Hi! We are Erica, Jessica, and Hannah with Miss Hamilton at Hunters Woods Elementary School in Reston, Virginia....about 20 minutes outside of Washington DC. We were wondering if you have made any new things for space suits lately...and what are they? Hunter Woods - I'm so glad to see you researched Bernadette's profession before coming on line. I'm also glad to see you on line with us this morning. This is the first early a.m. chat we have had and weren't sure who would be on. It's 7:00 a.m. for Bernadette Bernadette-Did you do any space suit design for the Shuttle Mir? Hi guys I'm here. technical difficulties....let me see if i remember your questions. let me know you hear me. No. We here in California didn't make a space suit for Shuttle/Mir missions. The astronauts up there use the Mir space suit and life support system. How did you at NASA know that Russian design was a good as your and who decided on that? Or did you work together? Well, since the Mir space station is up there and the space suits are up there as well, on the Shuttle/Mir missions when NASA astronauts are on the Mir space station, they use the Mir suit. The cosmonauts are familiar with that, and I believe that the U.S. astronauts haven't been doing space walks up there. Shannon Lucid was the IVA person when her fellow crewmates went out. The Russians have certain space suit and the U.S. has another. It used to be that it was difficult for us here in the US to find out about what was being developed for the Russian space program. All that is changing. One difference between the Russian suit and ours is that the Mir suit has a rear entry -- a "door" if you will, that opens up and the cosmonauts climb in. The US suit has a top and bottom (pants) that "snap" (not really a snap) at the waist. Very different in that way. That sounds pretty difficult to climb into the suit. Do they ever take part off while in space or do they always where the same thing? Is this suit just for space walks? We saw a picture of Shannon Lucid and she looked like she had normal clothes on. Inside the vehicle, astronauts do wear normal clothes, for the most part. Polo shirts, and pants with lots of pockets, and with velcro patches all overthem so they can stick tools (pencils, pads, tools) to them instead of letting them "fly" all over the cabin. The "space suit" is just for space walks, yes. Did you know that if you feel a migraine coming on, cooling your head (near the temples) will make it go away for lots of people? (that's for your teacher, haha) We were wondering.....we know that "bio" means something to do with the body but we are wondering exactly what bioengineering is. Can you tell us a little. We are in fifth and sixth grades. Bioengineering covers a lot of ground. It's basically any type of engineering, like mechancial, electrical, applied to living things. People who study biomechanics sometimes look at your gait, how people (or animals) walk, or how bones remodel when an artificial joint is put into the body We have been talking about the three hour time difference. We are well inot our school day and almost hungry for lunch! We hope that Bernadette has some coffee and breakfast with her! Forgive me for the difficulties. can you guys eat and type at the same time? Bernadette, since we are on the East Coast, we are wondering where on the EAsy Coast your family lives? Also, our Science Teacher here with us has a sister at Stanford doing POst Doc work. You probably live near her! My family is in Southeastern Pennsylvania....Lancaster, Media, Warminster, West Chester County. And I live inSan Jose here. STanford is in Palo Alto. I work about half way between the two, at Moffett Field. I don't understand how the medical profession uses your design. I read that in your bio. Is that where the overlap in the medical prefession comes into your work? Medical stuff .... let's see. The astronauts wear a cooling garment. A "long john" sort of, with plastic tubes all over it, and cold water flows through the tube to keep the astronaut cool. That same cooling can be used to lessen Multiple Sclerosis symptoms. OR -- before a woman has a mammogram, to make the scan more sensitive to differences in tissue type; or to lessen the effects of hair loss after chemotherapy .... lots of medical applications Do doctor use these cooling tubes now? Some doctors do, some don't. Some don't believe it works. It's very anecdotal. No one knows why it works. We're working with the Multiple Sclerosis Association and the MS Society and lots of research hospitals around the country, to try and figure out WHO it DOES work for, and why. Fun research. Also, very importantly: insurance won't cover the cost of the cooling treatments, because it isn't a "proven" treatment. That's another thing we're doing. Proving it to them. What's IVA? Sorry, IVA means Intr-vehicular Activity -- the astronauts that stay inside while someone ELSE goes out spacewalking. EVA -- extravehicular activity -- that's going outside. NASA has lots of acronyms. What do you like most about