| E3 |
Why do you want to be an astronaut? |
| DP |
I have wanted to fly in space ever since I was a kid. I remember John Glenn flying in space and wanted to be like him. |
| E3 |
What is it like in training? |
| DP |
Training to be an astronaut is like going to school the year around with no summer vacation. It requires much work. Currently I am in Star City, Russia, where I am learning about the life-support systems on the Russian part of the space station. |
| E3 |
Is training hard? |
| DP |
It requires classroom lessons for eight hours a day and then home work every evening. The lessons are heavy with math, science, computers, and engineering. Space is a place where human beings are not meant to live and we can only go there if we bring machines that allow us to live. You have to understand how the machines work and this requires a strong knowledge of math, science, computers, and engineering. So if you want to be an astronaut, be prepared to study very hard in school. |
| E3 |
Have you tried on your suit yet? |
| DP |
I have four different space suits. I have the orange space suit that is worn when flying on the U.S. space shuttle and the great white space suit (EMU) that is worn when you go for a space walk (EVA) from the shuttle. Then I have the Sokal suit which is worn in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and the Orlan space suit for going EVA on the Russian part of the space station. None of these space suits are only for me; they are designed so they can be re-sized to fit several astronauts. So I may wear a space suit that somebody else wore the day before. |
| E3 |
What's your favorite part of training? |
| DP |
My favorite part of training is working with the real flight hardware. Much of the time we train with mock-ups of the hardware. Mock-ups are sort of like movie sets; they look like the real thing but they really don't work. Training is best when I have a chance to use the real flight hardware. |
| E3 |
Do you think we should return to the moon, or go to Mars? |
| DP |
I hope that we return to the moon and go to Mars and I want to be part of that exploration. I think we should return to the moon first before we go to Mars. This will allow us to troubleshoot our flight hardware fairly close to home so if there is a major problem, we can come back to Earth. When we go to Mars, we will be so far away, coming back to Earth because of problems is not possible. So we should first go back to the moon. |
| E3 |
How long do you plan to be an astronaut? |
| DP |
I plan to be here for many years. |
As part of their Mars Society EduPortal, students in J.J. Howard's third grade class at Evergreen Elementary in Redmond, wanted to find out firsthand what currently is happening in space. What better person to ask than a NASA astronaut from Oregon? They sent the following questions via the Internet to Dr. Don Pettit, one of NASA's newest astronauts. Dr. Pettit responded from Star City, Russia, where he was training for the International Space Station. Don is from Silverton, Oregon, where he graduated from Silverton Union High School in 1973.
Field Reports