May 7, 2025 • 30 mins
How does going to space change you? Jorge talks to several people who've been to space to find out.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. My
name is Jorge cham and today we are answering questions
about what it's like to live and poop in space.
Is living in zero gravity fund or do you eventually
get bored of floating around and seeing the emptiness of
space outside your window? How does the experience of leaving
Earth change you? And most important, how do you go
(00:22):
to the bathroom there? We're gonna hear from several people
who've been to space, and we're gonna find out if
they ever want to go back. Now, today's a special
episode because today's questions come to us from a friend
of mine. Emily Calendrelli is the host of the Netflix
show Emily's Wonder Lab, the creator of the popular TikTok channel,
The spacecal and she's the number one New York Times
(00:45):
best selling author of the Stay Curious and Adaly's book series.
She also recently made the news for being the one
hundredth woman to go to space as a passenger on
the Blue Origin rocket, which takes passengers and a short
ride to the edge of space. The experience made her
curious about what it would be like to stay in space. Longer,
whether anyone has ever had a bad experience being in space,
(01:09):
So get ready to blast off. Here's my chat with
Emily callendrelly. But what it's like to go live and
poop in space? Enjoy? So what's it like to go
to space? Can you describe for us the experience of it?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh my gosh. I mean, for one, it was the
best thing that I've ever done in my life. It
was everything I dreamed it would be and so much more. Basically,
you strap in and you hear the countdown.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Five four, command engine start.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
One three two one, and that's when the engine ticknight.
You hear the vibrations of the rocket. You see that
orange red glow outside of your window. After a few seconds,
the rocket lifts off from the launch pad incredibly quickly,
(02:11):
and the Earth is starting to fall away from you
and you look outside. Oh wow, look at the dark
and the sky goes from light blue to dark blue
to the blackest black you have ever seen, Like the
absence of light, the absence of color, the absence of
life and everything. It was like quite spooky.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Actually no stars, like you can't see stars, no, because.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
We launched during the daytime. So for the same reason
that you don't see stars in the sky during the day,
it was too bright. Yeah, once you get up there,
the capsule separates from the booster, the lower part of
the rocket, and when that happens, it's like a kick
to your pants. It's like a woomp. Oh my god.
(03:03):
That is the most violent part of the entire experience.
And that's when you're in space. Oh, there we go,
and that's when you really feel like you are away
from home.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Space.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I felt so overwhelmed by it, but then I'm also like,
the adrenaline is pumping, my heart is beating a mile
a minute. But I'm so overwhelmed in the most wonderful way.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Well, you said you felt the little fear, but I
imagine you also feel joy. Can you talk a little
bit about those mixed emotions.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I was only the ninth human space flight of Blue Origin,
which added a little bit to the scariness factor because
I was like, I'm really a guinea peg here. I'm
volunteering as tribute to test this new vehicle. But I
felt this overwhelming sense of gratitude. Like when I've rewatched
the video, I heard myself saying to nobody or anything
(03:54):
in particular, I love you. I don't know who I
said it to. I loved every buddy that I had
ever met in my life.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Wow, that's amazing. Well I've known you for quite a
long time now, emy, I think over maybe ten years,
and ever since I known you, you've been a space
super fan. Congrats and achieving your dream.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
All Right, so we're not at the part where I'm
going to answer your questions. Tell me your first question.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So my first question, as you know, you cannot open
a window on the International Space Station if you bring
the stink. The stink stays. And I thought, well, what's
the one smell that you can't really control? And that's
like bathroom smells, and so I sort of wonder do
they have Pooperie on the International Space Station?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, he's super fascinating question. So I've never been there,
so I didn't know, but I reached out to someone
who has been there for several months, and actually I
think she's a friend of yours. So I interviewed doctor
Katie Coleman.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Katie, I love Katie.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Doctor Coley is a chemist, they former NASA astronaut, a
retired Air Force coldel. She flew several times on the
Space Shuttle Columbia and has been to the International Space Station,
spending almost six months in space in total. Here's what
she said, Doctor Coleman, thanks so much for talking with me.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, does the space station have poopery?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Emily is very right. Most of us humans really can't
control those things. And I guarantee you that if you
are with a group of five or six people, one
of you is going to end up making the room
smell not as nice. Right, But up in space, it's
actually just not a problem on the space station because
(05:37):
we have such good airflow with all of the fans
that recirculate. In fact, it re really our lives depend
on it. We need to remove CO two, you know,
the CO two that we actually produce, so if anyone
does make a smell, it very quickly dissipates because they're
such great circulation.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, I'm wondering how those filters work because one things
are like little dust particles. The other thing are sense,
So these filters can take out sense.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
It goes through different kinds of filters depending on where
it is, but mostly we're filtering particulates and the filters
are going to be like carbon based, you know, odor absorbing,
just like down here on the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Amazing. I hadn't even considered like the high quality air
filtration in circulation. That makes so much sense that they
would need popery.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, she didn't seem too worried about the poopy. I
guess she's pretty confident about their filters, which involve carbon filters.
I did sort of ask her, like, would they likes
a poopery or mean, like an air freshener or something
like that, right, yeah, like maybe that would make life
more pleasant. But here's what she said.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
We don't bring a lot of scented things up there
in case someone is more sensitive to sense up there.
If you think of somebody wearing really terrible cologne, I mean,
it's definitely not encouraged. But the other reason for that
is alcohol. Actually, poisons are in fire mental system and
can make it less effective at removing co Two, if
(07:04):
I wanted to bring moisturizer up there, they're going to
take a really close look at the ingredients and the percentages,
and alcohol is one of the things that can be
bad for that.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oh interesting, Yeah, they sort of can have air fresheners
or spray here and they sort of try to illumine
anything that might give an order because it might be
an alcohol based I think those filters are so tuned
to just filtering CO two that they just don't want
to add anything that might.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Right exactly, It's like, what's the bare minimum that we
can have in the system to keep it as clean
and livable as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So I think Katie covered, should we say winds up
in the space station, But I think your question was
maybe more in the bathroom, like what are they do
in the bathroom?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, so I asked Katie that question too.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Okay, thank you. But the bathroom itself works on this
principle of vacuum, and do you want to hear about that?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I tell people it is easier to go to the
bathroom in space and more private than any camping trip
I have ever been on. Let alone, you know, when
your parents stop out in the country on the side
of the road, right, And it's based on a system
of vacuum. You want everything that is waste. You wanted
to go somewhere else and be in the right place.
