Crowded during astronaut visits
Lund University, ESA Bic and Future by Lund had the opportunity to arrange a day with Dr. James “Jim” Pawelczyk, astronaut and associate professor at Penn State University. This morning, interested students from NA/Teknik-upper secondary classes were invited to Vattenhallen to learn more about what it's like to take a trip into space
'You guys are the spacefaring generation, 'Jim Pawelczyk said. Throughout your lifetime there has always been a human living off the planet and almost all of this millenium we have had humans present in space. It has not been this way before your generation but it will always be so in the future, so your generation is unique.
Among other things, students were allowed to accompany them into the space shuttle through videotaped footage from the trip Jim Pawelczyk made with STS-90 Neurolab at Columbia in 1998. Students were allowed to follow the journey from takeoff to landing. A large part of the video material dealt with the work of the research station. The crew did many different experiments that touched on how living things are affected when gravity decreases.
- Neurolab was made as a collaboration between the United States and Europe, and that was one of the reasons why we got good research results, said Jim Pawlzcyk. In the lab, we did experiments in neuroscience related to how the brain and nervous system adapt in space. This tells us how it works for astronauts but also provides results that can help people on Earth with various diseases. Our neurobiology changes when we're in orbit, and that affects, for example, blood pressure but also how we go about grasping and moving things. You also sleep differently. Most astronauts feel like they are upside down when they close their eyes and like they fall when they look. This is a conflict of mind that causes most astronauts to vomit in the first 24 hours in space.
When man went to the moon in 1969, it was with the Apollo program. Today's space program is called Artemis, which is the name of Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology.
- Probably, we will have people on the moon again in 2025, told Jim Pawelczyk. The name Artemis also suggests that among the astronauts there will be a woman and, in addition, it will be a non-white person. Apollo 11 stayed on the moon for three days, while Artemis will stay for at least for three months and launch an outpost on the moon, which will be a big change.
Jim Pawelczyk also talked about the plans to have a space base behind the moon at the second Lagrange point - an advantageous place in space energy-wise because the combined gravity of the Earth and the moon there ensures that the space base always follows the moon in its orbit around the Earth. From this point behind the Moon, one would then be able to travel further, both down to the lunar surface but also to Mars or other celestial bodies such as asteroids.
- For me, this is the most important part of the Artemis project, said Jim Pawelczyk. It's like a transfer station where you can take a lunar vehicle to the moon but also to have the opportunity to take an interplanetary vehicle that can drive to Mars or to a near-Earth asteroid.
The afternoon began with a recording of The Meridian Astro-Podcast at Lund Observatory. (The pod can be found at https://www.astro.lu.se/TheMeridian, where the episode will be posted later.) In the same building was also held the lecture What Price a Martian? Human Limits to Exploring the Red Planet was directed at both university students and staff and other interested parties, and Jim Pawelczyk went even deeper into physiological conditions for space travel. From bone and muscle mass and cardiovascular systems to neurology, immune systems and psyche, there are a multitude of factors that affect space travelers' bodies. And what happens to a human who sits on Mars and knows that it takes twenty minutes for what you say to be perceived by anyone on Earth?
On Mars, too, conditions are very difficult in many ways. Gravity is only 38% of Earth's, the average temperature is about minus 60 degrees, and the atmosphere is made up of about 95 percent of carbon dioxide. But Jim Pawelczyk pointed out that the best conditions for humanity to cope with tough expeditions are learning to take advantage of what is on the ground. In this logic, for example, lies that the best place to place a space station on the Moon is the South Pole, where it is both close to cold points with ice crystals and points where there is constant sunlight so that one can take advantage of the sun's energy. On Mars, for example, there is the possibility of using the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide that can be used as fuel.
For most of the audience, a trip to space is perhaps the most exciting story of something you will not experience for yourself. At the same time, space affects our everyday lives in that we are all part of space and we benefit from space research in the form of different materials, technologies and programs that can also be used on Earth but also in more everyday things such as food, weather data and data on climate change.
- Space includes everything and whatever you study at the university, it can probably come in handy in space, says Anna Arnadottir, organizer, Lund University. For example, psychology research is needed for astronauts to survive long stays in space, particle physics is needed to study and understand the solar wind and predict solar eruptions, meteorology is needed to understand the atmospheres of distant planets, and engineers are needed to develop and improve the technologies we use to explore space.
