Selling Science On The Space Station
Commercial space company Nanoracks allows its customers to do advanced scientific research on the International Space Station for a fraction of the cost. Music: The Little Moog - karstenholymoly
By: forbes
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Article updated: 2/13/2013 8:43 AM
Orbiting about 250 miles above Earth, NASA astronaut Kevin Ford spends his days working with a crew studying potential cures for osteoporosis. But he's longing for a golf range and a meal that doesn't come in a ready-to-eat package.
Ford, currently the commander of the International Space Station's Expedition 34 six-person crew, spoke to several dozen St. Raphael Catholic School students Tuesday afternoon via a live video feed.
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During the half-hour chat, students were able to watch Ford float around a portion of the space station as he answered their questions. Ford was only able to hear the students.
"(Floating in zero gravity) is pretty crazy. We get used to it after a while so it becomes very second nature for us to fly around and use handrails to guide us easily inside the space station," Ford said as he performed a variety of zero-gravity gymnastics.
"I think if I had to choose, I would rather have gravity instead of zero gravity," he said. "It's fun for a while, but I'd rather live on Earth."
Ford joined the space station in late October and is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-March.
"I'm conditioned enough now that I can stay up here as long as they need me to," he said. "But I'm looking forward to coming home."
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NASA will host an hour-long question-and-answer session through Google+ Hangouts with three astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Feb. 22 from 11 a.m. to noon ET.
While NASA will preselect the video questions for astronauts Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn of NASA and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, it welcomed written questions from Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.
NASA said it will also accept real-time questions that are marked with the #askAstro hashtag on Google+, YouTube and Twitter during the event and that it will open up a thread on its Facebook webpage.
YouTube users can submit video questions tagged with #askAstro by tomorrow, Feb. 12.
NASA has broadcast live onboard many of its space vehicles, with astronauts giving tours of spacecraft and answering questions, but this will be the first time NASA conducts such an event using multiple forms of social media to solicit questions.
The event will be viewable through NASA's Google+ page or through its YouTube channel.
This article was originally published on the Inquirer.
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NASA Google+ Hangout Features Astronauts on International Space Station
The docking capped a two-day journey that began with an emotional send-off from the Kennedy Space Center, where about 1 million spectators gathered to watch the shuttle thunder into the sky for the program's 135th and final flight
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CAPE CANAVERAL, USA: U.S. space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver a last batch of supplies to the orbiting outpost on the final flight of the U.S. shuttle program.
Commander Chris Ferguson gently eased Atlantis into its parking slip on the station's Harmony node at 11:07 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft soared 230 miles over the Pacific Ocean.
"Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time," station flight engineer Ron Garan radioed to the crew.
Crews opened Atlantis' hatch less than two hours later and the shuttle's 4-member crew floated through the airlock into the recently completed $100 billion orbital outpost.
After a 30-year history that has cost nearly $200 billion and claimed the lives of 14 astronauts, the shuttles are being retired to make way for a new generation of spacecraft that President Barack Obama says will put U.S. astronauts on an asteroid and then on to Mars.
The docking capped a two-day journey that began with an emotional send-off from the Kennedy Space Center, where about 1 million spectators gathered on Friday to watch the shuttle thunder into the sky for the program's 135th and final flight.
About an hour before docking, Ferguson gently somersaulted Atlantis so Garan and crew-mates aboard the station could photograph the shuttle's delicate heat-resistant tiles.
"Poetry in motion," said mission commentator Rob Navias as television cameras aboard the station relayed video of the sleek spaceship slowly backflipping over the cloud-speckled northern Atlantic Ocean.
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Progress 50 Supply Ship Launches Toward Space Station
The unmanned Progress 50 supply ship blasts off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Feb. 11, 2013.
The unmanned Progress 50 supply ship streaks into space on Feb. 11, 2013.
The unmanned Progress 50 supply ship blasts off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Feb. 11, 2013.
The unmanned Progress 50 supply ship sits on the pad at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome a few minutes before liftoff on Feb. 11, 2013.
The unmanned Progress 50 supply ship sits on the pad at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome a few minutes before liftoff on Feb. 11, 2013.
