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Lessons from Space for the Crew back on Earth | Cady Coleman | TEDxBeaconStreet


about seven years ago the day after my
50th birthday I got the best birthday
present imaginable I climbed onto a
Russian Soyuz rocket and I launched to
the International Space Station for a
six-month mission it was the best
birthday present ever and it has been
actually very hard to do any better
especially for the husband that’s not a
journey that you go on by yourself this
is our crew and we went to the Space
Station in the Russian Soyuz it’s a it’s
a capsule that is smaller than any car
here on earth and there’s three of us
there and it’s a kind of the you know
astronaut version of an American an
Italian and a Russian all went to a bar
except that we’re in a spacecraft and
and this is a this is a picture here of
our crew really excited about going to
space and when we got there there were
three people already on the space
station so this is the other Soyuz crew
and they’re already there and this is
the six of us a picture all excited
about going to space and I say this not
to make fun of my teammate dmitry
kondratyev who i think we all know who
I’m talking about right but I say this
in a serious way because it’s a very
common myth that when they are putting
space crews together there’s a lot of
attention and detail towards
personalities and how people are on this
team or that team and and how I’ve never
actually seen any evidence of that
process and it doesn’t mean that I’m not
complaining about the people that I go
with but actually the mission is more
important than whether you know we’re
people who were already friends and and
because the mission is so paramount we
put those crews together based on skill
and my job in this picture that you see
here one of the things that I discovered
was that this is actually a picture of
dmitry kondratyev
excited about going to space
and it was something that I needed to
learn I mean I don’t see him just in
this picture that I see him you know
every day and we’re talking and training
and and he’s giving me that look and and
I need to read to change my point of
view and be open to the fact that you
know as a cultural thing this is not the
face that says I don’t care about what
you said and I wish you would stop this
it’s just it’s a cultural thing and it’s
because it’s about the mission so I’d
like to share that mission with you and
help you understand how we as astronauts
and cosmonauts have been flying for 18
years 17 years on an on a space station
together so this is launching from
Kazakhstan it’s really proud moment for
me that’s us in the spacecraft docking
with the International Space Station it
takes us about two days it’s really
really beautiful to be in that little
spacecraft this is my favorite part of
the movie flying through the space
station and we were the first crew to
have that robot up in space I’m
considered the mom of Robonaut there’s a
lot of different really important tasks
to do and we’re all trained to do all of
them but we’re also people and we have
to sort of bring our own personalities
which can be pretty fun up there and in
the in the environment itself is
spectacular and amazing and the view
gives you a perspective in a lot of
different dimensions it is looking out
the window is something that never ever
gets old this is Aurora Australis we
didn’t see this everyday I saw it maybe
10 times but it’s why had to show you a
picture right but it’s amazing and just
going over the earth I mean this is the
cities at night every diello light there
isn’t a city light and every little
white flash was a piece of was was
lightening and and then getting to see
the places that actually you come from
and I’m an American with Irish American
heritage so it’s really amazing to see
that view and to be on that kind of a
mission and in the what we’re doing up
there is things that just cannot be done
down here on the ground finding out you
know what two liquids really want to do
with gravity down here on the earth
we can’t really figure that out
combustion the same idea where our are
candle flames up there burned
differently and we’re allowed to make
measurements over twenty or thirty
seconds that have to make be made in
just you know so quickly down here on
the ground and so being up in space
gives us an opportunity at different
lens a different way to look at things
and gain a better understanding and it’s
important for space this is growing
plants in a place where it’s hard to
it’s hard to grow things this is a
little baby plant and one of those
missions that I grew and and so we’re
growing plants in a place that’s this
hostile well these are things that are
important for space exploration to pave
the road to Mars and at the same time
they’re important for sustainable Earth
and a lot of the things that we’re
finding out our experiments about the
human body about ourselves especially
with respect to how our hearts work and
also how our bones work in a
microgravity environment we lose bone
ten times faster than a woman who’s 70
years old who has osteoporosis and so
the good news about that is that it’s
easier to measure for us and so that
helps us understand more about the
process and when we’re able to
understand more about what some of the
remedies might be I have some bad news
for you
and that is I don’t know if it’s bad
news but exercise pretty much here to
stay it really seems to make a
difference but those studies are ongoing
and I’m very proud to be a part of them
but I’d like to just share more about
how that happens when you have six
people now if you look closely you’ll
see this is a different set of six
