Mission Controller Liz

All hail Lockheed Martin's ISS Medical Program Operations Lead! My newest "employee spotlight" shines upon Liz Warren, who is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the complement of Human Research Program science operations conducted on the International Space Station.

Liz is also Lead of the on-console operations team of engineers, planners, astronaut procedure writers and science support personnel. You may have noticed by now, after all my posts about various NASA contractors, that government titles can be a bit... involved ;)

ISS Mission Control

I first met Liz at an event at Johnson Space Center, but even before that had seen many photographs of her, acting as a test subject in the same spacy medical experiments I enjoyed (endured?). It's always interesting to speak with people who have experienced the same test programs, and seen the protocols change throughout the years.

Liz has also gotten her share of press, having been featured in Popular Science magazine, the New York Times, and most recently, the Daily Journal, which detailed her speaking engagement at the Show Me Science Festival near St. Louis, Missouri this past summer. She is now the only Mission Controller I know who has her very own DAY, as dedicated by the Bonne Terre mayor! Must be nice!

Liz didn't mind answering their questions, and I had a few more after reading the articles, so I asked if she would answer some for my blog…


You've been on weightless-parabola flights, and even tested exercise machines there... if given the chance to go into weightlessness in space, would you go? Think you'll be able to buy a ticket to space in our lifetimes?
Liz Warren: Absolutely. I'd go in a heartbeat! It's been a dream of mine since I was very young to be an astronaut and to perform science experiments in space. While I may not be selected as a NASA astronaut, I think that people will be taking leisure trips to space in out lifetime. Perhaps I'll be able to go to space after all! Floating is the most amazing, freeing experience and imagine that floating while gazing out the window at Earth is just breathtaking.

Have you ever used some of the things you describe in the Journal article as being available to astronauts? Rinseless shampoo, the vacuum hair-cutter, etc.? Do you play with things to understand how the astronauts use them?
Liz Warren: I have a personal philosophy that started in graduate school – I don't make someone to do something that I haven't done myself. I have tried astronaut food and I find it pretty tasty. People tend to think of the days of toothpaste tubes of pureed food. In reality, most of the food is thermostabilized, like MREs, and some of it is dehydrated.

Running in zero-g aboard NASA's Vomit Comet,
tethered to treadmill with bungees!

Cont'd: Some is canned and still other foods are off the shelf (like peanut butter and granola bars). I also try a lot of the medical and human research tests that astronauts perform: balance tests, neuro-vestibular tests, functional fitness and cardiovascular tests. I was never a bed rest subject [for micro-gravity simulations], but I've been tested on just about all of the bed rest testing protocols.

You mentioned studies and experiments done on the ISS… can you list a few?
Liz Warren: All of these experiments are described in detail on NASA websites. These are a few that I support...
Sleep – examines quality and duration of sleep, plus lighting conditions on ISS.
Integrated Cardiovascular – cardiovascular de-conditioning over time in spaceflight
Reaction Self Test – examines cognitive function and reaction times
Spinal Elongation – examines lengthening of spine during spaceflight
Integrated Immune – examines immune function during spaceflight
Nutrition – examines metabolism and nutrient use during spaceflight
Pro K – examines if ratio of protein to potassium alters bone metabolism
Biophosphonates – examines if bone resorption prevention drugs work

Keep up the great work, Liz! We all know that astronauts on the ISS are safer and healthier, thanks to all your knowledge and efforts!

TWIS-mas

Rhymes with Christmas. Because each one is a gift. And everyone has been keeping up with This Week In Space, right? Check out the 600-foot long flame! I am gratified that such huge crowds still turn up for rocket tests.

TWIS is usually hosted by Miles O'Brien, but a few now have been guest-hosted by up-and-coming celebrity David Waters, the show's producer, who also worked media relations at the United Space Alliance before founding his own production company.

Subscribe to their YouTube Channel to be notified each time a new episode becomes available, or you can also now subscribe to TWIS episodes on iTunes.

I know "fake NASA vomit" has practically been a meme across the internet this week (*stifling groan*), but it's really the least of what's been going on. Didn't George Carlin do a bit about artificial vomit? I'm so sorry he missed this… and the brief lesson in "How To Choose An Asteroid To Land On." I'll bet he could have had a field day on stage with that one.

