Transcript: Shuttle crew answers questions from CNN.com users

Endeavour's crew, from left: mission specialists Carlos Noriega, Joe Tanner and Marc Garneau; Commander Brent Jett; and Pilot Mike Bloomfield

In this story: Brent Jett, commander Mike Bloomfield, pilot Carlos Noriega Joe Tanner Marc Garneau RELATED STORIES, SITES

(CNN) -- The following is a transcript of a taped interview with the crew of Endeavour mission STS-97, conducted by Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien prior to launch. Questions submitted by CNN.com users were used in the interview.

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Q: Does the constant view from Earth make you feel homesick? -- Kayzad Namdarian

A: No, not really. It is very impressive. You can probably break down astros and ask them what is most impressive thing about flying in space, and about 50 percent of them will say, the view of the Earth. ... You are awestruck. The other 50 percent will say zero gravity; they will say it is like flying, like being a kid. I think the IMAX films do excellent view job. The one thing you can't bring back is zero gravity. Looking at the Earth is great, you don't feel homesick at all, in fact you feel very close to it. It is so large and you look forward to looking out the window the whole time. You don't feel homesick at all.

Q: Do you find it difficult to sleep in a weightless environment? I see arms and legs "floating" in front of you in pictures, that to me would be kind of unsettling. -- Dave Heinzinger

A: Very difficult. My first mission -- this is one of the things we talked about, space first mission -- I got up there, the first day is very busy. Supposed to go to bed about five hours after launch just like this mission, and I was working right up until then, and basically just Velcroed the sleeping bag to the wall tied it off and basically just got into it ... and every time I got into it and closed my eyes, I felt like falling. Now I have learned that I string out my sleeping bag like a hammock and make it as tight as I can and then I get in it and zip it up and use those Velcro straps and make it as tight as I can I need to feel like I am tied down to something touching something, or I feel like I am falling and it will wake me up.

I don't sleep as well in space as I do on Earth. But I don't think you need to sleep as much either; physical activity is not as intense. (You) don't have to spend all the time holding up your own weight. So physical activity is greatly decreased except for the guys who have to go outside. The mental activity is what makes you tired, so four to six hours is enough for me.

Q: Does the constant view from Earth make you feel homesick? -- Kayzad Namdarian

A: Not really it is kind of funny when you go across the United States -- we went across at night -- and it only takes you at the speeds we are going 10 minutes to get from California to new York -- I mean you are moving really, really fast -- and on my last flight, STS-86, you would see the coastline, the Pacific coast of California and you would see San Diego Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco -- it was at night -- and your could see all the lights. (It) was very obvious where the Pacific Ocean ended and where all the cities began and then the lights would break up with the Rocky Mountains and you would get into the plains of the United States and there (are) all these cities and they are all about the same size and they all have roads leading from one city to the next and you can see all that at night -- and then the first big city you could actually pick up is Chicago, because it sits on the lake up there. Very, very distinctive coastline if you will, and I am from Michigan originally and so I would find Chicago and then look to the east and see Chicago from Chicago all the way to Detroit, Cleveland and New York, there are these four big globs of light all lined up -- and when we get close to Detroit -- and I knew the area pretty well -- so now I not only know the cities, but I also know the freeways the interstates that go between the different cities, and so I knew where U.S. 23 came south out of Flint and I knew where I-75 was that north out of Detroit and they would intersect maybe 20 miles south of Flint -- and then my house was about five miles south of that -- so you could look down and almost say that is my house right there.

It is funny because everybody does the same thing. Fifteen minutes later we were flying over France and Jean Luc Chretian was on the flight and he is doing the same thing -- he is pointing the different cities and roads and right where his house is. I didn't get homesick -- some of the people that had been up there on Mir for four or five months did, but I didn't get homesick at all.

Q: What makes the shuttle turn around and fly upside down in space and why? -- Charles Allard, age 4

A: We have little thrusters on the outside of the orbiter and we tell it to fly upside down for two reasons: One: so we have a good view -- because we can look out the top windows -- and we also do it for thermal reasons, to keep the orbiter at the right temperature.

Q: Realistically, can the International Space Station be used as a stepping stone to more manned missions to the moon and Mars, and if so, how? -- Ron Martinez, Monroe Middle School, San Jose, California

A: We don't know very much about living and working in space -- we are pretty much infants when it comes to that kind of stuff. We went to the moon but we haven't been there now in a quarter of a century. We are starting to build the International Space Station, and we are going to learn more about living in space. We are going to learn more about how the human body reacts to long periods of being in space. We are going to learn more about how to build systems that are going to work efficiently in space -- how to build propulsion systems that will get us quickly to one place and the other.