An infographic profile of the Progress cargo ship used to service the International Space Station.
The Russian Flight Control Room is seen a short time before the scheduled docking of the robotic Progress spacecraft, Feb. 11, 2013.
The International Space Station awaits the robotic Progress 50 supply ship on Feb. 11, 2013.
This view shows how the Progress 50 robotic supply ship "sees" the International Space Station during the fly-around prior to docking on Feb. 11, 2013.
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Progress 50 Supply Ship Launches to the Space Station (Photos)
NASA TV
The Progress 50 robotic supply ship approaches the International Space Station during the fly-around prior to docking on Monday.
By Tariq MalikSpace.com
An unmanned Russian spacecraft carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies arrived at the International Space Station Monday, less than six hours after blasting off.
The robotic Progress 50 resupply ship docked with the orbiting lab at 3:35 p.m. EST Monday after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:41 a.m. EST. Such unmanned cargo trips have traditionally taken about two days.
The Progress 50 spacecraft is packed with about 2.9 tons of supplies for the space station's six-man Expedition 34 crew. On Saturday, the station astronauts discarded an older unmanned cargo ship, called Progress 48, in order to make room for Progress 50.
The outgoing Progress vehicle was filled with tons of trash and unneeded items and intentionally destroyed by burning up in Earth's atmosphere. [Space Station's Robot Cargo Ship Fleet (Photos)]
NASA TV
The unmanned Progress 50 supply ship blasts off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday.
Progress 50, meanwhile, is delivering about 764 pounds (346 kilograms) of propellant, 110 pounds (50 kg) of oxygen and air, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) of spare parts, science gear and other supplies, according to a NASA description.
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This story was updated at 3:40 p.m. EST.
An unmanned Russian spacecraft carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies arrived at the International Space Station Monday (Feb. 11) less than six hours after blasting off.
The robotic Progress 50 resupply ship docked with the orbiting lab at 3:35 p.m. EST (2035 GMT) Monday after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:41 a.m. EST (1441 GMT). Such unmanned cargo trips have traditionally taken about two days.
The Progress 50 spacecraft is packed with about 2.9 tons of supplies for the space station's six-man Expedition 34 crew. On Saturday (Feb. 9), the station astronauts discarded an older unmanned cargo ship, called Progress 48, in order to make room for Progress 50.
The outgoing Progress vehicle was filled with tons of trash and unneeded items and intentionally destroyed by burning up in Earth's atmosphere. [Space Station's Robot Cargo Ship Fleet (Photos)]
Progress 50, meanwhile, is delivering about 764 pounds (346 kilograms) of propellant, 110 pounds (50 kg) of oxygen and air, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) of spare parts, science gear and other supplies, according to a NASA description.
The Russian Federal Space Agency's Progress spacecraft are disposable vehicles similar in design to its three-segment Soyuz crew capsules, but with a propellant module in place of the central crew return capsule on the Soyuz.
Progress vehicles are designed to be disposable and are intentionally ditched into Earth's atmosphere at the end of their mission. Robotic resupply ships for the station built by Europe and Japan are also disposed of in the same way.
The only robotic supply ship for the space station that can return supplies back to Earth is the Dragon space capsule built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX.
Dragon space capsules visited the space station twice in 2012, with the next one slated to launch from Florida atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in March. Dragon vehicles are equipped with a heat shield to protect them during re-entry and are built for ocean splashdown landings in order to return experiments and other gear to Earth.
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A Russian Soyuz rocket launched an unmanned cargo freighter to the International Space Station Monday (Feb. 11) to deliver nearly 3 tons of fresh food, water and equipment to the six men living on the orbiting outpost.
The robotic Progress 50 resupply ship and its Soyuz rocket lifted off at 9:41 a.m. EST (1441 GMT) from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome, where it was late evening local time at the time of launch.
The Progress 50 cargo ship is flying on an accelerated schedule that will deliver it to the International Space Station in three hours, instead of the two days the unmanned cargo trips have traditionally taken for much of the space station's 13 years of crewed operation. Progress 50 is expected to arrive at the space station at 3:40 p.m. EST (2040 GMT) and park itself at a Russian docking port.