And so it's two different systems, one for urine and
(08:27):
for that We have a hose and a funnel that
goes on the top and you just have to literally
point into that funnel. It's not a vacuum like this,
like you know, it's a really gentle vacuum. That's all
it takes to make urine go down.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah. So their bathroom system works on a vacuum because
basically you don't want the poop or pe to be
floating around. Yeah, and that also takes care of the
smells because the vacuum just sucks everything way. And then
what's interesting is that they recycle their pn ultimately drink it.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And so up on the space station, we actually recycle
all of the water. Urine go down in through the
pump through some filters, and that goes through a whole
big series of filters that filters out everything that isn't
pure water. And that is a really important system because
we bring water up with us, but water is one
of the things we don't have very much of.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
See, you recycle the human liquid waste exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yep, And the kids are kind of grossed out, like,
oh no, that's awful. And again, my friend Don Pettit
likes to say, well, you know, we're drinking this is
yesterday's coffee that we're going to drink again today.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
What does it taste like this water?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Beautiful? Oh yeah, absolutely wonderful. I am not kidding, not
making it up. Probably we get a little used to it,
but I just remember it as tasting really great.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Even the second and third and fourth time you drink it.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Exactly fascinating, very very cool.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Everything is recycled, the air of recycled, the waste is recycled,
and so she didn't seem not concerned about the smell
of the bathroom smells. But it did find out that
the system does have its limits. Okay, there are things
that they need to stay on top of. When we
come back, doctor Coleman is going to tell us which
smells are a problem in the International Space Station and
(10:19):
how they deal with them. You're listening to science stuff
and we're back.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
My mission. I was the gym clothes police. I'd be like, boys,
it's that special day.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Do they do smells at some point? They do?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I mean, just like they would hear. I have to say,
in general, our clothes don't get as dirty, but gym clothes,
where you're just actively sweating, running on a treadmill, working
out in a bike lifting weights, so to speak. We
do those kind of workouts about six days a week,
at least five.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So your clothes do stink after a while, even in space.
But what they do with them is a little counter intuitive.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Intrigued, So those clothes. We would take our laundry and
stick it into a laundry bag and it goes into
a supply ship that is now a trash ship.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh, you don't wash clothes in space. We don't, so
you probably know this. They don't wash clothes in space.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I don't think I had ever thought to ask that question,
but that's a really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Aspect, quaranificating. Apparently, MASSA has asked them if they wanted
a shower and washing machine, but she said that the
astronaut basically said no, it's just too much real estate
they would take up, and too much water and too
much waste. So they just throw the gym clothes away.
They bring extras and then just use them and throw
them away, except that they have to wait for them
to dry out before they throw them out. So she
(11:46):
talked about an instance once where they threw out all
their clothes and then NASA called them a little later
and said, hey, we're missing some water. Because it's such
a closed system and everything's so closely monitored that they
can keep track of every probably not the ounces, of
how much water is in their system. And what happened
was that all that sweat in the clothes they had
thrown into the trash. I was like, where's that water.
(12:10):
We're missing that water. And so the strategy is that
you just just kind of let it air out in
the space station. So the water that plays from the clothes,
it goes back into the system and then you can
throw away the clothes.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
That is so cool and like such a testament to
how precise so many of these systems are.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
You also have the funny story of somebody sent them
a jar of pickles once, so they ate the pickles,
but then they didn't know what to do with the
pickle water. They cann't just throw it out because the
systems can handle, apparently pickle juice, and so they just
used the water to soak a couple of towels, and
then they just hung the towels out to dry, and
so the water front the pickled juice evaporated and everything
(12:48):
else stayed in the towel. Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Okay, like the weird things, the positions you find yourself
in when you are living in a tin can orting
the Earth.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, you interview a lot of astronauts, but this was
my first time interviewing an astronaut, and for a while
you get this feeling like, well, I'm talking to somebody
who's been in space.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, there are just so few people who have really
lived and worked in space for that long of a time,
and you kind of want to be like, what it
likely everything.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Katie spent several months up there, so I asked her
what's the hardest thing about living in space for that long?
And she's mentioned two things, and the first one surprised me.
So here's what she said.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I would say, the really hardest thing about being up
there is that you really can't lose things. And I
can be a little absent minded and up there you
sort of forget that you have something you know in
your hand and then you let it go. I did
lose a heart rate monitor up there. I don't know
that it was ever found.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Turk's sound important.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And in fact, I was actually playing my flute with
my band back home, the Astronaut Band, and we had
an emergency that happened, a big alarm that went off.
You know, just drop everything and go to the computers
and see what's up. So that's what I did, And
then I went back to work and got to be
late at night. I went to go find my flute,
and I just thought, I have no idea where it is.
(14:12):
I would say losing things is a really serious thing
up there. We lost a CO two sensor that was
velcrow to the wall. It's like a little sort of
small half a milk carton the space station is big.
It's the size of like ten train cars without the
seats in them. There's just places something sort of small,
like if I unplugged it and then just let go
(14:33):
of it, it would buy the air currents kind of
travel around. So you really can lose something literally forever.
