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Astronaut Chris Hadfield Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED — Transcript

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0:00my name is Chris Hadfield I'm doing the
0:01wired autocomplete interview let's begin
0:10what Chris Hadfield in the search engine
0:14here we go
0:15what inspired Chris Hadfield to become
0:19an astronaut the first people to walk in
0:23the moon when Buzz Aldrin and Neil
0:24Armstrong walked on the moon in July
0:2620th 69 I thought if they could do that
0:28I could do that that inspired me what
0:31was Chris Hadfield education I went to a
0:37bunch of different schools but basically
0:39I'm a farmer and mechanical engineer and
0:42a pilot fighter pilot test pilot that's
0:46was my education become an astronaut
0:48what was Chris Hadfield first job I grew
0:53up on a farm but when you growing up on
0:55a farm it's not really sort of a job was
0:56just what you do every day after school
0:58my first real job was working in a
1:01scientific shipping warehouse when a
1:03school ordered scientific equipment I
1:05was the guy back in in the shipping
1:07department that would collect the the
1:08pig fetuses or the the weigh scale put
1:11him in a box and and mail them to your
1:13school that was my first job what did
1:17Chris Hadfield find in space did I find
1:20in space a new way to look at the world
1:23what did Chris Hadfield this is terrible
1:26English what did Chris Hadfield learned
1:28from going blind well I learned better
1:31English from this sensor during my first
1:33spacewalk there was contamination inside
1:35my space they've gotten both my eyes
1:36blinded me what did I learn from that
1:38number one don't panic panic doesn't
1:40really help especially if you're all
1:41alone in space and the second was you
1:43need to do a better job of cleaning the
1:45visor of your space helmet because it
1:48was actually the anti-fog and the visor
1:50that good into my eyes that made me go
1:52in blind so remember if you're doing a
1:53spacewalk clean your visor really
1:55carefully and don't let it get in your
1:57eyes and you probably won't go blind
2:01emerging from below as often Scrolls on
2:03a computer screen these are the
2:05questions that begin with where where
2:07Chris Hadfield where does Chris Hadfield
2:12live I live on earth wasn't always true
2:14but right now I live in Toronto Ontario
2:17Canada and I like it there it's a nice
2:19city it's well-run good place you get a
2:21chance live in Toronto where was Chris
2:24Hadfield born I was born about I don't
2:28know maybe a couple hundred yards from
2:30the US border right on the edge of
2:32Canada in a town called Sarnia Ontario
2:34in Sarnia General Hospital August 29th
2:371959 makes me a Virgo where is Chris
2:42Hadfield right now on earth I'm in Las
2:47Vegas baby and what happens here falls
2:50on the floor where did Chris Hadfield go
2:53in space I went around and around and
2:56around the world we launched out of
2:57Florida we're actually on my third
2:59flight we launched out of Kazakhstan
3:01just south of Russia you go straight up
3:02for a while then the spaceship turns
3:04over start going faster and faster and
3:06faster parallel to the surface of the
3:08earth so that the whole trajectory of
3:10the spaceship is to go around the world
3:12and if you can get going seventeen and a
3:14half thousand miles an hour five miles a
3:16second 25 times the speed of sound then
3:18you'll stay in space basically forever
3:21you'll just coast once you get there so
3:23that's what I did gotten three different
3:25rocket ships blasted off went around the
3:27world two thousand six hundred and fifty
3:30times so I went on a pretty amazing
3:33world tour more than Keith Richards I
3:36think all right oops all right this one
3:42at risk of putting shadows on my face
3:44says when Chris Hadfield when when Chris
3:47Hadfield let's choose him verb here when
3:50did Chris Hadfield first walk in space I
3:55first walked in space during my second
3:57spaceflight we were on board space
3:58shuttle Endeavour we were building the
4:01International Space Station imagine
4:03you're wearing the most uncomfortable
4:04clothes you've ever worn like like a big
4:07snow suit or something end gloves and a
4:10hat and big boots you can hardly move
4:12you grab on to both sides of the hatch
4:14and you sort of like maybe a chick
4:18coming out of an egg you know you have
4:19to sort of fight your way out but then
4:21you pull yourself out and
4:24you're weightless let go with one hand
4:26and you float around gently the other
4:29way and suddenly you've gone from this
4:32claustrophobic little dark place to now
4:35being surrounded by eternity where the
4:38whole world is silent next to you like
4:41this big magic globe but it's separate
4:44from you but all around you is the three
4:47dimensions of of everything and it's
4:49perfectly black it's it's unbelievable
4:52like you've given birth to yourself into
4:54a whole new place if you get a chance go
4:57on a space walk
4:58when was Chris Hadfield last Space
5:03Flight seven years ago right now I was
5:05onboard the International Space Station
5:07it was 2012 2013 it was so cool cuz I
5:11was up for half a year so we went
5:13halfway across the solar system like we
5:15went from one side of the Sun to the
5:17other while I was on board the ship
5:19pretty neat
5:20watch the whole world like swap ends
5:22what was winter in the northern
5:24hemisphere became spring got to watch
5:26the snow and everything move and things
5:28start turning green the time I was up
5:30there okay when will when will Chris
