ADRIA is about peopleFoto: Igor Lapajnegoes into a career even before one gets selected.Generally people have their Master's degree ifthey are test pilots, or have their PhD if they arescientists. So, people are usually in their midthirtieswhen they get selected. It takes a numberof years then to prepare for space flight with ageneral course of two years or so, then specificflight training for two and a half more years.We usually fly in space for the first time around35 to 40. Another consideration is radiation. Itaffects younger people more than older people– statistically speaking. So, we don’t want to flysomebody too early for longer duration missions."What tasks do you perform on spacewalks?Spacewalks are interesting, I love them! Forthe past decade we have been putting the ISStogether – putting pieces together from all overthe world that had never been put together onthe ground. However, their assembly had beenplanned, calculated, and designed like any goodengineering project. So in addition to movingthese parts around with a huge crane, therobotic arm, spacewalkers had to go outside todo all the final connections, including large electricaland ammonia connectors as well as usinglarge tools to bolt pieces together. Essentially itis outer space construction work!More recently, we had some “fixes” to do sincesome things break after being in space for awhile. So, we use the same type of large tools tofix stuff, but sometimes we even have to fabricateour own tools. Remember there is no hardwarestore in space, so if something needs a fix, ourNASA team and ourselves have to figure outwhat we have on orbit to get the fix done. Thatwas the story of one of our more recent spacewalkswhere we needed to fabricate bolt housingcleaning tools. Challenging, but again very funand exciting working out in space!We often find ourselves admiring thesunset, with its amazing colours. Sunsetshappen much quicker up there. How manydo you see in one day?In a 24-hour period you see 16 sunrises andsunsets – well you don't see them all the timebecause hopefully you are asleep a part of thattime, too. So if you paid attention and had thewindow open all the time you would be seeingthe sun come up, the sun come down, the suncome up, the sun come down. We are usually inthe laboratory, which is around the corner fromour main window, so we are not always lookingout of the window. It doesn’t take very muchtime to fly around the station.They say that breakfast is the mostimportant meal of the day. And if you have16 mornings a day?Ha-ha! We don’t eat 16 times a day. We do haveto eat pretty regularly though, because sometimesI didn’t feel like eating. I made myself eatthree meals a day. In space we need to worryabout losing bone density and muscle mass,and to mitigate that you eat pretty much on theclock. Space is not a good place for a weight lossprogramme because the effects could be foreverin the way of bone density loss.Before every flight we check whether wehave enough drinking water for the upcomingflights and we refill accordingly. Howis it with water tanks on the ISS, since it isconstantly in orbit? How large are the tanks?We do have storage water in a couple of majortanks. There are a couple tanks on the Russian sidefor clean water brought from the Progress resupplyvehicle. We also have water tanks on the US side inthe form of condensate accumulations and waterthat is in processing. What I mean by that is thatwater on the US side is "recycled". Condensate andurine are recollected and through a very thoroughfiltering process are turned back into useabledrinking water. We also have a stockpile of waterfrom the days of the Space Shuttle. That water isstored in bags. The shuttle made water by combininghydrogen and oxygen for the spare electron itgave off in the chemical combination for shuttleelectrical power. A by-product was pure water,which was given in bags to the space station. Sowe have an excess, we have a storage, a big storageof water throughout the ISS.Dear Sunita, I have very much enjoyed sharingthis conversation and a morning coffeewith you. On behalf of <strong>Adria</strong> <strong>Airways</strong> andour entire crew, I wish you a pleasant stayaboard our CRJ900 bound for Frankfurt,and we hope to see you aboard again soonThank you very much.20
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