Book Review. Endurance: A Twelvemonth Inwards Space, A Lifetime Of Discovery
I didn't know what to await when I picked this mass from the library. A mass past times an astronaut could plough out to live ho-hum together with mundane for me. The thing is, I am interested inwards space, but I wouldn't state I am passionate nigh it. I never wished I could live an astronaut every bit a youngster (or every bit an adult). I gauge I wanted to live the engineer that designed those systems, rather than the astronaut that piloted them.
Long story short, I enjoyed reading this mass a lot. I never got bored, on the contrary I was rattling engaged. The mass interleaved Scott Kelly's growing upwardly together with his 1 twelvemonth remain at the International Space Station (ISS) at every other chapter. At the halt of the book, Scott's life timeline has caught upwardly to the starting fourth dimension of his year-long ISS stay, together with his ISS remain timeline concluded amongst the Soyuz provide capsule entering the atmosphere.
I learned a lot nigh the infinite program. It nonetheless weirds me out that field nosotros are rattling much earth-bound amongst our lives, technology, perspectives, problems, together with dreams/aspirations, together with yet at that spot are some dozen people that acquire to inhabit infinite together with seem onward to Mars. The futurity is non uniformly distributed.
The mass also included a lot of life lessons together with reflections on human relationships. I guess, beingness inwards infinite together with looking downwards to earth, would give a nifty advantage signal on such reflection.
I had also read Seveneves past times Neal Stephenson together with The Martian past times Andy Weir together with loved those every bit well. I gauge I should live looking for to a greater extent than books nigh space. Please recommend some.
In this book, Scott Kelly credits inwards several places "The Right Stuff" mass past times (the late deceased) Tom Wolfe to receive got turned unopen to his life together with got him on rail to beingness an astronaut despite all odds lined against him. So I should also programme on reading some operate past times Tom Wolfe.
Page 30:
After a field the motorcoach slows, together with thence comes to a halt good earlier the launchpad. We nod at 1 another, mensuration off, together with choose upwardly our positions. We've all undone the rubber-band seals [on our Sokol suits] that had been thence carefully together with publicly leak-checked merely an hr before. I midpoint myself inwards forepart of the right nurture tire together with arrive at into my Sokol suit. I don't really receive got to pee, but it's a tradition: When Yuri Gagarin was on his way to the launchpad for his historic inaugural off spaceflight, he asked to clit over---right nigh here--- together with peed on the right nurture tire of the bus. Then he went to infinite together with came dorsum alive. So forthwith nosotros all must do the same. The tradition is thence good respected that women infinite travelers choose a bottle of urine or H2O to splash on the tire rather than getting solely out of their suits.
[ I gauge the danger together with unpredictability of the province of affairs is plenty to brand to brand scientist/engineered minded people rattling superstitious. ]
Page 40-41:
In my freshman year, I started out amongst nifty promise that I could plough things unopen to together with live a practiced student, every bit I had every previous schoolhouse year. This determination ever lasted merely a few days, until I realized 1 time once to a greater extent than that it was impossible for me to concentrate inwards cast or to report on my own. Soon I was waking upwardly each morn together with struggling to recall of a argue to acquire to class, knowing I wouldn't absorb whatsoever of the professor's lecture. Often, I didn't go. How was I going to graduate, allow lone do good plenty to live accepted past times whatsoever medical school?
Everything changed that afternoon when I picked upwardly The Right Stuff. I'd never read anything similar it before. I'd heard the intelligence "voice" used to depict literature, but this was something I could really hear inwards my head. Even out inwards the middle of the swamp, Wolfe wrote in this rot-bog of pino truncks, scum slicks, dead dodder vines, together with musquito eggs, fifty-fifty out inwards this nifty overripe sump, the aroma of "burned beyond recognition" obliterated everything else. I felt the powerfulness of those words washing over me, fifty-fifty if some of the words I had to seem upwardly inwards the dictionary. Perilous, neophyte, virulent. I felt similar I had flora my calling. I wanted to live similar the guys inwards this book, guys who could nation a jet on an aircraft carrier at nighttime together with and thence walk away amongst a swagger. I wanted to live a naval aviator. I was nonetheless a directionless, undereducated eighteen-year-old amongst terrible grades who knew nix nigh airplanes. But The Right Stuff had given me the outline of a life plan.