5:34Hadfield while drum roll please get out
5:39of space I don't even know what that
5:40question means maybe people out there
5:42searching on Google maybe they think I'm
5:45still in space I'm still spaced out well
5:48I know I've been back for seven years
5:50and happily so there's no choices we're
5:52all in space all the time where would I
5:54go space is all around us why Chris
6:00Hadfield all right why is Chris Hadfield
6:04a hero he's not why is Chris Hadfield
6:10important to Canada I was the first
6:12doing several things I was the first
6:15Canadian to do a spacewalk I was the
6:17first Canadian to command a space ship
6:20I was the first one to use the big robot
6:22arm and if you're Canadian you're really
6:24paying attention you'll notice the name
6:26of the robot arm is the canid arm so
6:28there's this great big arm with Canadian
6:31flags on it out in space being operated
6:34by a Canadian with a Canadian flag on
6:36her shoulder for the first time
6:37big ridiculously Canadian moment so I
6:40think that's why I'm important to Canada
6:41white why did Chris Hadfield retire
6:46because I got a Holt look at my hair
6:49because I was never gonna fly in space
6:51again and once you've done all the
6:54things you should do an astronaut it's
6:55time to go do something else why is
6:57Chris Hadfield Space Oddity an odd
7:01phraseology but I get a version of David
7:04Bowie's classic tune Space Oddity which
7:06was a play on the word Space Odyssey and
7:08I played it on guitar and recorded on
7:09the space station and lots of people
7:11have seen it it's actually a really
7:12beautiful song and David Bowie loved my
7:14version of it
7:15which was a huge compliment he said
7:17really nice things which was great why
7:19is Chris Hadfield under the ocean this
7:21you may not know I lived at the bottom
7:23of the ocean for like two weeks because
7:26living at the bottom of the ocean inside
7:28a habitat it's sort of like living in
7:30space inside a habitat it's a good way
7:32to train for the technical stuff but
7:34also psychologically if you can't
7:36immediately come up to the surface if
7:38you have to solve all your problems
7:39yourself it's not a bad psychological
7:42training ground for being an astronaut
7:43so if you see Chris Hadfield under the
7:46ocean
7:46that's probably why what Chris Hadfield
7:51okay let's choose a word what is Chris
7:54Hadfield famous for I think I'm most
7:58famous for strangely enough playing
8:01music I mean I'm an astronaut I've done
8:03spacewalks I was NASA's director of
8:05operations in Russia I intercepted
8:07Soviet bombers off the coast of North
8:09America during the height of the Cold
8:11War but I think I'm most famous for
8:12playing guitar and singing Space Oddity
8:15in orbit I've made a lot of effort to
8:19communicate with people using social
8:20media during my third spaceflight I made
8:23a bunch of videos if I go into any
8:25school around the world they've been
8:27watching those videos sort of as as part
8:30of their science classes the ease of of
8:33Twitter and such allowed me to
8:34communicate with so many people around
8:37the world almost on a one-on-one basis
8:39what is Chris Hadfield favorite color
8:43blue sort of a sky blue it's a nice
8:46place to be color around my eyes
8:48what awards because chris hadfield one
8:51how about a lot of awards in grade 8 I
8:53won the public speaking contest in my
8:56school in grade five I won the posture
8:59contest
8:59I was also the top test pilot at the US
9:02Air Force test pilot school and top test
9:04pilot in the US Navy the award that
9:06actually meant the most to me was as I
9:08was a test pilot they did this really
9:10complicated test to put a hydrogen
9:12burning engine for a hypersonic airplane
9:15out on the wing tip of an f-18 and I
9:17presented at the Society for
9:19experimental test pilots big annual
9:21conference and I won best project for
9:25for being a test pilot for the whole
9:27world and that kind of opened the doors
9:30to get chosen as an astronaut your life
9:32sort of trundles long you'd hit a big
9:34watershed and after that everything
9:36after is sort of the result of one
9:38moment in time or that might have been
9:40the one I'm most proud of one that had
9:42the biggest impact on my life anyway
9:44what is Chris Hadfield it's a little
9:47tiny one what is Chris Hadfield Oh IQ I
9:51don't know but I actually when I was a
9:55teenager I was kind of you know insecure
9:58like everybody and I wanted to join
9:59Mensa the organization of people that
10:02were that had high enough IQs and it
10:05turns out when I did the Mensa test
10:06Mikey was high enough to join Mensa but
10:09then once I join Mensa I didn't really
10:11know what to do next but it at the time
10:13it seemed important all right what
10:15languages does Chris Hadfield speak I
10:18speak English and then I'm from Canada
10:21and so we teach French in Canada a
10:23donkey pollen food for a COC aid and
10:25then as an astronaut I wanted to be able
10:28to fly a Russian spaceship and work with
10:29Russians and so you never do Puerto
10:32sceetos yeah I speak a little bit of
10:33Russian a little bit of German but I've
10:35kind of forgotten all of it how to eat
10:41in space Chris Hadfield well your food
10:43floats for one thing so you don't need a
10:45plate like a plate would be useless so
10:47what you do is you get your package you
10:49either make it cold or hot and there's
10:51just like this little easy bake oven
10:53where you can warm up to package you
10:54can't really cook it might be dehydrated
10:56food and then you slide it over a needle
10:58and you dial and you push a button and
11:00it fills up the package