your job? I think I like most that it's fun. I'm the type of person who just loves to "tinker" and figure things out. And that's my job really. I'm given an area to go figure out -- lately it's been to optimize thesystem for removal of CO2 inthe space suit -- and I just get ot go do it. Really fun. Lots ofautonomy. Not high pay. Another thing that's good. Flexibility in time. I need that with 3 kids. NASA trusts me to work my 40 hours -- or however many hours it takes to do my job -- at my own schedule. If I ahve to leave for a teacher conference, or take a child to the Dr. I can just go. No questions. Is that typical for NASA or do you think that has to do with how you work with our bosses? I think it's typical for THIS NASA. I can't speak for other centers, like Houston, Headquarters, etc. It probably has something to do with all three: Ames, California's progressive atmosphere, and my bosses. How much do you get payed? Well, who's the anonymous person interested in pay? Without giving you my OWN pay, I can tell you that engineers who work for NASA with about 10 years of experience (like myself) make anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000, depending on their education, performance, whether or not they're managers, etc. Does that sound like a lot? We think not. I want to be an astronaut but I haven't had a chance to ask questons yet. Ask away, Peter. I'm glad you got a chance to "speak". My teacher just had me read the chat from yesterday with the lady who selects astronauts. Do you know any of them or do you get to work with them? Most astronauts have advanced degrees, you know. I think all of them, actually. Most have PhDs or M.D's. All have at least a Masters degree. Some are pilots, having been in the armed forces. I've met some of them. They're just regular people. A few seem to have "chips" on their shoulders, a very few. Most are very nice, very smart, very graciaus. But, yes, working with space suits, we sometimes need to have astronauts evaluate a new suit, so I have worked with some. To name a few, I've met Story Musgrave, Jim Buchli, Mary Cleave, Sherwood Spring, Jerry Ross .... and Jerry Carr from SpaceLab and of course Buzz Aldrin from Apollo. Bernadette,do you know anyone from Apollo 13? If I recall from a chat last spring - didn't you do some work with zero-gravity and the filming of Apollo? but here's one better: some friends of mine had to test some hardware on the KC-135 -- have you heard of that? It's the "vomit comet" -- the plane that flies zero-g parabolas for 2 hours at a time -- Anyway, on the same flight, Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon (and the other guy from that Apollo 13 movie) were flying, to get used to weightlessness. So my friends got they're autographs. Now to us, who work with and hear about and see astronauts all the time, the movie stars seemed like a big deal. Funny, eh? Whats the vomit comet? Oh, I'm embarrassed. I misspelled a word. Sorry. Hopefully I answered your question about the vomit comet. It's an old plane that has had all the seats removed, and the inside is lined with foam. It flies up and down like a roller coaster for 2 hours. Going over the "top" of the hill, all inside the plane become weightless for a period of about 30 35 seconds. At the bottom, though, all weigh about twice their normal weight (2 -g). Some folks spend the whole time vomiting. Some don't. Thus the nickname. Were the apollo scenes real and did they practice at NASA? In the movie, most of the "weightless" scenes were faked. Watch them again. Most of the time you don't see the whole person, who is being supported or actually standing up, but out of the view of the camera. But some shots were filmed on the KC135, yes. Who gets to sew the suits? And space suits THESE days are sewn by people not much different from your parents. There's a company in Dover Delaware -- ILC, Dover, it's called. I've heard, but I'm not certain, that it used to be called International Latex Corporation (ILC) -- and sewed bras and girdles and such. But now it's part of Hamilton Standard, a large company, which is part of United Technologies, which is a huge company that makes airplane engines, among other things. Do all astronauts spend time in the vomit comet to make sure they can handle it? Yes, part of astronaut training, I think as they near a flight mission, is training on the KC 135, to get a feel for weightlessness. Fluids which are normally distributed throughout your body, move"up", to your head and face, making it look a little swollen. Plus, you've got to get used to "moving" in zero-g. Underwater training is used for the EVA training. In America we have a lot of different nationalities. How did your experiences in Thailand help you get along with people and/or help you in your job? Well, I can proudly say that I get along very well with people of all flavors. I can have wonderful conversations (in English) with people who have very strong accents. Some people find it difficult. I can be surrounded by people speaking another