NASA astronauts talk space life challenges, data collection

Yahoo Finance's "Space Race: Investing in the Final Frontier" series continues with an interview with NASA Astronauts Jeanette Epps and Tracy Dyson. The two space explorers join Wealth! to share their experiences in space.

Dyson describes their mission as ongoing, stressing that the primary objective is to learn how to live, work, and explore in space while gathering crucial data for future expeditions. She explains that these are long-duration missions, typically lasting six months or more for each astronaut.

Addressing the challenges of zero gravity, Epps notes, "It's hard to get used to." Astronauts must adapt to floating bodies and using minimal force to navigate, allowing "life without gravity to take place." As space tourism gains traction, Dyson cautions potential civilian space travelers: "The space environment and microgravity are very challenging."

While both astronauts acknowledge the fun aspects of space travel, they emphasize that scientific research remains the core focus of their explorations. Their primary goal is to collect valuable data that can enhance life on Earth.

Catch up on Yahoo Finance special coverage as part of this week's Space Race: Investing in the Final Frontier series.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Angel Smith

Video transcript

The International Space Station orbits at an altitude on average of about 250 miles from earth at around 17,500 MPH.

And I get to speak to two astronauts live from the ISS right now.

We have Jeanette EPPS and Tracy Dyson.

They are NASA astronauts and flight engineers for expedition 71.

This is Brad Smith with Yahoo Finance.

How do you hear me, Brad?

We hear you loud and clear how us wonderful, hear you clearly.

What is the current mission that you're on?

And what are you hoping to achieve while at the ISS?

Well, I think our current mission could be characterized as ongoing.

And so though um the people change the, the mission stays the same.

We're here to do science.

We're here to learn about how to live and work and explore space.

And the people that are up here doing the work are just trying to uh keep the, the motor running if you will.

And we also add to the data that they collect for space.

So we and of ourselves, we're experiments as well.

So we're here to contribute to all the knowledge that we gain from living here on the International Space Station for future exploration.

Talk to us about what a long duration mission is and what specifics go into some of the research that you're conducting, you won't be, don't too much.

Ok. Go ahead.

Well, just this week, some of the research that um I got to participate in is the material science lab.

And what that's looking at is the solid solidification process of metal alloys.

And so we look at how the solid solidification process changes without gravity and investigating these properties will help us make better metal alloys on earth and for space.

Ok. And we're gonna talk about zero gravity.

Long duration we talk about, yes, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

No, I just was gonna address the first part of your question of what long duration was and each one of us are up here for about six months and that's considered long duration, six months or more.

Wow.

And, and so Tracy, while you have the microphone, I, I see that you're both seemingly in zero gravity right now.

How do you deal with zero gravity?

Well, well, hand rails really help and um we uh we just learned to appreciate and respect microgravity and try to work with it rather than against it.

Certainly Jeanette.

Yeah, microgravity is hard to get used to it and you kind of, you kind of have to give in to it and just instead of controlling things like we would on earth.

Uh And here we have to use very light forces and let our bodies float, we don't fall.

So, you know, we're relatively safe but just letting gravity, letting life without gravity take place when you think about the amount of people that are signing up for space tourism and want to experience what you're experiencing right now in zero gravity.

How do you think this is going to change the broader landscape for how people appreciate space?

You know, what comes to mind is that there, there are a lot of fun aspects to being in space.

I mean, floating is one of them, this, this sensation that we have right now.

It seems kind of normal to us because we've been up here for several months.

Um But it's really neat, the kind of things that you can do um in the absence of gravity, not just um the fun things that we get to do, like float and, and uh do stupid astronaut tricks.

But also the science can be quite fascinating when you remove that component, but I'll tell you what the the space environment and microgravity um are very challenging.

And so I would say that there's a lot that you have to not only overcome but just um lower your expectations of your own uh ability to adapt to it at first.

Because what you knew of your life with gravity is so different than your life without it.

To me.

There is no such thing as a stupid astronaut trick.

This all seems very complex to us.

Mere Earthlings that are down here trying to figure out just how to make sure that we don't trip when we walk.

So we gotta know what, what is your own schedule like on a daily basis?

Well, I can give you, um, today, for example, um, the schedule changes every day, but today on my schedule I had exercise.

First exercise is one of the most important things we do for our health.

But it's also adding to the data that we collect here on the International Space Station.

So I had to do weight lifting and then I had to do the treadmill.

And so I had to do three miles on the treadmill after lifting, you know, today was my heaviest day.

So I'm gonna sleep pretty well tonight.

And then after that, we had so I had several tasks to help maintain the station.

So I was working here in the Japanese module, working on their um environmental monitoring sensors and making sure that sure that those work well.

And so the other part of the day was also looking at stowage and logistics on board because we don't have as much as um logistics stowage area as you think.

And then after that, we had a meeting and then you have lunch and then we have a coup.

We had another um earlier recording that we had to do.

And here we are right now, I would love to know as well when you think about the overlap and the combination of the privatization of the space industry and still the the public sector and how these forces have come together, how has that elevated the work that you're able to do?

And, and perhaps how has it changed it over time?

You know, we could probably talk about that aspect of space exploration um longer than we have time for today.

But I would say that one thing it's done is add a lot of complexity to what we already do.

Um And, and there's so many facets to that.

One of them is that, you know, NASA, um we, we've um had a very long history in space exploration, our relationship with our international partners to uh most notably with um our Russian colleagues and we've developed a culture and um when you bring in the privatization and the commercial and industrialization of space, it adds a component that um uh that highlights the word cooper operation and learning how to do that uh learning how to develop a another culture.

Um It takes time.

It's, it's quite a frontier.

So I would say it adds a lot of complexity.

But then again, there's so much more that we learn about the way we do business ourselves and, and our whole mission by expanding uh the circle and including those communities like privatization and commercialization.

Absolutely we need to leave the discussion there.

But as you were mentioning, you have a, you have space tricks that you've developed over time.

Can we just see one real quick before we let you go?

Ok. We'll, we'll try this but if it doesn't work, but we'll try it.

Remember, you have to lower your expectations.

Yes.

Stand by.

Wow.