11:01the right amount of water now you've got
11:02your package and you mix it up and your
11:04velcro it to the wall let it sit soak up
11:06the water and then you carefully slid it
11:08open because if you open it quick you'll
11:10get like a little spooky stuff all over
11:12the room so you don't want that so you
11:14carefully open so nothing comes flying
11:16out because nothing's gonna fall to the
11:18floor and then you get a spoon spoon is
11:20a great utensil and you want a a long
11:21spoon so we can go all the way to the
11:23back of the package and then you eat
11:24everything out of one package
11:26you don't like have peas and meat and
11:28potatoes and corn you just eat all of
11:31your piece first and they have to be
11:32creamed piece they don't float all over
11:34and then you ball it up super tight
11:36because you have to get rid of your
11:37garbage put it in the garbage and then
11:38you open your next thing which might be
11:40I don't know or tortilla so that's how
11:43we eat in space one thing at a time in
11:45its package it's sort of like I don't
11:47know eaten on the bus or eating on a
11:49camping trip or something here's a funny
11:51thing about being in space and that is
11:53because there's no gravity that means
11:55that the stuff in your nose and your
11:58sinuses never drains so it's sort of
12:00like you always have a head cold you
12:02can't really taste your food as much you
12:04know in here like this your food all
12:05sort of tastes bland because you're not
12:07smelling it you're not getting it in
12:09through all of your sensors so food and
12:11space taste sort of bland and the food
12:14that has the strongest spice naturally
12:17in it is shrimp cocktail because we've
12:20got cocktail sauce on which is you know
12:22a lot of horseradish now you wouldn't
12:23think you would have shrimp cocktail in
12:25a spaceship filled with a nice red hot
12:27sauce on it you bite into it it's got
12:29that nice crunch and then you get that
12:31surge of eye watering horseradish
12:33cocktail sauce and for a moment or two
12:36it clears your sinuses so my favorite
12:39space food was shrimp cocktail how to
12:44sleep in space Chris Hadfield first you
12:47have to decide when right because you're
12:49going around the world sixteen times a
12:50day so when is it night it's night every
12:53you know 45 minutes of course you're
12:55gonna get a sunrise every 90 minutes so
12:58you have to cover all the windows so the
13:00Sun doesn't get in your eyes and then
13:01you float into your little sleep pod and
13:04there's a sleeping bag tied to the wall
13:06with a string you you float in carefully
13:08you float into your sleeping bag it's
13:10got arm holes and then you could zip up
13:12your sleeping bag and now you're just
13:14sort of
13:15loading like a fish in an aquarium
13:17inside your sleeping bag you pull the
13:20little doors closed on your sleep pod
13:22you turn the fan down as low as you can
13:24don't want to suffocate but make it
13:25quiet and then you shut off the light
13:27and then you relax every muscle in your
13:30body and your arms float up and your
13:33knees float in your butt waist bends and
13:35your head comes forward and your whole
13:36body's perfectly relaxed and you don't
13:38need a pillow and you never have to roll
13:41over your shoulder doesn't get sore it's
13:43like the most calm and comfortable sleep
13:47you've ever had in your life I think if
13:49we start flying tourists in space it's
13:51gonna be feel like the space spa the
13:53best sleep you've ever had how to meet
13:56Chris Hadfield hmm well let's see I
14:01speak all over the world I'm constantly
14:03traveling I've been millions of people
14:05I don't just hide so if you want to meet
14:08me you could go to my website Chris
14:11Hadfield CA I think and see when I'm
14:13gonna be somewhere or you can send me a
14:14note we could eat meat I'm on Twitter
14:17and Facebook and Instagram and such you
14:20could write me a nice letter I'd love to
14:22get a letter from you and if you draw me
14:24a really nice picture I'll stick it up
14:25on my fridge how long was Chris Hadfield
14:29commander of the International Space
14:33Station about two or three months we
14:35take turns and we go up in a little
14:37spaceship or the Russian one the Soyuz
14:39pretty soon we'll be going up and down
14:41on American ships built by Boeing and
14:42built by SpaceX but when I went we took
14:45turns there were new crews every three
14:47months so if you think about it we
14:49rotate who's in charge every two or
14:50three months okay this is a big question
14:52at least you know physically how did
14:57Chris Hadfield contribute to space
15:01exploration well when you're the first
15:04to do things people notice because if
15:06say for example there'd never been a
15:08Canadian who was the mission specialist
15:10which was like a fully integrated crew
15:12member on the space shuttle I was the
15:14first Canadian so that was sort of a big
15:16contribution for the 37 million people
15:19that live in Canada did a bunch of
15:20research while I was up there I helped
15:22run the 200 experiments on the space
15:24station I helped build two space
15:26stations that's kind of a
15:28you know with your hands kind of
15:30contribution but I was NASA's director
15:32of operations in Russia so I helped
15:34helped the space program across cosmos
15:37of Russia and NASA of the United States
15:39work and get along so I contributed
15:42there and I served as an astronaut for
15:4421 years
15:45every single day for 21 years so that
15:48was that was a big contribution as well
15:51this question is unnamed it just has my
