Needmyspace

I Need My Space NASA’s female astronauts are striving for Mars Featuring interview with Ginny Graves, Photos by NASA photographers and Essay

by Fiona MacDonald

I Need My Space

Sixty Second Press, Minneapolis MN United States of America, 2016.

For additional information, contact: SIXTY SECOND PRESS, INC. Suite 214 1011 Washington Ave Minneapolis Minnesota 55424 612-683-9026 Book Design by Alexa Dietz Sixty Second of North America, Inc., Minneapolis All color separations produced in Italy by Offset Separations Corp., New York City.

Printed and bound by A. Mondadori Editore, Verona, Italy.

Typesetting of Phone Listings by Alexa Dietz, Sixty Second of North America, Inc. Copyright 2016, Sixty Second Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

ISBN 0-931144-03-5 ISSN 0163-3309

I Need My Space NASA’s female astronauts are striving for Mars Featuring interview with Ginny Graves, Photos by NASA photographers and Essay

by Fiona MacDonald

Sixty Second Press, Minneapolis MN United States of America, 2016.

Forward We try to prepare [for everything]. Let’s say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions. Walking out to the launch pad, would there be that fear?

Absolutely. But if you don’t face your fears, the only thing you’ll ever see is what’s in your comfort zone.

Learning to spacewalk: “Getting into a space suit is like getting into a small aircraft—it’s hard work,” says McClain, here trying on a prototype.

For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer space— even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run.

Once it begins, the actual mission will go something like this: The four crew members selected (potentially from this class and others) will spend two to three weeks in the launch capsule, then rendezvous with a larger spaceship—a.k.a. “home”— for the rest of the months-long journey. Once on Mars, they’ll live up to a year in a structure that will have already been built by robots before returning to Earth. That’s a long time for four people to be hermetically sealed together. Will they fight?

Get romantic? In one series of NASA-funded studies known as HI-SEAS, six men and women spend up to a year in a 1,300-square-foot biodome on the side of a Hawaiian volcano to help answer those questions.

We try to prepare [for everything]. Let’s say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions. Walking out to the launch pad, would there be that fear?

Absolutely. But if you don’t face your fears, the only thing you’ll ever see is what’s in your comfort zone.

Learning to spacewalk: “Getting into a space suit is like getting into a small aircraft—it’s hard work,” says McClain, here trying on a prototype.

For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer space— even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run.

Once it begins, the actual mission will go something like this: The four crew members selected (potentially from this class and others) will spend two to three weeks in the launch capsule, then rendezvous with a larger spaceship—a.k.a. “home”— for the rest of the months-long journey. Once on Mars, they’ll live up to a year in a structure that will have already been built by robots before returning to Earth. That’s a long time for four people to be hermetically sealed together. Will they fight? Get romantic?

Would You Go To Mars?

Meet the Four Women Astronauts Who Can’t Wait to Get There Written by Ginny Graves, 6 January 2016

“I can’t recall not wanting to be an astronaut.”

NASA inducts a new class of prospective astronauts every four or five years, and competition is fierce.

From application to acceptance, the process takes a year and a half and includes intensive psychological and medical testing. When these women were chosen for the class of 2013, NASA announced that they could be selected for an inaugural trip to Mars. >Anne McClain: There were more than 6,100 other applicants for our class of eight, and I’d made my peace with not getting in. I still remember getting the call that I’d been selected. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk. I started crying. I grew up in Spokane, Washington, and I can’t recall ever not wanting to be an astronaut. I learned a lot [serving 15 months] in Iraq, flying attack helicopters at the front of the front lines. I joined the Army out of a deep sense of duty, but wanting to be an astronaut feels more like my destiny. With so much conflict in the world, space exploration can be a beacon of hope. No one cares about race or religion or nationality in space travel. We’re all just part of Team Human.

Jessica Meir, Ph.D.: I had a fantastic view of the stars from the teeny town in Maine where I grew up. Maybe that’s why I wanted to be an astronaut from such a young age. I’ve always been drawn to remote places—and extreme challenges.

While doing research on emperor penguins for my Ph.D. in marine biology, I lived and worked in Antarctica, where I also went scuba diving under several feet of ice. >Christina Hammock Koch: My bedroom wall in Jacksonville, North Carolina, was covered in posters of the space shuttle alongside ones of New Kids on the Block. I had always set my sights on working with NASA, but I didn’t want to get there by checking the usual boxes, like learning to fly and scuba dive. I wanted to get there because I was passionate about science and the next frontier.

When the opportunity to spend a year at the South Pole came up, I took it. There I was in charge of more than 10,000 gallons of liquid helium to keep the telescopes supercool. Our motto was “When the South Pole isn’t cold enough, call us.”

Nicole Aunapu Mann: I’m probably one of the few astronauts who didn’t know that’s what I wanted to do as a kid. “Astronaut” seemed like a far-fetched dream. I’m from Penngrove, California, and it wasn’t until my first tour in Iraq flying fighter jets with the Marine Corps that I realized one day I might actually be a good candidate.

Going into space will be the absolute coolest thing in the world. “You never forget the first time you’re weightless.” >During their two years of training, astronaut candidates learn space skills: flying T-38 supersonic jets that can go 20 miles per minute to practice operating a spacecraft; mastering tasks under 40 feet of water in a massive pool called the Neutral Buoyancy Lab to get used to weightlessness; and surviving what they call the vomit comet.

Koch: The most exciting part for me has been the T-38. As an engineer I’m used to going into my office to think through a problem. But in a supersonic jet, you don’t have that luxury! >Meir: For me one of the most rewarding things has been spacewalk training. When you put on the suit, you weigh around 400 pounds. Two people help you into it, and a crane lowers you into the pool. The whole six-hour session is incredibly physically challenging. Your arms stand out at awkward angles because you’re inflated; your gloves are bulky and pressurized. Each motion, even just making a fist, requires so much effort. You learn pretty

quickly that trying to rush really gets you nowhere.

