This Sporting Life
I was wired up last week and I don’t mean with adrenaline or caffeine. I had the blood pressure cuffs on my fingers (my crew mate Oleg was calling me Robo Joe) and the 10-lead holter monitor on my chest. The week ended up again with more urine samples and ...Read More
Blood and Treasure
Gold, silk, and spices were the tangible treasures from past explorations. Today, the frontier of space offers treasures that are golden but not gold—secrets about the biochemistry of life, drawn from the bodies of astronauts. Weightlessness poses a biochemical challenge to human space travelers, who develop a host of fascinating ...Read More
Today's Coffee is Tomorrow's Coffee. Or Tea.
During the flight of STS-126 in 2008, we carried up three refrigerator-sized pieces of equipment. One was a toilet for the NASA side of space station. There was already one on the Russian side, so this one gave us redundancy. In the past, when the toilet broke, all work had ...Read More
A Lab for Science, and for Thinking
The International Space Station was conceived and constructed through the cooperation of fifteen nations. Now, with it's construction complete, we can focus on how best to use it. We have built a laboratory located on the premier frontier of our era. Our Earth-honed intuition no longer applies in this orbital ...Read More
Gone for the Season
Being absent for the holidays is collateral damage for an explorer, whatever the location. In Antarctica, the short Antarctic summer is when most exploration happens, and this falls over the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year holidays. Maybe you can get home by Valentine’s Day; it is best to arrive bearing ...Read More
Perpetual Sun
In Antarctica, the summertime sun never sets. It is perpetual day. Instead of a ducking beneath the horizon, the sun circumscribes the sky every 24 hours. Due to our latitude near south 86 degrees, the sun never gets real high or real low. At local noon, the sun elevation is ...Read More
Keeping Electronic Gadgets Happy
Even in the wilderness, humans can not seem to do without their electronic devices. We bring crucial mission electronics such as Iridium satellite phones, radios, GPS receivers, and laptop computers. We also bring electronic condiments, items such as cameras, iPods, and DVD players. With a few exceptions, most of these ...Read More
Living in a Freezer
One unique aspect about Antarctica is living submerged in constant cold. While these temperatures seem extreme from the perspective of your living room back home, with the proper clothing, they become quite acceptable. Humans are remarkably adaptable and soon take to these temperatures as if they were the norm. I ...Read More
Concentrated Meteorites
For some reason, meteorites are found lying on the top of Antarctic ice fields in amazing numbers, much more so than what one would find in other areas of the world. The reason for this is generally understood [ref 1], however, like so many human spawned ideas into how nature ...Read More
The Flag of Exploration
This flag, pressed into service for a humble yet important duty, provides notification of occupancy when raised over the latrine tent.Read More
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