So, you want to be an astronaut! February 7, 2007
Posted by spacemom in : She Blinded me with Science , 5 commentsOK, if you haven’t heard about Capt Nowak yet, you are living under a rock. So, I’ll spare the links and get to the guts.
(disclaimer…these are MY views. If you disagree, FINE, but this is based on my experience)
A female working in the physical sciences is often a minority. We are surrounded by egos that often exceed the normal size and need to work daily with this. When a woman works in this sort of environment, a certain mentality develops. We are "one of the guys". We learn to work with the crude jokes and sometimes even like them. Like most women working in a man’s field, there are subtle levels of discrimination, intended and not. To work in a man’s field, you learn to suck up more. Yeah, I wish there was equality in all places, but let’s be realistic for a minute.
Now take a woman who goes into a high risk field, like, oh firefighting, military, astronaut. She has to have a certain attitude towards risk. I don’t have it. I find space travel to be too risky for my family. I respect the men and women who do it, but I don’t have what it takes to be able to do it. She (and the men) are already slightly "nuts". Like the mountain climbers who tackle Everest. There’s a certain level of insanity that lives in those people.
NASA screens the astronaut corps in the beginning. What they really need to continual screening. Working in tight quarters with others is difficult. It is true with men and women. Any high stress job needs to not only make the facilities available, but to also make it mandatory to allow people to get help.
NASA work is STRESSFUL. I can’t imagine the stress of working with people in space. I know the stress of working on a problem when it’s just equipment involved.
I can see how this woman snapped. Really. I can even understand her justification for wearing diapers (come on guys, she was in space. Think there are toilet breaks while you are on the launch pad?) But I can’t comprehend the things she had in her car. The perfect items for subduing, killing and dismembering a human.
NASA needs to work on this. It may piss people off, but there needs to be more mental health care available and required for all of the astronaut corps. I see that NASA is having a press briefing on this right now.
It is something to be taken seriously.
Note that Ms. Nowak’s husband is in mission control for ISS (international Space Station). Yeah, that’s not stressful either…
The sun is shining, the tank is clean…. February 7, 2007
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , add a comment"The sun is shining! The tank is clean! And we’re getting out of….gasp! The tank is clean?!?"
-Peach from Finding Nemo
There is a saying in our house. "You need a plan to deviate from." Yesterday was a prime example. Tomorrow is too. Jay has a meeting that was changed from today to tomorrow. Soleil has a dentist appointment tomorrow. Jay was going to take her, now I need to. Sigh. The best plans get f*cked by someone cleaning the tank.
I am overwelmed by the amount life interfers with living. That sounds really odd, but really, have you noticed this?
I want to curl up with a good book in the evening, but sometimes work pops up and sometimes life gets insane and someone is still up at 10:30. I miss seeing my hockey team, but I did get to watch the overtime last night.
I want to talk on the phone to new friends. I got a precious few minutes last night to chat with a new friend. I really love talking with her and I just wish we lived closer because a night out would certainly be happening.
I want to get more work done with less meetings. As I check my clock to make sure I don’t miss the 12:30 lunch meeting.
I had never planning on life being so scheduled. I want some down time. To just be….me.
