I Think It's Actually Just An Incredible Thing That We Have Picked A Line-up Of Space-walkers--we've

Yes, there’s several paths to get to where I am right now and where the other researcher pilots are here at NASA.  We have some that come up through civilian flying and they’re educated in different areas.  Typically most of us have engineering or STEM related degrees in college, and usually Masters degrees on top of that. 

The flying portion, most of us actually come from a military background because that’s the best way to get a lot of intense experience very quickly.  So most of us are retired military pilots from all different services, but then we do have several pilots who have grown up flying corporate jets, larger airplanes and became test pilots for companies like, say, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, things like that.  And then they get hired at NASA based on their depth and breadth of experience.

 So several paths to get there, but these are the most common.

I want to pursue a career in aeronautics and want to get into NASA. Any advice?

So this was a really neat project.  This was a partnership with hospitals all around the world, and there are kids that are in the cancer units in these hospitals.  And as part of their care they do art therapy.  So they paint, they draw, and they get to express themselves.  

So part of the project was that each kid got a little patch, and they got to paint or draw or color whatever they wanted.  They then sewed all of these patches together to make this space suit, and we got to fly it to the space station.  So it was really neat--all these children got to see their work flown in space.  

But it's so colorful because each individual patch represents a little artist's contribution.  And so I got a chance to meet some of these kids and hang out and do some art with them and it was so incredible.  It was just really a joy to see.

Why's your suit so colorful?

Yeah, flying's great.  It's a completely different sensation.  You know, you can compare parts of it to things like riding a bicycle, skateboarding, surfing, things like that - even skydiving.  It's a real feeling of freedom when you're actually controlling *makes wing gestures* the aircraft flying through the air - a little bit like a bird. 

And that's an amazing privilege to have, and it's really a nice opportunity to get up there and maneuver in three dimensions - really four dimensions if you consider speed - through the earth's atmosphere.  I absolutely love it.

How does flying feel?

I would say my favorite part of the job is not really what you'd think.  You'd think it's maybe strapping in an airplane and going up and flying - and that's a wonderful opportunity, and I love it absolutely - but really the greatest thing at NASA, and I think most people would agree, is working with the people that we have here.  

Because the people that come together with an eagerness to explore and to experiment with things and discover new opportunities and things like that - working side by side with those people is what really gets your heart pumping and makes you excited to come to work each day.  So that's what I'd say is my favorite part of the job.

What’s your favorite part of the job?

Yeah, that's a wonderful thing.  And whether you're flying low level, over the earth's surface, or way up high in the earth's atmosphere like with the ER-2, there's different sights.  

One thing I like about flying low level is the vegetation, the hills, the mountains, the water - where you see details in the waves and the trees up close that are just absolutely beautiful.  Conversely, when you're way up high  you see everything.  And that's where you realize how many different pieces of the earth's surface come together, between the oceans, the big lakes, the mountains and everything, and the colors are so different that all they just paint an incredible picture from 13 miles above the earth.  

And when you look from the surface up through the beautiful atmosphere that we have from where the sky moves from a light blue color and then gradually gets dark blue and then purple and even starts to turn black way up high, that's just an incredible sight that I feel real privileged to see every time I go up there.  It's a privilege, it's just amazing.

What's the most beautiful natural scene uou've ever seen personally, as in Aurora Borealis, volcanic eruption, or something that made you seem like the Earth should be treasured?

So one of the things I didn't know about being an astronaut was all of the different kinds of skills we need to learn.  You come in and you're kind of a baby astronaut trainee, and they teach you things about like how to fix the electrical system and the plumbing on the space station.  You need to learn how to train in dangerous environments.  We learn how to fly airplanes.  We learn how to do spacewalks underwater.  

So one of the most surprising things was just the variety of skills we need in order to be successful expedition pioneers on board the space station.

What's something you didn't know about being an astronaut before you actually became one? Do you have any words of advice for young astronauts?

"So the way we understand that black holes form is when a massive star basically runs out of fuel and collapses in on itself.  And the reason that happens is because, the reason stars don't collapse in on themselves on a regular day is because they're hot.  

Hot gas has pressure, so you have all this gas pushing out, you have gravity pulling in and you get a nice balanced equilibrium.  But eventually you run out of fuel, so you run out of temperature, you run out of pressure, and the gravity wins.  So the gravity just pulls in and there's not enough hot gas to hold it up anymore.  

That's how they form.  How do they move?  They move pretty much like every other star in the galaxy.  Mostly orbiting around, for example in the solar system, orbiting around the center of the galaxy with a little bit of random motions here and there."

How do blackholes form and how do they move ?

“Black holes are just...pure gravity.”

Whats the best metaphor/ explanation of blackholes youve ever heard?

Yeah, that's a great question and that's exactly how it feels.  Once we get up about 13 miles above the earth, and get everything set up and start doing the science collection, every now and again you have to kind of stop and just take a minute to look around.  And it's a fascinating sight up there.  

On a normal clear day looking down at the earth, you can see the curvature of the earth out in front of you, and then the sky is just a really dark purple up there because you're above all the moisture in the air that causes the dark blue to turn to light blue down towards the earth's surface.  And it's such a different sight, it really makes you understand how small we really are.

What does it feel like to be up there and look down at the Earth? I've always imagined it would send me into a moment where I feel so small compared to the expanse and beauty of Earth.

"So most of the descriptions that I've seen about black holes in science fiction get it pretty close to reality outside of the event horizon.  Inside the event horizon we don't really know what's going to happen, so a lot of science fiction writers also kind of have fun with it and do whatever they want.  

In terms of outside of the event horizon, I think the most striking effect is that of time dilation, how time slows down as you get closer and closer, but still on our side of the event horizon.  And this was of course one of the major plot drivers of the movie Interstellar, so I thought that was really cool."

Out of all the theories and fantasies created around blackholes, which of them, in your opinion, do you think could come closest to reality?