Women Of NASA

Take Our Daughters To Work Day
Forum with Kathryn Clark
April 25, 2002

[ Cara/YWAC - 182 - 14:46:01 ]
Welcome! Thank you for joining our forum today in honor of Take Our Daughters to Work Day. This year's focus is on the Centennial of Flight and women's role in flight. We will be taking questions for Kathryn Clark, NASAâs Chief Scientist for the Human Exploration Development of Space Enterprise. You can read her bio at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/bios/women/clark.html. The Forum will be open from 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. PDT / 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. CDT / 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT. You may join in at any time to post questions or read responses. If your question appears on the forum, please do not repeat it. Please be sure to identify yourself -- Johnny/6th/TX or Pam/4th/Mr.Johnson -- at the beginning of your question. Remember, don't use your last name. For example -- Jesse/6th/Mr.Green - How many people live on the ISS?

[ Kathy - 186 - 15:32:30 ]
[ - 185 - 15:21:56 ]
Who inspired you to work at Nasa
I can answer all 3 of those questions at the same time. My father was a doctor and when I was young we used to talk about how the human body worked and why it didn't sometimes. That was my greatest influence in wanting to become a "physiologist", a scientist who studies how living systems work. I met John Glenn when I was 10 years old and have wanted to be a part of the space program since (I'd really like to be an astronaut). I do not have any children, but my job here requires me to live in a different state from my husband. That can be very difficult and takes a great deal of work and patience, particularly on his part.

[ Kathy - 189 - 18:01:46 ]
[ - 187 - 17:32:03 ]
Hello Kathryn Clark, Do you enjoy your job as a NASA person? I think it would be neat to do stuff with space. Do you think we will be able to have life on mars in less than a century? Margaux@MeGeheeSchool
I LOVE my job at NASA. I get to travel all over the world, meeting with highly creative and motivated people who want to figure out ways to do difficult things. I do think it will be possible to have people living on Mars in less than a century. We are working today to understand what happens to people when they leave the Earth and how to stop some of the bad things that happen. For instance, we do not yet understand why bones become less dense when astronauts are in space, so it is really difficult to fix them. This will be a bad problem because I'm not sure astronauts could walk on Mars when they got there - what good would that be? That's the kind of work I get to do.

[ Kathy - 190 - 18:04:43 ]
[ - 188 - 17:32:03 ]
Hi how long have you worked with the NASA program ?
I started working on science projects to fly on the space shuttle in 1993. I have had 7 experiments fly on the shuttle. I have not gotten to go, the astronauts have done the experiments for me. I have been working here at NASA Headquarters for 3 and a half years, first as the Space Station Senior Scientist - traveling around the world talking to scientists about what we needed to do to get research started on the space station, now I am the Chief Scientist for Human space flight, working with scientists on problems such as the one I mentioned above.

[ Kathy - 199 - 19:08:34 ]
[ - 193 - 18:38:59 ]
What is like to be chief scientist?
The job of Chief Scientist is absolutely wonderful. The best part about the job is getting to see all kinds of interesting places on the Earth (I have been to the North Pole, Asia, Europe, South America, and all over the United States), and the people I get to meet. I have gotten to speak to the United Nations and work on the movie "Space Cowboys". Those are pretty different kinds of things to do. I never get bored. Sometimes I worry that I have more to do than I can do in a day (or a year).

[ Kathy - 200 - 19:10:49 ]
[ - 195 - 18:38:59 ]
Rita - what is your greatest challenge?
For me the greatest challenge is to try to get communication among all the different countries we have working in space, as well as among all the different kinds of scientists we have working in space. That collaboration is so important if we want to go to Mars or Europa, or even out of the solar system. No one country will do that alone and no one type of scientist can justify that kind of trip. We will all have to continue to work together to solve all the problems so we can go explore.

[ Kathy - 201 - 19:12:28 ]

[ - 197 - 18:42:35 ]
Peter - Would you like to go into space?
Peter- I would go to space in a minute if I could. In fact, I have applied to the astronaut corps several times and will continue to do so. I would like to be one of the explorers, especially if we decide to go back to the moon. I don't think we have finished exploring that yet, and wouldn't it be the coolest thing to stand there and look back at the Earth?

[ Kathy - 202 - 19:15:05 ]
[ - 198 - 18:42:35 ]
Have you made any discoveries?
When I was still working in a laboratory at the University of Michigan I got to see how skeletal muscle developed. When I grew the cells (kind of like baby muscles), I discovered that they would never grow up if we didn't give them the chance to pull on something. That was a fun experiment. Now that I am at NASA Headquarters, I do not do any of my own research - I try to help other scientists form teams so that they can do their best work to help astronauts explore.

[ Kathy - 205 - 19:54:13 ]
[ - 203 - 19:47:32 ]
Ricki - What's your advice to students?
Ricki, You know, the best thing I can tell you is to stay in school and study hard. Then find something you love to do and be the best you can at doing it. I get up at 4:00 every morning in order to get some exercise before going to the office. I get to the office around 6:15. I do that not because my boss will be upset if I don't (in fact, he'd never know it) I do it because I get such a kick out of going to work. Strive for that.

[ Kathy - 206 - 19:57:35 ]
[ - 204 - 19:47:32 ]
Why does the space station cost so much?
Yes, the International Space Station costs a lot of money. It is the most complicated engineering feat ever accomplished and we are trying to do this in an environment we have never worked in using tools we haven't designed yet. These great difficulties make the project expensive. Interestingly, in government terms , the Space Station is not very expensive. The entire of NASA only requires on penny for every dollar your parents pay in taxes. And the Space Station in only 1/6th of that.

[ Lori/QuestChatHost - 182 - 14:46:01 ]
Thank you Kathy for sharing with us today :-)