Welcome

Welcome. This is my blog about space science. At least that's my idea right now. We'll see how it evolves. I'm writing this because I deal with space science for my work and I thought, "Hey. This is some interesting stuff. Maybe other people would want to know about it too."

What I plan to do here is update you on the science we're doing on board the International Space Station, what I'm learning, and how things are going. This is my personal blog. It's not affiliated with ESA or NASA or anything, and the opinions are my own. Hopefully you find it interesting.

Growing up I was always fascinated by science fiction set in space - books and TV and films where people launched off the planet and explored the galaxy. Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Gattaca, Ender’s Game. For a while I even wanted to be an astronaut and I had this in the back of my mind as I studied physics and got a PhD. Now I’m a space scientist. I work with the Human Spaceflight Program at the European Space Agency.  Basically, I'm part of a big international team the plans the science experiments that happens on board the International Space Station, and supports the operators and crew. I coordinate with the other space agencies – the U.S. agency (NASA), the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) (I also work with the Russian Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) but not as often and not directly).  When Astronauts perform our experiments, I’m there – sitting in a console room, watching them do science.

Mostly this is uneventful. Hollywood tells us there are aliens ready to telepathically invade our minds, hunt us down and chase us into ventilation spaces, suck onto our faces and burst out of our chests. There are also intergalactic battles from species trying to take over the galaxy, and there are crazed crewmembers, driven insane by the isolation of space, or pushed through another dimension, ready to terrorize their shipmates. Compared to these adventures, the day-to-day lives of the real-life astronauts are pretty dull. Men and women in khaki pants, golf shirts and socks float peaceably past the cameras, hooking their toes underneath bars in the walls so they can keep themselves in place to adjust this equipment or set up that experiment. They unpack gear which immediately starts to float away if they don’t catch it, and they pick up a hand-held radio to talk about what they’re doing while they bob up and down: “I’m starting on step 3.7 now.”

This is a view of the Console Room at the Erasmus Center at ESTEC. It usually isn't this full. A bunch of people were here when the Canada Robotic Arm was used to install ASIM, a detector designed to measure effects in the upper atmosphere during storms. (Source)

It’s kind of like watching my own reality TV show, but without the designer clothes and interpersonal drama. And nobody wins any prizes. Oh, and nobody gets a shower (there aren’t any showers on the ISS. Ack!!). This kind of voyeurism would be creepy, except it’s my job. When I met the astronaut Alexander Gerst for the first time, it was weird for me because although I’d spent six months watching him doing science on the space station, he had never met me and had no idea who I was. I actually asked him if he thought it was creepy that so many people were watching him (including me!). He was nice enough to say that it wasn’t – because we are all part of the same team. So that’s okay then.

If you're interested you can read an article I wrote about Alexander Gerst's Horizons Mission here.

This is literally the only picture I have with me and crewmember Alexander Gerst at the same time. Because I didn't think to ask for a selfie. (Source)