You can watch the Progress 50 dock live on SPACE.com here, beginning at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), courtesy of NASA's television feed. Prior to the space docking, you can watch NASA launch the new Landsat Earth-observation satellite live at 1:02 p.m. EST (1802 GMT). The webcast for that launch begins at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).
The Progress 50 spacecraft is packed with about 2.9 tons of supplies for the space station's six-man Expedition 34 crew. On Saturday, the station astronauts discarded an older unmanned cargo ship called Progress 48 in order to make room for Progress 50. The outgoing Progress vehicle was filled with tons of trash and unneeded items and intentionally destroyed by burning up in Earth's atmosphere. [Space Station's Robot Cargo Ship Fleet (Photos)]
Progress 50, meanwhile, is delivering about 764 pounds (346 kilograms) of propellant, 110 pounds (50 kg) of oxygen and air, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) of spare parts, science gear and other supplies, according to a NASA description.
The Russian Federal Space Agency's Progress spacecraft are disposable vehicles similar in design to its three-segment Soyuz crew capsules, but with a propellant module in place of the central crew return capsule on the Soyuz.
Progress vehicles are designed to be disposable and are intentionally destroyed by burning up in Earth's atmosphere at the end of their mission. Robotic resupply ships for the station built by Europe and Japan are also disposed of in the same way.
The only robotic supply ship for the space station that can return supplies back to Earth is the Dragon space capsule built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX. Dragon space capsules visited the space station twice in 2012, with the next one slated to launch from Florida atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in March. Dragon vehicles are equipped with a heat shield to protect them during re-entry and are built for ocean splashdown landings in order to return experiments and other gear to Earth.
You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter@tariqjmalik.Follow SPACE.com on Twitter@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook&Google+.
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Fog Lake - Space Station
02.Space Station Fog Lake Farther Reaches Released 01 January 2013 all songs written and performed by fog lake in a basement w/ the exception of "extension cord" co-written by walter mackey "farther reaches" is taken from the book "the farther reaches of human nature" by Abraham H. Maslow
By: LGBsergio
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There is a reason the phrase "shooting in the dark" refers to things that are difficult to do - and night photography is no exception. To account for low-light image scenarios, a photographer needs a steady tripod, but aboard the International Space Station, a traditional tripod isn't going to cut it. Thankfully, the European Space Agency, or ESA, developed NightPod for the crew's cameras.
This astronaut photograph of Liege, Belgium, at night was taken using the NightPod camera mount aboard the space station. The mechanism allows astronauts to capture images of the Earth at night with greater clarity and control than previously possible from orbit.
"The challenges of low-light photography from orbit - for example, the likelihood of blurry images because of the ground motion - have always frustrated astronauts," said Cynthia Evans, International Space Station associate program scientist for Earth Observations.
"Over the years, astronauts have experimented with different solutions, including high-speed films and manual tracking to compensate for the ground motion. The NightPod camera mount allows the crew to successfully track the Earth using low-light camera settings."
NightPod incorporates an ESA Nodding Mechanism, which is an electro-mechanical mount system for digital cameras designed to compensate for the motion of the station relative to the Earth. This high-tech, motorized tripod can compensate for the more than 17,000 mph (27,000 kph) speed of the station and the motion of the Earth below-no easy feat!
The crew enters the station's orbit and attitude into NightPod, enabling the instrument to automatically track a specific location on the ground and keep the target in frame for optimal focus. Since the system can be set to run automated for up to six hours, the crew can literally take pictures in their sleep.
To get an idea of just how clear images using NightPod are, look at how detailed the brightly lit core of the Liege urban area appears. It lies at the center of a network of roadways - traceable by continuous orange lighting extending out into the rural and relatively dark Belgian countryside.
For a sense of scale, the distance from image left to right is approximately 43 miles (70 kilometers). The region to the southeast of Verviers includes agricultural fields and forest; hence, it appears almost uniformly dark at night.
The image of Liege was acquired on Dec. 8, 2012, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 180 millimeter lens and the NightPod, and is provided by CEO investigators and the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 34 crew. It was cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts were removed.