Page 50:
Unlike the early on days of spaceflight, when piloting science was what mattered, twenty-first-century astronauts are chosen for our powerfulness to perform a lot of unlike jobs together with to acquire along good amongst others, peculiarly inwards stressful together with cramped circumstances for long periods of time. Each of my crewmates is non only a unopen coworker inwards an array of unlike high-intensity jobs but also a roommate together with a surrogate for all humanity.
Page 140:
The increased fluid pressure level may squish our eyeballs out of shape together with displace swelling inwards the blood vessels of our eyes together with optic nerves. ... It's possible, too, that high CO2 is causing or contributing to changes inwards our vision ... High sodium inwards our diets could also live a element ... Only manly individual astronauts receive got suffered harm to their eyes field inwards space, thence looking at the slight differences inwards the caput together with cervix veins of manly individual together with woman individual astronauts mightiness also assist scientists start to smash downwards the causes. If nosotros can't nosotros merely mightiness receive got to ship an all-women crew to Mars.
Page 150:
Launch fourth dimension comes together with goes. Shortly after, my laptop's cyberspace connecter starts working again. I seem upwardly the video for the SpaceX launch, but the connecter isn't rigid plenty to flow the video. I acquire a jerky, frozen image. together with thence my oculus stops on a headline: "SpaceX Rocket Explods During Cargo Launch to Space Station."
You've got to live fucking kidding me.
The flying manager gets on a privatized space-to-ground channel together with tells us the rocket has been lost.
Page 159: [ Upon getting a 2nd risk afterward beingness disqualified from flying F14s ]
"You know, you lot tin wing the bird okay, but you're non flying it all the time," he told me. "You're on height together with airspeed, but you're non on tiptop of it." I had been trained to continue my height within a 200 human foot range, thence I didn't worry if I was 10 feet off the precise altitude, or 20, or 50. But Scrote pointed out that this imprecision inwards the halt would Pb me far from where I needed to air current up, together with fixing it would choose a lot of my attention. I had to ever live making small, constant corrections if I wanted to brand the province of affairs better. He was right. My flying got better, together with I've been able to apply what I learned from him to a lot of other areas of life every bit well.
Page 161:
Being inwards an F-14 squadron inwards the 1990s was similar a cross betwixt playing a professional person sport together with beingness inwards a rock-and-roll band. The motion painting Top Gun didn't quite capture the arrogance together with bravado of it all. The flat of drunkenness together with debauchery was unbelievable (and is, thankfully, no longer the standard).
Page 164: [ A Marine maxim nigh failures together with mistakes ]
There are those who have, together with those who will.
Page 290:
This wasn't my inaugural off fourth dimension grooming amongst the Russians, of course... By now, I was intimately familiar amongst the way the Russian infinite means handles grooming similarly to NASA, such every bit an emphasis on simulator training, together with the way they don't, similar their emphasis on the theoretical versus the practical---to an extreme. If NASA were to develop an astronaut how to post service a package, they would choose a box, set an object inwards the box, exhibit you lot the road to the post office, together with ship you lot on your way amongst postage. The Russians would start inwards the wood amongst a give-and-take on the species of tree used to do the pulp that volition brand upwardly the box, together with thence acquire into excruciating particular on the history of box making. Eventually you lot would acquire to the relevant data nigh how the bundle is really mailed, if you lot didn't autumn asleep first. It seems to me this is component of their organization of culpability---everyone involved inwards grooming needs to certify that the crew was taught everything they could peradventure demand to know. If anything should acquire wrong, it must together with thence live the crew's fault.
Page 294: [Real artists The Russians ship! ]
Once Sasha was dorsum inwards his spot together with it seemed clear nosotros weren't going to grab fire, nosotros talked nigh our predicament. I decided non to vocalism draw concern nigh the flammability risk.
"It's besides bad nosotros won't launch today," I said.
"Da," Sasha agreed. "We volition live the inaugural off crew to scrub afterward strapping inwards since 1969." This is an incredible statistics, considering how oftentimes the infinite shuttle used to scrub, right upwardly to the seconds earlier launch, fifty-fifty afterward the main engines had lit.
A vocalism for the command midpoint interrupted us. "Guys, start your Sokol conform leak checks."