I found a pocket knife closed thankfully, that belonged to
someone that they had lost a few years before.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Wow, isn't that wild? You can lose things inside the
space station so fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It's a small place, but there's so many some crannies,
And mainly I think it's the fact that things just
can just drift away, Like if you can't just set
them down and they'll stay there.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
They may exactly. They will now have a life of
their own, a journey of their own, moving around the spacecraft.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
But then Katie said, the hardest thing about being in
space that long is kind of related to your next question.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
The hardest thing is being away from your family and
actually also loving where you are and really knowing that
the work you're doing is so important.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
What do you mean, sort of feeling that internal struggle
between missing home but then also knowing that you're worthy,
you're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
There's definitely that I go back to quoting my friend
Don Pettitt. He said, you know, if I could take
my family with me, there would really be no reason
to come home.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Oh allah, that's really sweet.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, it's sort of missing home. She said. It was
one of the hardest things about being out there. And
this kind of reminded me of your next question that
you had for me.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Absolutely. Yeah, So I wondered, because going to space, especially
when you're staying there for a longer period of time,
it is not the most comfortable thing to do. And
I wonder if there are any astronauts, like particularly NASA
astronauts who have spent a longer period of time there
who trained for years and years and years and then
did it, And then once they did it, they realized,
(16:15):
I actually don't like this.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
This is I this is not I don't enjoy this,
and they didn't want to go back.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, exactly, and like, you know what, I don't want
to do that again.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So this was a hard question. I think, as you know,
from having interviewed so many astronauts yourself, they all love
the experience, right right.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Part of me wonders because it is such a privilege
to be able to have this experience. I feel like
it would be a very hard circumstance to find, especially
a NASA astronaut who represents NASA, say anything that would
speak to them being ungrateful for that privilege. And I
do think most people really do enjoy it and find
(16:56):
it magical. I certainly did, But I'm just curious if
anybody really didn't like it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, because even if you've come down, you're still sort
of in the group of people that might go up again, exactly,
So nobody's going to say, oh, it was terrible because
they want to go back up again, assuming they want
to go back up again, which is kind of your question, right, right, exactly.
So it took me a while, but I did find
two people who've been to space and don't want to
go back. Really Okay, okay. The first one is pretty famous.
(17:24):
He has not only been to space, but he's been
the captain of a spaceship. Oh it's William Chattner, the
actor who played Captain Kirk in the Star Wars Star Trek.
Sorry I just insulted yet on that one. I just
got canceled. Captain Kirk from the Star Trek series and movies.
(17:45):
He went up to space and he had a very
interesting and maybe atypical experience. But here's how he describes it.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Struck me so hard at that moment because when I
looked into space, there was no mystery, majestic awe to behold.
All I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark,
black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see
or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all encompassing.
Everything I thought was wrong, Everything I expected to see
(18:15):
was wrong. I thought that going into space would be
the ultimate Catharsis of that connection I had been looking
for between all living things, that being up there would
be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of
the universe. But when I finally arrived out there, the
splendor was absent. It was the opposite of life. I
was so thoroughly unprepared for this experience. It was among
(18:38):
the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. My
trip to space was supposed to be a celebration. Instead
it felt like a funeral.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
When we come back, we're going to hear how Captain
Kirk processed this grief, and then we're going to hear
from another NASA astronaut about why he didn't want to
go back to space. Right back, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I could see.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, that resonates with me because I had the same
feeling of when you think of the cosmos, you think
of this beautiful, starry night sky that feels just very
glamorous and lovely and romantic, but when you see it,
it's exactly how we described the vastness, emptiness, just so
(19:33):
devoid of life and color and light.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, it's really interesting this idea that he felt grief, right,
because there is this effect, as you probably know, called
the overview effect. It's been documented by psychologists where the
most astronauts he talked to you talk about this shift
in their perspective, and this feeling of unexpected emotion and
overwhelming emotion is sort of renewed sense of purpose and
connection to other people on Earth. But here Captain Kirk
(19:58):
William Channers seemed to you almost have the opposite reaction.
The way this cries his grief and sadness is that
he felt sad for what we're doing to this fragile
home that we're living in. Kind of why he felt
his grief, He thought about his great grandchild and he thought,
what kind of world are we lieving for him?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, but there is a positive side to his feeling
of grief. Yeah, here's how he describes it.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Going into space made me so aware of how fragile
our lives are here on Earth, how we need each
other and need to continue to strengthen the bonds that
connect us to each other, because out there there's no life,
there is no us. I had a different experience because
I discovered that the beauty isn't out there, it's down
there with all of us. Leaving that behind made my
(20:47):
connection to our tiny planet even more profound. I knew
that what I was feeling was something I will carry
with me for the rest of my life something I
must share with as many people as I can.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah. I think that is the main takeaway is that
we live on this beautiful, fragile planet and the Cosmos
out there is unfriendly and there's no one coming to
save us, so we must save ourselves.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
He took this grief that he felt about our fragility
and what we're doing to our planet and basically transformed
it into this message of we need to do better.
Now he's on a big mission to talk about climate
change in the environment.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Amazing. See, this is one of the cool parts of
having more people, diverse people, people from different backgrounds and
skill sets. That's the part of commercial space exploration that
I find to be so special because look at all
of these new things that are coming from it.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, and give people more of that over the effect.
That would be amazing if everyone got a chance to
experience that right and feel more connected and more appreciative
of her little blue marble exactly. So that was sort
of an interesting reaction, but it did find an actual
NASA astronaut, someone who's been to space on missions, for
whom going to space was not that exciting. Okay, so
it is Frank Borman, this is who he is.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I flew Gemini seven, which was a two week mission,
the longest mission today that had been achieved by anybody.
And then I flew Apollo eight, which was the first
man lunar circumference, and we didn't have lunar lander, but
we circled the Moon ten times in nineteen sixty eight
and then came back.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, so this is Frank Borman. He was a commander
in a Polo eight, the flight before the one that
landed on the Moon. It's the one that for the
first time left Earth's orbit and they went out there.
They circled the Moon ten times. Then he came back.
And what's interesting is that when he came back he
had all this experience. Most people say that he could
have been the one picked for the Apollo eleven mission
(22:45):
to the actual moonwalk landing mission. He could have been,
you know, maybe one of the first person to walk
on the Moon, but he sort of turned it down.
As soon as he came back. He said, Okay, that
was my last light. I don't really want to go again.