Installation of NightPod was completed on Feb. 24, 2012, by astronaut Andre Kuipers, and some of the earliest images appear in this ESA story.
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Salt Lake Space Station 1
Harmony Silhouette guitar played through a Moog Delay into a Digitech Space Station (setting 2 I believe) going through a TR25 GEM (Rickenbacker TR25) amp.
By: johnnyangel69
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Salt Lake Space Station 2
Harmony Silhouette guitar played through a Moog Delay into a Digitech Space Station (setting 2 I believe) going through a TR25 GEM (Rickenbacker TR25) amp.
By: johnnyangel69
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NASA TV/collectSPACE.com
Apollo 17 moonwalker Gene Cernan, left, gives a thumbs up to the astronauts on the International Space Station from Mission Control in Houston on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013.
By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor
HOUSTON The last man to walk on the moon made an unexpected call to the most recent men to live in space this week during a visit to NASA's Mission Control room.
Gene Cernan, who in December 1972 commanded Apollo 17, the sixth and final lunar landing mission, was touring the Johnson Space Center here with some friends when he was invited by flight controllers to talk live with Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford and flight engineers Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn in the U.S. Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station, 260 miles above the Earth.
"I didn't know I was going to be able to do this," Cernan told the station's crew during the visit on Feb. 5. The moonwalker, who was using a phone receiver to talk with the astronauts in space, could see Ford, Marshburn and Hadfield on the large screens at the front of the control center room.
The ISS residents were in turn able to see Cernan via live streaming video on one of their laptop computers.
"I'm personally proud," Cernan commented. "I'm at the age now where most of you were probably in diapers or knee pants when I went to the moon, but at least what we did worked because it inspired you to do what you're doing." [Apollo 17 Moonwalker Calls Space Station (Video)]
"I think I was 12 when you came home from the moon for the last time," Ford responded, "and you did inspire us for sure, just like whole world, frankly. Every place I go in the world, they know NASA because what you guys did back then that long ago."
Elbow room in space The space-to-ground conversation, which aired on NASA's television channel and was streamed through the space agency's website, showed Ford, Marshburn and Hadfield floating inside the orbiting laboratory with room to spare. And they were inside just one of the space station's dozen modules, which they share with three other crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin and Roman Romanenko.
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HOUSTON The last man to walk on the moon made an unexpected call to the most recent men to live in space this week during a visit to NASA's Mission Control room.
Gene Cernan, who in December 1972 commanded Apollo 17, the sixth and final lunar landing mission, was touring the Johnson Space Center here with some friends when he was invited by flight controllers to talk live with Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford and flight engineers Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn in the U.S. Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station, 260 miles (415 kilometers) above the Earth.
"I didn't know I was going to be able to do this," Cernan told the station's crew during the visit on Tuesday (Feb. 5). The moonwalker, who was using a phone receiver to talk with the astronauts in space, could see Ford, Marshburn and Hadfield on the large screens at the front of the control center room.
The ISS residents were in turn able to see Cernan via live streaming video on one of their laptop computers.
"I'm personally proud," Cernan commented. "I'm at the age now where most of you were probably in diapers or knee pants when I went to the moon, but at least what we did worked because it inspired you to do what you're doing." [Apollo 17 Moonwalker Calls Space Station (Video)]
"I think I was 12 when you came home from the moon for the last time," Ford responded, "and you did inspire us for sure, just like whole world, frankly. Every place I go in the world, they know NASA because what you guys did back then that long ago."
Elbow room in space
The space-to-ground conversation, which aired on NASA's television channel and was streamed through the space agency's website, showed Ford, Marshburn and Hadfield floating inside the orbiting laboratory with room to spare. And they were inside just one of the space station's dozen modules, which they share with three other crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin and Roman Romanenko.
Cernan was struck by the sheer size of the space station, especially given his own experiences in orbit.
"You guys live in a hotel. You're living in a palatial palace up there," Cernan stated. "I got to go back to the Gemini days when you had to share elbow room with your buddy and you never got out of your spacesuit for three days."
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Last Moonwalker Calls Space Station, Compares Cosmic Elbow Room
An unmanned Russian cargo ship undocked from the International Space Station Saturday (Feb. 9) to make way for a fresh delivery of supplies for the six astronauts living on the orbiting laboratory next week.