15:54name I can open it from right to left
15:55just for variety okay the first Canadian
15:58in space and now we have to choose the
16:00modifier was ah was Chris I'd field the
16:04first Canadian in space no the first
16:06Canadian space was Marc Garneau the
16:08second was Roberta Bondar the third was
16:10Steve McLane I was fourth fourth
16:12Canadian in space very proud did Chris
16:16Hadfield walk on the moon I never got
16:18the chance and we haven't had anybody
16:20walk in the moon since I was 12
16:22soon we will there are their astronauts
16:24training right now and and we're
16:26building hardware right now for people
16:27to not just walk in the moon but
16:29actually start settling the moon start
16:31living there just like we live in
16:33Antarctica or some of the more remote
16:35parts of the world so what's happening
16:37so maybe I'll still get a chance to do
16:40what I dreamed about when I was a little
16:41boy okay here's the next question go to
16:44space with who did who did Chris
16:46Hadfield go to space with I went to
16:48space with Russians and German and
16:52Americans I think but that's all just
16:55kind of arbitrary I went to space with
16:57people from Earth okay one more question
17:00here in the unnamed section and that is
17:02is Chris Hadfield okay yeah thanks for
17:06asking okay
17:07part of what happens in space though is
17:09a lot of things degrade in your body you
17:12lose part of your skeleton your muscles
17:14sort of waste away because there's no
17:16gravity that you have to fight so your
17:18body gets lazy your heart gets smaller
17:19your balance system gets confused
17:22because there's no gravity some
17:23astronauts in fact their eyeballs
17:24because of the change in the internal
17:26fluid pressures of your body their
17:28eyeballs change shape so they see not as
17:30well after they've been in space but
17:32I've been back from space six or seven
17:33years now and my bones are dense my
17:36muscles are strong my eyeballs are okay
17:38everything seems to be alright my
17:41balance systems good so yeah I'm okay
17:43Thanks so that's a lot of questions
17:47about me how about you have any
17:48questions about I don't know astronauts
17:50in general all right oh cool what
17:53astronaut here we go what are the
17:57requirements to be an astronaut
17:58that may be changing right now because
18:00with Elon Musk and Richard Branson and
18:03Jeff Bezos and and other companies
18:05trying to allow anybody who can buy a
18:08ticket to be an astronaut or at least to
18:10fly in space I think that'll be good but
18:12up until now you had to kind of really
18:15be ready to fly a spaceship so if you
18:18want to fly a spaceship what are the
18:20requirements well you need to understand
18:22complicated things like
18:23orbital mechanics how do you maneuver in
18:26space how do you how do you make things
18:28accurately work how does a spacesuit
18:30work or the physiology of the human body
18:32or a little understanding of solar
18:34physics and rocket propulsion systems
18:36and communication systems and being able
18:38to reprogram the computers and plus it's
18:40an International Space Station so learn
18:42to speak some other languages and so
18:44there's a lot of requirements but the
18:46fundamental three things you need are
18:47number one a healthy body that fits in
18:50your spacesuit so not too big not too
18:51small and healthy number two
18:54the proven ability to learn complicated
18:56stuff so how do you know somebody can
18:58learn complicated stuff
18:59choose people with multiple university
19:02degrees who've proven that they can get
19:04a high score on a test or do original
19:06research and then the third people who
19:08can make good decisions so we choose
19:10people who have had complicated jobs
19:13like test pilots and medical doctors
19:15life or death where people have run
19:17programs in my case to become an
19:18astronaut I didn't really know what to
19:20do I'm from a country that doesn't have
19:21very many astronauts but I looked at the
19:23astronauts of the world and the
19:24cosmonauts and I thought okay everybody
19:27needs a university education so I went
19:29to four different universities and I did
19:31it all in technical mechanical
19:32engineering and I thought okay I need I
19:35look at you know Neil and Buzz and Sally
19:37Ride and and everybody and they have
19:39good healthy bodies so okay I need to
19:41keep my body in shape so think about
19:42what I eat and exercise a little bit and
19:44keep myself strong and then I thought
19:46astronauts fly in space you know that's
19:50a verb I can learn to fly I just have to
19:52do it so I started learning to fly when
19:54I was a teen
19:55I joined the Air Cadets they taught me
19:57to fly gliders and then powered
19:58airplanes and then I joined the Royal
20:01Canadian Air Force and flew a bunch
20:03airplanes eventually flew fighters as I
20:05was a sea f-18 pilot and then I went to
20:07test pilot school but the US Air Force
20:09and then was a test pilot with the US
20:11Navy then Canada had an astronaut
20:14recruitment and they hired me to be an
20:16astronaut so so I guessed right I was a
20:19kid
20:19what is astronaut ice cream made of
20:24you've probably tried to ask for an ice
20:26cream it you bite into it and it sort of
20:29melts in your mouth and crumbles it's
20:31like a block of cotton candy I think ice
20:33cream Western and ice cream is mostly
20:36made of sugar like whipped sugar the
20:39secret is we don't actually eat
20:40astronaut ice cream in space it's not
20:43really astronaut ice cream
20:44it's Science Center ice cream because if