What? Sasha together with I looked at each other amongst identical What-the-fuck? expressions. We were forthwith within 5 minutes to launch. Sasha raced to acquire strapped dorsum into his spot properly.
Page 300-301: [January 8, 2011 During Scott's 2nd ISS mission]
Mission command told me that the master copy of the Astronaut Office, Peggy Whitson, needed to verbalize to me together with would live calling on a individual draw inwards 5 minutes. I had no persuasion why, but I knew the argue wouldn't live anything good. Five minutes is along fourth dimension to recall nigh what emergency mightiness receive got occurred on the ground. Maybe my grandmother had died. Maybe 1 of my daughters had been hurt.
...
Peggy came on the line. "I don't know how to order you lot this," she said, "so I'm merely going to order you. Your sister-in-law, Gabby was shot."
[ His sister-in-law is Gabrielle Giffords, the old congresswoman from Arizona. ]
Page 311: [ Upon beingness disqualified from the year-long ISS mission ]
When I got habitation that night, I told Amiko nigh beingness medically disqualified. Rather than looking disappointed, every bit I expected, she looked puzzled.
"So they are going to ship someone who has been on 2 long flights together with has non suffered vision damage?" she asked.
"Right," I said.
"But if the signal of this mission is to acquire to a greater extent than nigh what happens to your trunk on a long mission," she asked, "why would they ship someone who is known to live immune to 1 of the things they recall to study?"
This was a practiced point.
... I decided to introduce my representative to management. They listened, together with to my surprise they reversed their decision.
When I was preparing for the press conference to denote Misha together with me every bit the one-year crew members, I asked what I persuasion was an innocent enquiry nigh genetic research. I mentioned something nosotros haven't previously discussed: Mark would live a perfect command report throughout the year. [ Scott's identical twin blood brother Mark Kelly is also an astronaut. ]
It turns out my mentioning this had enormous ramifications. Because NASA was my employer, it would live illegal for them to inquire me for my genetic information. But 1 time I had suggested it, the possibilities of studying the genetic effects of spaceflight transformed the research. The Twins Study became an of import aspect of the enquiry beingness done on station. A lot of people assumed that I was chosen for this mission because I receive got an identical twin, but that was merely serendipitous.
Page 350:
I've been thinking nigh the whole arc of my life that had brought me here, together with I ever recall nigh what it meant to me to read The Right Stuff every bit a immature man. I experience sure enough that I wouldn't receive got done whatsoever of things I receive got if I hadn't read that book---if Tom Wolfe hadn't written it. On a placidity Sat afternoon, I telephone telephone Tom Wolfe to give thank you lot him. He sounds genuinely amazed to hear from me. I order him we're passing over the Indian Ocean, how fast we're going, how our communication organization works. We verbalize nigh books together with nigh New York together with nigh what I programme to do inaugural off when I acquire dorsum (jump into my swimming pool). We concord to receive got dejeuner when I'm dorsum on Earth, together with that's forthwith 1 of the things I'm looking forrad to most.
Page 360:
As much every bit I worked on scientific experiments, I recall I learned at to the lowest degree every bit much nigh practical issues of how to demeanour a long-range exploration mission. This is what crew members on ISS are ever doing---we are non merely solving problems together with trying to brand things improve for our ain spaceflights, but also studying how to brand things improve for the future. ... And the larger struggles of my mission---most notably, CO2 administration together with upkeep of the Seedra--- volition receive got a larger acquit upon on futurity missions on the infinite station together with futurity infinite vehicles. NASA has agreed to deal CO2 at a much lower target level, together with improve versions of CO2 scrubbers are beingness developed that volition 1 24-hour interval supersede the Seedra...
The RAM is exposed to radiation, thence retention tin live corrupted. A self-stabilizing programme that tolerates retention corruption could live useful inwards some situations. I also heard triple modular redundancy together with replicas are preferred for some computer/sensor systems. How nigh Byzantine tolerant systems? Would that live useful for computers inwards space?
The reliability together with assurance needed for computers inwards infinite stations should live inwards a league of their own. I wonder if at that spot is a overnice description of modern programming techniques/styles for computers deployed inwards space.
2. Could at that spot live a mass out at that spot for you lot that could alter your life? Give your life a whole novel meaning/purpose?