(As they always say, in the suit “slow is fast.”) At one point I saw a classmate in a space suit, and I thought, Oh my God, he’s really an astronaut. And then it hit me: After 30 years of wanting this so badly, I’m an astronaut too. >Mann: The vomit comet totally blew my mind.

Meir: It’s a large plane that’s hollowed out. When the pilot is at the top of the parabola and free-falls back down toward the ground, you’re weightless for about 25 seconds. You repeat that cycle 30 or 40 times. A lot of people get sick, hence the name.

You never forget the first time you’re weightless.

I loved it. >McClain: We try to prepare [for everything]. Let’s say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions.

Walking out to the launch pad, would there be that fear? Absolutely. But if you don’t face your fears, the only thing you’ll ever see is what’s in your comfort zone. >Learning to spacewalk: “Getting into a space suit is like getting into a small aircraft—it’s hard work,” says McClain, here trying on a prototype.

For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer space— even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run.

Once it begins, the actual mission will go something like this: The four crew members selected (potentially from this class and others) will spend two to three weeks in the launch capsule, then rendezvous with a larger spaceship—a.k.a. “home” —for the rest of the months-long journey. Once on Mars, they’ll live up to a year in a structure that will have already been built by robots before returning to Earth. That’s a long time for four people to be hermetically sealed together. Will they fight?

Get romantic? In one series of NASA-funded studies known as HI-SEAS, six men and women spend up to a year in a 1,300-square-foot biodome on the side of a Hawaiian volcano to help answer those questions. >Suzanne Bell, Ph.D., a NASA-funded psychologist researching group dynamics on extended missions: A Mars trip has all the ingredients for falling in love, and researchers have seen the danger of that in simulated environments. In one incident a man made unwanted sexual advances toward a woman in the other group, and they decided to shut the hatch between the two groups.

It’s something NASA has to think about if they’re going to send men and women to space together for three years. >Martha Lenio, Ph.D., 35, a former HI-SEAS volunteer who hopes to become an astronaut for Canada: Wedid have conflicts, like whose turn it was to vacuum, but nothing we couldn’t work out.

In general what I most worried about—like getting

bored with the food since everything is freezedried or dehydrated—wasn’t a problem at all. We’d compete on how creative we could get with taco and pizza nights. By the end of the eight months, some of my crew mates were really ready to get out, but I could have stayed longer! >Sheyna Gifford, M.D., 37, a doctor in St. Louis who is currently living in the HI-SEAS dome for a year:The researchers “back on Earth” (we consider ourselves “simulated astronauts” in “simulated space”) are giving us tools to deal with the isolation. We have some virtual reality [VR] games that our loved ones at home can play too, so we can leave each other notes and photos or have treasure hunts. Another researcher is going to use VR to “send us to the beach” for a few minutes a week.

That may prove very transportive! >“My son’s life will change while I’m gone.”

For a mission to Mars, crew members may be able to take only two shoe boxes’ worth of personal belongings. But the hardest thing to leave behind?

Family. Three of the astronauts are married, and two are mothers. >Koch: I’d definitely miss my husband. When I was at the South Pole, I packed boxes of things to take with me and opened one every few months, so I had something to look forward to. For Mars I’d ask my family and friends to make small surprises for me to open on designated dates. A handwritten card when you’ve been away 15 months can be the best thing imaginable. >McClain: [For a long-term mission today,] I’d want a way to video chat with my three-year-old son and my partner. Leaving them is the only downside to space travel; they are my everything. I’d also bring my son’s stuffed monkey. He would dig seeing it floating in space.

fig. 1

“

A MARS TRIP HAS ALL THE

INGREDIENTS

”

FOR FALLING IN

LOVE.

I NEED MY SPACE

>>> Sheyna Gifford, M.D., 37, a doctor in St. Louis who is currently living in the HI-SEAS dome for a year. We’d compete on how creative we could get with taco and pizza nights. By the end of the eight months, some of my crew mates were really ready to get out, but I could have stayed longer!

1. From space you can see how weather forms and moves, you can see Earth’s tectonic plates’ seams and deserts and oceans.

2. NASA-funded psychologist researching group dynamics on extended missions: A Mars trip has all the ingredients for falling in love, and researchers have seen the danger of that in simulated environments.

3. For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer space—even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run.

fig. 2

fig. 3

WOULD YOU GO TO MARS?

>Meir: I’d need music—the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I would definitely request mixes from a few specific friends, and I’d try to get access to The New York Times. >Mann: If I get tapped for the mission, I’ll talk to my son about what I’ll be doing. He’s almost four now but will be a teen or in his twenties by then.

His life will change while I’m gone. And that’s a big sacrifice. >“From space you can’t see borders.” If chosen for the expedition, these women and their fellow astronauts will make many big sacrifices. But they will also go on what could be humankind’s greatest exploration to date—an experience those who came before them can only begin to imagine.

Richard Garriott de Cayeux, 54, a private astronaut who has traveled to the international space station:When you’re floating in a slightly stale-smelling, noisy tin can, you have this experience astronauts call the overview effect: From space you can see how weather forms and moves, you can see Earth’s tectonic plates’ seams and deserts and oceans. And suddenly this place you’ve always thought of as vast looks small and fragile. It’s impossible not to feel an urge to protect our environment and our planet. >Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Ph.D., 46, an astronaut who lived at the space station for almost six

2

months:Every night I’d spend 90 minutes watching as we orbited Earth. You’re passing it at 17,500 miles per hour, so you have only a moment to soak in the view before you’re looking at something else. The most intense experience? My first spacewalk to repair a cooling pump that had failed. I understood how enormous and potentially dangerous it was to be stepping out into the vacuum of space [in nothing but a space suit]. I’m thrilled for the women who are coming after me. I can’t wait to see where they go and what they do. >McClain: If we go to Mars, we’ll be representing our entire species in a place we’ve never been before. To me it’s the highest thing a human being can achieve. >Meir: What are people capable of? That idea of exploration has always been a part of the human experience. Trying to understand our place in the universe is what drives me more than anything. >McClain: Also, from space, you can’t see borders.

What you see is this lonely planet. Here we all are on it, so angry at one another. I wish more people could step back and see how small Earth is and how reliant we are on one another. >Mann: Just thinking about it gives me chills.

