.760 solution over time on the Earth with the heavier items, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:19.520 and that solution are going to settle to the bottom. Well, 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.000 in space, there's no preferred direction for those things to 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:24.560 go in because everything is in this what I like 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.920 to call a free fall that just keeps missing the Earth. 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.640 So we're in a continuous state of freefall. Solutions stay 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:35.520 very homogeneous. You can do experiments like there's even the 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:40.280 way we try to simulate the human body with body 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.920 samples and try to understand how things work. In the 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.720 space station, where those things float, it's a closer simulation 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:48.960 to something being inside the human body. So there's this 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.320 I could go on and on. Clearly there's a whole 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.280 lot of different things that allows us to do. And 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.120 delicate structures, even protein structures that we could never make 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.000 stay together on the ground can stay together in space. 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.880 Oh that's sting. So it just gives you a it's 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:07.600 like another context for trying to advanced scientific knowledge. It 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.840 just you've you've changed all of kind of the defining 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:16.840 variables of the experiment. Absolutely, that's it's a very significant thing. Absolutely. 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.600 And then there's also that the idea of what we're 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.280 doing in the space station, not just for science, but 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.680 for human exploration. Because we're putting people in space for 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:26.680 such a long period of time, we're getting a better 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.240 understanding of how to keep people healthy. We can do 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:32.840 technology experiments to try to figure out how to get 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.720 things to work for these longer age and space flights 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.600 where we're gonna put people much further away from the 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.240 Earth than I was on my flight. Some of those experiments, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.479 as were associated with me being a subject of the experiments, 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:46.880 give me an example of a kind of health care 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:52.120 related line of research. Sure, I'm very open about the 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.120 fact that I lost eight percent of my bone density. 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.360 That's not typical for somebody at my age and my 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.080 activity level. But as a function of being in space, 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.120 I lost eight percent of my bone density because there's 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.319 no more you don't you're not exercising with any resistance 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.520 at all. Is that? Is that the reason almost true? 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.679 You spend all of your time except for when you're exercising, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:14.920 without really needing a skeleton to to to support you, 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.360 because that's why we have a skeleton. When you're in 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.120 a freefall all the time. There's nothing that you have 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.200 to use to resist the ground or to keep you 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.920 standing on the ground. So we have a resistive exercise 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.240 device on the space station that actually it's very interesting. 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.040 It uses vacuum cylinders as the source of the force. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.880 So when you expand the vacuum cylinder, unlike a spring, 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.800 the vacuum cylinder the force will be constant regardless of 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.200 how far you pull it, whereas with a spring, the 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.600 more you expand the spring, the higher the force gets. 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.760 So that allows us to have kind of what we want. 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:48.920 But I like to tell school kids, if you imagine 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.360 those vacuum cylinders being attached to one side of a 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.640 seesaw pulling upwards and you on the other side of 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:58.280 the seesaw pulling upwards, then you can change the mechanical 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.360 advantage by moving where the pivot point is, where the 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:01.959 folk firm is. And so we have the ability to 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.400 turn a crank and it can adjust the force you 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.920 feel anywhere from twenty pounds to six pounds. But even so, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.600 I'm stunned though by in the space of a year, 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.840 even given determined efforts on your part to counteract the 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.920 effects of the physiological effects of being in a zero 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:24.000 gravity atmosphere. Even then, the effect on your body was profound. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.520 It's a lot, but I lost seven percent on the 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.760 first flight, and I got it all back before the 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.880 second flight, So I fully expect to get it all back. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.040 It does come back, and with If somebody ever, some 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.240 archaeologists someday ever examined my bones, they would be able 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:42.760 to tell that I had flung in space, because the 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.840 way that matrix is built is somewhat different. But I 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.240 fully expect all the all the bone density to come back. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.120 You know, the series we're doing is it's called The 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.920 New Creators, and we're really focused on the role that 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.480 creativity plays in kind of pushing the envelopes of knowledge. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.600 So I'm just I'm just curious about you up there 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.680 in this strange environment doing what sounds like some pretty 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.520 sophisticated experiments. Can you give me an example over the 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.160 time when you felt your kind of your creativity was 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:18.720 being tapped in a meaningful way in this experience? Yeah? Interesting. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:26.000 I would say there is an experiment called celestial immunity 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:32.400 that involved us with uh small peatrie dishes that contained 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.440 body uh samples. I don't know if it was a 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.280 solution with some blood or or what or what. But 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.440 I just know they were from various people, elderly and 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.880 young people, and we would go through and use a 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.520 pipette too inoculate them with various things, and then we 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:55.360 would take these devices, put him in a black box 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.680 to control the carbon dioxide and the temperature, and put 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:00.160 them in a in a place to let them kind 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.959 of incubate for a while. In the process of doing it, 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.120 I think my creativity came in as I was describing 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.920 the challenges that I realized that the the people who 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.400 designed the experiment might not have realized we run into 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.360 and I was able to to use what I've had 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.839 my hands on to to give them advice about ways 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.960 we could change the experiment around. Because those Petra dishes 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.600 didn't have a lid, so they were just held in 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.200 there by surface tension. And so the first time I 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.720 did it, I I put them very slowly into the box. 