language (my relatives are spanish -speaking) and not become paranoid that they're talking about me. I love to hear foreign languages spoken, it's like music to me. And when I (rarely) meet a Thai person, being able to stumble through a couple of Thai childrens' songs, makes them laugh and "breaks the ice". Erica is from Dover,DE. Do you have any pets? I don't have any pets. And that's because of a couple things: I work, my husband works, and no one is home all day. Out here we don't have large yards to make a good home for a dog, for instance. There aren't a whole lot of "open" areas, for dog-running/walking. But my kids want a dog, so one day I suppose I'll give in.My daughter wants a "lassie". And my son wants a dalmation, and they both want a St. Bernard in addition. Can you imagine? Will they ever have dogs on mission? You know, I just had a conversation with Story Musgrave, a long time astronaut with about FIVE degrees, and he was talking about just that. He said he saw it in the future, that not only would there be research animals on board, there'd be animals for companionship. So I don't doubt it. ********** I am wondering what future missions you are working on? Well, I am working on things for which there IS no mission yet. Life support for a lunar base or for a mars mission, and so far the American public and Congress haven't said for certain that they want to pursue such things. But I have friends who prepared the experiments for the current mission, and the previousmission, and for Neurolab, which is a big science mission scheduled for 1998 , with lots of brain-related experiments on board. Can you tell us more aobout the Neurolab? I can't tell you too much, except that Neurolab is the name NASA has given to one of the 1998 flights. You can find the flight schedule by going to the NASA (HQ) home page, or the Johnson Space Center home page. The 1990's were declared the "decade" of the brain, by some government entity. There's an organization called the DANA Alliance that funds brain research, and they produce some really incredibly interesting work, do a web search on them. There are also going to be some events scheduled at museums around the country related to Neurolab, in which the museums will invite a local classroom in and link up either to JSC or to the shuttle or to an astronaut in Houston or a scientist in California, and kids will have a chance to talk to the folks who are performing the mission. One of these events will likely occur inSan Jose, locally here. Probably one down near Atlanta too. Our teachers are all trained in what is called brain compatable learning - having to do with things like absence of threat, calm atmosphere, all related to how research has shown kids learn best. I had no idea that this was drawing from the decade of the brain. We will go check out the DANA alliance now. THanks I found out about the DANA Alliance quite by accident. MY son had fluid in the ears as a preschooler -- never really had lots of ear infections, so we didn't spot it until he began to speak as if he didn't quite hear us right. I searched the internet for hearing disorders and found out that right here at UCSF there is a speech and learning disorder group that researches speech deficiencies. Funded by the DANA Alliance, in part. How's that for coincidence. Wasn't aware of it and it's in my own backyard. ********** Do you think it is hard for your kids when you both work? Yes, I think sometimes it is. Do both your parents work? I try to tell stories about what happened each day at work, just like I ask my children what happened at school each day. They've met quite a few of my co-workers, and they've come in to my office occasionally, when I've forgotten something. So it's not a big "mystery". And I make sure I spend some time with them at THEIR schools, that's the nice thing about this place, they expect me to work at least 40 hours, but they don't demand that it be from 9 to five everyday. Do you ever wish you were a stay at home mom? Yes, at least once a week I wish I were a stay at home mom. I think all working moms do occasionally. But at least once a week something happens here at work and I thank God I'm NOT a stay at home mom, or I wouldn't have experienced that. I think I'm setting a good example for my little girl, as well, by showing her that woman CAN do more that raise children. Taking care of the family just comes naturally. That's the #1 priority. I wake up, shower and dress, wake the kids up, get THEM dressed, make sure everyone's fed, play, chat, whatever, take my 6-year old to school, then take my 4 and 1.5 year olds to the daycare center, which is RIGHT HERE at work,and then I come to my office. When the daycare center has a valentine's day party, or a mother's day party, I just leave my office. As long as my work gets done in a reasonable amount of time, no one complains. Can you work from home? Do you have to account for a certain amount of hours or is it more how much you get done. How do you get to the point when you can work your