Sally Ride (SR): I wish that there had been another woman on my flight, I wish that two of us had gone up together. >Gloria Steinem (GS): It’s tough to be the first but

you’ve done it with incredible grace. You also have the only job in the world that everybody understands. >SR: [Laughs] My father I think was so grateful when I became an astronaut because he couldn’t understand astrophysicist. He couldn’t relate to that at all. But astronaut was something that he felt he could [relate to]. >And you could see people all over the world connecting with what you were doing.

Roughly half of the people in the world would love to be astronauts, would give anything to trade places with you. The other half just can’t understand why in the world you would do anything that stupid. >GS: If you don’t have 20:20 vision can you become an astronaut candidate or is it disabling?

I think it used to be. Now as long as it’s correctable to 20:20 it’s ok. So you’d probably qualify! I didn’t have any dreams of being an astronaut at all. And I don’t understand that, because as soon as the opportunity was open to me, I jumped at it. I instantly realised that it was what I really wanted to do. I took all the science classes that I could in junior high school and into high school. I went to a girls’ school that really didn’t have a strong science programme at all when I was there. At the time it was a classic school for girls, with a good tennis team and a good English teacher. Essentially no math[s]

past eleventh grade, no physics and no chemistry.

I’m curious about the reception that you got inside NASA. What kind of thing happened to you? >SR: Really, the only bad moments in our training happened with the press. The press was an added pressure on the flight for me and whereas NASA appeared to be very enlightened about flying astronaut, the press didn’t appear to be. The things that they were concerned with, were not the same things that I was concerned with. >GS: For instance the bathroom facilities. How often did you get asked that? >SR: Just about every interview I got asked that.

Everybody wanted to know what kind of make up I was taking up. They didn’t care about how well prepared I was to operate the arm, or deploy communications satellites. >GS: Did NASA try to prepare you for the press or pressure? >SR: Unfortunately no they don’t. In my case they took a graduate student in physics, who spent her life in the basement of a physics department with oscilloscopes and suddenly put me in front of the press. >GS: What do you suppose are the dumbest kinds of questions that you’ve been asked to date? >SR: Without a doubt, I think the worst question I have got was whether I cried when we got malfunctions in the simulator.

>>> NASA inducts a new class of prospective astronauts every four or five years, and competition is fierce. From application to acceptance, the process takes a year and a half and includes intensive psychological and medical testing with includes intensive psychological and medical testing.

4. There were more than 6,100 other applicants for our class of eight, and I’d made my peace with not getting in. I still remember getting the call that I’d been selected.

3

I NEED MY SPACE

>GS: That surpassed the one about whether you were going to wear a bra or not. Did somebody really ask you that? >SR: No, the press I think decided that was a good question for someone to have asked me and for me to have answered. But I never got asked that.

But they made you up a good response. Something about in a state of weightlessness it doesn’t matter.

Yeah I was never asked that question. >GS: What about your feelings during the launch?

Was there any time that the enormity of what was going on came over you? >SR: The moment of the launch, when the engines actually ignited and the solid rockets, that everyone on the crew was for a few seconds just overcome with what was about to happen to us. But a year of training is a long time, a year of sitting in simulators and being told exactly what’s going to happen, and you hear the sounds and feel the vibrations. It prepares you very well and it worked.

We were able to overcome being overcome and do the things we were supposed to do.

Just watching there at the launch, there were people with tears streaming down their faces. People I never would’ve expected and I guess they were all very moved by the human audacity of it.

I think that when you see the long trail of flame and to imagine that there are really people inside that.

That’s really something. Inside of course you don’t see the long trail of flame, and what you feel is more of an exhilaration. >GS: Well there are lots of people who are looking up there and feeling proud. Not just of you but of people on the ground. >SR: Thank you.

What do you think it might be like in 2001 in fact?

What’s possible for us?

“

Well 2001 is a long ways in the future to speculate on. But probably the next step after the space shuttle is a space station. I would forsee a station as not just something that’s orbiting the Earth and used for experimentation but would also be used as a launching platform back to the Moon or to Mars. I’m sure that both of those are inevitable.

We’ll go back to the Moon and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we go to Mars. >GS: Do you have any speculation about how long it might be before there are such a thing as ‘peopled’ space colonies? >SR: I’d guess that by the year 2000 there will be.

I’d think that we’ll have a space station up by the end of this decade. >GS: On which it’ll be possible to live for long periods of time? >SR: Yes >GS: NASA inducts a new class of prospective astronauts every four or five years, and competition is fierce. From application to acceptance, the process takes a year and a half and includes intensive psychological and medical testing. When these women were chosen for the class of 2013, NASA announced that they could be selected for an inaugural trip to Mars.

McClain: There were more than 6,100 other applicants for our class of eight, and I’d made my peace with not getting in. I still remember getting the call that I’d been selected. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk. I started crying. I grew up in Spokane, Washington, and I can’t recall ever not wanting to be an astronaut. I learned a lot [serving 15 months] in Iraq, flying attack helicopters at the front of the front lines. I joined the Army out of a deep sense of duty, but wanting to be an astronaut feels more like my destiny. With so much conflict in the world, space exploration can be a beacon of hope. No

I CAN’T RECALL NOT WANTING

TO BE AN

”

ASTRONAUT. fig. 4

>>> There were more than 6,100 other applicants for our class of eight, and I’d made my peace with not getting in. I still remember getting the call that I’d been selected.

WOULD YOU GO TO MARS?

4

one cares about race or religion or nationality in space travel. We’re all just part of Team Human. >Meir: I had a fantastic view of the stars from the teeny town in Maine where I grew up. Maybe that’s why I wanted to be an astronaut from such a young age. I’ve always been drawn to remote places— and extreme challenges. While doing research on emperor penguins for my Ph.D. in marine biology, I lived and worked in Antarctica, where I also went scuba diving under several feet of ice. >Koch: My bedroom wall in Jacksonville, North Carolina, was covered in posters of the space shuttle alongside ones of New Kids on the Block.