And it's kind of interesting what is motivated was for
even going in the first place. So here's how he
describes it.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Be honest with you, I never even thought about rockets
or space before. I was into airplanes and I was
a fighter pilot, And when they launched Spot Neek, it
was a real shock to me because it appeared that,
you know, there was a real Cold War going on
back then.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It appeared that the.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Russians had you had a big lego. I took very
seriously this idea that we were somehow second rate to
a communist country. My reason for joining NASA was to
participate in the polloup program, in the lunar program, and
hopefully beat the Russians. I never looked for any individual goals.
I never wanted to be the first person on the
moon or our job was to go to NASA and
(23:40):
do good for the country and make the Air Force
look good.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yes, I think a lot of the pilots or astronauts
that went up there at that time, a lot of
them whare sort of this geeky kind of you know,
collected rugs, was into science as kids, excited about going
too space. But some of them, which is Air Force dudes.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So I think there are probably lots of competing motivations.
But it's very interesting to hear someone who was like,
I'm just here to do my job, guys.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, and it's interesting. He was interviewed a few years
ago and they asked him like, so, what was it
like to be out there in sero gravity? And he's like,
it's pretty interesting for about thirty seconds and then you
get used to it. Yeah. They asked him like, what
do you think of seeing the moon up close? And
he's like, you know, it's all great.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
See.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
This is why I want to see more women go
to the moon, because I think their response to it
might be a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, here's how he explains his decision to leave Usset.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Frankly, as far as I was concerned when Apollo eleven
was over, that the mission was over, I wanted to
volunteer to go pick up rocks. I'm going to lie
to you. I thought that I had carried my end
of the bargain. I had done contributed as much as
I possibly could. To me, it wasn't worth it, that
wasn't worth assuming the risks because I wasn't inclined to
(24:55):
go pick up rocks. The last thing I ever wanted
to be was a professional astronaut.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I love that actually because he's very honest with how
risky it is, because people have died doing this, and
so you have to have a reason for why you
are choosing to take that risk on. I love that
he reevaluated his risk assessment. I find that to be
like so honest and transparent.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, I've definitely talked to people here on Earth who
you've you asked him like, hey, do you want to
go to space? A lot of people will sort of
say no, you know, like, yeah, I'm happy to see
it from here. I don't want to take that risk. Yeah,
thank you. Let somebody else who really wants to go
go exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I think you have to have your why really solidified
to justify the risk. We love somebody who's honest.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Well, it's kind of hard to tell how honest, because
he did have a very emotional experience in his trip.
Do you know the photograph Earth Rice, Yes, I do.
It's one of the most famous photographs taken. It's the
picture of Earth just coming up from the moon horizon.
So he was one of the people who took that picture.
So it would say him and the crewmates that they
(26:01):
were like taking pictures of the moon and then Sony
he's like, hey, wait, look up. And then they look
up and they see the Earth rising over the Moon's
horizon and they're like, whoa, we should take a picture
of that. And so they quickly like loaded up the
coloric film and then they took a picture of the Earth. Right,
And so this is how he describes that experience.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
That was probably the preminent memory of my journey. It
wasn't looking at the moment, but looking back at the Earth.
And of course being Christmas Eve, we were alone, we
were far away from home, so it had an impact,
had a great effect I think on all three of us.
The Earth looked so lonely in the universe. It's the
only thing with color. All of our emotions were focused
(26:38):
back there with our families, and so that was the
most emotional part of the flight for me.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yeah, So as Griff as he is in real life,
the overvi effect got him.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It snags everyone. You can't escape it.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Looking at the Earth from space, you know, reminded him
of his family. Is everyone on Earth? Yeah, you go
through that graphicsterior.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, I think that it really helps put into a
perspective that for everybody who seeks to do this, meaning
attach themselves to a rocket and fly to space. We're
all doing our own internal risk assessment.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, and I'm definitely grateful for people who take that risk,
you know, and the explorers and the people go there
and take that photograph. We wouldn't have that photograph if
Frank Hannon gone out there. Absolutely, So to end this
on a positive note, I asked Katie the same question,
so here's what she said. This was Emily's second question.
She wanted to know if you've heard of anyone any
(27:32):
astronauts who went up there and didn't enjoy the experience,
or maybe they enjoyed it but decided after that that
they didn't want to go back.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
There are none that I know of. Everybody loves to
go back. It is addictive. So it's really it's a
special place.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
That feels more relevant to me because I told myself
that this was only something I ever wanted to do
once in my life. There's only one time where I'm
going to do this. But as soon as I landed
and that capsule hit the ground, I thought, I will
do literally anything to do that again. The idea that
(28:11):
it is addictive is so true. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So what do you think did that answer to your questions?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That was amazing. That was pretty cohesive answer to both
those questions. Thank you for finding such relevant people.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Awesome. Well, thanks for your question, and thanks for going
up to space for the rest of us and showing
us what it's like.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Absolutely. I have the full video of my space flight
on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash space gal
if anyone wants to see the full magical experience.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Awesome. All right, I'm going to let Katie have the
last word on this episode. Okay, last question. So, as
NASA called today and said, Katie, we need to go
back up there tomorrow, would you do it?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Absolutely? In a minute?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
All right? Hopefully that gives you a sense of what
it's like to go to space, live there, poop there,
and watch the Earth spin without you. Thanks for listening,
See you next time. William Shatner's audi clip copyright twenty
twenty two by William Shatner. Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon
and Schuster. Audio from the audiobook Boldly Go by William Shatner,
(29:15):
writ by the author, published by Simon and Schuster. Audio
vision of Simon and Schuster, Inc. Used with permission from
Simon and Schuster, Inc. Frank Bormann's interviews are courtesy of
the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Nanessa History Office.
You've been listening to Science Stuff the production of iHeartRadio,
written and produced by me or Hey Cham candidate by
(29:35):
Rose Seguda, executive producer Jerry Rowland, and audio engineer and
mixer Kasey Peckram, and you can follow me on social media.