20:47you think about when you bite into that
20:48astronaut ice cream it makes crumbs
20:50because it's that hard brittle sugary
20:53stuff and those crumbs would go
20:55everywhere without gravity they they'd
20:56be in your eyes you breathe them they'd
20:58be in the filters so it would be bad
21:00space food what is astronaut centrifuge
21:05when you fly a rocket ship because it's
21:08accelerating through the atmosphere so
21:10hard with the big engines pushing you
21:11you could push back in your chair and
21:13you sort of get crushed by the force of
21:16this rocket F equals MA right force
21:19equals mass times acceleration we've got
21:21that big force and you're a mass so
21:22you're getting accelerated and you feel
21:24that acceleration is like multiples of
21:28your own weight and the big rocket
21:30motors can crush you in your chair with
21:31like four or five times your weight and
21:34when you come back into the atmosphere
21:35and we're letting the air slow us down
21:38you can get crushed like with eight
21:40times your weight which is really brutal
21:43but how do you get ready for that well
21:45what we do is we get in a little
21:46simulated spaceship and that's on the
21:48end of this huge arm and it spins us
21:51around and around and around until we're
21:53getting pinned against the outside of
21:55this little thing and then we have to
21:56operate the spaceship and show we can do
21:59what we're supposed to do this thing is
22:00called a centrifuge depending on on how
22:03you operate your capsule coming home
22:05if you mess it up
22:07and you're gonna pull a whole bunch of
22:08gee you're gonna crushed a lot and you
22:10have to wear the the result of your
22:12mistakes so it's a really good
22:14reinforcing place to Train what kind of
22:16music do astronauts like astronauts come
22:19from everywhere we like all the music
22:21there is we actually disagree about
22:23music on board this astronaut likes
22:26music that has a melody that stays in
22:28your head and words that mean something
22:30and there's lots of astronauts who are
22:32musicians we keep musical instruments up
22:34on the space station there's a guitar up
22:36there there's a ukulele there's a
22:38keyboard powered by batteries so when
22:40we're relaxing in the evening or when
22:42it's somebody's birthday or when it's a
22:44holiday then we get together with the
22:46instruments on board and and play music
22:49it's just like you do on earth the next
22:52questions are where we're asked you're
22:55not where I think it's gonna say do know
22:57where is where is astronaut training
23:00astronaut training for the United States
23:02is primarily at the Johnson Space Center
23:04in Houston Texas are just outside of
23:06Houston and then in Russia it's at the
23:09Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center
23:11but then we also train in Canada at the
23:13Canadian Space Agency on the outskirts
23:15of Montreal and we train in Europe in
23:18Germany at the European astronaut Center
23:20which is just outside of Cologne Germany
23:22and then also in Japan because it's an
23:25International Space Station so
23:26everyone's got their own training and
23:27that one is in a little scientific
23:29training town called scuba all around
23:32the planet where astronauts feel the
23:36atmosphere begin that's cool you're
23:39floating weightless in space you turn
23:41your spaceship around backwards because
23:43you're going around the world in this
23:45perfect circle and you fire your big
23:47engine for like maybe four minutes and
23:49it changes you're perfectly circular
23:51orbit into kind of like an oval where
23:54there's a low part nano and a high part
23:57and that low part of your oval starts to
24:00just touch the top of the atmosphere
24:02like like if you stuck your hand out the
24:05window of the car not going too fast you
24:07can just feel a little bit of air
24:08pressure but you're going so fast where
24:10you're going five miles a second so even
24:13a tiny little bit of air really starts
24:15to slow you down
24:16and when you feel the top of the
24:18atmosphere the only way you can really
24:20feel it like is if you
24:21hold your checklist up and you let go of
24:23it and instead of just floating in front
24:25of you it now starts to gently fall
24:28towards the floor everything starts to
24:29behave like a feather and you're still
24:31kind of just hardly sitting in your seat
24:33that you're strapped into but with every
24:35passing second you start to see the
24:37effects of gravity more and more and we
24:39sort of really call atmospheric entry
24:42about four hundred thousand feet up we
24:45call that entry interface that's where
24:48you start to feel the atmosphere begin
24:50and if you look out the windows of the
24:52spaceship you can see that they're
24:54starting to get hot and as you come in
24:55it gets hotter and hotter and there's
24:57flames pouring all around until if you
24:59can imagine that you were somehow inside
25:02a blast furnace and the red and yellow
25:05flames are ripping all around your ship
25:07as that that huge deceleration is
25:10causing all the friction and pressure
25:11and drag that's that's what the
25:13atmosphere does to you a little later
25:14but the early wispy atmosphere 400,000
25:18feet where astronauts hang out huh at
25:23the space bar yeah standard jokes well
25:25we have to live near our training
25:27equipment so most astronauts live close
25:29to the Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training
25:31center in Star City Russia or the
25:33Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas
25:35there's a few obvious favorite places