own hours and take care of your family as well. I'm in H.S. and we have been taking about this in our class. I personally find it difficult to work from home. But folks whose jobs are primarily performed on computers work from home all the time. Or folks who use the telephone a lot, or drive around a lot. I have a lab here with lots of equipment that ISN'T at my house. I can do some writing there tho, if I stay up late when my children sleep. ********** I've been having computer difficulties but I am here. I'm a thirteen year old living in Pennsylvania. I would like to grow up to be an aerospace engineer working for NASA. What do you think was the most important thing you do as a teenager that still helpsyou today? I'm so glad you're here !! I'm from Pennsylvania too !!! My mom lives in Lancaster. I love to hear from folks back there. And I'd say one important thing I did as a teenager is read a lot, and take the most advanced classes I could, in high school and college. It just gives you a broader knowledge base, so when something catches your attention, you actually know something about it already. Make sense? Yes, thanks a lot. I visit all of the NASA web sites often and learn a lot. I think that speaking one to one is more benificial, is there any advise you can offer me, other than to take challenging classes? Lindsay, is your goal to become an astronaut? I mean, are you one of those people who are fascinated by space travel? Do you follow the Shuttle missions religiously? As a matter of fact I am. I don't nessisarilly want to be an astronaut but I am very interested in space travel and how to make it better and more efficient. Other advice: get internships or even unpaid jobs having to do with aerospace, as soon as you are able. These will be available in college, to be sure, but sometimes in high school as well. For instance, there is a program here at Ames called the STELLAR MCP program. For 8 weeks in the summer, 8 high school students who have experience, talent, and interest in multimedia technology (CDROM production, digital video, digital imaging, etc.) come to Ames and produce an educational CD on a given topic and it's dis tributed nationwide to schools. There is one on the Heart in Space, and one of the Vestibular system. they're really professional and all done by students your age ! Imagine what THAT looks like on your resume ! Search the Ames websit for STELLAR and you can find out more. I think there's an online application. You'd fit in SO WELL here. The key to working for NASA is that you have to be either 1)blinded by science (that's me), 2) a real space/air travel enthhusiast and 3) not driven by making lots of money. Sounds like this might be a good place for you. You can call the astronaut office and get them to mail you an application packet, so you see what qualifications astronauts need to have. Lots of them are military pilots,but not all. flying experience helps. Can't have eyesight that's too bad (it must be correctable with lenses). Can't have had radial keratotomy (spelling is wrong there I bet) because no one knows how the micro-g environment would interact with that ... lots of stuff. More than a BS, you need a Masters or a PhD or an MD ..... I don't know where you are, but lots of companies offer internships to college students, and I bet to high school students as well. Aerospace companies like Hamilton Standard (United Technologies), Umpqua (Oregon), Allied Signal (Los Angeles), Grumman (New York, Los Angeles) etc. are place you can check out. I can't tell you how much I appriciate your advise. I think I'll try looking up the sight. Thanks again! ********** What other kinds of careers did you think about besides working at NASA? Believe it or not I wanted to be an ARTIST ! I drew a little better than average as a youngster, I used to open magazines and and try to copy the photos and illustrations, I had my own art set -- oils and pastels and pencils and such. But someone somewhere told me that it'd be hard to make a living doing that, so I veered technical, which was where my other strength was. I admire to this day budding artists of all types, and I envy them. Maybe someday I'll give it another whirl. You know, the funny thing is that in the space suit world, there is a lot of talk about stitching and pleating and fabrics and knits and weaves and new fibers, etc. So my former fascination with fashion and sewing, and my knitting "stage" gave me great experience and knowledge that actually helpedme !!! Isn't that a riot? ********** Hey, all you guys, I really have fun talking to you this way. It helps me and it helps you. Sounds like you all admire NASA. Let your congressperson know that ! There are bios of other women as well. I've found LOTS of women I look up to here, lots of role models. Seek them out. You can learn a lot from women who have "done it already". I look forward to chatting with you again, Gretchen. Feel free to email me as well. Okay, Tish, I'm signing off. I really love doing this. It's fun. I'll talk to you later.