I had always set my sights on working with NASA, but I didn’t want to get there by checking the usual boxes, like learning to fly and scuba dive.

I wanted to get there because I was passionate about science and the next frontier. When the opportunity to spend a year at the South Pole came up, I took it. There I was in charge of more than 10,000 gallons of liquid helium to keep the telescopes supercool. Our motto was “When the South Pole isn’t cold enough, call us.” >Mann: I’m probably one of the few astronauts who didn’t know that’s what I wanted to do as a kid. “Astronaut” seemed like a far-fetched dream.

I’m from Penngrove, California, and it wasn’t until my first tour in Iraq flying fighter jets with the Marine Corps that I realized one day I might actually be a good candidate. Going into space will be the absolute coolest thing in the world.

During their two years of training, astronaut candidates learn space skills: flying T-38 supersonic

“

awkward angles because you’re inflated; your gloves are bulky and pressurized. Each motion, even just making a fist, requires so much effort.

You learn pretty quickly that trying to rush really gets you nowhere. (As they always say, in the suit “slow is fast.”) At one point I saw a classmate in a space suit, and I thought, Oh my God, he’s really an astronaut. And then it hit me: After 30 years of wanting this so badly, I’m an astronaut too. >Mann: The vomit comet totally blew my mind. >Meir: It’s a large plane that’s hollowed out. When the pilot is at the top of the parabola and free-falls back down toward the ground, you’re weightless for about 25 seconds. You repeat that cycle 30 or 40 times. A lot of people get sick, hence the name.

You never forget the first time you’re weightless. I loved it. >McClain: We try to prepare [for everything]. Let’s say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions.

Walking out to the launch pad, would there be that fear? Absolutely. But if you don’t face your fears, the only thing you’ll ever see is what’s in your comfort zone.

Learning to spacewalk: “Getting into a space suit is like getting into a small aircraft—it’s hard work,” says McClain, here trying on a prototype.

“A Mars trip has all the ingredients for falling in love.” >For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer

YOU NEVER

FORGET THE FIRST

TIME YOU’RE

”

WEIGHTLESS. jets that can go 20 miles per minute to practice operating a spacecraft; mastering tasks under 40 feet of water in a massive pool called the Neutral Buoyancy Lab to get used to weightlessness; and surviving what they call the vomit comet.

Koch: The most exciting part for me has been the T-38. As an engineer I’m used to going into my office to think through a problem. But in a supersonic jet, you don’t have that luxury!

Meir: For me one of the most rewarding things has been spacewalk training. When you put on the suit, you weigh around 400 pounds. Two people help you into it, and a crane lowers you into the pool. The whole six-hour session is incredibly physically challenging. Your arms stand out at

5

space—even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run. Once it begins, the actual mission will go something like this: The four crew members selected (potentially from this class and others) will spend two to three weeks in the launch capsule, then rendezvous with a larger spaceship—a.k.a. “home”—for the rest of the months-long journey.

Once on Mars, they’ll live up to a year in a structure that will have already been built by robots before returning to Earth. That’s a long time for four people to be hermetically sealed together. Will they fight? Get romantic? In one series of NASAfunded studies known as HI-SEAS, six men and women spend up to a year in a 1,300-square-foot

>>> Sheyna Gifford, M.D., 37, a doctor in St. Louis who is currently living in the HI-SEAS dome for a year. We’d compete on how creative we could get with taco and pizza nights. By the end of the eight months, some of my crew mates were really ready to get out, but I could have stayed longer! Martha Lenio, Ph.D., 35, a former HI-SEAS volunteer who hopes to become an astronaut for Canada.

I NEED MY SPACE

WOULD YOU GO TO MARS?

6

“

biodome on the side of a Hawaiian volcano to help answer those questions. >Suzanne Bell, Ph.D., a NASA-funded psychologist researching group dynamics on extended missions:A Mars trip has all the ingredients for falling in love, and researchers have seen the danger of that in simulated environments.

In one incident a man made unwanted sexual advances toward a woman in the other group, and they decided to shut the hatch between the two groups. It’s something NASA has to think about if they’re going to send men and women to space together for three years. >Martha Lenio, Ph.D., 35, a former HI-SEAS volunteer who hopes to become an astronaut for Canada: Wedid have conflicts, like whose turn it was to vacuum, but nothing we couldn’t work out.

In general what I most worried about—like getting bored with the food since everything is freezedried or dehydrated—wasn’t a problem at all. We’d compete on how creative we could get with taco and pizza nights. By the end of the eight months, some of my crew mates were really ready to get out, but I could have stayed longer! >Sheyna Gifford, M.D., 37, a doctor in St. Louis who is currently living in the HI-SEAS dome for a year: The researchers “back on Earth” (we consider ourselves “simulated astronauts” in “simulated space”) are giving us tools to deal with the isolation. We have some virtual reality [VR] games that our loved ones at home can play too, so we can leave each other notes and photos or have treasure hunts. Another researcher is going to use VR to “send us to the beach” for a few minutes a week. That may prove very transportive!

“My son’s life will change while I’m gone.”

For a mission to Mars, crew members may be able to take only two shoe boxes’ worth of personal belongings. But the hardest thing to leave behind?

Family. Three of the astronauts are married, and two are mothers. >Koch: I’d definitely miss my husband. When I was at the South Pole, I packed boxes of things to take with me and opened one every few months, so I had something to look forward to. For Mars I’d ask my family and friends to make small surprises for me to open on designated dates. A handwritten card when you’ve been away 15 months can be the best thing imaginable. >McClain: [For a long-term mission today,] I’d want a way to video chat with my three-year-old son and my partner. Leaving them is the only downside to space travel; they are my everything. I’d also bring my son’s stuffed monkey. He would dig seeing it floating in space. >Meir: I’d need music—the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I would definitely request mixes from specific friends; I’d get access to The New York Times.

>Mann: If I get tapped for the mission, I’ll talk to my son about what I’ll be doing. He’s almost four now but will be a teen or in his twenties by then.