25:38nearby to those space centers where
25:40where we go in the evening there was one
25:42classic called the outpost which was
25:45close to the Johnson Space Center and it
25:47had all sorts of sort of contraband
25:49paraphernalia old astronaut pictures and
25:52sign pictures and stuff people had
25:54brought back from space and stuck to the
25:55wall in this crappy old firetrap of a
25:58building eventually the fire inspector
26:00said now we you know we need to be
26:01grown-up about this and the outpost got
26:03torn down but for a lot of years that's
26:06where the astronauts hung out at the
26:07outpost these next questions by popular
26:11demand started with why why astronauts
26:14never cry in space well it's not because
26:18we're not sad actually sometimes you cry
26:20because you're happy and what I found
26:22actually it's such a rich experience
26:24that my emotions were closer to the
26:27surface the whole time I found myself
26:29laughing and crying way more often than
26:32I do on earth but you can't
26:34really cry without gravity gravity
26:37pushes the weight of the tears down out
26:40of your eye well without gravity then
26:43the tears are not gonna get drain out of
26:45your eye in fact they're just gonna stay
26:46in your eye until you can't really see
26:48properly and then you need a hanky or
26:50something to dry your eyes now if you
26:52watch the movie gravity I think when
26:54when Sandra Bullock was crying somehow
26:56her tears were propelled across the
26:58spaceship her tears were squirting
27:00across the room I don't know anybody who
27:02cries like that in space tears don't
27:04fall why
27:06astronaut not use pencil in space that's
27:09not true we do we use pencils in space
27:11all the time pencils don't care where
27:13where gravity is you can write up you
27:15can write down you can write sideways so
27:16we use pencils all the time we use
27:18grease pencils because grease pencils
27:20are really tough we use sharpies
27:22sharpies work great ballpoint pens don't
27:24work too well because you know take a
27:26pen and write upside down for a while if
27:28your pen won't write upside down like a
27:29lot of them do then it's not going to be
27:31a good pen to use in a place where
27:33there's no gravity I don't have a
27:34Sharpie but if I did I would cross oh
27:36not why astronaut use pencil in space a
27:40little bit of a caveman phrasing but we
27:42use pencil in space because pencil work
27:45all right
27:46why do astronauts exercise in space
27:50being in space is the ultimate lazy
27:54existence it's the ultimate place for a
27:56couch potato you don't have to fight
28:00gravity you don't have to lift a finger
28:03you don't have to hold your head up
28:05everything just floats nothing sags it's
28:09a great place to be but as a result of
28:12the fact that you don't have to fight
28:13gravity you can be super lazy even your
28:16heart gets lazy because it it doesn't
28:19need to lift the blood from the bottom
28:21of your feet all the way up to the top
28:23of your head it just has to push it
28:24through your blood vessels your heart
28:27actually gets smaller your muscles would
28:28waste away you wouldn't have this big
28:30skeleton fighting gravity so your
28:32skeleton would dissolve so we have to
28:35exercise in space because we're coming
28:37home again and we don't want to come
28:38back as like you know jellyfish so we
28:41exercise about two hours a day on the
28:43spaceship we have a stationary bicycle
28:45no seat because you don't need a seat
28:47it's more like
28:48I don't know a unicycle without a seat
28:50and then we have a treadmill that we can
28:52run on and there are big elastics that
28:54we wear on our hips and our shoulders to
28:56hold us down on the treadmill so we can
28:58run and pound away and then we have a
29:00resistive machine you can't lift weights
29:02because you're weightless so between the
29:04treadmill and the bicycle and the reason
29:05system exercise 2 hours a day you want
29:07to be conscious of your own sweat when
29:09you're weightless and so what we do is
29:10we keep a towel nearby and if you're
29:12good you can take the towel and just
29:14float it there in space next you and you
29:16workout for a while until you get in the
29:17sweaty and then you dry the sweat off
29:19and so your towel becomes sort of
29:21disgusting after a while and then you
29:23just velcro the towel to the wall and
29:25the sweat evaporates out of it it
29:27becomes humidity inside the spaceship
29:29that's collected in the dehumidifier and
29:32it's turned back into drinking water and
29:34getting onboard your sweat becomes
29:37becomes what you drink
29:39the next day yes long as you have a good
29:41purifier it works all right I came home
29:43the same weight is what I launched but
29:47with 20% less fat
29:49so 20% more muscle so it was good came
29:51back kind of ripped it was ok and my
29:54cardiovascular was good but I didn't
29:57keep the bone density up the bone
29:59density and my hips and my upper femur
30:01had I lost about eight and a half
30:03percent of my bone which is a lot and so
30:05you running a big risk of breaking your
30:06hip when you get back until your body
30:08goes whoa I'm back on earth and starts
30:10to build dense bones again why do
30:13astronauts go to the moon well so far
30:16only 12 astronauts have walked on the
30:18moon 24 astronauts have gone to the moon
30:21a lot of them just orbited it they
30:22didn't walk it's not like a lot of
30:24astronauts have kinds of the moon but
30:26why do astronauts go to the moon we went
30:28because in May of 1961 President John F
30:33Kennedy stood up and said we choose to