The trash-filled Progress 48 supply ship undocked from the space station's Russian Pirs docking port at 8:15 a.m. EST (1315 GMT) and was expected to intentionally destroy itself by burning up in Earth's atmosphere a few hours later.
"We just undocked a spaceship from our Space Station," Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a flight engineer on the space station, wrote in a Twitter post Saturday. "The Progress robot ship is loaded with trash, to burn up like a meteorite in 3.5 hrs."
The departure of Progress 48 clears a parking spot for the next Russian cargo ship to use when it launches toward the International Space Station on Monday (Feb. 11). That spacecraft, the Progress 50 supply ship, will launch from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:41 a.m. EST (1441 GMT on Monday, though it will late evening at the launch site. Russia's Progress cargo ships are vital spacecraft that have helped keep astronauts stocked with food, clothing and other vital supplies during their six-month missions.
Like recent Progress missions to the space station, the flight of Progress 50 will last just six hours. The spacecraft is due to dock at the space station at 3:40 p.m. EST (2040 GMT) after four orbits of Earth. The flight plan is faster way for Progress ships to reach the station. Before it was implemented, Progress flights took two days to reach the space station, much like Russia's manned Soyuz space capsule flights. [Space Station's Robot Cargo Ship Fleet (Photos)]
Progress 50 will deliver nearly 2.9 tons of supplies for the space station's Expedition 34 crew, which includes three Russian cosmonauts, two American astronauts and Hadfield, who represents the Canadian Space Agency. The new cargo ship will deliver about 764 pounds (346 kilograms) of rocket propellant, 110 pounds (50 kg) of oxygen and air, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) of spare parts, science equipment and other supplies, NASA officials said.
The Russian Federal Space Agency's three-module Progress spacecraft are similar in appearance to its crew-carrying Soyuz spacecraft. Both vehicles have orbital and propulsion modules, but the Progress spacecraft does not have a crew return capsule in its middle. Instead, it has another cargo module to carry propellant for the space station's maneuvers.
Since Progress cargo ships are not designed to return to Earth, they are regularly filled with tons of trash and unneeded items, and then sent to burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Robotic resupply ships for the station built by Europe and Japan also meet the same fate.
The American unmanned Dragon cargo ships built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX, which flew to the space station twice in 2012, are designed to re-enter the atmosphere and can return science experiments and other gear to Earth.
NASA will broadcast live views of Monday's Progress 50 spacecraft launch and docking via NASA TV. You can watch the Progress 50 spacecraft live on SPACE.com here, courtesy of NASA's feed.
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The Notre Dame grad Indiana native who's commanding the International Space Station said Thursday he's looking forward to a visit back home after he returns from his five months in orbit.
Astronaut KevinFord spoke via video hookup to the Indiana Senate in the Statehouse, where his older brother, David, was a state senator when he died of cancer in 2008.
Ford wore a blue shirt with a large Indiana flag emblem as he floated inside one of the space station's modules for the 20-minute conversation that was shown on a large video board above the Senate's rostrum. He spoke about the scientific work being done on the station during his stay as he took questions from senators and a couple of teenage family friends from his Blackford County hometown of Montpelier.
Ford demonstrated biting a solid bubble of juice that floated in front of him before seventh-grader Kelli Neff asked Ford what he wanted to do first after returning to Earth.
Ford drew laughs when he exclaimed he wanted a shower "because I haven't had a shower in 107 days."
The 52-year-old Ford flew to the space station in October with two Russians aboard a Soyuz that lifted off from Kazakhstan. He's scheduled to be at the station until March.
State Senate leaders invited schools around Indiana watch the conversation with Ford that was streamed over the Senate's website.
Ford said he didn't see himself becoming an astronaut while he was a student at Blackford High School but always wanted to be a pilot. That led him to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Notre Dame and join the Air Force.