people and Dmitry is still excited but
but this is a different set of six
people and that is actually the
challenge for us is that we we don’t get
to pick these people and this is when
when that first crew came down from the
space station so we went up three people
were there three people come three
people go home three more come this is
another group of six it’s a whole other
group I mean I’ve told mine Dmitry story
but we are all having
to really look at each other much more
closely and some of the tasks are so
critical Paulo and I we’re there the
second crew ever to capture a supply
ship from the International Space
Station and it’s it the supply ship that
you see there in the picture
it weighs several tons and it’s the size
of a large School Bus
now when I see this picture the phrase
that comes to mind is that objects in
the mirror may be closer than they
appear
it really does and when I see this which
is Paulo and I in the cupola which is
about the size of our circle right here
that’s a pretty small place we practice
for years and are not well actually
years together we practiced for years
for this mission in specifically many
many months on this particular task and
when I think of that time and I see this
picture the word that comes to mind is
lunch because Paulo’s Italian and lunch
is a part of the fabric of his day I eat
lunch in my car I have a box of granola
bars and that is enough for me and he’d
be like what and and he said well you
know we have to eat lunch and actually
that is the place that we talked about
how we were doing and what was going on
with the training session we just did
what we’re gonna do tomorrow how things
are at home that is where we’re building
our crew so we’re really we’re spending
time getting to know each other somebody
like Paulo it’s actually pretty easy I
mean you see it all right in this
picture he’s right there he’s open he’s
verbal I mean you know we know it all
I’d like to think that I’m pretty easy
as well but you know we do all have our
special you know our special
characteristics that somebody else ends
up you know feels like those are strange
or inconvenient so we’ve all got those
and I feel like you know maybe maybe not
so not so difficult Scott and I are
pretty different Scott the robot is the
one on the left by the way
I mean I make this joke because he seems
kind of Stern he said he’s a person of
very few words I’m a person of more and
we had to find our our common ground and
it was interesting to both of us because
we are so different when he left the
space station as part of that first crew
that leaves he looked at me and I looked
at him and I said you know I’m gonna
miss you
and he said I’m gonna miss you too and
you know when we got home he was at the
bottom of the ladder for Paulo and I
when we got off the the airplane after
landing in Russia and and and he said
well you know I had to make sure that
you know you got home okay so it’s it’s
it’s really special bonds and and my job
was to figure out you know how do I find
this guy in this picture the guy who was
tugging on a giant set of bungee cords
and is forming a large catapult capable
of sending anything across the space
station or anyone I mean where is that
guy I had to figure out how to get to
him al drew came with the space shuttle
and did a spacewalk and you know the
reason we can have this picture which is
just the utter joy of that you know 7:00
hour spacewalk was done successfully all
of us contributed to that and they came
back inside and I mean there is just not
a better day’s work to celebrate that
with friends and and it’s this is
actually one of my favorite there’s my
favorite picture that we’ve ever taken
at NASA I think it shows that crew
camaraderie that then allows us to do
critical tasks like using the Canadian
robotic arm to maneuver a several ton
school bus sized supply ship around the
space station some people like Nicole
Stott Nicole came up with the shuttle as
well was there for about a week and
Nicole and I have been friends since the
day we met it’s easy for us to find
those places that we connect together
and and yet other people it’s not so
easy and we have to actually just think
how can I find this person how can I see
this person if whether I like them or
not is actually immaterial it’s about
what are the places that we can find to
really be together so that at the times
we have to be together that we can make
at work and I think in looking to
understand how to do that I think
looking in the past actually can give us
some clues this is a picture from the
movie hidden figures and this is
Catherine Johnson in the middle she was
a mathematician that did the
calculations for the trajectories for
the Apollo mercury and Gemini launches
to get people up into orbit to the moon
and back home and she was the person in
charge of doing that and when John Glenn
was launching on his first mission he
said it was the one they first had
computers that we’re doing these
calculations and said and he said you
know I want that woman the smart one to
check those calculations in this move I
think if everyone would watch this movie
we could actually change the world
because look at this picture I mean in
this picture Catherine is a woman of
color she is wearing a dress of color
which she is actually in almost every
scene of the movie and she’s surrounded
she’s in a sea of white guys with white
shirts and skinny black ties what is
hidden about Katherine Johnson in this
picture nothing and yet we did not see
her and it wasn’t that someone really
tried or you know was was it was it was
not on purpose so it was not on purpose
that someone didn’t recognize her
talents but it takes looking harder and