When Lewis and Clark went on their expedition, they had no idea what they would find. If you think about it wasn't that long ago those guys were out there on the Missouri River trying to find that passage to the Pacific Ocean, and it is the same thing here. We don't know what we are going to learn, but this is a first step and we have a plan and we will learn a little bit at a time and as we learn more we will make more decisions and invest the money where we need to optimize our ability to live and work in space.

Q: I have always wondered what instructions are given to astronauts regarding a "close encounter" with an ET or other unusual phenomenon. While remote, the possibility must be considered. -- Walt Adams

A: (laughs) Take a picture. (laughter)

Q: What does it smell like on the space shuttle? What about after a week with five people on board, in close quarters, without access to a real shower? -- Jon Summers

A: Well, I don't remember it smelling bad. In fact I don't remember the smell portion of it at all. Some of the food, when you heat up the food you smell it -- the chicken -- or like fish, the odor is very prevalent. There is no dirt up there. We work out and the sweat clings to your body, so you wipe it off with a towel. My wife said I did not smell that bad when I got back home -- I don't know if she was just being nice or whatever -- but it really wasn't an issue up there on STS-86.

Q: What comforts do we have in our lives on Earth, that we take for granted on Earth, but that you miss once you are in space? -- Jon Summers

A: Believe it or not, you miss the predictability of things. I talked about zero gravity -- gravity makes things predictable. You know that when you drop -- you let go of a pencil it is going to go to the floor. In space that doesn't happen. You let go of the pencil and you have no idea where it's going to go. That applies to everything. If I want to turn a knob -- when I turn a knob here on Earth -- the knob turns. If I go to turn the knob up in space, if I haven't anchored my lower body, I turn; the knob doesn't turn.

And so you start to take things for granted, that it is going to move, so it is a whole new environment and you have to rethink the way you do business. This morning we had a sim and when you get into space one of the first things you do is take off your gloves. When I was in the sim, I just set them down on the shelf. When I am up in space I just can't set them down, I have to put them somewhere. I have to stick them under something; I have to tie them down. Otherwise they are just going to float away. That's the thing that you start to take for granted -- that's what the Earth allows us -- it allows things to be predictable, but you don't have that up in space at all.

Q: Realistically, can the International Space Station be used as a stepping stone to more manned missions to the moon and Mars, and if so, how? -- Ron Martinez, Monroe Middle School, San Jose, California

A: I believe strongly in that idea. We need to move beyond low-Earth orbit to do that we need to go long distances -- to go long distances we have had problems that we have seen in the past -- the effects of long-duration flight on a crew member. You don't want to spend several months getting to Mars -- or a year -- and then show up there as a bowl of jelly, not being able to get any work done. It is a waste of a trip.

So we have a lot of medical research we can do on the space station. Also it is a platform -- or could be a platform -- for items like a new generation of engine from our office. Franklin Chang-Diaz is working on a new propulsion system and we could test that on board the space station as well. It would have the electricity available to it and it is a very low thrust engine that we could actually take care of station reboosts on a continuous basis using that engine, so I see a lot of potential. And that is just for the Mars mission. Then there (are) other things you can do in space, as far as things like protein crystals -- and other science that we tend to do for short terms on the shuttle that we can do for long terms on the station.

Q: Realistically, can the International Space Station be used as a stepping stone to more manned missions to the moon and Mars, and if so, how? -- Ron Martinez, Monroe Middle School, San Jose, California

A: Realistically -- yes, yes, yes -- there are some very important things that we need to learn about something as basic as the human body before we go to Mars. Now we know that we can go to moon -- we have done, that we have proved that -- and we need to go back and do more things there. The station can help a little bit there, but mostly it is for the trip to Mars and the human body. What do we have to do to the human body to make it survive that kind of a journey?

When you go to mars and you are going to have to work around on the planet's surface you are going to have to wear an environmental control device of some sort. It weighs something. The moon has a sixth gravity, mars a third, and you are going to need to have good working muscles and a good skeletal structure -- so what do you do to the human body to prepare it? Is pure exercise the answer, or is there a pharmaceutical approach? The only way you are going to learn that is to put somebody in space and do some research, pre and post and during, on what protocols are most effective -- and of course the whole materials processing challenge that we have faced very successfully on short-term missions on the shuttle -- how we can do that long-term on the station? How is that going to help you get to Mars? Well, it may.

Q: In addition to mission training, do the astronauts/cosmonauts undergo basic cross-language training? -- Paresh Kitchloo

A: Yes -- Da -- our whole crew has taken Russian at one level or another. Carlos and Mike and I were probably the junior members of the foreign language club. We were doing a session a week for over a year -- a year and a half I think it was -- and we finally dropped it in middle of summer to concentrate more on our training. Things were getting a little bit too hectic.

But we learned. I can communicate a little bit in Russian -- I am not fluent by any means -- but enough to ask you how you are and listen a little bit.