In other news, the new NASA on the Commons Flickr photostream is the space agency's newest attempt to release more materials into social networks, showing both new and historical images from the NASA Image Archives. I had actually intended to do a whole post about this when I saw the press release, but it's better if you just click over there and blow a couple hours.

Rest In Peace, William Lenoir (center), 1939 – 2010

Also don't miss the memorial tribute to recently deceased shuttle astronaut Bill Lenoir, who flew the first operational shuttle mission, STS-5.

The Dark Side

The downside of doing journalistic-type media reviews is that every time I promote a book or a movie I enjoyed, I get an onslaught of suggestions for other books and movies. Don't get me wrong, I love the email.... It's just that I get all bummed out that I don't have time to see even a fraction of what is available out there. Every now and then, however, something stands out for sheer shock value.

Alert longtime reader and friend Julian Rueben of London, England recommended Gerard J. DeGroot’s Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest.

Was the end of the Space Age the best thing that ever happened to science fiction? When the space age ended, DeGroot argues, the age of imagination began: warp speed, unlikely (and immune-to-zero-gravity) spacecrafts, exotic aliens, and fantastical laws of not-physics.

Also Not Real

We haven't gone anywhere beyond low Earth orbit for decades. When we stopped being pioneers into the great unknown, it became easier to invent extravagant tales of that great unknown. All the major movie studios, Disney in particular, are unequivocally on board. And IO9 just came right out and said what these geniuses were thinking: "Space Is More Fun Without Space Travel."

Somewhere, Buzz Aldrin's head just exploded. And I think he'd be more than happy to detonate DeGroot's for him too, given some of the book's choice excerpts:

"American people were fleeced - persuaded to spend $35 billion on an ego trip, being told that a step on the lunar surface was a giant leap for mankind."

"NASA's public relations machine portrayed astronauts as wholesome all-Americans, even as many behaved like rutting frat boys when off duty."

"Expressed in terms by the Soviets and Americans, the lunar race was shallow and trivial. The two superpowers behaved like two bald men fighting over a comb."

Pretty rough stuff. But is abandoning actual space travel for space fantasy the answer to the questions deep in our minds and souls?

"So what happens when the audience catches
on that we are completely full of it?!"

Somehow, I don't think so. I disagree with DeGroot's fundamental premise that the heavens are always more impressive in the imagination than in reality. Had we as a species, in our quest for cultural development, ever truly listened to cynics along the way, we'd all still be sitting around a bonfire and sharpening spears.

I might still buy the book, since I appreciate healthy doses of humorous sarcasm. Call it a weakness, inflicted by early exposure to Oscar Wilde.

Here's my problem, Jules... when I go to Amazon to read the reviews and details about this book, it shows that used copies are available from various sellers for seven cents. That's right, SEVEN CENTS. Let me put that in your cross-the-pond Brit lingo: Um, FIVE CENTS.

Dude, seriously.

Gastro-Nauts

TONIGHT, ON BRAVO! As I understand it, some tiny little show that has been airing for a mere 7 seasons won an obscure statue called an "Emmy" this past Sunday... but I've never watched it, so I won't presume to vouch for quality. All I can say is, they are now officially on the map of the cosmos because Top Chef will feature NASA in their latest episode:

The episode features astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and TJ Creamer (@Astro_TJ) as well as NASA's own Top Chef, Vickie Kloeris. This "Julia Childs of Johnson Space Center" is an amazing lady who has been inventing micro-gravity meals since 1985. She currently holds the position of Manager of the Space Food Systems Laboratory, where she has developed 60 of the current 180 items that fly on the Space Shuttle and the ISS.

I will be very interested in the winning dish, because it's no small feat to design foods for space travel.

Any food item intended for micro-gravity must be nutritious, aromatic but stink-free, able to withstand freeze-drying and/or thermo-stabilization, and above all – still appetizing upon re-constitution after any packing and storing processes. It also cannot be messy, cannot be crumbly, and cannot cause nausea or allergic reactions. Quite a trick!

BRAVO Schedule shows: Top Chef Gastro-Nauts will air this evening at 10:00pm and 11:00pm, and again at 11:00am on Sunday, September 5th (all times Eastern).