30:35go to the moon that's why we went it was
30:37a form of cold war between the United
30:41States and the Soviet Union it was proof
30:43that we could it was to challenge the
30:46the whole industrial capability of the
30:49United States like why climb Everest
30:51challenge yourself see if he can do it
30:53make it part of who you are but now that
30:54we've done it why go back to the moon I
30:57think now it's just like all exploration
30:59first prove that you can do it and then
31:01make it part of the
31:02experience eventually we'll go to the
31:04moon to stay and live just like
31:05everywhere else why do astronauts train
31:10underwater how do you simulate being
31:12weightless I mean sitting here in this
31:14chair I'm being crushed down all the
31:17time so it's a lousy simulation of
31:19weightlessness now we could all ride in
31:22the back of an airplane and have the
31:23airplane push over and have us all sort
31:26of float for a second in the back or if
31:28you got the airplane going like this if
31:30you could float for maybe 20 or 30
31:32seconds and we do that because it's it's
31:35good for little short experiments but if
31:37you really want to Train like for a an
31:39eight hour spacewalk you can't do it in
31:42little 20-second segments so we decided
31:44a long time ago let's let's train
31:46underwater and we'll use the buoyancy of
31:48the water and then the weight of the
31:50suit to balance out and then it's sort
31:53of like being weightless it's not of
31:55course because if you go upside down in
31:56the water the blood still rushes to your
31:58head and you have the drag of the water
32:00moving through the water is way
32:02different than moving through the
32:04emptiness of space it's it's like you
32:07imagine how big a normal Olympic
32:08swimming pool is and then make it 45
32:10feet deep that's what the space station
32:12swimming pool training pool is like we
32:15call it the neutral buoyancy laboratory
32:19all right
32:20how how astronaut how many astronauts
32:25have walked on the moon well it started
32:28with a Neil and Buzz it ended with
32:30Harrison Schmitt and jeans sermon
32:32Cernan so that's four and there were
32:33eight others in between Apollo 11 12 not
32:3713 because they had problems in the
32:38weight of the moon 14 15 16 and 17 so 12
32:41human beings have walked in the middle
32:42brave guys how astronaut communicate in
32:46space we talked to each other on board
32:48the spaceship and people are from all
32:51over the world so you have to choose a
32:52common language the majority of the
32:54International Space Station was built by
32:55english-speaking people and
32:57russian-speaking people so on board we
33:00speak primarily English but lots of
33:02Russian to sort of in a mixture of both
33:04is such as yoga voodoo Petroski but the
33:06Muslim will in the keep our genus Dancy
33:08so I had to learn to speak Russian
33:10because I was a member of a crew onboard
33:11the space station and the cosmonauts
33:13equivalently learned to speak
33:15English but that's just amongst
33:16ourselves we have to talk to earth so
33:18here's what you do you grab the
33:20microphone in the space station or you
33:21push a little transmit button on the
33:23wall and your voice goes through the air
33:25to a little microphone on the wall the
33:27microphone turns into an electric signal
33:29that then goes through the wires to a
33:31little digital thing that turns it into
33:33a digital signal and then that goes
33:35outside of the ship to a big antenna and
33:37we send it up to a geostationary
33:39satellite twenty you know two thousand
33:41miles away from the earth and it
33:43collects that signal from us and then
33:45redirects it down to a great big dish
33:47antenna somewhere on the planet like the
33:49ones in in New Mexico and then they
33:51collect that little digital faint signal
33:54and then they take that digital signal
33:56to send it through wires across the
33:58United States and it gets to the Johnson
34:00Space Center in Houston Texas where
34:02there's another little machine that
34:04takes a digital signal and turns it back
34:06into sort of a analog signal and then it
34:08comes through a wire up to a little
34:09speaker that shakes the same way that
34:11microphone did on the space station and
34:13moves the air molecules and they come
34:15across and goes to someone here and they
34:17hear you how long that takes depends on
34:19how far away we are sometimes we're on
34:21the other side of the world
34:22radio waves go basically at the speed of
34:24light 186,000 miles a second but that's
34:27still you know 186,000 miles it is the
34:30world is 25,000 miles around so if you
34:32got to go all the way out to 22,000 and
34:34back again and maybe even twice it can
34:37take a second or two so when I phoned my
34:39wife from the Space Station it would go
34:42through all of those links and then get
34:44you know through the Houston telephone
34:46system and it would ring on her phone
34:47but the delay was so long that she'd
34:50pick it up and she'd go hello and I go
34:52hello but by the time she said hello and
34:54it got to me and I said hello back to
34:55her it might be three seconds and she
34:57always thought it was like a sales call
34:59and she'd hang up on me so she actually
35:00got the numbers from NASA so that
35:02instead of it coming up as some unknown
35:04number it would say space so her phone
35:07would say space Oh space is calling and
35:09then she'd wait for me to answer the
35:11next question is how astronaut come back
35:14to earth when you say how do you get
35:16back to Earth your real question is how
