so
you
let it ride good morning Atlantis good
morning
compression is from David Hopkins from
wardsville Missouri age 40 and he asked
the question I noticed that the velcro
attach points in the shuttle cabin are
both blue and yellow any significance to
the different colors no velcro as you
know is a friend of astronauts is very
easy to lose things up in space or on a
camping trip but since there's no
gravity things tend to float away and of
course we use velcro to help keep things
in place but blue velcro is permanent
velcro that is exists on all the
vehicles in standard locations and they
leave it on the orbiter from flight to
flight the yellow velcro is corruption
that we can put in locations that make
things easier for us for our particular
mission now some crews put more yellow
velcro around the vehicle and then
multiple crews like those locations and
so lately I've noticed that the folks
who process the vehicles have been
leaving some of the yellow velcro on
because it's useful to multiple crews
eventually if it stays in one place long
enough then they change it to blue and
it becomes a standard location the other
interesting thing to note is that on the
structure of the vehicle in the cabin we
always put the pile art from the velcro
and then all of the objects the movable
objects that we move from place to place
my cameras and pens and pencils and
sockets we put the pile sign of the
velcro so that everything is standard
okay will we be using a pu today we'll
be using a pu number one now receiving
live television of the flight deck crew
again preparing for the check out of the
flight control system that's the rudder
speed brake and Ella vines that are used
to steer the vehicle once it renders the
atmosphere begins to operate like an
airplane for this particular check out
one of the three AP use will be
activated this will be a pu or auxiliary
power unit number one
lannis were with you on the flight deck
live television now coming down from
atlantis and the flight deck in this
image commander Jim Weatherby in pilot
Mike bloomfield in their seats and
directly behind the mission specialist
Scott Pierzynski the flight engineer on
the STS 86 mission
okay Houston and they had to reselect
the contacts there blur it isn't one a
bit okay
well maybe he can do it on the next
flight
here we go Houston with the three up and
Lana's swear stand by
this is Mission Control Houston the
images on NASA television showing the
three out pull up up pulsefire a
marathon DPO 712 go ahead Wendy theater
setup is complete and everything checks
good great thank you
well the first question is from our duty
to whitby greenville north carolina and
he asked the question what was the most
valuable thing you learned on hill today
on there and how can it be applied to
the International Space Station I you
scheduled for any of the ISS missions as
of yet this is michael forum but after
five essen omnia and i can say that the
most i can't think of any one thing that
was most viable for me or berry except
maybe that's when things get hard make
it easier it will be later and it's best
to take the long view and work hard to
steadily and not let anything affect you
too much I'm going to apply that in
later life also i think as for future
missions or i'm looking forward very
much to being on earth for a while with
my young family and do not expect to be
on the International Space Station for
quite a few years yet on the next
question to Michael fall is from our
will Stevens age 11 in evanston illinois
let's tilt you will he ask the question
what have you learned that you would
tell the people planning the new
international space station that's a
very good question well and i have
actually learned a lot of small but
consider details as to how you might
carry out more effectively one one's
experience experiments and how to live
in space and some of those things we are
not yet doing at NASA and I will have my
shorter telling all our experts on the
ground what I've learned a good example
that is quite different from space
shuttle is that the Russians on their
space station is rubber bungees tied to
the walls everywhere to hold
things in place whereas I think you know
that we use velcro here on the space
shuttle I believe that the combination
of velcro on the equipment and bungees
in general on the walls is a very good
way for us to keep control of all the
different things and pieces that we have
to work with when we're in space and I
think that's the most important thing
I'm going to tell anybody about the
International Space Station this is made
three how do you hear me I'm Clara that
match up that is indeed Jim good
afternoon how are you doing we do that's
the big question we all have an era as
you've been in there for longer than
we've been up here and we're wondering
how you're doing Jim we do we're all
doing great we're on day 15 out of day
90 but we want to send some
congratulations your way on an
outstanding mission so far we've been
watching you on the ground here
throughout your mission and throughout
hours down here well thank you very much
it's as you know more than anyone it
helps if you have a good crew and I have
one of the best and these folks are
really awesome and they've been doing a
great job for me and so far everything's
worked well and I guess almost the rest
of it is up to me at least the last part
of it but of course I can't do that
without their continued help and support
so we'll see how it goes yes indeed Jim
I have to ask one question having been
involved in training you folks in water
transfer I I should ask how that went
well we had a tough time remembering and
we spilled all the water and didn't
answer any of it now we're just kidding
it that was great training you did a
wonderful job and it was even fun we had
a lot of fun filling up the water bags
and we did all just according to your
plan and transferred I think more water
then we had intended the most so far
maybe even in
the Russians were very happy with it so
we thank you and i'm sure they thank you
for all your great training well I hope
Dave's going up to drink for the next
few months there's a few folks I'd like
to say hello to you let me pass you on
to Vicki if I may okay well we know
exactly who to pass on to talk to you
related to your past job and he's right
here with us hi Vicki good evening yeah
now kissing me but I enjoyed your food
is fantastic Zach beautiful and I never
had such a good food before that it's
the only part of that I getting more and
more and i haven't city I am emptying
all the containers that I just afraid
I'm taking weight well I'm believer had
such good for either but that's not
because we aren't trying Sandler keep
eating on it well I'm glad you enjoyed
it and since I do have connections down
at the Cape I was wondering if there's
anything special that Mike would like to
have waiting for him when he gets back
oh vicki that's a very kind thought
thanks very much but my kind of dreams
were way ahead of you and I kept this up
but I'm hoping that they'll have some
lasagna and pizza there for me different
days as was a lot of chocolate and beer
well I'll be sure they get that message
and now I'll pass you on to us to Laura
yes as part of this test we're doing the
exercise countermeasure protocol that we
used on station and I was just wondering
