Good Questions!

by Ray Oyung

5/13/99

Mrs. Mock and the students from Montessori School of Corona

It was lots of fun chatting with Mrs. Mock and the students from the Montessori School of Corona. Everyone had really good questions and I enjoyed meeting all of you. We talked about astronauts, the space shuttle, flying airplanes, the Wright Flyer, the wind tunnel located at Ames, and a little bit about myself. I wish there was more time so I could learn more about each of you.

I promised to answer a couple of really good questions that I didn't have time answering during the chat from Cyril about new things pilots do to keep from getting tired. Also I had to check on something for Neda about how long it takes to get to Mars. Great questions from both of you!

Mars is a far away place (about 48 million miles away). There are plans that have been made for this trip but they may change in the future. It will take about 12 months to travel to Mars, but first the astronauts going on this trip will need to transfer on the International Space Station. The trip will be in several parts. A space transport carrying the ship to Mars will be sent into Earth's orbit before the astronauts even leave the ground. This is the ship they will use to get to Mars and they need to carry it into orbit because a lot of gas is needed to get out of Earth's gravity. The ship wouldn't have enough gas to get to Mars if it went straight from Earth and there really aren't any gas stations that the astronauts can stop at along the way to refuel and get out to stretch. Good thing they have a bathroom onboard! Also, a supply ship carrying more food, water, and other things to live on Mars will be sent before the astronauts leave. The plan for now is that the astronauts after arriving at their destination will live on Mars for 6 months before returning home. Total round trip time for these astronauts from Earth to Mars and back will be about 3 years.

Now about Cyril's question on what pilots do to stay awake. In our program, we do several things. One thing is to teach people what we learn from our research. For those who need to stay awake like pilots when they fly, we teach them about why we sleep, some things that might happen in our sleep, and what can be done to get better sleep. Many times we tell them a few things that you might have heard someone say to you at night... "get to bed early and you'll feel better in the morning". Of course the response is, "but I'm not tired" right? So you stay up late and can't get out of bed in the morning to get ready for school. Pilots are human like everybody else. They sometimes stay up late because they're not tired and have a hard time getting up in the morning to get ready for work. We tell them that if they can get in and out of bed at a regular time or make a schedule at work that allows them to have a regular bedtime, then they'll feel better each day. It's easier to stay awake if we keep the same bedtime. Try it and I bet you'll feel better too!