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[AMIKO KAUDERER] So that question
comes to us today from Astro_Joe5,

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"What was your favorite experiment on the ISS?"

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[MIKE FOSSUM] My favorite experiment on
the ISS was one that was called SHERE,

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and I'm sorry I don't remember
what the acronym stood for.

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But it was a fluid physics experiment
that took place in the glovebox,

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the microgravity science glovebox, and
I enjoyed that one because it was kind

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of a hands-on activity where we got to set
the equipment up, it required a careful setup

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and calibration, and then we
got to actually open, open up,

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get in an open up this fluid sample which
was a small little dollop inside there,

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about the size of a peanut
chocolate coated candy.

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And then it was like a lathe
where it rotated, and there was,

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it was a fluid with polymer strands
inside, which were microscopic.

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You couldn't see those, but that
affected the physics of the fluid.

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And so they spun half of it.

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So you were putting, you're basically
putting a twirl on that dollop of material

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and then stretching it, and they could actually
measure the tension in the in the fluid

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that came from the microscopic
strands of polymer plastics

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that were tangling together and that..

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The reason was interesting
was first of all and we got

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to really observe the science taking
place, even though we weren't measuring.

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It was automatically measuring
the properties of fluid.

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It also has direct application
for the petrochemical,

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plastic industries as part of their process.

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This is something that they're trying

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to understand exactly how this affects these
polymer fluids in the industrial processes

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and so there's a direct application, and it
was science they wanted for the industrial use.

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So it was fun to do something like that.

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[KAUDERER] That sounds like a fun experiment.

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Thanks for sharing.

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So again, we've been talking about some of
the science experiments, it all sounds great.

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I have another question coming from the public
on Twitter, and it's a science question.

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We're going to go with this one.

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Their question, first of all
it's the greeting from Poland.

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"Hi! I want to ask about HydroTropi.

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How much have you learned about growing
plants in space since June 2011."

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This person's been following you.

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"Greets from Poland" [FOSSUM] I guess so.

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Well, we have several different plant growth
experiments and they're quite interesting.

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One of them, we're growing
plants in a centrifuge,

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and so we're comparing them side-by-side on
board with a 0G and then a centrifuge spinning

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so that the plant seeds for the
germination and all are growing at 1G

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and you can see the difference
in the just the structure

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of the plant itself as a very young plant.

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You could see 0G they're
weaker, and that appears to be

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because the gravity actually helps
toughen things up because the plant has

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to work against the gravity itself.

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It needs more structure and
so it grows thicker stems.

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The roots will grow down quicker.

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At least this is just a quick look.

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I'm not the investigator here, but when
you get a chance to look at the samples

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when you're coming out of the growth chamber.

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There's another one that uses, that has a
plant growth medium, and then they grow them...

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They're looking, and of course it's
a little confusing to talk about it

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because I'm not a biologist in the sense.

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They're looking at the details of
makes roots grow the way they grow.

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And this is kind of a fundamental
experiment on the surface,

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but what we're really doing is getting
down to the real enzymes and proteins,

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and the way the plant sends the signal
to the root system to tell it what to do.

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And one of the things they're looking at is
trying to figure out the amount of impact

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that light has on telling
the plant which way to grow.

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And so we plant these seeds in a growth
medium, and then some of them are grown

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in a dark chamber and some are grown in a
light, in a chamber that has a lot of light

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over the top of it, and of course that affects
the way the upper part of the plant grows

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but also it affects the way that
the roots grow, and so, you know,

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it looks like there may be a signal that goes to
the roots that says, "Okay, light is that way.

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Therefore down and more nutrients
must be the other direction."

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And so it sounds a biochemical signal...

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[KAUDERER] In a place where there is no down
[FOSSUM] In a place where there is no down.

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The play says "Okay, gravity's not helping us.

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But light tells us which way down must
be, and so we'll grow in that direction."

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[KAUDERER] Great!

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That is fascinating.

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That question comes to us from UrtheCast.

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The question is, "What time
zone do you keep in space?"

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[FOSSUM] Okay, well that is a good question.

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And because you go around the Earth in 90 min.,
you have a sunrise and a sunset every hour

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and half, we had to pick a time,
and we ended up just choosing GMT

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or Universal Time to use as the standard clock.

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And then you can still kind of arbitrarily set,
you know, at what time you choose to wake up,

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and we set 6 a.m., which is kind of a
normal wake up time here on the ground.

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Of course it's the middle
of the night in Houston.

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You know, to begin that, and that was just so
we could all have a time that we all agree on,

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that we all could communicate
in, this standard GMT time.

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And on orbit, that's what you're
always thinking in, is GMT time.

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At the same time, part of your brain is trying
to keep track of what time it is back home,

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because you might want call home to the family,
or you know, call some friends or something

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like that, so you're trying to, you want

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to remember what time it is
back home so you don't....

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[KAUDERER] Wake 'em up in
the middle of the night?

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Although I am sure they would
welcome that phone call.

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[FOSSUM] Oh yeah.

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The first time, not the second time.

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[KAUDERER] So that leads me to
another Twitter question we have here.

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This one comes from Rhythmreactor.

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"Are there any day and night shifts?

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Do you rotate duties?

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Is there a weekend off?

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I wonder about that."

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[FOSSUM] You bet.

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Normally we..

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we're all working the same shift.

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We don't, we don't need to have
a night watch on the station.

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We do have a night watch,
but that's mission control.

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They have, they're watching the systems
and taking care of everything...

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[KAUDERER] So that's these folks
that we're seeing in this view.

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[FOSSUM] That's exactly right.

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They are there 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.

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They are always on duty in Mission Control
Houston, Mission Control Moscow, Huntsville,

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Tsukuba in Japan, Huntsville, Alabama.

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So they're there in mission control centers
around the world and they're keeping an eye

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on the vehicle so we don't have to .

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So we work a single shift.

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Everybody gets up at six in the morning.

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And the official bed time
is 9:30 in the evening.

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I would say we pretty very rare that we're
actually in bed at 9:30 in the evening.

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That's time to kind of finish catching
up and have little bit of free time.

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But usually we're trying
to get to bed by 10, 10:30.