Personal Space
FEBRUARY 3, 2007 Listen to this Story
- Leroy and Salizhan aboard the ISS
- View the Slideshow
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Astronaut Leroy Chiao lived at the International Space Station in 2004 and 2005. For over six long months Chiao shared around 1500 square feet with his Russian cosmonaut counterpart, Salizhan Sharipov. That's not a lot of space. Chiao wrote about his experiences in a journal and the journals, kept by astronauts at the ISS, are being reviewed by a researcher in California. The analysis will help NASA prepare for even longer missions in the future. We talk with Chiao about his diary entries and about personal space, in space.
Excerpts from Leroy Chiao's journal...
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Today is the third day of unexpected solar flare activity. We were told that satellites recorded the strongest solar flare activity today since 1989. On Tuesday, we had to ?take shelter? in designated areas inside of ISS. For me, it was the TESS sleep station, so it was little impact to me. Salizhan had to sleep outside of his cabin, in the aft end of the service module. The radiation is on average, 5-6 times normal.
We had a detailed explanation tonight. The radiation is primarily protons. We are protected from most of the radiation by the magnetic field aroud the earth. However, when we pass over North America and Australia at high latitudes, that is where the magnetic belts are weak and thus we have to take shelter. It was explained that we will have received a few days worth of extra radiation over the average of the mission. However, the acute dosage increase is of course, the real concern.
I always knew that this could happen and it is a little disconcerting. However, there is nothing we can do about it. If we had been on a mission to the Moon or Mars, we would have taken the full brunt of the radiation. That is a problem for which we don?t have a good solution as of yet.
We spent the day preparing the space suits for next week's EVA. If the solar activity does not diminish by then, we will no doubt have to delay it.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
The week finished on a high note, I had our regular Astronaut office and Flight director's conferences yesterday, as well as the Program manager's conference today. In all three, we discussed my concerns about inefficient use of time onboard and the consequences to doing meaningful science and other work. All were very receptive, so I was satisfied with the meetings. However, I am not, I'm sure, the first crewmember to voice such sentiments. Time will tell, whether or not things change. It will be slow, that's for certain. There's a lot of inertia at a large organization like NASA. This is real culture change.
Less than 60 days to go until landing. We are both already thinking about preparations for handover and things that we need to get done. Of course, we still have major events coming up. We will watch Progress 16P undock on Sunday afternoon. Monday, we look forward to the launch of Progress 17P, with subsequent docking on Wednesday. EVA-13 preparations will begin soon, it is scheduled for March 25th.
I am also thinking about the future. I don't know what NASA has in mind for me after this flight. It is a strange feeling, knowing that this is my last mission. It's been a good run for the last 15 years. I have had the good fortune to fly on three shuttle missions and now, to command this long duration flight. I am one of the very few people who have performed EVA in both US and Russian suits. I look back with satisfaction and fondness. But of course, the focus is on the future.
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- Music Bridge:
- Transistor
- Artist: Radian
- CD: Juxtaposition (Thrill Jockey)
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