NASA Day 10: Met an Astronaut!

Jeffery Williams, Veteran of four space flights

Today is a relaxing day. I checked in and said hi at building 86, found Tom, and we walked to the MIC together and started networking. I got a computer engineer's phone number, and we agreed to meet up this week or next week for him to show me what he does because I haven't seen too many computer engineers in action. I also played around with some DC motors and got bored fast because I was a master of Snap Circuits. However, the pulled out a sterling engine which is fueled through changes in extreme temperatures, say, a super hot propulsion ion thruster and - space. The sterling engine is not that efficient yet, but it's a good alternative when there is no solar energy available.

While I was meeting different people, I also met Jeff Williams. He's been up in space a lot. 4 different times. He spends about 6 months at a time in space - which is longer than I thought. But at the same time, it's rather expensive to send people into space, so the less often you're sending people into space. There's typically about 6 people up at one time, and there's always been someone at the ISS since the year 2,000. In case you ever wanted to know how many people are at the ISS, there's a simple website that gives you a number. We also saw the live feed of the 200th space walk, which was neat to watch.

I got more peach tea and entered the conference full of middle school kids arriving on busses, and I took a seat with the various volunteers and adults in the room. We saw a few speakers, and then Jeff gave a talk about what life on the ISS is like. He went from start to finish, showing us glorious photos of what he does. I had some questions of which I googled along the way. I found out that pee is recycled on the ISS. Oxygen is created by splitting water somehow. I found out that NASA is using nuclear powered motors with those sterling engines, something I was unaware of.

Lunchtime is nearly over now. I should grab a quick lunch. More to come!

More is here, but not much more. I went to the PSL laboratory where David Freebird showed me what he's testing there. Unfortunately, they were in the middle of a test in the 8 x 6 wind tunnel, and the tests were somewhat classified. The door was secured, I had to sign in a pretty lengthy visitor log (name, signature, his signature, why I'm here, etc). When a company wants to test something, they don't want people knowing about it's existence. It's like an iPhone. Apple doesn't want people knowing about the iPhone 8 until they release it to the public. At the PSL, I wasn't allowed to take pictures either for the same reason. It's classified.

I turned into a chaperone because they needed me to make sure the kids didn't get lost and I kept Michael Bohr company. The kids were a bit rude - like middle schoolers when people were presenting. I resented that, but it wasn't my place to correct them.

Next Monday, I'll be shadowing some surveyors finding underground pipes, and a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head. Until then!