Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Interview With Peggy Whitson, Crew Of Aquarius
Aired June 26, 2003 - 15:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Astronaut Peggy Whitson sure has some ups and downs on the job. She spent six months orbiting 200 miles above the earth on the international space station. Now she's more than 60 feet below the earth in the ocean off Key Largo, Florida.
Whitson joins us live from Aquarius, an underwater lab that's part of NASA's extreme environment training. What a pleasure that we got the signal. Peggy, thank you!
PEGGY WHITSON, NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, great to be here with the crew in the Aquarius facility. It's actually owned by NOAA (ph), the folks that work on it are out of the university of North Carolina in Wilmington, and NASA works in cooperation with the extreme environment mission operations program.
WOODFRUFF: Well, Peggy, we thought we were just going to have the chance to interview you, but you're surrounded by your entire crew. This is awesome!
Why don't you introduce to us each person there and tell us exactly what you guys are doing.
WHITSON: Okay. Well, I'll start here and let each crew member introduce themselves.
CLAY ANDERSON, AQUARIUS CREW MEMBER: My name's Clay Anderson, and I'm an astronaut from the class of 1998.
EMMA BALL: I'm Emma Ball. I'm a researcher at the Johnson Space Center. And I'm responsible for the science experiments that are being conducted on this mission.
GARRETT REESEMAN, ASTRONAUT: I'm Garrett Reeseman, also an astronaut class of 1998.
RYAN SNOW, AQUARIUS CREW MEMBER: I'm Ryan Snow. I'm one of the habitat technicians here, and I work for Aquarius and help keep everything running down here.
JAMES TOWSICK, AQUARIUS CREW MEMBER: I'm James Towsick (ph). I'm also a technician here, and work for UNC Wilmington and the Aquarius habitats.
WHITSON: This Aquarius habitat provides us a really unique environment. It's about 42 feet long, and it's similar to one module of the international space station -- one of the six -- and so it's pretty confined environment. We also are very similar to being in space because we just can't return to the surface anytime we want. We have to go through a 17- hour decompression.
WOODRUFF: So Peggy, do you guys ever get on each other's nerves? How do you handle living together in such tight quarters?
(LAUGHTER)
WHITSON: It is pretty tight quarters, but I'm really lucky. I got a really great crew, all these guys work together really well, and I think the key is always communication.
WOODRUFF: Well...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once in a while, we do act up -- once in a while we do act up, but so far Peggy hasn't made any of us walk the plank. So we're very happy about that.
WOODRUFF: I can't imagine walking the plank. That would be pretty scary.
Do you guys ever get a chance to go out and explore in the water there, or do you have to stay inside?
WHITSON: No, actually, we go out on daily dives, simulating, doing space walks on a daily basis, or, you know, like we would either from the space shuttle or space station or maybe on future Mars missions, where we go out and do daily excursions.
We do some testing of hardware, and we've also just recently been working on some coral science experiments where we're gathering and collecting data for the experts up on the topside who can analyze our videos and the numbers that we write down for them.
WHITSON: Wow!
So clay, when you guys are finished, and you have to come back up, I know that takes, like 18 hours, right? How do you avoid the bends or the decompression sickness?
ANDERSON: Well, the whole idea is that we're saturated with nitrogen in our blood right now. So once you make that 24-hour point you can be down here indefinitely.
And at the end of our 14 day mission, we'll go through a 17-hour decompression period where they'll change the Aquarius habitat, essentially, into a decompression chamber. They'll put us to the correct pressure that we need to get back to the surface, so to speak, and then they'll repressurize the habitat one last time We'll put on some minimal scuba gear and head to the surface.
WOODRUFF: Wow!
Well as you can imagine, we received a number of e-mails. We're not going to have a chance to get all of them. But here one, Peggy, that was actually directed to you.
Taylor in Newport news, Virginia wants to know, when you are going toward space, does the pressure against your body feel as though you are going deeper in a pool/ocean.
WHISON: Actually, it's probably a little more similar to being in a very fast car. It pushes you back into your seat when you're launching on the space vehicle. And the G forces end up going through your body like you were riding in a car and accelerating very quickly.
WOODRUFF: Wow!
Well I can just imagine the biggest difference here is that there is certainly a lot more alien life forms floating around out there and swimming around rather than up in space, Peggy, yes?
WHITSON: Oh, most definitely. We've been -- some of the folks yesterday got to see a Hammerhead Shark. Which kind of opened some eyes pretty wide. And we've seen some really interesting Eagle Rays, Spotted Eagle Rays, Stingrays, an incredible number and array of fish and different types of coral and sea life. Amazing.
WOODRUFF: Well, it's absolutely amazing what you and your crew are doing. We thank you so much, coming us to live down under is the Nemo Project, NASA's extreme environment mission operation designed to simulate space conditions on the ocean floor. Amazing stuff. Thanks so much, you guys.