3. Or could something you lot write/contribute tin assist alter someone's life?
Long story short, I enjoyed reading this mass a lot. I never got bored, on the contrary I was rattling engaged. The mass interleaved Scott Kelly's growing upwardly together with his 1 twelvemonth remain at the International Space Station (ISS) at every other chapter. At the halt of the book, Scott's life timeline has caught upwardly to the starting fourth dimension of his year-long ISS stay, together with his ISS remain timeline concluded amongst the Soyuz provide capsule entering the atmosphere.
I learned a lot nigh the infinite program. It nonetheless weirds me out that field nosotros are rattling much earth-bound amongst our lives, technology, perspectives, problems, together with dreams/aspirations, together with yet at that spot are some dozen people that acquire to inhabit infinite together with seem onward to Mars. The futurity is non uniformly distributed.
The mass also included a lot of life lessons together with reflections on human relationships. I guess, beingness inwards infinite together with looking downwards to earth, would give a nifty advantage signal on such reflection.
I had also read Seveneves past times Neal Stephenson together with The Martian past times Andy Weir together with loved those every bit well. I gauge I should live looking for to a greater extent than books nigh space. Please recommend some.
In this book, Scott Kelly credits inwards several places "The Right Stuff" mass past times (the late deceased) Tom Wolfe to receive got turned unopen to his life together with got him on rail to beingness an astronaut despite all odds lined against him. So I should also programme on reading some operate past times Tom Wolfe.
From the book
Here are some random interesting passages from the book. Bring your ain context. I volition start skipping passages when I am tired of typing.Page 30:
After a field the motorcoach slows, together with thence comes to a halt good earlier the launchpad. We nod at 1 another, mensuration off, together with choose upwardly our positions. We've all undone the rubber-band seals [on our Sokol suits] that had been thence carefully together with publicly leak-checked merely an hr before. I midpoint myself inwards forepart of the right nurture tire together with arrive at into my Sokol suit. I don't really receive got to pee, but it's a tradition: When Yuri Gagarin was on his way to the launchpad for his historic inaugural off spaceflight, he asked to clit over---right nigh here--- together with peed on the right nurture tire of the bus. Then he went to infinite together with came dorsum alive. So forthwith nosotros all must do the same. The tradition is thence good respected that women infinite travelers choose a bottle of urine or H2O to splash on the tire rather than getting solely out of their suits.
[ I gauge the danger together with unpredictability of the province of affairs is plenty to brand to brand scientist/engineered minded people rattling superstitious. ]
Page 40-41:
In my freshman year, I started out amongst nifty promise that I could plough things unopen to together with live a practiced student, every bit I had every previous schoolhouse year. This determination ever lasted merely a few days, until I realized 1 time once to a greater extent than that it was impossible for me to concentrate inwards cast or to report on my own. Soon I was waking upwardly each morn together with struggling to recall of a argue to acquire to class, knowing I wouldn't absorb whatsoever of the professor's lecture. Often, I didn't go. How was I going to graduate, allow lone do good plenty to live accepted past times whatsoever medical school?
Everything changed that afternoon when I picked upwardly The Right Stuff. I'd never read anything similar it before. I'd heard the intelligence "voice" used to depict literature, but this was something I could really hear inwards my head. Even out inwards the middle of the swamp, Wolfe wrote in this rot-bog of pino truncks, scum slicks, dead dodder vines, together with musquito eggs, fifty-fifty out inwards this nifty overripe sump, the aroma of "burned beyond recognition" obliterated everything else. I felt the powerfulness of those words washing over me, fifty-fifty if some of the words I had to seem upwardly inwards the dictionary. Perilous, neophyte, virulent. I felt similar I had flora my calling. I wanted to live similar the guys inwards this book, guys who could nation a jet on an aircraft carrier at nighttime together with and thence walk away amongst a swagger. I wanted to live a naval aviator. I was nonetheless a directionless, undereducated eighteen-year-old amongst terrible grades who knew nix nigh airplanes. But The Right Stuff had given me the outline of a life plan.
Page 50:
Unlike the early on days of spaceflight, when piloting science was what mattered, twenty-first-century astronauts are chosen for our powerfulness to perform a lot of unlike jobs together with to acquire along good amongst others, peculiarly inwards stressful together with cramped circumstances for long periods of time. Each of my crewmates is non only a unopen coworker inwards an array of unlike high-intensity jobs but also a roommate together with a surrogate for all humanity.