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:32.320 I closed the box, couldn't see what they were doing, 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.959 and I had to very gently move them over to 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.040 to the place where they're gonna incubate. And I had 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.880 no idea if I was succeeding or failing so I 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:42.880 think there was a lot of conversation, a lot of observing, 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.040 a lot of trying to draw on the unique experiences 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.360 I'm exposed to to help out them. And it turned 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.440 out I was an orbit long enough that the second 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.480 iteration that came up, and they had, among other things, 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.040 that had put a thin sheet of flexible plastic on top. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.679 So instead of having to try to contain everything there, 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.000 we just had to puncture it with a needle and 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.880 add the add the inoculation that way, instead, tell me 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.440 a little bit more about that experiment that that celestial 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.959 immunity investigation. By the way, that's like the best name 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:15.400 ever for a science experiment. Um, I agree, it sounds 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:19.080 like Jesus is involved in somewhere. I agree, no wrong, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.800 But what was that experiment about trying to trying to 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.760 trying to investigate. We're trying to understand how the human 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.679 immune system reacts to different situations. So again, I think 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.840 it's a great experiment to highlight because a better understanding 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.760 of the human immune system will help out everybody. So 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:39.760 on Earth, we might do an experiment where we have 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.679 a variety of of different cell samples that were exposing 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.439 to various pathogens and studying them and hear, what we're 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.400 doing is repeating the experiment under a radically different set 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:56.080 of of conditions and in the hopes that changing the 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.160 parameters of the experiment exposed some new bit of knowledge 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.000 or yes, And I don't know if that's been successful 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.760 or not, but we do know. We do know that 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.080 there are viruses that are more virulent in space for 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:12.280 some reason. We don't understand why the biological things react differently. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:18.559 What was the most fun thing you did? Uh? One 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:20.880 of my crewmates, Caleb Baron. For some reason that two 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:22.920 of us decided we're going to try to do some 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:28.320 stunts together. So we we literally would just have our 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.920 feet hooked underneath some handrails and push off towards each 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.560 other and then do something like get curl up, hit 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.800 our hands down low. It causes to each spin um 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.240 simultaneously n directions to a couple of backflips and then land. 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.080 And it took a lot of attempts before we actually 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.640 made it look like something was in sync. I've never 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.520 once done a backflip in my life, but I've done 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:50.360 four in a row before I hit my head on 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:56.160 something on the Space station Uh, we grew hatch chili peppers. Uh. 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.280 I recently got a certificate from New Mexico that said, 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.200 congratulations your hatstronaut. So I'm proud to have that title. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:09.280 The thought we didn't cook with them. We of course 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.560 it was science, so we had to ship most of 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.880 them back to the ground frozen carefully. But they were 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.200 very nice about letting us have some of the chili peppers, 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.360 and they warned us that the stress response to the 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.280 space environment that these peppers have, they think would be 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.120 that they're more potent. And I think they were more potent. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.080 They were shockingly spicy. Yessa could sell those chili peppers 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.120 to some fancy restaurant and it could be, you know, celestially, 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.760 you know, celestial pepper soup or something. You know, what 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:46.800 a great name for a dish. I'm sure that celestial 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.880 foods will be the culinary trend of the future pretty soon. 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.200 Will all be paying extra for specially vegetables grown in space. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:58.160 Forget farm to table, try orbit to table. Kidding aside, 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.400 there was one thing I made sure to ask Mark. 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.240 I wanted to know more about the relationship between the 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.920 astronauts and space and the NASA team on the ground. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.400 New technologies are reshaping the way astronauts communicate with their 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:16.000 counterparts on Earth. IBM, for example, is testing edge computing 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.360 solutions on board the space station to try and reduce 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.440 the time it takes to analyze and send data. But 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.760 what does this information flow mean for an astronaut's day 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.880 to day life and what happens if there's an emergency? 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.680 I asked Mark for more details. Tell me a little 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:37.000 bit about the role that technology plays in UM in 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.440 all of this. I mean, you're you're doing these experiments, 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.400 you're actively learning in this new environment. UM, what's happening 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.920 with the data? How are you making sense of it? 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.720 Processing it? Tell me about that angle on the on 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:55.000 your work. The astronauts live in the space station. The 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.480 ground control team is controlling the space station, so that 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.600 data flow that's telemetry from the space station and the 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.520 commanding to the space station is happening just to actually 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:07.359 get the thing to work, to get the lab to work, 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.400 to make it if we want to change the temperature, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.280 we could we could go ahead and go deep into 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.240 the software we've got on board that we're trained to 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.160 use in case we lose communications with the ground. But 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:19.960 if we even want to change the temperature, we just 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:21.920 call the ground control team and say, hey, one of 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:23.679 our crew members feels a little cold. We all a 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:25.720 red we should raise the temperature by a degree or something. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.440 They would change it. So they're in charge. We live 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.520 there and we take we take care of everything that 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.639 we possibly can. So data transfer is crucial to the 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.320 way we operate the space station today. In your time 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.240 up there, did you have any kind of moments of crisis? 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:47.080 Did you ever lose communication with Houston? Two times we 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.600 lost out of control. I think we got to the 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:55.520 point where they told us to start executing the procedure 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.520 and then we're able to call us off, or they 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.600 warned us that it's possible you could lose you know, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.639 maybe ten minutes from now, there's a risk of you 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.720 losing communications. For example. What never felt scary to me 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.440 and I don't. I think the reason it didn't feel 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.359 scary is because when we do that on the ground 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.919 for training, when we do it in a simulation, the 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.760 simulation is much harder because in space, the ground was 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.080 trying to help as much as possible. But on the ground, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.200 they give you a scenario where you call the ground, 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.360 you get no response. Every everything is as bad as possible. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.639 So it was to me it felt just like a simulation, 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.120 but where the trainers were willing to give us more 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:37.640 help than they were willing to give us on the ground. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.919 So and the culture that I got trained in and 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.399 that's worked for me really, really well, is one that says, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.040 slow way down. If you're on an emergency on the 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.040 space station, unless it's an amumonia leak. In all other cases, 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.480 slow way down because the worst thing you canna do 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.280 is go so fast that you make a mistake and 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.680 cause problems. But otherwise it's a very safe system. When 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.680 I was leading newer crew members, I tried to encourage 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.200 them to have a culture where if they had any confusion, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.879 that they would feel comfortable stopping everybody and say, hey, 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:12.840 why are we going down this path that doesn't make 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:14.520 sense to me, because that could be the one question 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.720 that gets us to stay on the correct path. You 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.520 said you didn't get scared in that moment. Do you 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.080 ever get scared? Mark? Oh? Yeah, I definitely get scared. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.000 I don't believe you. To give you an example, my 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:33.440 experience of returning to Earth is everything's really interesting while 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:35.120 you're going through the atmosphere and you're in a ball 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.040 of flame and the heat shields melting away. You can 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.240 see things that are melting away going past the window. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.080 That's interesting. But then when there's nothing to pay attention 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.640 to while you're falling towards the earth, and this time 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:47.480 you know you're in a trajectory that will result in 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.800 you hitting the earth with nothing to do except wait 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:52.840 for the parachute to open for what I think was 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.680 probably a couple of very long minutes, and nobody was 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.000 having a conversation. We're just all quietly waiting to find 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.880 out if we're gonna live and gonna die. I didn't 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.040 realize how afraid I was that it wasn't gonna work 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.119 until the parachute actually opened, and how giddily overjoyed I 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.359 felt when when it actually opened, because I was just like, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.440 we're gonna live. So yeah, I was scared, And again 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.560 I didn't realize it until after the fact. Yeah. Yeah, Um, 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.359 let's talk You mentioned at the beginning you're sort of 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.600 interest in mental health. Let's talk about that a little bit. 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.480 You know, you're you went through an experience which is 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:33.080 exceedingly difficult and unusual and surely must have taught you 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.320 a great deal about the kind of the challenges of 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.760 maintaining one's mental health. Yeah, it was a good experience, 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.000 but certainly those life skills doesn't matter if you're in 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:48.000 space or not. Um. I tend to get distracted easily, 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.000 and so practicing trying to stay focused on one thing 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.879 and paying attention and trying to maintain a sense of 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.640 curiosity about something as simple as breathing is I think 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.959 a really good practice to try to to expand your 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.960 ability to stay focused and and actually even find joy 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.480 and relaxation in it. It's it's very reassuring if you 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.920 can get yourself to feel really relaxed no matter what's 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.000 going on, that it's it's it's like you've got this 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.960 island of comfort that you know is just internal to you. 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:27.800 So I thought that was very powerful. It's not something 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:32.480 that I how does the skill before my fifties at all. 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:41.560 And I think meditation has certainly helped the awareness of 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:46.000 the negative impact that the narratives that I would use 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.800 to fill in the gaps and information I had was 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:50.879 really powerful for me. And I'll give you an example 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.000 that's associated with space flight. We have a module on 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.520 the space station that's called the PMM. It's like the 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:00.440 attic of the space station. If you of a task 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:02.000 that takes for you that they've given you for you 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.560 miss a do part of every activity is typically gathered 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:07.600 the materials you need and a lot of time. That 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:09.199 means you go into the p MM. And it's not 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.679 unusual to see somebody's just ankles and feet sticking out 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.600 between bags as they're digging with a flashlight a head 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:18.320 lamp on trying to get deep into the into the 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:23.080