WHITSON: Thank you.
CREW: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 26, 2003 - 15:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Astronaut Peggy Whitson sure has some ups and downs on the job. She spent six months orbiting 200 miles above the earth on the international space station. Now she's more than 60 feet below the earth in the ocean off Key Largo, Florida.
Whitson joins us live from Aquarius, an underwater lab that's part of NASA's extreme environment training. What a pleasure that we got the signal. Peggy, thank you!
PEGGY WHITSON, NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, great to be here with the crew in the Aquarius facility. It's actually owned by NOAA (ph), the folks that work on it are out of the university of North Carolina in Wilmington, and NASA works in cooperation with the extreme environment mission operations program.
WOODFRUFF: Well, Peggy, we thought we were just going to have the chance to interview you, but you're surrounded by your entire crew. This is awesome!
Why don't you introduce to us each person there and tell us exactly what you guys are doing.
WHITSON: Okay. Well, I'll start here and let each crew member introduce themselves.
CLAY ANDERSON, AQUARIUS CREW MEMBER: My name's Clay Anderson, and I'm an astronaut from the class of 1998.
EMMA BALL: I'm Emma Ball. I'm a researcher at the Johnson Space Center. And I'm responsible for the science experiments that are being conducted on this mission.
GARRETT REESEMAN, ASTRONAUT: I'm Garrett Reeseman, also an astronaut class of 1998.
RYAN SNOW, AQUARIUS CREW MEMBER: I'm Ryan Snow. I'm one of the habitat technicians here, and I work for Aquarius and help keep everything running down here.
JAMES TOWSICK, AQUARIUS CREW MEMBER: I'm James Towsick (ph). I'm also a technician here, and work for UNC Wilmington and the Aquarius habitats.
WHITSON: This Aquarius habitat provides us a really unique environment. It's about 42 feet long, and it's similar to one module of the international space station -- one of the six -- and so it's pretty confined environment. We also are very similar to being in space because we just can't return to the surface anytime we want. We have to go through a 17- hour decompression.
WOODRUFF: So Peggy, do you guys ever get on each other's nerves? How do you handle living together in such tight quarters?
(LAUGHTER)
WHITSON: It is pretty tight quarters, but I'm really lucky. I got a really great crew, all these guys work together really well, and I think the key is always communication.
WOODRUFF: Well...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once in a while, we do act up -- once in a while we do act up, but so far Peggy hasn't made any of us walk the plank. So we're very happy about that.
WOODRUFF: I can't imagine walking the plank. That would be pretty scary.
Do you guys ever get a chance to go out and explore in the water there, or do you have to stay inside?
WHITSON: No, actually, we go out on daily dives, simulating, doing space walks on a daily basis, or, you know, like we would either from the space shuttle or space station or maybe on future Mars missions, where we go out and do daily excursions.
We do some testing of hardware, and we've also just recently been working on some coral science experiments where we're gathering and collecting data for the experts up on the topside who can analyze our videos and the numbers that we write down for them.
WHITSON: Wow!
So clay, when you guys are finished, and you have to come back up, I know that takes, like 18 hours, right? How do you avoid the bends or the decompression sickness?
ANDERSON: Well, the whole idea is that we're saturated with nitrogen in our blood right now. So once you make that 24-hour point you can be down here indefinitely.
And at the end of our 14 day mission, we'll go through a 17-hour decompression period where they'll change the Aquarius habitat, essentially, into a decompression chamber. They'll put us to the correct pressure that we need to get back to the surface, so to speak, and then they'll repressurize the habitat one last time We'll put on some minimal scuba gear and head to the surface.
WOODRUFF: Wow!
Well as you can imagine, we received a number of e-mails. We're not going to have a chance to get all of them. But here one, Peggy, that was actually directed to you.
Taylor in Newport news, Virginia wants to know, when you are going toward space, does the pressure against your body feel as though you are going deeper in a pool/ocean.
WHISON: Actually, it's probably a little more similar to being in a very fast car. It pushes you back into your seat when you're launching on the space vehicle. And the G forces end up going through your body like you were riding in a car and accelerating very quickly.
WOODRUFF: Wow!
Well I can just imagine the biggest difference here is that there is certainly a lot more alien life forms floating around out there and swimming around rather than up in space, Peggy, yes?
WHITSON: Oh, most definitely. We've been -- some of the folks yesterday got to see a Hammerhead Shark. Which kind of opened some eyes pretty wide. And we've seen some really interesting Eagle Rays, Spotted Eagle Rays, Stingrays, an incredible number and array of fish and different types of coral and sea life. Amazing.
WOODRUFF: Well, it's absolutely amazing what you and your crew are doing. We thank you so much, coming us to live down under is the Nemo Project, NASA's extreme environment mission operation designed to simulate space conditions on the ocean floor. Amazing stuff. Thanks so much, you guys.
WHITSON: Thank you.
CREW: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