so those are the kinds of things that we
have to learn in this picture I’m very
proud of this picture that all of us are
and because this is our crew meeting the
president and for all of us I think when
we were in third grade no one knew that
we were going to be in a picture like
this when we were older and so all of us
need to be ready all of us have to be
able to be part of a team that makes a
difference and to do that I think
there’s two interesting things that have
to happen I think you have to be brave
and I think you have to be open now
there’s a slide here that shows me
playing the flute I’m not the best flute
player in the whole world
I just love to play and I’ve pretty much
knew that if I played my flu
the International Space Station it would
end up on the internet so it took it
took actually a certain amount of
bravery for me to play it was very fun
one take this one take but for me music
is all about playing together this is
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull
I took his flute to space along with the
Chieftains and we made this to it
[Applause]
[Music]
so
I really do see this as a prime example
of somebody having to be brave and
somebody having to be open I had to be
brave
Ian had to be open and together we made
something that’s been meaningful to so
many people this was the first time this
duet I’m actually aired was on the 50th
anniversary of human spaceflight Ian
Anderson was playing a concert in Russia
and I was on the international space
station and that was the first time that
we did that but in so many groups that
we have it I think that what we’re what
‘some perspective and be open and be
brave so I’d like to just talk for a
couple minutes about perspective so we
have a great view up there on that Space
Station this is the space station that’s
the earth we see things in a different
way I mean here’s our hurricane which
looks so beautiful and yet we know that
underneath everyone’s lives are now
changed and different we see cities at
night whole countries there’s Italy
indeed shaped like a boot and someplace
closer to home Cape Cod I want I first
went to space I went with another person
from Massachusetts and we’ve got to see
Massachusetts for the first time
together and we looked down and he said
oh my gosh it looks just like the map
but it’s wonderful to see these places
in different kinds of light and and it’s
it’s just like any sunset down here
sunrise or just a day when there’s dark
clouds and blue sky I mean every day is
different every hour is different we go
around that earth every hour and a half
and we have an amazing and amazing
beautiful perspective so whenever I see
something like this I think that I must
be like up looking out I mean I was in
space it’s way up there right but that’s
our windows that we take our pictures
out of and let’s go back to this picture
for a minute that’s the space station
there’s the earth where does that window
have to be in order to take those
pictures we are down so up down and does
it matter
no but it’s an interesting change in
perspective for your head and and here’s
the another example that I’d like you to
think about is when you look at this
picture do you see me I think if you
kind of turn your head a little bit like
this then you see it oh it must be the
person with all the hair because no one
else on the crew was like that right but
now in this picture I think it’s really
clear where I am and it’s because I am
where you are used to looking so in
order to see things differently we have
to teach ourselves to constantly be
striving to look differently and when we
do that we achieve a crew that is in
lockstep this is our crew up on that
Space Station on that 50th anniversary
of Yuri Gagarin’s launch and one of the
ways we do that you know it’s not just
through the work that we do together but
it’s it’s also family and families are
our teams as well but finding out that
this is something that really binds us
together is that as the six people who
have left the planet and left everyone
behind we share that and in a way that
we’re probably not all used to sharing
with each other when when my husband
sent me this picture of our son standing
on the same little spot that his mother
had just been standing on to salute and
launch off into space I cried
you know it’s it’s it’s an incredibly
moving picture to me and yet all of us
actually had feelings about our families
down there on the earth and it’s the
kind of thing that really completes that
whole circle that I’ve been that I’ve
been sharing with you is that you know
there’s the mission that is so very
important there is having to really
really look at each other and see each
other and also be brave about what you
have to share who you are even if the
people that you’re trying to share that
with you think they don’t know how to
see you you might have to it may not be
fair but you may have to show yourself
be brave and show yourself because we
have a lot of serious problems down here
on our prop on our planet to solve so
what we do we have a lot of serious
problems to solve together and as a crew
of six on a space station we have the
luxury of knowing that we’re only six
and that if one of us doesn’t get the
job done or we don’t do the job together
it’s not going to get done in the
mission is paramount but when I’m up
there and I’m looking down I see
something different I look down here on
the earth and I see people who are
working together to solve these problems
that are beyond any individual person or
any individual group and so I look down
and I see that we are the crew of
spaceship earth thank you very much
you
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