His life will change while I’m gone. And that’s a big sacrifice. “From space you can’t see borders.” >If chosen for the expedition, these women and their fellow astronauts will make many big sacrifices. But they will also go on what could be humankind’s greatest exploration to date—an experience those who came before them can only begin to imagine. >Richard Garriott de Cayeux, 54, a private astronaut who has traveled to the international space station:When you’re floating in a slightly stale-smelling, noisy tin can, you have this experience astronauts call the overview effect: From space you can see how weather forms and moves, you can see Earth’s tectonic plates’ seams and deserts and oceans. And suddenly this place you’ve always thought of as vast looks small and fragile. It’s impossible not to feel an urge to protect our environment and our planet. >Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Ph.D., 46, an astronaut who lived at the space station for almost six months: Every night I’d spend 90 minutes watching as we orbited Earth. You’re passing it at 17,500 miles per hour, so you have only a moment to soak in the view before you’re looking at something else. The most intense experience? My first spacewalk to repair a cooling pump that had failed. I understood how enormous and potentially dangerous it was to be stepping out into the vacuum of space [in nothing but a space suit]. I’m thrilled for the women who are coming after me. I can’t wait to see where they go and what they do. >McClain: If we go to Mars, we’ll be representing our entire species in a place we’ve never been before. To me it’s the highest thing a human being can achieve.

fig. 5

MY SON’S

WILL CHANGE WHILE LIFE

”

I’M GONE. 7

I NEED MY SPACE

>Meir: What are people capable of? That idea of exploration has always been a part of the human experience. Trying to understand our place in the universe is what drives me more than anything. >McClain: Also, from space, you can’t see borders.

What you see is this lonely planet. Here we all are on it, so angry at one another. I wish more people could step back and see how small Earth is and how reliant we are on one another. >Mann: Just thinking about it gives me chills.

fig. 7

>>> There were more than 6,100 other applicants for our class of eight, and I’d made my peace with not getting in. I still remember getting the call that I’d been selected.

fig. 6

WOULD YOU GO TO MARS?

5. You’re passing it at 17,500 miles per hour, so you have only a moment to soak in the view before you’re looking at something else.

6. If we go to Mars, we’ll be representing our entire species in a place we’ve never been before.

7. The researchers “back on Earth” (we consider ourselves “simulated astronauts” in “simulated space”) are giving us tools to deal with the isolation.

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First American Woman in Space: Sally Ride Photography by NASA photographers, 1978

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The Latest Class of NASA Astronauts Is 50% Female And they’re all candidates for Mars Written by Fiona Macdonald, 14 January 2016

When I was asked to write about the top female astronauts, I was faced with a daunting task. So many outstanding women have made important contributions to human spaceflight we’ve gained remarkable learning from their efforts. Could I get it down to just a handful? Researching these wonderful women, I was humbled and awed. I whittled my shortlist down to the following six astronauts, listed in chronological flight order. They came from ordinary backgrounds like you and me, but they knew how to dream big and had the ambition to take it all the way. I’m certain you’ll be inspired by their stories and accomplishments!

Valentina Tereshkova, “First Lady of Space” _Valentina Tereshkova in 1963, preparing to board Vostok 6. Photo Credit: Roscosmos Dr. Valentina Tereshkova holds the distinction of being the first female to go into space. In the early 1960’s, with the U.S. and Soviet Union racing each other to reach a series of “firsts,” Tereshkova made some landmark accomplishments. At age 26, she was ten years younger than America’s youngest Mercury astronaut. Gordon Cooper. She logged more hours in space during her single flight on Vostok 6 than the combined flights of all the Mercury astronauts, spending almost three days in her capsule, orbiting the Earth 48 times. Her final words prior to liftoff were, “Hey, sky! Take off your hat, I’m coming!” _While in orbit, Tereshokova conducted biomedical & science experiments to learn about the effects of space on the human body, took photographs that helped identify aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. and manually piloted the ship. The Soviets’ space missions were timed so closely that Tereshkova’s Vostok 6 capsule and the Vostok 5 actually passed within 3 miles of each other, and she spoke to her fellow cosmonaut, Valery Bykovsky, over the radio during her flight!

Tereshkova, whose call sign was “Seagull,” was one of four females selected to the Cosmonaut Corps, and the only one from her group to ever fly in space. _In her daily life she was a textile worker, but she was also an expert parachutist. This was a critical skill for cosmonauts flying those early missions.

After re-entry and descent, the only way to get back to Earth was to eject at about 7,000 feet with a parachute because the Vostok capsules could not land. After Tereshkova’s successful mission, space travel remained exclusive to males for close to 20 years. In 1982, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, traveled to Salyut space station where she became the first woman to perform a space walk. Sally Ride, the first female American astronaut, followed with her space debut a year later. _Valentina Tereshkova on the 50th anniversary of her flight aboard Vostok 6 After her flight on Vostok 6, Valentina Tershkova studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, graduating with distinction as a Cosmonaut engineer. She pursued her education further, and went on to earn a Doctorate in Engineering. Dr. Tereshkova rose to prominence as a politician, and remains politically active today. _At age 76, on the 50th anniversary of her

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flight in Vostok 6, she once again displayed her pioneering spirit by raising her hand to take a oneway flight to her favorite planet, Mars. “Of course, it’s a dream to go to Mars and find out whether there was life there or not,” Tereshkova said. “If there was, then why did it die out? What sort of catastrophe happened?” Given the opportunity, I have no doubt this amazing woman will help us find out! _Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space Dr. Sally Ride, Mission Specialist aboard STS-7 and STS-61 Dr. Sally Ride was the celebrated first American woman and youngest American astronaut to travel into space. She served as CapCom (capsule communicator) for the second and third-ever Shuttle flights, and helped to develop the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm. Ride flew two space missions (STS-7 and STS-61), both aboard Challenger, serving in the capacity of Mission Specialist. _The purpose of these missions was to deploy satellites and perform pharmaceutical experiments.

