Expedition ISP20 Blog - Week 2

What a way to start Week 2!

It's Week 2 of Expedition ISP20, and what better way to start the week than with an International Astronaut Panel on 'Pandemics from the eyes of Astronauts'. The panel was comprised of Oleg Atkov, former Russian Cosmonaut, Bob Thirsk, former CSA astronaut, and Jessica Meir, ISU Alumna and NASA astronaut. What a lineup!

The panel was expertly moderated by Dr. Kris Lenhart, ISU Alum and lead scientist for exploration medical capability for NASA's Human Research Program. Each panelist shared their perspective and some wise words in relation to how they felt the world needed to address the current pandemic.

Jessica Meir shared some unique insights into what it was like to return to an entirely different planet than the one she had left, when she arrived back in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic. You can watch this astronaut panel here.

A Little Bit of Everything

In the previous installment of my 'Expedition ISP20 Blog', I discussed some aspects of a typical day on ISP20. This week we had another amazing set of Daily Seminars covering a number of different disciplines including:

• 'Economic Aspects of Space Activities', delivered by Walter Peeters.
• 'Satellite Telecommunications', delivered by Taiwo Tejumola.
• 'Tele-medicine', delivered by Douglas Hamilton.
• ' Navigation, Positioning and Timing', delivered by Danijela Stupar.

I really enjoyed all of the seminars but especially the ones that allowed me to explore disciplines that are very different to my own background! One lecture in particular that stood out for me this week was 'Space and Society', delivered by Kerrie Dougherty.

Kerrie discussed the role that Art plays in human culture, and the relationship between science fiction and popular interest in human spaceflight.

From someone with a fondness for history, it was extremely interesting to learn about how humans have observed the cosmos since ancient times.

Fun fact: Did you know that one of the oldest records of an eclipse observation was in Ireland!

The Challenges of being on the Moon

Working well in a team of 28 people can be difficult, but working well in a team of 28 people entirely through a computer screen...that can seem impossible. This week we have started to really experience the challenges that come with working online.

In the Moon Habitat, we realised pretty quickly that structure is key. However, determining that structure can take a lot longer that you expect. It can be difficult to convey your points or ideas accurately over a Zoom call, and the frustration that comes hand-in-hand with that has become apparent. At times it could feel like we were going in circles trying to come to a conclusive decision. The 'Scope' of our Team Mission was the topic of conversation for much of the week. So much so, that I have developed quite a dislike for the word 'Scope'.. (I'm only joking!)

I definitely feel that patience, has and will continue, to play the most critical role in the success of our Team Mission. One of my fellow crew members said it best;

"It is important to recognise that when someone disagrees and argues their point, it shows that they have passion for what they are doing, that they care and want to contribute.'"

But don't get me wrong, although there are challenges with working in such a large team, it has still been extremely enjoyable! By the end of this week, we had divided ourselves up into smaller subgroups and have begun actively working on our assigned tasks. We are on our way!

A Friendly Reminder

A popular topic in recent years is that of mental health and self care, which has only become more important with the current pandemic. This topic was addressed this week in a talk on 'Pandemics and Expedition Behaviour Lessons from Human Spaceflight', delivered by Jonathan B. Clark, M.D.

"You don't have the bandwidth to help someone else, if you haven't yet taken care of yourself."

Jonathon made sure to share with us some quotes and advice that he likes to live by, while also reminding us to take time for ourselves, especially during such an content-heavy online program.

Mentorship

It has already been a fantastic and extremely memorable opportunity to interact with ISU Alumni through these Mentorship sessions. Each mentor brings their own experiences and views to the discussions and I have really been loving just getting to chat to so many people within the industry!

On Tuesday I had a session with Dr. Tricia Larose, Principal Investigator for the Tumors in Space project, followed by a session with John Connolly, ISU faculty member and previous Exploration Chief Scientist at NASA HQ.

I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Tricia and hearing about her work, doesn't research on tumors in space just sound fascinating?! I am obviously not familiar with her field of work, but I found it captivating and have taken some notes to research it more!

John Connolly gave us some insight into the constraints faced at NASA. Due to a yearly reviewed budget and a new administration every 4 years, NASA's missions and objectives can change from one year to the next..talk about the uncertainty of space exploration..

I also must admit that one of the best parts of the mentorship meetings is getting to hear Steve Brody, James Green, John Connolly and Michael Simpson all catch each other up on their lives and what they've been up to before we are all split up. It really adds to idea of a 'conversation over coffee' that these sessions are trying to mimic.

On Thursday I had my next set of Mentorship Sessions with Juan de Dalmau, current ISU President, and Tahir Merali, Owner of Escape Velocity Services Inc. It was wonderful to talk to Tahir about the impressive career he has had at such a young age, to hear about his time as an ESA astronaut instructor, and his personal account of what it was like to experience “weightlessness” aboard a parabolic flight.

The launch of NASA's Perseverance rover, or Percy for short, was launched during my session with Juan. We took some time out of our engaging conversation on our expectations and aspirations for the ISP to watch Percy begin its 7 month long journey to Mars!

Time to Refuel

After a very jam-packed week, it was time to 'refuel' and de-stress through what I have dubbed 'Friday Fun-day'! Friday brought with it, Crew Talks. This is a chance for crew members to give a talk on a topic of their choosing, space related or not, and we had some very interesting topics to start off us off. These are shown in the image below!

Following our crew talks, we had a superb presentation on Astrophotography from Cian O'Regan. I loved getting to hear the stories behind some of his proudest shots. The personal stories behind the pictures only makes them that much better!

You'll never guess, but there's more!

I can only include so much information without going on forever! Some other items I did not discuss included: the journey of our mission patch design, a space debate and the interactive workshops. I can already say that this program is definitely an experience that is difficult to put into words, but I am doing my best to share a taste of it with you! I hope you are enjoying reading along and there is more to come!

For now I will finish with a little 'tip of the week': With a very Irish name, I have found that including some phonetics on your Zoom name can really help everyone with the pronunciation of your name! (Aoife = Ee-fa)