Last week, Phoebe from Missing Perspectives got to chat to Katherine Bennell-Pegg – aka Australia’s first female astronaut. You can read our full feature on Katherine (and the amazing work she’s doing with LEGO) here.
For now – here are five fun facts about space that Phoebe came back to the Missing Perspectives office raving about after the interview with Katherine. We obviously had to share!?
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Astronauts have playlists that they listen to during takeoff
Katherine says that astronauts curate playlists that they listen to during takeoff.
“I have this space playlist that helps motivate me. I set it up during the astronaut selection and then I like to add space songs in there that have anything to do with space. It’s a bit eclectic. It doesn’t mix together well, but it’s an accumulation of space songs and it might come in handy because when you get to go to space often when you’re waiting on the rocket, there’ll be like a playlist and you can pick some songs from your country,” she tells Missing Perspectives.
“A lot of the astronauts will have a Spotify playlist when they go to space for their mission. So you gotta pick some iconic Australian space songs. So what’s on there, can you just feel? All the classics, like everything from the Wiggles’ Rocket Ship to Astronaut in the Ocean.
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Astronauts are medical guinea pigs – which means more research in space helps more women on earth
“Astronauts are medical guinea pigs for a lot of health issues on earth and a lot of health issues are gender related,” says Katherine.
“They’re related to your hormones and your anatomy. So more research on women in space helps women on earth. So there’s like studies that are done where they can’t include the women astronauts because you don’t have enough data points, right?”
An example Katherine uses is osteoporosis. “It affects women more,” she says. “Astronauts are a major research tool for osteoporosis because in space you lose bone mass multiple times faster than a post-menopausal woman. So you can test countermeasures like different exercise techniques, different drugs, and so there’s a lot to be done there. And I hope to help advance that.”
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During their training, astronauts have to learn how to speak Russian
“The International Space Station is an international platform and a lot of it is what they call the US segment, which includes the Europeans in the UK, Canada and Japan. And the language spoken in that one is English,” Katherine says.
“Then there’s another segment of the International Space Station that’s Russian and the language spoken there on all the dials and the procedures is Russian. So everyone that goes up has to have a certain level of English and Russian. And you’re working together, you know, united by that common vision for space. So you want [the] team up there, but it’s important both for safety and operations and crew cohesion, you know, to have that team bonding that you can speak both languages.”
4. Astronauts learn how to spacewalk via scuba diving
Yes, you read that right. “We learned the start of how to do spacewalks underwater in huge pools like scuba diving around big mockups,” Katherine tells us. “Because it’s the best way we can replicate microgravity on Earth. It’s not exactly the same, like water dampens your motion. You still have gravity inside the suit, right? But it’s the best way to learn the procedures and the tools today. We also did zero G flights to kind of balance that out.”
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The International Space Station hosts movie nights
The International Space Station hosts movie nights for astronauts while they are stationed there on missions – and Katherine is excited to see which movies they have lined up when she’s up there.