Ride was the first person to use the robotic arm to retrieve a satellite, and the first woman to use the arm in space. Ride spent several years working at NASA headquarters where she founded NASA’s Office of Exploration. She also served on the Presidential Commissions that investigated both the Challenger and Columbia disasters. _Dr. Sally Ride (1951 – 2012) She wrote or co-wrote seven books on space aimed at children, with the goal of encouraging children to study science. She became a Physics professor and Director of the California Space Institute, and also led public outreach programs through NASA. The ISS EarthKAM and the GRAIL MoonKAM were made accessible to middle school children, allowing them to request photos of the moon and the Earth. Dr. Ride also created a company called “Sally Ride Science, “ which focuses on creating entertaining science programs with an emphasis on STEM learning for girls. Sally Ride lost her battle with pancreatic cancer in 2012 at age 61, leaving an amazing legacy of inspiration.

Mae Jemison, First African-American Woman to Travel to Space _Mae Jemison, STS-37 astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison drew her spacefaring inspiration from Sally Ride and Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series. After serving as a physician in the Peace Corps, Jemison applied to the Astronaut Corps. Her acceptance to the astronaut training program was delayed due to the Challenger disaster, but Jemison was finally selected and joined NASA in 1987. _On Sept. 12, 1992, Dr. Jemison became the first African American woman in space on Space Shuttle Endeavour’s second flight, which carried her and six other astronauts into space for eight days. She served as Mission Specialist and worked on the bone cell research experiment flown on STS-37, a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan. _Jemison and LeVar Burton in Engineering on STTNG. Jemison left NASA in March 1993 and

went on to teach at Dartmouth College. She also founded her own company, the Jemison Group, working on sustainable energy development projects and satellite-based telecommunications to facilitate health care delivery in West Africa.

Dr. Jemison is a strong advocate for science, establishing an international science camp for high school students and working on the 100-Year Starship program. As if all of these accomplishments were not enough, Dr. Jemison realized one other very special dream when she appeared as a guest on Star Trek: The Next Generation. _Eileen Collins, First Female Space Shuttle Pilot and Commander. A weightless Eileen Collins Like Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride, Eileen Collins has become a pioneer in the world of aviation. She is a former U.S. Air Force Colonel and test pilot, and made her mark as the first woman to have ever piloted a Space Shuttle, and the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission. Piloting Discovery in 1995, Collins served as second in command for the United States’ historic rendezvous with the Mir space station.

After taking time away to have her daughter, she returned to space in 1997, piloting a second trip to Mir aboard Atlantis. _Her next mission was aboard Columbia, where she served as commander to the crew that deployed the Chandra X-Ray telescope. Col. Collins’ final flight. STS-114, took place aboard Discovery in 2005, when Collins commanded NASA’s “return to flight” mission to test safety improvements and resupply the International Space Station.

On this mission, Collins became the first astronaut to fly the Space Shuttle through 360-degree pitch maneuver, which enabled astronauts aboard the ISS to take photographs of the Shuttle’s underside.

This was necessary to ensure there was no threat.

Collins holds degrees in Math, Science, and Space Systems Management. After her retirement from NASA in 2006, she made occasional public appearances as an analyst covering Shuttle launches and landings for CNN. Kalpana Chawla, First Indian-born Female in Space _Dr. Kalpana Chawla (1962 – 2003) suits up for a mission aboard Challenger Dr. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-born woman, and second person from India to travel into space. She earned Engineering and Aerospace Engineering degrees in India before settling in the U.S., where she continued her studies. She earned her PhD in Aerospace Engineering, and began her work for NASA at the Ames Research Center in 1988. She was selected for the Astronaut Corps in 1994 and took her first flight (STS-87) aboard Columbia. _During that mission she deployed the Spartan Satellite, which malfunctioned due to a software problem and necessitated a 2-man spacewalk to retrieve it. After STS-87. Chawla worked at NASA on technical projects for the Space Station, and was selected to fly again as a Mission Specialist for STS-107. Although the 2002 mission was ultimately scrapped after repeated delays and technical problems, STS-107 eventually got off the ground

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>>>STS-114, took place aboard Discovery in 2005, when Collins commanded NASA’s “return to flight” mission to test safety improvements and resupply the International Space Station.

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aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Columbia carried a SPACEHAB module to the ISS, where Chawla and her fellow astronauts performed more than 80 experiments on microgravity, atmospheric dust, and astronaut safety. The ill-fate mission was a success, but disaster struck during re-entry, when the orbiter’s wing overheated and came apart, leading to complete destruction of the vehicle. The damage to the wing occurred upon liftoff, when a piece of foam damaged heatresistant tiles which are critical to the integrity of the Shuttle’s structure during re-entry. All of the crew members were lost as the world watched, helplessly. After her death, Dr. Chawla was awarded the following distinctions: Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA Space Flight Medal, and NASA Distinguished Service Medal. _Barbara Morgan, First Teacher in Space 1986: Barbara Morgan (L) with Christa McAuliffe (R) Barbara Morgan began her space career as an Elementary School science teacher from Idaho.

She was selected for the “Teacher in Space” program as backup to Christy McAuliffe, and the two trained together before McAuliffe’s ill-fated mission aboard Challenger in 1986, where all of the crew lost their lives shortly after liftoff. The “Teacher in Space” program was cancelled after the Challenger disaster, but Morgan decided to press on, pursuing her dream of space. Her famous quote during that time was, “I want to get some stardust on me.” _She continued teaching science, and also worked with NASA’s education division. She was a major contributor to science education, and served on the National Science Foundation’s Federal Task Force for Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. In 1998, Morgan was chosen

by NASA to become a mission specialist, and underwent training at Johnson Space Center. She worked there as CapCom, and also earned an amateur radio license, qualifying her to conduct

radio communications with students on Earth as part of the ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) program.

Morgan pictured at the time of her 2007 flight aboard Endeavor _She was scheduled to be on a Columbia flight – the next mission after the disaster occurred.