if Michael Pfohl could comment on some
of the exercise protocols they did on
mirror how's it going the same question
actually for you for what you're doing
we spent basically to exercise today
some crew members do not carry this out
by the way I should say that but for
plan you you do two per day and it's
time line for an hour but it takes about
an hour and a half to two hours for each
one of them and basically you do
one session on a treadmill running and
the others on an odometer and the
odometer is between our cycling at with
your legs and movingly odometer with
your hands as well as that something
which from you guys don't need on earth
but you would do on a spaceflight are
the what we call it expanded its a
Russian word for these big bungees and
they're very well designed with nice
trimmings of things that so you can work
out different muscles of your body just
by being anchored to the treadmill in
your harness and then stretching your
arms and legs in different directions
from standing up and doing squats and
that system I think he's very well
worked out by the Russians and there
they've had 36 I was a great success
with his overall in their program and I
did not deviate from their protocols at
all and i would recommend just to
relieve some of the boredom anyway doing
a pre serious exercise program and twice
a day is just fine where you listen to
music you enjoy each other's music and
try not to get in the way of your real
time John Lewis I got a question about
the differing schedules that you have
you know the shuttle base is more of a
time line type schedule when you get
into longer durations we've noticed in
here through our 30 day or 60 days and
now into our 90 day that it's kind of
hard a time line and it's almost easier
to set the schedules yourself on board
the vehicle and I was just wondering how
you all noticed that relative to the
shuttle into the mirror experience John
actually we start pretty close to a
timeline most days but it's more of a
shopping list if you see I mean I
certainly didn't do it per the Minotaur
/ vieira if it wasn't related to a
ground communication path and i just
made a point of in fact my agreement
with the Americans in the soup of the
Russian control center was they would
just give me a an English version of the
Russian timeline but without time and
you just say we want these experiments
done today these activities finished do
them when you can and that was certainly
flexible enough for me and we I think
executed that pretty well I agree I
think you need some flexibility
when you're in this sort of environment
trying to work all the time to to a-rod
artificial schedule seems to be 30
points and I think you lose interest in
it as a crew member of course one thing
I think I don't know if you have it but
is a question are you tied to specific
AOS other less times with a control team
or not Mike no in fact we have no I OS
or LOL OS periods in fact the 8080 for
maybe the 81 crew had suggested maybe we
should have some blackout periods with
the crew on the inside we did not
instigate that for particularly in our
case the safety reasons but it is
something certainly will be looking at
when we go to further out missions on
the ground here such as bioflex which is
our next next phase while i'm thinking
about that i do have a question for
Scott and Vladimir about the about the e
VA I'm wondering how how you both found
it out there Vladimir I'm sure has not
been in the knee mu on orbit before but
and Scott I'm wondering how you two got
on together out there and there must
have been very beautiful looking up of
me oh it's just spectacular it was like
I said during a VA one of the most
beautiful things that I've ever seen
before and I'd sort of the buzzword for
the crew but it was unbelievable and it
truly was and we had some surprises
during the VA for one my safety tether
froze up so I had to use an alternate
tethering technique which was fairly
hand fatigue II but there was a pretty
steep learning curve and we were able to
get the job done nonetheless but a lot
of memories of the spacewalk for
everything in particular one pass over
dandies that was cloud free and we could
just see forever and ever the entire
curvature of the earth and I just looked
over at Volodya and he had a grin from
ear to ear it was one of the happiest
smiles have ever seen in my life and so
that's it that's a memory that all
always cherish from this white
I guess I'll pass it to you to talk
about the differences between the suit
hello both fields Russian they're
Americans used allowed us to make every
test we have right now in space and yes
we have some differences between two
suits but it's not big big difference
because both use was created for
spacewalk and I expect you space suit
new joint space suit where we take went
devices from both suits and created you
for International Space Station one last
question for you guys up there I guess
in terms of wrapping up with missions on
me or four months or greater from the US
point of view and stays on station
scheduled to be in the same time frame
how do you think we'll we're going to
cope with missions to Mars for example
of up to two years in length well that's
a really good question John and I talked
a lot about that with the cosmonauts and
the big difference about being in space
about the earth on station mayor all the
International Space Station is that you
have that beautiful view other thing is
if you on a trip to Mars I'm assuming
you're talking about as wrong versions
where you take about six months to go
there and about a year on the surface
than a six-month stack the journey then
a journey back is going to be where all
the problem is and you just have bright
see the Sun coming in right now it's
totally black it other than the Sun out
there if you look away from the earth
and that's the way it will be going to
Mars absolutely dull quite quite dull
and featureless during that trip very
quickly VF have become small and Mars
would not be visible and raced through
the airport don't be visible because of
the brightness of the Sun and in those
conditions I think we'd be closer to
what you're experiencing right now
you're going to have to find
things to do that keep you busy the
whole time and even though I saw some
very hard things on mere I was busy I
had things to do and the time went by
pleasantly and and fast enough the one
of the most favorite things i did and i
hope you have something like this i had
no idea what you have was a greenhouse
and all I'll do is going right now
temperatures and moisture for these
plants but I would grow i groped three
generations of seeds and had to make
observations very painstaking ones and
then get the data down and discuss that
with the investigators for that
experiment really kept me going in terms
of my interest in the inner space side
and i think but not so much as making
work for a crew that's going to Mars but
actually just finding activities that is
unnecessary on a ship like that and
making sure that there's crew
involvement in a very habitual way will
help them greatly well Mike we copy that
in fact we are growing lettuce in here
and relying on some wheat for some of
our air revitalization but time's
running short we we wish you folks got
speed and farewell and we'll look
forward to seeing on the ground in
houston fairly soon