“It turns out, human space flight is really hard”

Yesterday evening, astronaut Tim Kopra visited the Kraft Center to talk about his missions to the International Space Station. He discussed the engineering aspects of the missions as well as the details of daily life in space. Senior Staff writers (and space enthusiasts) Ross Chapman and Betsy Ladyzhets report on just how cool living in space really is.

Anyone walking into Rennert Hall in the basement of the Kraft Center last night was greeted by a man in a bright blue flight suit, emblazoned with the NASA logo. In front of an engineer-heavy crowd, astronaut Tim Kopra (CBS ‘13) shared stories from his eight months on the International Space Station in 2009 and 2016. After describing his credentials, he jumped quickly into explaining the intricacies and absurdities of human space flight.

Kopra’s laid back, matter-of-fact tone demystified parts of space travel. After years of preparation, it doesn’t take very long to actually get out of Earth’s atmosphere – in eight and a half minutes, you’re in space, and six hours later, you’re docking. Kopra was fascinated by the fact that he could wake up in Kazhakstan and go to sleep on the ISS. He elected not to get too scientific at most parts of his speech, delivering lines like “water is strange in space” (it is) and “human space flight is really a team sport.”

But he stressed that the ISS was “a world-class laboratory.” The scientists studied the effects of gravity on the human body, and they had to exercise for two and a half hours every day to avoid losing bone and muscle mass. They also performed medical experiments, such as euthanizing mice, which sounds pretty mundane for scientists until they have to do it in zero-gravity.

While life on the ISS was full of science and photography, the trip back wasn’t such a cakewalk. “The ride coming home is about as violent as you can get,” he said, describing the 5.2 G’s of force he had to face on the way home. When the parachutes opened on his landing vessel, he called it “an amusement park ride from Hell.” Thankfully, NASA is pretty good at the whole space thing, and the crew landed with no injuries. Returning to Earth was disorienting for Kopra. He told a story about his confusion when he thought his helicopter was going over water in the deserts of Kazhakstan – it turned out that he was looking at the sky. Despite the bumpy landing, Kopra enjoyed his time as an astronaut.

“It was a pretty amazing ride,” he said. “I would recommend it.”

Kopra then proceeded to the question-and-answer part of his talk, when he discussed many features of day-to-day life on the ISS. The audience asked questions about the challenges of living in space, differences between American and Russian equipment, and his favorite memories on board. Kopra mentioned that when he slept on the shuttle, he could see high-energy particles going through his optic nerve.

He also answered multiple questions about excretion in space. One small future astronaut in attendance asked why astronauts recycle their pee, to which Kopra explained that “it’s really expensive and hard to get supplies to space stations,” so every material they can recycle means less weight they have to carry with them. In addition, he talked about the different levels of toilet efficiency on the ISS: Russian toilets were “dirt-farmer simple” while American toilets seemed to be “designed by Mr. Rube and Mr. Goldberg.”

Kopra’s talk ended on a positive note, as he discussed the pool of applicants for the next ISS mission: 18,000, over three times the previous number. Space might not be at the forefront of US scientific development today, but it’s certainly far from extinction. Kopra was confident that people will go to Mars in our lifetime, if not further. And he noted that the most important quality a new astronaut can have is not technical knowledge or physical prowess – it’s collaboration.

“When I’m interviewing these applicants,” he said, “the question I always ask myself is: ‘Who do I go camping with?’”

A winning smile via Tim’s NASA Biography