Q: How is carbon-dioxide produced by the crew removed from the space station? -- Vidur Joshi, Edgewater, New Jersey

A: The shuttle uses lithium hydroxide canisters, but we also have an atmospheric revitalization system (I think is what it is called) that is not active on Endeavour. We are still using lithium hydroxide. The station has an active system that uses electrical power to scrub the CO-2 out. I think it is pretty effective. That is a rechargeable type of system as opposed to the LIOH cans we have to bring up and then back to the Earth and recharge them.

Q: How many more years do I have to wait as a teacher, before I can go on a shuttle mission? (That is, when's your best guess that NASA will certify that civilians will be able travel safely aboard the shuttle?) Ron Martinez, Monroe Middle School, San Jose, California

A: Of course there was a lot of talk generated when Christa McAuliffe died in Challenger in 1986 about the whole issue. I think that as result of that NASA has adopted a philosophy of making sure that anybody who flies on the shuttle is fully aware of what they are getting into. I also believe that Christa McAuliffe knew exactly what she was getting in to because I flew just before she did and I was only trained here for two months, but I knew what I was getting into. So I think Christa knew what she was getting involved with, so I don't think NASA was actually negligent in that respect, but there is a greater sensitivity and awareness of it today. And we do have a teacher here in the corps -- and she will fly. I don't know when, but she is here specifically to fly. I think once that happens, it will happen on a more frequent basis -- and I think I can easily imagine on board the International Space Station -- with an emphasis on it being a place where you can promote education -- there will be future teachers going in to space on board the station and going up there for a fairly respectable period of time.

I know that the station is going to eventually be accessible to people from the ground so that people can interact with it in terms of accessing. There will be education from space that will be provided as Internet packages that kind of thing. I know that they want to take advantage of it.

Q: As an instrumental music teacher and former professional musician ('60s rock), what type of music do you listen to in space? --Ron & Marsha

A: On my first flight I took all classical music -- this is back in 1984. I love baroque music -- Vivaldi and Handel and Bach -- and I just listened to that and to me that was just the most glorious experience, to be up there looking at the Earth, and to be floating and to be listening to this music. To me the music it enhanced the experience. I don't think rock music would enhance the experience. This time though, I am bringing up quite a mixture -- I want to see how I feel about it. I have really grown very fond of jazz in the last 10 years. So I am going to bring up some jazz -- Miles Davis -- and some Canadian jazz singers -- Diana Krawl, Oscar Peterson, people like that -- I want to see what kind of effect that has for me. But I also still have some classical music as well.

Q: Many in the scientific community feel that the billions of dollars (rubles, pounds, yen, etc) being spent on the ISS will result in very little real science being done. It is contended that far greater benefits to science (and technology) could be achieved if the same money were spent on earthly projects. How do you respond? -- John Scott

A: If you look at how great discoveries are made at universities to in research labs -- pharmaceuticals or something -- coming out with a product -- a new medication after 10 years of research -- you realize that the stereotype of the scientists in the white lab coat working seven days a week all year round before coming up with this new idea -- new theory, new product, or whatever -- is fairly accurate. It takes a lot of time.

The shuttle in the course of the last almost 20 years has been limited in what it can do. It can only go up into space for a week or two weeks so what it has allowed scientists to do is to sort of examine possibilities or investigate concepts or just get an initial feeling if something supports their hypothesis -- the effects of microgravity on whatever. What we really need is to have a laboratory up there in low Earth orbit in microgravity 365 days a year for a long time in the same ways they do down here on the ground, and I think that is where the space station has the potential to prove itself useful. It is like it is down here on the ground to have that sort of sustained research effort -- it is going to take time -- now that is where it is going to prove itself. I believe it will prove itself. Time will tell.

Q: Does the constant view of Earth make you feel the human race is nothing compared to what lies in space? -- Kayzad Namdarian

A. No it doesn't. What it does is certainly make you realize that we are incredibly -- it is almost an accident in a sense -- there is this small oasis of life on Earth on this very fragile looking planet -- and with a very fragile looking atmosphere we know we have partly damaged -- and we could totally destroy if we aren't careful. And that it is lost, this tiny little planet, in the middle of very vast and dark space. It also makes you realize that the universe is indeed vast. And it certainly made me feel strongly that we are not alone, that there is something out there somewhere, probably lots of it, and that some day we will establish that communication. It also make you feel, because it is a very emotional experience being in space.

It also seems to amplify your feelings of spirituality, depending on the individual. I certainly felt the presence of God up there. I don't think my friends would describe me as a devout person, but because it is such an unusual environment to be in, something so unique -- only a few hundred people have seen it -- somehow, you really feel there is a God that has put all this together.

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International Space Station
Boeing: International Space Station
Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour (OV-105)
NASA
Kennedy Space Center

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