Just search for PhD Comics and the name of your
favorite platform. Be sure to subscribe to Sign Stuff on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,
and please tell your friends we'll be back next Wednesday
with another episode.
Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. My
name is Jorge cham and today we are answering questions
about what it's like to live and poop in space.
Is living in zero gravity fund or do you eventually
get bored of floating around and seeing the emptiness of
space outside your window? How does the experience of leaving
Earth change you? And most important, how do you go
(00:22):
to the bathroom there? We're gonna hear from several people
who've been to space, and we're gonna find out if
they ever want to go back. Now, today's a special
episode because today's questions come to us from a friend
of mine. Emily Calendrelli is the host of the Netflix
show Emily's Wonder Lab, the creator of the popular TikTok channel,
The spacecal and she's the number one New York Times
(00:45):
best selling author of the Stay Curious and Adaly's book series.
She also recently made the news for being the one
hundredth woman to go to space as a passenger on
the Blue Origin rocket, which takes passengers and a short
ride to the edge of space. The experience made her
curious about what it would be like to stay in space. Longer,
whether anyone has ever had a bad experience being in space,
(01:09):
So get ready to blast off. Here's my chat with
Emily callendrelly. But what it's like to go live and
poop in space? Enjoy? So what's it like to go
to space? Can you describe for us the experience of it?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh my gosh. I mean, for one, it was the
best thing that I've ever done in my life. It
was everything I dreamed it would be and so much more. Basically,
you strap in and you hear the countdown.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Five four, command engine start.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
One three two one, and that's when the engine ticknight.
You hear the vibrations of the rocket. You see that
orange red glow outside of your window. After a few seconds,
the rocket lifts off from the launch pad incredibly quickly,
(02:11):
and the Earth is starting to fall away from you
and you look outside. Oh wow, look at the dark
and the sky goes from light blue to dark blue
to the blackest black you have ever seen, Like the
absence of light, the absence of color, the absence of
life and everything. It was like quite spooky.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Actually no stars, like you can't see stars, no, because.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
We launched during the daytime. So for the same reason
that you don't see stars in the sky during the day,
it was too bright. Yeah, once you get up there,
the capsule separates from the booster, the lower part of
the rocket, and when that happens, it's like a kick
to your pants. It's like a woomp. Oh my god.
(03:03):
That is the most violent part of the entire experience.
And that's when you're in space. Oh, there we go,
and that's when you really feel like you are away
from home.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Space.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I felt so overwhelmed by it, but then I'm also like,
the adrenaline is pumping, my heart is beating a mile
a minute. But I'm so overwhelmed in the most wonderful way.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Well, you said you felt the little fear, but I
imagine you also feel joy. Can you talk a little
bit about those mixed emotions.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I was only the ninth human space flight of Blue Origin,
which added a little bit to the scariness factor because
I was like, I'm really a guinea peg here. I'm
volunteering as tribute to test this new vehicle. But I
felt this overwhelming sense of gratitude. Like when I've rewatched
the video, I heard myself saying to nobody or anything
(03:54):
in particular, I love you. I don't know who I
said it to. I loved every buddy that I had
ever met in my life.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Wow, that's amazing. Well I've known you for quite a
long time now, emy, I think over maybe ten years,
and ever since I known you, you've been a space
super fan. Congrats and achieving your dream.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
All Right, so we're not at the part where I'm
going to answer your questions. Tell me your first question.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So my first question, as you know, you cannot open
a window on the International Space Station if you bring
the stink. The stink stays. And I thought, well, what's
the one smell that you can't really control? And that's
like bathroom smells, and so I sort of wonder do
they have Pooperie on the International Space Station?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, he's super fascinating question. So I've never been there,
so I didn't know, but I reached out to someone
who has been there for several months, and actually I
think she's a friend of yours. So I interviewed doctor
Katie Coleman.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Katie, I love Katie.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Doctor Coley is a chemist, they former NASA astronaut, a
retired Air Force coldel. She flew several times on the
Space Shuttle Columbia and has been to the International Space Station,
spending almost six months in space in total. Here's what
she said, Doctor Coleman, thanks so much for talking with me.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay, does the space station have poopery?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Emily is very right. Most of us humans really can't
control those things. And I guarantee you that if you
are with a group of five or six people, one
of you is going to end up making the room
smell not as nice. Right, But up in space, it's
actually just not a problem on the space station because
(05:37):
we have such good airflow with all of the fans
that recirculate. In fact, it re really our lives depend
on it. We need to remove CO two, you know,
the CO two that we actually produce, so if anyone
does make a smell, it very quickly dissipates because they're
such great circulation.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, I'm wondering how those filters work because one things
are like little dust particles. The other thing are sense,
So these filters can take out sense.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
It goes through different kinds of filters depending on where
it is, but mostly we're filtering particulates and the filters
are going to be like carbon based, you know, odor absorbing,
just like down here on the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Amazing. I hadn't even considered like the high quality air
filtration in circulation. That makes so much sense that they
would need popery.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, she didn't seem too worried about the poopy. I
guess she's pretty confident about their filters, which involve carbon filters.
I did sort of ask her, like, would they likes
a poopery or mean, like an air freshener or something
like that, right, yeah, like maybe that would make life
more pleasant. But here's what she said.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
We don't bring a lot of scented things up there
in case someone is more sensitive to sense up there.
If you think of somebody wearing really terrible cologne, I mean,
it's definitely not encouraged. But the other reason for that
is alcohol. Actually, poisons are in fire mental system and
can make it less effective at removing co Two, if
(07:04):
I wanted to bring moisturizer up there, they're going to
take a really close look at the ingredients and the percentages,
and alcohol is one of the things that can be
bad for that.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oh interesting, Yeah, they sort of can have air fresheners
or spray here and they sort of try to illumine
anything that might give an order because it might be
an alcohol based I think those filters are so tuned
to just filtering CO two that they just don't want
to add anything that might.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Right exactly, It's like, what's the bare minimum that we
can have in the system to keep it as clean
and livable as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So I think Katie covered, should we say winds up
in the space station, But I think your question was
maybe more in the bathroom, like what are they do
in the bathroom?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, so I asked Katie that question too.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Okay, thank you. But the bathroom itself works on this
principle of vacuum, and do you want to hear about that?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I tell people it is easier to go to the
bathroom in space and more private than any camping trip
I have ever been on. Let alone, you know, when
your parents stop out in the country on the side
of the road, right, And it's based on a system
of vacuum. You want everything that is waste. You wanted
to go somewhere else and be in the right place.