After the tragic loss of the Columbia crew, it took another four years before Morgan actually went into space. _In 2007, she lifted off on Endeavor as Mission Specialist for the STS-118 crew. During the 13-day mission, Morgan was charge of all payload and operated a robotic arm to transfer a platform to the International Space Station. She also answered questions students via satellite, something McAuliffe had hoped to do. Now retired from NASA, Morgan remains a dedicated educator and works Boise State University promoting STEM education. Morgan, “Yes, actually I did get some stardust on me. We all got some stardust on us.” _There can be little doubt that the female space travelers here, as well as their sisters, serve a crucial role in inspiring young women to seek out careers in STEM-related fields. It is hoped that those who follow in the footsteps remember who inspired them – and serve to carry on the tradition

>>>The previous occasion with two women crew members on the ISS was in 2010, when both women were Americans. Russia’s Serova (37) was joined in space on Monday morning by Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti (38), who is Italy’s first female Astronaut.

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_The latest class of NASA astronauts is 50% female And they’re all candidates for Mars.

Last year was pretty incredible for space exploration, with (among many other notable achievements) NASA announcing its plans to land humans on Mars in the 2030s, and then breaking the Internet when they put a call out for people to sign up. _But what you might not know is that the latest class of NASA astronauts, recruited in 2013 and already in training, will also be candidates for the first trip to Mars, and for the first time in NASA history, 50 percent of them are female.

It’s well established by now that women make kick-ass astronauts (hello Sally Ride and Valentina Tereshkova), so that statistic shouldn’t be particularly exciting or notable. _But given the fact that, as of 2011, females still only hold 24 percent of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs in the US, it’s a pretty huge deal, and it makes us even more hopeful about the future of Solar System exploration. _“We never determine how many people of each gender we’re going to take, but these were the most qualified people of the ones that we interviewed,” Janet Kavandi NASA’s deputy director at the Glenn Research Centre explained in a Google Hangout when the 2013 class was announced. _The class of is made up of eight recruits in total Josh Cassada, Victor Glover, Tyler Hague, Christina Hammock, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, and Andrew Morgan - selected from a pool of around 6,100 applicants. That’s a fierce 0.0013 percent success rate. _The application process alone took 18 months of rigorous medical and psychological testing, and the recruits are now going through two years of training before they’ll officially join NASA’s 46 currently active astronauts.

_But what’s really cool is that they’re the first class to be candidates for the mission to Mars. “If we go to Mars, we’ll be representing our entire species in a place we’ve never been before. To me it’s the highest thing a human being can achieve,” McClain told Ginny Graves in an exclusive interview for Glamour magazine at the end of last year.

That training, as you can imagine, is pretty intense, with the candidates learning how to fly T-38 supersonic jets, practicing walking around underwater in spacesuit that weigh 181 kg (400 pounds), and surviving what’s called the vomit comet, which simulates weightlessness through freefall. _They’re also being taught a whole bunch of general survival skills that might help them cope with the myriad things that could go wrong on the Red Planet, where the average temperature is –55 degrees Celsius (–67 F), there are giant dust storms, and astronauts will constantly be bombarded with cancer-causing ionising radiation.

“It’s not like the Moon; that’s a three-day trip,” Jason Crusan, director of advanced exploration systems at NASA told Glamour. “When you go to Mars, you’re going. You can’t abort.” _The journey itself will be about 56 million kilometres (25 million miles) one way, which will take between six to nine months. But the pay-off for any astronaut who makes the grade will be worth it, if only to be able to earn the title of one of the first humans to ever put a boot-print on the Red Planet. _“Mars can teach us so much about the past, present, and future of our own planet,” said Meir.

“Trying to understand our place in the universe is what drives me more than anything.”

“From space, you can’t see borders. What you see is this lonely planet,” added Mccain. “Here we all are on it, so angry at one another. I wish more people could step back and see how small Earth is and how reliant we are on one another.”

We couldn’t agree more, and we can’t wait to see the talent that’s selected in the next class of astronauts, for which applications are still open.

What a relief things have changed since the 1960s, when NASA wrote this rejection letter to a hopeful astronaut. _For only the second time in the 16-year history of the International Space Station, there are two women on the six-person crew up there. This rarity has sparked some inappropriate, sexist questions of the women, which they have answered with perfect defensive poise.

Female Astronauts Fire Back At Sexist Interview Questions _“I have a question for you, why don’t you ask the question about Alexander’shair, for example,” said female Russian Cosmonaut Elena Serova, (pictured at top) to a reporter in September, when asked how she would fix her hair during her ISS stay, and whether she was taking makeup for the trip. Alexander (Samokutyaev) is her fellow crew member, and a male. “I’m sorry, this is my answer.

Thank you. More questions?” _For those of us old enough to remember back to 1983, the first American female Astronaut, Sally Ride fielded similar questions. She was asked, “Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?” and “Do you weep when things go wrong of the job?”

Ride replied to these questions by saying, “You notice I’m not answering. It may be too bad that our society isn’t further along and that this is such a big deal.” Ride had Bachelors Degrees in English and Physics, as well as a Ph.D. in astrophysics, yet these kind of questions were all that some journalists could think to ask. _NASA recently published a study on the different ways that Space effects the bodies of men and women, with fascinating results.

Among other results, the study found that women suffer from less hearing loss and visual impairment than their male counterparts. In addition, women are susceptible to urinary tract infections, while men are more likely to develop kidney stones. _The previous occasion with two women crew members on the ISS was in 2010, when both women were Americans. Russia’s Serova (37) was joined in space on Monday morning by Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti (38), who is Italy’s first female Astronaut, and also a fighter pilot. She will serve as Flight Engineer for Expeditions 42 and 43, until next May. Cristoforetti’s launch was Sunday afternoon from Kazakhstan, along with American astronaut Terry Virts and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. Along with being Italy’s first female Astronaut, she is also bringing along the ISS’ first espresso machine.

>>>Sheyna Gifford, M.D., 37, a doctor in St. Louis who is currently living in the HI-SEAS dome for a year. We’d compete on how creative we could get with taco and pizza nights.

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Photography First American Woman in Space: Sally Ride Fig. 1 First Class Some of NASA’s first female astronaut candidates take a break from training in Florida in 1978. From left: Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon.

Fig. 2 STS-7 Challenger Crew Ride, front row, left, with her STS-7 crewmates.

