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the month of february is national

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african american history month and nasa

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joins the celebration and honors the

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contributions of african americans to

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the cause of space flight and space

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exploration

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recently my colleague gary jordan had a

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chance to talk with nasa astronaut

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jeanette epps and he asked her what the

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observance of african american history

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month means to her in terms of space

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exploration

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well as far as um the month it's just a

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month of celebrating the accomplishments

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and the contributions of african

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americans to the united states and so

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it's just a moment to reflect back and

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think about all the things that have

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happened over the

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decades and centuries and how

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how many contributions have been made

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and to be proud of it and and hopefully

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other people will look at it and say

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yeah

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we're proud of of what the contributions

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all the different cultures in the united

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states have contributed to making it a

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great place to live

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honestly and that's what makes the

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international space station so great too

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it's a combination of cultures and

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diverse thoughts um so tell us a little

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bit about you uh how did you end up here

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well i'm i was one of those kids who

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never thought i'd be selected to be an

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astronaut but i did want to become an

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aerospace engineer so um when that

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little sea was planted in my brain when

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i was nine years old

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i it stuck with me so through the years

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i went to school undergraduate for

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physics and then on to graduate school

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for aerospace engineering and you know

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to kind of further my knowledge of

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engineering and to apply to different

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places i went to the ford motor company

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and while i was working there i was

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recruited to work at the central

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intelligence agency as a technical

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operations officer and while i was

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working there you know some of the

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operational things that i was doing as

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well as the very technical scientific

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things kind of made me think well maybe

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it's time to apply to the astronaut core

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a friend of mine leland melvin actually

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gave me a call and said they're looking

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for applicants you may want to think

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about applying

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and so i did and lo and behold here i am

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in 2009 i was selected and it's been six

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and a half years here six and a half

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great years of a lot of training and a

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lot of good stuff less than two weeks

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ago i returned from language immersion

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and that was five weeks in moscow

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living in a hotel doing classes and

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fending for myself in russian

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and that was a great experience um i

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would love to do it again it's just um

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time is of the essence it was it was an

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amazing thing to do and to have the time

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set aside to actually go and learn a

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language

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priceless because as we get older and

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older work takes over and you don't have

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the time but this is my job so it's kind

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of kind of cool thing to have done so

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over the years i've done um robotics

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training i've done spacewalk training

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i've done t-38 training iss systems

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training

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and you know i've even got to the chance

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to do a couple of fun things like nemo

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one of the nemo missions

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that was a great deal of fun

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spent nine days underwater

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um i even had the chance to do

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geology training in hawaii

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so tell us about um

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the impacts of space exploration where

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you see it going uh in the coming years

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well i think um you know since we've

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done a lot of work in low earth orbit

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and i think there's a huge push amongst

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enthusiasts to go to mars so i think the

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next steps will be taking those baby

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steps to get us to mars they're not baby

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steps but because we've done a lot of

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work in low earth orbit what's the next

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thing we have to develop systems

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radiation protection systems um even

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waste management systems to get us all

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the way to mars and to sustain us in

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mars you know do we want to take that

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much logistics with us just to get to

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mars so in the meantime we want to

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develop the propulsion systems and other

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things like that that'll help get us

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there faster

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different things we have to do in the

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meantime but a lot of the research that

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we're doing right now on the iss

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lends to that so with a one year mission

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with scott kelly we're learning a ton of

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things about the human body and how we

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can sustain life

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without gravity our bones our muscles

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even down to the cellular level so

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there's a lot of things that we're

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learning now that will all be applied to

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space exploration and because there's a

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lot of enthusiasts out there and you

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know stem is a big part of this whole

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thing

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we're pushing the boundaries and there's

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a lot of people getting involved in stem

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because of the space program so we're

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we're pushing the boundaries up to get

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us out to mars and beyond so there's a

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lot of great things happening now and we

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are working every day towards the goal

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of getting to mars

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the mars mission we are hoping to get

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there in the 2030s and that means that

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kids in school right now may be selected

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to be astronauts to be the first person

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to be put their boot print on mars so

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tell us a little bit about

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what kids should be studying right now

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in order to be an astronaut in the

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future for mars well i think um you know

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developing an analytical brain and

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developing the thought process you have

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to take science

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in school mathematics as well in these

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classes even though they're tough

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doesn't mean that you don't try them

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anything that you don't know is hard so

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once you learn it it becomes a lot

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easier so just getting in

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into any kind of physics biology

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chemistry class and even any mathematics

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class makes you a better thinker thinker

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even learning a language helps you to

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become a better thinker

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so getting involved in these

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classes that are uh have in the past

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students have thought oh they're so hard

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i'm not going to take those classes and

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getting over this fear of something

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that's hard and not wanting to learn it

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is is a big thing so i think once you

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learn something you realize it's not as

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hard as you thought but taking the time

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to learn it that's that's all it is

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putting the time in to learn these tough

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classes to get to move the united states

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and the world beyond low earth orbit to

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get us to mars so take those tough

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classes do the tough thing and and don't

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be afraid to take a challenge an

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excellent piece of advice and having

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that diverse skill set is something that

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we need uh here at nasa uh dr jeannette

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epps thank you for being with us today

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it's been an absolute pleasure um dr