And so it's two different systems, one for urine and
(08:27):
for that We have a hose and a funnel that
goes on the top and you just have to literally
point into that funnel. It's not a vacuum like this,
like you know, it's a really gentle vacuum. That's all
it takes to make urine go down.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah. So their bathroom system works on a vacuum because
basically you don't want the poop or pe to be
floating around. Yeah, and that also takes care of the
smells because the vacuum just sucks everything way. And then
what's interesting is that they recycle their pn ultimately drink it.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And so up on the space station, we actually recycle
all of the water. Urine go down in through the
pump through some filters, and that goes through a whole
big series of filters that filters out everything that isn't
pure water. And that is a really important system because
we bring water up with us, but water is one
of the things we don't have very much of.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
See, you recycle the human liquid waste exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yep, And the kids are kind of grossed out, like,
oh no, that's awful. And again, my friend Don Pettit
likes to say, well, you know, we're drinking this is
yesterday's coffee that we're going to drink again today.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
What does it taste like this water?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Beautiful? Oh yeah, absolutely wonderful. I am not kidding, not
making it up. Probably we get a little used to it,
but I just remember it as tasting really great.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Even the second and third and fourth time you drink it.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Exactly fascinating, very very cool.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Everything is recycled, the air of recycled, the waste is recycled,
and so she didn't seem not concerned about the smell
of the bathroom smells. But it did find out that
the system does have its limits. Okay, there are things
that they need to stay on top of. When we
come back, doctor Coleman is going to tell us which
smells are a problem in the International Space Station and
(10:19):
how they deal with them. You're listening to science stuff
and we're back.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
My mission. I was the gym clothes police. I'd be like, boys,
it's that special day.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Do they do smells at some point? They do?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I mean, just like they would hear. I have to say,
in general, our clothes don't get as dirty, but gym clothes,
where you're just actively sweating, running on a treadmill, working
out in a bike lifting weights, so to speak. We
do those kind of workouts about six days a week,
at least five.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So your clothes do stink after a while, even in space.
But what they do with them is a little counter intuitive.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Intrigued, So those clothes. We would take our laundry and
stick it into a laundry bag and it goes into
a supply ship that is now a trash ship.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh, you don't wash clothes in space. We don't, so
you probably know this. They don't wash clothes in space.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I don't think I had ever thought to ask that question,
but that's a really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Aspect, quaranificating. Apparently, MASSA has asked them if they wanted
a shower and washing machine, but she said that the
astronaut basically said no, it's just too much real estate
they would take up, and too much water and too
much waste. So they just throw the gym clothes away.
They bring extras and then just use them and throw
them away, except that they have to wait for them
to dry out before they throw them out. So she
(11:46):
talked about an instance once where they threw out all
their clothes and then NASA called them a little later
and said, hey, we're missing some water. Because it's such
a closed system and everything's so closely monitored that they
can keep track of every probably not the ounces, of
how much water is in their system. And what happened
was that all that sweat in the clothes they had
thrown into the trash. I was like, where's that water.
(12:10):
We're missing that water. And so the strategy is that
you just just kind of let it air out in
the space station. So the water that plays from the clothes,
it goes back into the system and then you can
throw away the clothes.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
That is so cool and like such a testament to
how precise so many of these systems are.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
You also have the funny story of somebody sent them
a jar of pickles once, so they ate the pickles,
but then they didn't know what to do with the
pickle water. They cann't just throw it out because the
systems can handle, apparently pickle juice, and so they just
used the water to soak a couple of towels, and
then they just hung the towels out to dry, and
so the water front the pickled juice evaporated and everything
(12:48):
else stayed in the towel. Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Okay, like the weird things, the positions you find yourself
in when you are living in a tin can orting
the Earth.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, you interview a lot of astronauts, but this was
my first time interviewing an astronaut, and for a while
you get this feeling like, well, I'm talking to somebody
who's been in space.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, there are just so few people who have really
lived and worked in space for that long of a time,
and you kind of want to be like, what it
likely everything.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Katie spent several months up there, so I asked her
what's the hardest thing about living in space for that long?
And she's mentioned two things, and the first one surprised me.
So here's what she said.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I would say, the really hardest thing about being up
there is that you really can't lose things. And I
can be a little absent minded and up there you
sort of forget that you have something you know in
your hand and then you let it go. I did
lose a heart rate monitor up there. I don't know
that it was ever found.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Turk's sound important.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And in fact, I was actually playing my flute with
my band back home, the Astronaut Band, and we had
an emergency that happened, a big alarm that went off.
You know, just drop everything and go to the computers
and see what's up. So that's what I did, And
then I went back to work and got to be
late at night. I went to go find my flute,
and I just thought, I have no idea where it is.
(14:12):
I would say losing things is a really serious thing
up there. We lost a CO two sensor that was
velcrow to the wall. It's like a little sort of
small half a milk carton the space station is big.
It's the size of like ten train cars without the
seats in them. There's just places something sort of small,
like if I unplugged it and then just let go
(14:33):
of it, it would buy the air currents kind of
travel around. So you really can lose something literally forever.