In addition to launching America’s first female astronaut, it was also the first mission with a five-member crew. Front row, left to right: Ride, Commander Bob Crippen, Pilot Frederick Hauck.

Back row, left to right: John Fabian, Norm Thagard Fig. 3 In Training Ride and three of her STS-7 crewmates take a break from simulator training to pose for a NASA photographer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Fig. 4 Strapping In A suit technician helps Ride strap herself into a seat in the shuttle mission simulator in Houston on May 23, 1983, less than a month before her launch.

Fig. 5 Huge Expectations Ride leaves the simulator in Houston after a training session. “The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it,” said Ride later.

Fig. 6 Mission Sequence Test Ride participates in a mission sequence test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. She’s joined by Anna Fisher, a fellow member of the 1978 astronaut class.

Fig. 7 Ready to Fly Three days before launch, Ride takes a last look at Houston before taking off in a T-38 jet, bound for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Fig. 8 Liftoff Ride and her crewmates rocket into space aboard Challenger at 7:33 a.m. EDT on June 18, 1983.

Ride later described launch as “exhilarating, terrifying, and overwhelming all at the same time.”

Fig. 9 Through the Clouds Challenger soars toward space. One of Ride’s jobs was to call out “Roll program” seven seconds after launch. I’ll guarantee that those were the hardest words I ever had to get out of my mouth,” she said later.

Fig. 10 Room with a View Ride monitors control panels near a window on Challenger’s flight deck. On being weightless: “What I discovered was that although it took an hour or so to get used to moving around, I adapted to it pretty quickly. I loved it.”

Fig. 11 Engine Glow A bright glow from an orbital maneuvering system engine firing frames Challenger and its payload bay with Earth below.

Fig. 12 Second Flight Ride, right, and astronaut Kathryn Sullivan synchronize their watches in the “white room” before entering Challenger to launch on mission STS-41G on October 5, 1984. It was the first flight to carry two women into space. “At least,” Ride said of Sullivan, ”she had someone to share the attention with.”

Fig. 13 Floating on the Middeck Ride Floats alongside Challenger’s Middeck airlock hatch.

Fig. 14 Hard at Work Ride uses a screw driver to clean out an air filtering system in the middeck of the Challenger. Her shirt features a cartoon of 35 busy astronauts around a shuttle with the acronym TFNG, which stands for “thirty five new guys,” a nickname for the 1978 astronaut class.

Fig. 15 Bag of Worms Ride and Sullivan show off what appears to be a “bag of worms,” a product of their creativity. It’s actually a sleep restraint with clamps, a bungee cord and Velcro strips.

Research

Illustration

Editing

William Barry bill.barry@nasa.gov “Sally Ride In Shuttle”

Jane Odom jane.h.odom@nasa.gov 202-358-0386

Colin Fries cfries@mail.hq.nasa.gov Archivist 202-358-0388

Nadine Andreassen nadine.j.andreassen@nasa.gov “Heidemarie Stefanyshy Portrait”

Yvette Smith yvette.smith-1@nasa.gov 202-358-5196

Stephen Garber stephen.j.garber@nasa.gov Historian 202-358-0385

Colin Fries cfries@mail.hq.nasa.gov Archivist 202-358-0388

Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow@nasa.gov 202-358-0375

Jane Odom jane.h.odom@nasa.gov Chief Archivist 202-358-0386

Stephen Garber stephen.j.garber@nasa.gov Historian 202-358-0385

Yvette Smith yvette.smith-1@nasa.gov Editor 202-358-5196

Jane Odom jane.h.odom@nasa.gov Chief Archivist 202-358-0386

Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow-1@nasa.gov Archivist 202-358-0375

Yvette Smith yvette.smith-1@nasa.gov Editor 202-358-5196

Nadine Andreassen nadine.j.andreassen@nasa.gov Program Specialist 202-358-0087

Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow-1@nasa.gov Archivist 202-358-0375 Elizabeth Reimer elizabeth.d.reimer@nasa.gov Intern William Barry bill.barry@nasa.gov “Sally Ride In Shuttle” Nadine Andreassen nadine.j.andreassen@nasa.gov “Heidemarie Stefanyshy Portrait” Colin Fries cfries@mail.hq.nasa.gov Archivist 202-358-0388 Stephen Garber stephen.j.garber@nasa.gov Historian 202-358-0385 Jane Odom jane.h.odom@nasa.gov Chief Archivist 202-358-0386 Yvette Smith yvette.smith-1@nasa.gov Editor 202-358-5196 Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow-1@nasa.gov Archivist 202-358-0375 Elizabeth Reimer elizabeth.d.reimer@nasa.gov Intern

About We try to prepare [for everything]. Let’s say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions. Walking out to the launch pad, would there be that fear?

Absolutely. But if you don’t face your fears, the only thing you’ll ever see is what’s in your comfort zone.

Learning to spacewalk: “Getting into a space suit is like getting into a small aircraft—it’s hard work,” says McClain, here trying on a prototype.

For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer space— even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run.

Once it begins, the actual mission will go something like this: The four crew members selected (potentially from this class and others) will spend two to three weeks in the launch capsule, then rendezvous with a larger spaceship—a.k.a. “home”— for the rest of the months-long journey. Once on Mars, they’ll live up to a year in a structure that will have already been built by robots before returning to Earth. That’s a long time for four people to be hermetically sealed together. Will they fight?

Get romantic? In one series of NASA-funded studies known as HI-SEAS, six men and women spend up to a year in a 1,300-square-foot biodome on the side of a Hawaiian volcano to help.

Let’s say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions.

Walking out to the launch pad, would there be that fear? Absolutely. But if you don’t face your fears, the only thing you’ll ever see is what’s in your comfort zone.

Learning to spacewalk: “Getting into a space suit is like getting into a small aircraft—it’s hard work,” says McClain, here trying on a prototype.

For the next 15 years, the astronauts will be honing their skills both on Earth and in outer space— even, likely, flying the Mars mission’s small blastoff capsule to an asteroid near the moon as a test run.

Once it begins, the actual mission will go something like this.