Page 140:
The increased fluid pressure level may squish our eyeballs out of shape together with displace swelling inwards the blood vessels of our eyes together with optic nerves. ... It's possible, too, that high CO2 is causing or contributing to changes inwards our vision ... High sodium inwards our diets could also live a element ... Only manly individual astronauts receive got suffered harm to their eyes field inwards space, thence looking at the slight differences inwards the caput together with cervix veins of manly individual together with woman individual astronauts mightiness also assist scientists start to smash downwards the causes. If nosotros can't nosotros merely mightiness receive got to ship an all-women crew to Mars.
Page 150:
Launch fourth dimension comes together with goes. Shortly after, my laptop's cyberspace connecter starts working again. I seem upwardly the video for the SpaceX launch, but the connecter isn't rigid plenty to flow the video. I acquire a jerky, frozen image. together with thence my oculus stops on a headline: "SpaceX Rocket Explods During Cargo Launch to Space Station."
You've got to live fucking kidding me.
The flying manager gets on a privatized space-to-ground channel together with tells us the rocket has been lost.
Page 159: [ Upon getting a 2nd risk afterward beingness disqualified from flying F14s ]
"You know, you lot tin wing the bird okay, but you're non flying it all the time," he told me. "You're on height together with airspeed, but you're non on tiptop of it." I had been trained to continue my height within a 200 human foot range, thence I didn't worry if I was 10 feet off the precise altitude, or 20, or 50. But Scrote pointed out that this imprecision inwards the halt would Pb me far from where I needed to air current up, together with fixing it would choose a lot of my attention. I had to ever live making small, constant corrections if I wanted to brand the province of affairs better. He was right. My flying got better, together with I've been able to apply what I learned from him to a lot of other areas of life every bit well.
Page 161:
Being inwards an F-14 squadron inwards the 1990s was similar a cross betwixt playing a professional person sport together with beingness inwards a rock-and-roll band. The motion painting Top Gun didn't quite capture the arrogance together with bravado of it all. The flat of drunkenness together with debauchery was unbelievable (and is, thankfully, no longer the standard).
Page 164: [ A Marine maxim nigh failures together with mistakes ]
There are those who have, together with those who will.
Page 290:
This wasn't my inaugural off fourth dimension grooming amongst the Russians, of course... By now, I was intimately familiar amongst the way the Russian infinite means handles grooming similarly to NASA, such every bit an emphasis on simulator training, together with the way they don't, similar their emphasis on the theoretical versus the practical---to an extreme. If NASA were to develop an astronaut how to post service a package, they would choose a box, set an object inwards the box, exhibit you lot the road to the post office, together with ship you lot on your way amongst postage. The Russians would start inwards the wood amongst a give-and-take on the species of tree used to do the pulp that volition brand upwardly the box, together with thence acquire into excruciating particular on the history of box making. Eventually you lot would acquire to the relevant data nigh how the bundle is really mailed, if you lot didn't autumn asleep first. It seems to me this is component of their organization of culpability---everyone involved inwards grooming needs to certify that the crew was taught everything they could peradventure demand to know. If anything should acquire wrong, it must together with thence live the crew's fault.
Page 294: [
Once Sasha was dorsum inwards his spot together with it seemed clear nosotros weren't going to grab fire, nosotros talked nigh our predicament. I decided non to vocalism draw concern nigh the flammability risk.
"It's besides bad nosotros won't launch today," I said.
"Da," Sasha agreed. "We volition live the inaugural off crew to scrub afterward strapping inwards since 1969." This is an incredible statistics, considering how oftentimes the infinite shuttle used to scrub, right upwardly to the seconds earlier launch, fifty-fifty afterward the main engines had lit.
A vocalism for the command midpoint interrupted us. "Guys, start your Sokol conform leak checks."
What? Sasha together with I looked at each other amongst identical What-the-fuck? expressions. We were forthwith within 5 minutes to launch. Sasha raced to acquire strapped dorsum into his spot properly.