I found a pocket knife closed thankfully, that belonged to
someone that they had lost a few years before.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Wow, isn't that wild? You can lose things inside the
space station so fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It's a small place, but there's so many some crannies,
And mainly I think it's the fact that things just
can just drift away, Like if you can't just set
them down and they'll stay there.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
They may exactly. They will now have a life of
their own, a journey of their own, moving around the spacecraft.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
But then Katie said, the hardest thing about being in
space that long is kind of related to your next question.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
The hardest thing is being away from your family and
actually also loving where you are and really knowing that
the work you're doing is so important.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
What do you mean, sort of feeling that internal struggle
between missing home but then also knowing that you're worthy,
you're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
There's definitely that I go back to quoting my friend
Don Pettitt. He said, you know, if I could take
my family with me, there would really be no reason
to come home.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Oh allah, that's really sweet.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, it's sort of missing home. She said. It was
one of the hardest things about being out there. And
this kind of reminded me of your next question that
you had for me.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Absolutely. Yeah, So I wondered, because going to space, especially
when you're staying there for a longer period of time,
it is not the most comfortable thing to do. And
I wonder if there are any astronauts, like particularly NASA
astronauts who have spent a longer period of time there
who trained for years and years and years and then
did it, And then once they did it, they realized,
(16:15):
I actually don't like this.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
This is I this is not I don't enjoy this,
and they didn't want to go back.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, exactly, and like, you know what, I don't want
to do that again.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So this was a hard question. I think, as you know,
from having interviewed so many astronauts yourself, they all love
the experience, right right.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Part of me wonders because it is such a privilege
to be able to have this experience. I feel like
it would be a very hard circumstance to find, especially
a NASA astronaut who represents NASA, say anything that would
speak to them being ungrateful for that privilege. And I
do think most people really do enjoy it and find
(16:56):
it magical. I certainly did, But I'm just curious if
anybody really didn't like it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, because even if you've come down, you're still sort
of in the group of people that might go up again, exactly,
So nobody's going to say, oh, it was terrible because
they want to go back up again, assuming they want
to go back up again, which is kind of your question, right, right, exactly.
So it took me a while, but I did find
two people who've been to space and don't want to
go back. Really Okay, okay. The first one is pretty famous.
(17:24):
He has not only been to space, but he's been
the captain of a spaceship. Oh it's William Chattner, the
actor who played Captain Kirk in the Star Wars Star Trek.
Sorry I just insulted yet on that one. I just
got canceled. Captain Kirk from the Star Trek series and movies.
(17:45):
He went up to space and he had a very
interesting and maybe atypical experience. But here's how he describes it.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Struck me so hard at that moment because when I
looked into space, there was no mystery, majestic awe to behold.
All I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark,
black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see
or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all encompassing.
Everything I thought was wrong, Everything I expected to see
(18:15):
was wrong. I thought that going into space would be
the ultimate Catharsis of that connection I had been looking
for between all living things, that being up there would
be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of
the universe. But when I finally arrived out there, the
splendor was absent. It was the opposite of life. I
was so thoroughly unprepared for this experience. It was among
(18:38):
the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. My
trip to space was supposed to be a celebration. Instead
it felt like a funeral.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
When we come back, we're going to hear how Captain
Kirk processed this grief, and then we're going to hear
from another NASA astronaut about why he didn't want to
go back to space. Right back, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I could see.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, that resonates with me because I had the same
feeling of when you think of the cosmos, you think
of this beautiful, starry night sky that feels just very
glamorous and lovely and romantic, but when you see it,
it's exactly how we described the vastness, emptiness, just so
(19:33):
devoid of life and color and light.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, it's really interesting this idea that he felt grief, right,
because there is this effect, as you probably know, called
the overview effect. It's been documented by psychologists where the
most astronauts he talked to you talk about this shift
in their perspective, and this feeling of unexpected emotion and
overwhelming emotion is sort of renewed sense of purpose and
connection to other people on Earth. But here Captain Kirk
(19:58):
William Channers seemed to you almost have the opposite reaction.
The way this cries his grief and sadness is that
he felt sad for what we're doing to this fragile
home that we're living in. Kind of why he felt
his grief, He thought about his great grandchild and he thought,
what kind of world are we lieving for him?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, but there is a positive side to his feeling
of grief. Yeah, here's how he describes it.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Going into space made me so aware of how fragile
our lives are here on Earth, how we need each
other and need to continue to strengthen the bonds that
connect us to each other, because out there there's no life,
there is no us. I had a different experience because
I discovered that the beauty isn't out there, it's down
there with all of us. Leaving that behind made my
(20:47):
connection to our tiny planet even more profound. I knew
that what I was feeling was something I will carry
with me for the rest of my life something I
must share with as many people as I can.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah. I think that is the main takeaway is that
we live on this beautiful, fragile planet and the Cosmos
out there is unfriendly and there's no one coming to
save us, so we must save ourselves.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
He took this grief that he felt about our fragility
and what we're doing to our planet and basically transformed
it into this message of we need to do better.
Now he's on a big mission to talk about climate
change in the environment.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Amazing. See, this is one of the cool parts of
having more people, diverse people, people from different backgrounds and
skill sets. That's the part of commercial space exploration that
I find to be so special because look at all
of these new things that are coming from it.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, and give people more of that over the effect.
That would be amazing if everyone got a chance to
experience that right and feel more connected and more appreciative
of her little blue marble exactly. So that was sort
of an interesting reaction, but it did find an actual
NASA astronaut, someone who's been to space on missions, for
whom going to space was not that exciting. Okay, so
it is Frank Borman, this is who he is.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I flew Gemini seven, which was a two week mission,
the longest mission today that had been achieved by anybody.
And then I flew Apollo eight, which was the first
man lunar circumference, and we didn't have lunar lander, but
we circled the Moon ten times in nineteen sixty eight
and then came back.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, so this is Frank Borman. He was a commander
in a Polo eight, the flight before the one that
landed on the Moon. It's the one that for the
first time left Earth's orbit and they went out there.
They circled the Moon ten times. Then he came back.
And what's interesting is that when he came back he
had all this experience. Most people say that he could
have been the one picked for the Apollo eleven mission
(22:45):
to the actual moonwalk landing mission. He could have been,
you know, maybe one of the first person to walk
on the Moon, but he sort of turned it down.
As soon as he came back. He said, Okay, that
was my last light. I don't really want to go again.