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VIDEO: Notre Dame grad, space station commander anticipates trip home
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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield participated in an annual event for Canadian music students from a unique location: a long-distance perch in the Cupola of the International Space Station. Before launching to the ISS in December, Hadfield wrote a song with Ed Robertson of the band Barenaked Ladies, and Friday morning the song premiered as Hadfield, Robertson and a school glee club sang together: Hadfield performed his part on the space station; Robertson did his in Toronto with the Wexford Gleeks. The song was part of Music Monday in Canada, and while todays premiere was pre-recorded, in May, students across Canada will play the song live with Hadfield in space. The song is called I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing), it begins with the words:
Eighteen-thousand miles an hour Fueled by science and solar power The oceans racing past At half a thousand tons Ninety minutes moon to sun A bullet cant go half this fast.
Music aficionados can find the sheet music here and here.
Chris Hadfield in the Cupola of the ISS. Credit: NASA
Hadfield plays the guitar and sings with a couple of bands on Earth. Before he began his Expedition on the ISS, he told Universe Today he would be doing as much singing as he could in space.
Music is really important to me, ever since Ive been a kid. Ive always played guitar and sang, he said, and Im really hoping to have the chance to sit weightless with the guitar on board and play music, and also record some of the music Ive written.
He also is working to finish some songs he started writing on Earth while living on the ISS, which he called a particularly inspirational environment and maybe write some news ones.
We have all the recording equipment we need on board, he said. It is basic but it is good enough to be able to record and Im hoping to record at least one full CDs worth of original music up there. Its neat Im writing with my brother who is a musician, and he pointed out that a lot of the traditional folk songs came from people who were the first on the frontier the early explorers, sailors, miners, and the fishermen and the people who are involved in the day-to-day of a specific human experience. To think I might be involved in helping to write some of the first space faring music, music that people will play and sing as they leave Earth for Mars, it is interesting, it is a time in history.
This isnt the first Earth-Space musical collaboration: in 2011 astronaut Cady Coleman did a flute duet with Jethro Tulls Ian Anderson.
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Part 2: Hoosier astronaut aboard space station speaks to Senate
Members of the Indiana State Senate held a live video conference call with NASA astronaut Kevin Ford aboard the International Space Station. Ford is an Indiana native and aboard the international space station. State Senator Tim Lanane had the opportunity to speak with Commander Ford from the Senate floor.
By: INSenDems
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Part 2: Hoosier astronaut aboard space station speaks to Senate - Video
Canadian actor William Shatner, best known as Star Trek's Captain Kirk, hailed the International Space Station and chatted with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield this morning about the risks faced in space and rumours that Hadfield has volunteered to go to Mars.
Over the casual, 10-minute conversation, Shatner asked Hadfield about the dangers of going into space, especially to a place such as Mars.
Hadfield, whose side of the conversation was broadcast over a video link, responded that people like him are inspired to take such risks by both the astronauts that have come before him and fictional ones such as Star Trek's Captain Kirk.
"The risks are infinitely worthwhile," he added.
Hadfield didn't directly address whether he had volunteered to go to Mars, but said he thinks it is "inevitable" that some astronaut one day will. "It's just a matter of when we figure out how."
Kirk asked Hadfield how he has coped with fear while working as both a test pilot and an astronaut. Hadfield likened the fear to that of an actor not knowing his script, and said he coped by making sure he always "knew my lines."
Shatner pointed out that the consequences of making a mistake are not comparable in the two jobs.
"In my case, your face flushes and you get a sheen of flop sweat," he said. "In your case, you burn up. It's a little different."
Hadfield responded with a laugh, "Well, in both cases, you go down in flames one's figurative and one is not."
Shatner also asked Hadfield about being away from Earth for six months: "That's a long time to be away, is it not?"
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --NASA has selected Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., for its International Space Station mission operations and integration contract.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )
The cost-plus-award-fee services contract is valued at about $120.1 million and has a potential performance period of five years. The contract begins March 1 with an 18-month base period, followed by three one-year options and one six-month option that may be exercised at NASA's discretion. The contract includes an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity component for additional services, as needed.
Teledyne Brown will provide operations in support of the International Space Station at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Support entails all phases of flight, including mission preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real-time requirements for spaceflight operations.
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NASA Awards Space Station Mission Operations And Integration Services Contract