A NASA astronaut, Col. Michael Fincke, visited the University of Alabama Thursday and gave a lecture about the nation’s space program and its future.
Fincke was a recent spacewalker of STS-134 and former commander of Expedition 18 to the International Space Station.
Fincke said space exploration is a multidiscipline field that combines biology, physiology and physics. In the wilds of space these elements make for many challenging scenarios. One of the greatest hurdles that astronauts must face, according to Fincke, is Space Adaptation Syndrome.
This syndrome entails muscle and bone mass degeneration, congested sinuses, disorientation, and motion sickness. According to Fincke, adapting to the harsh conditions of space can be helped with exercise while in space, but becoming used to the environment of space is determined by the individual and some adapt quickly.
He also addressed the future of space flight, and suggested that although commercial space flight for people outside the space program was possible, complications for such a program existed because aerospace parts must be precise.
“For example, one little piece breaking away in the engine can crash the whole mission,” Fincke said.
He said he expected commercial space flight to overcome those obstacles and reach a point of mass production and become an entirely new industry that would create jobs and make more opportunities for people to fly into space.
Fincke encouraged students who wish to become involved in the space to learn a new language and have experience with a different culture. He studied Russian, which was a language skill that was in high demand by NASA in 1996, but said that in today’s environment he would recommend learning Chinese.
“Knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more opportunities that you have,” Col. Fincke told those who wish to become astronauts.
“I aspire to be an astronaut,” Cassidy McCoole, a freshman majoring in aerospace engineering, said. “I’ve always been interested in the mystery of space.”
She said she believes that the space program connected the country when it was first created, and a renewed interest in the program could now connect the world due to the international nature of the program.