And it's kind of interesting what is motivated was for
even going in the first place. So here's how he
describes it.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Be honest with you, I never even thought about rockets
or space before. I was into airplanes and I was
a fighter pilot, And when they launched Spot Neek, it
was a real shock to me because it appeared that,
you know, there was a real Cold War going on
back then.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It appeared that the.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Russians had you had a big lego. I took very
seriously this idea that we were somehow second rate to
a communist country. My reason for joining NASA was to
participate in the polloup program, in the lunar program, and
hopefully beat the Russians. I never looked for any individual goals.
I never wanted to be the first person on the
moon or our job was to go to NASA and
(23:40):
do good for the country and make the Air Force
look good.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yes, I think a lot of the pilots or astronauts
that went up there at that time, a lot of
them whare sort of this geeky kind of you know,
collected rugs, was into science as kids, excited about going
too space. But some of them, which is Air Force dudes.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So I think there are probably lots of competing motivations.
But it's very interesting to hear someone who was like,
I'm just here to do my job, guys.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, and it's interesting. He was interviewed a few years
ago and they asked him like, so, what was it
like to be out there in sero gravity? And he's like,
it's pretty interesting for about thirty seconds and then you
get used to it. Yeah. They asked him like, what
do you think of seeing the moon up close? And
he's like, you know, it's all great.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
See.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
This is why I want to see more women go
to the moon, because I think their response to it
might be a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, here's how he explains his decision to leave Usset.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Frankly, as far as I was concerned when Apollo eleven
was over, that the mission was over, I wanted to
volunteer to go pick up rocks. I'm going to lie
to you. I thought that I had carried my end
of the bargain. I had done contributed as much as
I possibly could. To me, it wasn't worth it, that
wasn't worth assuming the risks because I wasn't inclined to
(24:55):
go pick up rocks. The last thing I ever wanted
to be was a professional astronaut.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I love that actually because he's very honest with how
risky it is, because people have died doing this, and
so you have to have a reason for why you
are choosing to take that risk on. I love that
he reevaluated his risk assessment. I find that to be
like so honest and transparent.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, I've definitely talked to people here on Earth who
you've you asked him like, hey, do you want to
go to space? A lot of people will sort of
say no, you know, like, yeah, I'm happy to see
it from here. I don't want to take that risk. Yeah,
thank you. Let somebody else who really wants to go
go exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I think you have to have your why really solidified
to justify the risk. We love somebody who's honest.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Well, it's kind of hard to tell how honest, because
he did have a very emotional experience in his trip.
Do you know the photograph Earth Rice, Yes, I do.
It's one of the most famous photographs taken. It's the
picture of Earth just coming up from the moon horizon.
So he was one of the people who took that picture.
So it would say him and the crewmates that they
(26:01):
were like taking pictures of the moon and then Sony
he's like, hey, wait, look up. And then they look
up and they see the Earth rising over the Moon's
horizon and they're like, whoa, we should take a picture
of that. And so they quickly like loaded up the
coloric film and then they took a picture of the Earth. Right,
And so this is how he describes that experience.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
That was probably the preminent memory of my journey. It
wasn't looking at the moment, but looking back at the Earth.
And of course being Christmas Eve, we were alone, we
were far away from home, so it had an impact,
had a great effect I think on all three of us.
The Earth looked so lonely in the universe. It's the
only thing with color. All of our emotions were focused
(26:38):
back there with our families, and so that was the
most emotional part of the flight for me.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yeah, So as Griff as he is in real life,
the overvi effect got him.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It snags everyone. You can't escape it.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Looking at the Earth from space, you know, reminded him
of his family. Is everyone on Earth? Yeah, you go
through that graphicsterior.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, I think that it really helps put into a
perspective that for everybody who seeks to do this, meaning
attach themselves to a rocket and fly to space. We're
all doing our own internal risk assessment.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, and I'm definitely grateful for people who take that risk,
you know, and the explorers and the people go there
and take that photograph. We wouldn't have that photograph if
Frank Hannon gone out there. Absolutely, So to end this
on a positive note, I asked Katie the same question,
so here's what she said. This was Emily's second question.
She wanted to know if you've heard of anyone any
(27:32):
astronauts who went up there and didn't enjoy the experience,
or maybe they enjoyed it but decided after that that
they didn't want to go back.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
There are none that I know of. Everybody loves to
go back. It is addictive. So it's really it's a
special place.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
That feels more relevant to me because I told myself
that this was only something I ever wanted to do
once in my life. There's only one time where I'm
going to do this. But as soon as I landed
and that capsule hit the ground, I thought, I will
do literally anything to do that again. The idea that
(28:11):
it is addictive is so true. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So what do you think did that answer to your questions?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That was amazing. That was pretty cohesive answer to both
those questions. Thank you for finding such relevant people.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Awesome. Well, thanks for your question, and thanks for going
up to space for the rest of us and showing
us what it's like.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Absolutely. I have the full video of my space flight
on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash space gal
if anyone wants to see the full magical experience.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Awesome. All right, I'm going to let Katie have the
last word on this episode. Okay, last question. So, as
NASA called today and said, Katie, we need to go
back up there tomorrow, would you do it?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Absolutely? In a minute?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
All right? Hopefully that gives you a sense of what
it's like to go to space, live there, poop there,
and watch the Earth spin without you. Thanks for listening,
See you next time. William Shatner's audi clip copyright twenty
twenty two by William Shatner. Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon
and Schuster. Audio from the audiobook Boldly Go by William Shatner,
(29:15):
writ by the author, published by Simon and Schuster. Audio
vision of Simon and Schuster, Inc. Used with permission from
Simon and Schuster, Inc. Frank Bormann's interviews are courtesy of
the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Nanessa History Office.
You've been listening to Science Stuff the production of iHeartRadio,
written and produced by me or Hey Cham candidate by
(29:35):
Rose Seguda, executive producer Jerry Rowland, and audio engineer and
mixer Kasey Peckram, and you can follow me on social media.
Just search for PhD Comics and the name of your
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