Page 300-301: [January 8, 2011 During Scott's 2nd ISS mission]
Mission command told me that the master copy of the Astronaut Office, Peggy Whitson, needed to verbalize to me together with would live calling on a individual draw inwards 5 minutes. I had no persuasion why, but I knew the argue wouldn't live anything good. Five minutes is along fourth dimension to recall nigh what emergency mightiness receive got occurred on the ground. Maybe my grandmother had died. Maybe 1 of my daughters had been hurt.
...
Peggy came on the line. "I don't know how to order you lot this," she said, "so I'm merely going to order you. Your sister-in-law, Gabby was shot."
[ His sister-in-law is Gabrielle Giffords, the old congresswoman from Arizona. ]
Page 311: [ Upon beingness disqualified from the year-long ISS mission ]
When I got habitation that night, I told Amiko nigh beingness medically disqualified. Rather than looking disappointed, every bit I expected, she looked puzzled.
"So they are going to ship someone who has been on 2 long flights together with has non suffered vision damage?" she asked.
"Right," I said.
"But if the signal of this mission is to acquire to a greater extent than nigh what happens to your trunk on a long mission," she asked, "why would they ship someone who is known to live immune to 1 of the things they recall to study?"
This was a practiced point.
... I decided to introduce my representative to management. They listened, together with to my surprise they reversed their decision.
When I was preparing for the press conference to denote Misha together with me every bit the one-year crew members, I asked what I persuasion was an innocent enquiry nigh genetic research. I mentioned something nosotros haven't previously discussed: Mark would live a perfect command report throughout the year. [ Scott's identical twin blood brother Mark Kelly is also an astronaut. ]
It turns out my mentioning this had enormous ramifications. Because NASA was my employer, it would live illegal for them to inquire me for my genetic information. But 1 time I had suggested it, the possibilities of studying the genetic effects of spaceflight transformed the research. The Twins Study became an of import aspect of the enquiry beingness done on station. A lot of people assumed that I was chosen for this mission because I receive got an identical twin, but that was merely serendipitous.
Page 350:
I've been thinking nigh the whole arc of my life that had brought me here, together with I ever recall nigh what it meant to me to read The Right Stuff every bit a immature man. I experience sure enough that I wouldn't receive got done whatsoever of things I receive got if I hadn't read that book---if Tom Wolfe hadn't written it. On a placidity Sat afternoon, I telephone telephone Tom Wolfe to give thank you lot him. He sounds genuinely amazed to hear from me. I order him we're passing over the Indian Ocean, how fast we're going, how our communication organization works. We verbalize nigh books together with nigh New York together with nigh what I programme to do inaugural off when I acquire dorsum (jump into my swimming pool). We concord to receive got dejeuner when I'm dorsum on Earth, together with that's forthwith 1 of the things I'm looking forrad to most.
Page 360:
As much every bit I worked on scientific experiments, I recall I learned at to the lowest degree every bit much nigh practical issues of how to demeanour a long-range exploration mission. This is what crew members on ISS are ever doing---we are non merely solving problems together with trying to brand things improve for our ain spaceflights, but also studying how to brand things improve for the future. ... And the larger struggles of my mission---most notably, CO2 administration together with upkeep of the Seedra--- volition receive got a larger acquit upon on futurity missions on the infinite station together with futurity infinite vehicles. NASA has agreed to deal CO2 at a much lower target level, together with improve versions of CO2 scrubbers are beingness developed that volition 1 24-hour interval supersede the Seedra...
MAD questions
1. What type of computer/software systems should nosotros receive got inwards space?The RAM is exposed to radiation, thence retention tin live corrupted. A self-stabilizing programme that tolerates retention corruption could live useful inwards some situations. I also heard triple modular redundancy together with replicas are preferred for some computer/sensor systems. How nigh Byzantine tolerant systems? Would that live useful for computers inwards space?
The reliability together with assurance needed for computers inwards infinite stations should live inwards a league of their own. I wonder if at that spot is a overnice description of modern programming techniques/styles for computers deployed inwards space.
2. Could at that spot live a mass out at that spot for you lot that could alter your life? Give your life a whole novel meaning/purpose?
3. Or could something you lot write/contribute tin assist alter someone's life?
0 Response to "Book Review. Endurance: A Twelvemonth Inwards Space, A Lifetime Of Discovery"
Post a Comment