35:17do you slow down you don't want to hit
35:18the world at seventeen and a half
35:19thousand miles an hour we don't have
35:21enough fuel to just like fire our rocket
35:25and slow down we couldn't bring that
35:27much fuel with us so we just used Frick
35:29we use the drag of the air to slow us
35:32down we just start to fall into the
35:34atmosphere and then once we're in the
35:36atmosphere it catches us and then we fly
35:38the spaceship as carefully as we can to
35:41not have too much drag or too much heat
35:43big s turns all the way down to let
35:46ourselves get aligned and then when we
35:48get close to the earth if your spaceship
35:50has wings like the space shuttle then
35:52you can land it on a runway but if your
35:54spaceship is just a little capsule like
35:56a gumdrop then it would just suck into
35:59the world so we have a great big
36:00parachute or maybe two or three
36:02parachutes and then you can land in the
36:04water which isn't too hard you've done a
36:08belly-flop water can be hard but waters
36:11a little more forgiving than dirt or
36:12rock so you can land your spaceship in
36:14the water and then run the risk of it
36:16sinking or you can have it land on land
36:18and if you're going to land on land you
36:20can use airbags on the bottom and that's
36:22what Boeing is doing now or you can have
36:24little Rockets that just before you hit
36:26the ground they go perfect and fire so
36:28that it slows you down just before you
36:30hit the ground and that's what we did in
36:31my third spaceflight and the Soyuz has
36:34little little retro rockets to cushion
36:36you or as the Russian let's call them
36:38soft landing rockets it's like Greenland
36:40or the Cape of Good Hope you don't
36:42believe the you know the sales pitch
36:44it's a pretty rough landing all right
36:45last questions how do astronauts poop I
36:50don't think you're asking how we poop I
36:52think it's how we use the toilet we poop
36:54like everybody okay I'm gonna get
36:56graphic here for a second how do you
36:58know when you have to poop on earth it's
36:59actually because of the weight of the
37:01poop inside you tells you hey it's time
37:04to poop you know how sometimes you're
37:05lying in bed and you're okay poetry to
37:07stand-up you go wow I really got a poop
37:08well if you're weightless and your
37:10body's not gonna tell you it's time to
37:11poop so you almost have to learn this
37:14new sort of fullness symptom that tells
37:18you it's time to poop you're counting on
37:19gravity because gravity is going to pull
37:21it away from you and without gravity
37:23even when you're done pooping the
37:26there's the poops just going to stay
37:28sort of sticking to you so we wear a
37:30rubber glove and sometimes you have to
37:31like physically separate the poop from
37:33your body but then taking the place of
37:35gravity to pull the poop down into the
37:38toilet is airflow we have air pulled
37:41down into the toilets got
37:43fans in it so and that works for the P
37:45as well so when you want to poop on the
37:47space station then you you wait till
37:49it's your turn in the toilet because
37:51there's a limited number of toilets on a
37:52spaceship two four six people go into
37:54the toilet it's look we have it's sort
37:56of like a little closed off area take
37:59your pants off completely because you
38:00don't want them floating around when
38:01you're on the toilet and then you sit on
38:03the toilet and it's got you could either
38:04hook your toes under some toe loops so
38:07that you don't float off the toilet or
38:09on the Space Shuttle we had sort of like
38:11a little seatbelt thing that claimed
38:13like imagine wearing a seatbelt so you
38:15don't float off your toilet but you
38:16don't want to float off the toilet
38:18partway through it be a mess then you
38:19turn the toilet on great loudest thing
38:22on the spaceship because of all those
38:23big fans to pull the air down into the
38:25toilet and then you pee and poop just
38:28like you do everywhere and the pee goes
38:30down into a sewage system that has
38:33purifiers and filters and gets turned
38:35back into drinking water again just like
38:37on earth except it's not quite as
38:39personal on earth and then your poop
38:41though goes down and gets pulled inside
38:43a tank it looks like a big milk bottle
38:46on the space station when you're done we
38:48use wet wipes because you don't have a
38:50sewage system so you don't have to use
38:51toilet paper get yourself nice and clean
38:53everything goes in there and then it
38:54goes down inside the toilet and then you
38:57clean up for the next person you put the
38:58lid on the toilet and when the milk-can
39:00is completely full of poop then we seal
39:03it with these great big knurled knob
39:04dogs on the top so that none of the
39:06smell will come out then we store it
39:08down in sort of a cold storage area in
39:10this station and then when one of the
39:11unmanned ships comes up with all the
39:13food and supplies and scientific
39:15equipment and then we fill it with all
39:16of our garbage including our solid waste
39:19or our poop and we seal that up and then
39:21when it undocks it separates from the
39:23station and and we fire it down into the
39:26atmosphere and then it it burns up in
39:28the atmosphere so the next time you wish
39:32on a shooting star think about maybe
39:34what you're looking at I'm Chris ad
39:36field thank you for being part of my
39:38wired autocomplete exercise I hope you
39:41learned a few things about spaceflight
39:42and maybe a little bit about Chris
39:45Hadfield astronaut

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