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Well Captain Dan Burbank, Coast Guard astronaut, I would like to thank you for joining us here today at Coast Guard
Headquarters. We've queried our Facebook fans
and said what do you want to ask the Coast Guard astronaut and they responded.
They've got some great questions for you. So if you don't mind we're going to ask some questions
These will be posted on the Coast Guard's Facebook page and our Youtube page and
everybody will get to hear about the Coast Guard astronaut and hear about your experiences in
space.
Sounds great, ready.
So Erin asked, 'What is the most extraordinary thing you've done in space?'
The most extraordinary thing I've done in space, Erin, that's a tough question.
A lot of these are and that's tough because there's so many things that you do up there
that are absolutely extraordinary. Probably for me the most amazing thing
has been this past six months while I was aboard the Space Station
a good bit of that commanding Expedition 30. And the extraordinary
in that we were living and working and doing science and operating
a million pound space station in one of the most hazardous environments
known to man. And everyday you'd wake and it would be hard to believe
that you're actually there. Hard to believe that you could actually live in that place and
do the things that you do. Hard to believe how fortunate that you were to have the views
that you had out the copala windows. And it's
an experience I'll never forget.
Sharon would like to know, 'As a kid what did
you want to be when you grew up?'
Well, it depends on when you asked Sharon. Early on
I think, up until I was about ten years old,
certainly right after the Apollo landings, I was very interested in space.
I think lots of kids growing were, and I hope kids today are as well.
But I was probably too realistic as an eight or
nine year old to think I could actually become an astronaut, so to my thinking
what I wanted to do was I wanted to be an astranaumer. I wanted to study
the stars. And it wasn't until I was much older and was all ready
a career Coast Guard engineer and pilot that
I decided, you know maybe I could get a little bit closer to the stars and
fly on space ships. And finally mustered the courage
to apply through NASA.
Edward would like to know, 'What is unique about Coast Guard leadership development that gave you
a leg up at NASA?'
I think one of the best things about the Coast Guard relative
to pursuing a career in NASA and how our experiences apply
to that is, the Coast Guard is very familiar with operating in often hazardous
environments. Operating with small crews of just
a few people with unique stills. Operating
with what I would call a slender logistic stream. So
often in fairly remote places, having to make do with what you have.
Doing a mission that everybody is deeply committed to.
That maps very nicely into what we do when we fly spaceships.
as human beings. Operating the International Space Station
with a crew of six. Keeping all that hardware, a million pounds of hardware
up and working. Doing the science that you do up there, but doing all of it
in fairly hazardous kind of environment is
a very nice fit and I've always felt very well equipped based on the experiences I had
in the Coast Guard.
Marshall and John and probably a whole bunch of other people
would also like to know, 'Do you believe that there's life in space?'
Well, Marshall and John, of course there's life in space in the
form of currently as of today now, six crewmembers aboard the International Space
Station. As far as life that's beyond planet
Earth, I've never saw evidence one way or the other of it, but
if I just stopped and think about it from a statistical stand point
with two hundred billion stars in our galaxy
and hundreds of billions of galaxcies, I think it's highly unlikely that there isn't
life elsewhere. And I think we might end up finding that there's evidence for
life, if not life itself, simple life probably
in a very close place to planet Earth.
At least in galactic scales. So the planet Mars may very well
show us evidence of past life.
Gwen would like to know, 'What happens if you get an itch in your space suit?'
So if you're out doing a space walk,
speaking from experience, an
itch could be a problematic thing. The good news is you're so busy thinking about what it is
you're doing, you don't generally give those things as much thought.
If you get a little bit of quiet time and your nose itches we actually have the ability
inside the helmet to move our nose over to where we've got a
small device called the valsalva device and you can scratch your nose on that. Everything else,
the rest of your body, is pretty well enclosed in
the soft goods, or even the hard upper torso of the space suit
and all you have to do is shrug your shoulders to scratch your back, so most of that
isn't too hard.
Did you find going from being a Coast Guard pilot to working at NASA
to be a difficult transition.
For me I found it to be a very easy transition to go from flying
Coast Guard helicopters to flying space shuttles and ultimately to flying
aboard the space station. The size of the crew,
the approach of the missions and the environment that we operate in,
the difficulties of operating in those kinds of environments to me seemed
very very similar.
And how did performing as a member of the world famous Idlers prepare you for your
career as a NASA astronaut?
Well, that's a tough one. Idlers, a great singing group.
Coast Guard Academy's mens singing group. I was a member
and I guess once a member always a member. Back during my
academy days from '81 to '85, it probably didn't help me
that much in my day to day operations at NASA, but we
actually have a astronaut band called Max Q. It is a
rock 'n roll band. The name has its
heritage in a reference to the aerodynamic
quantity called Q, which is dynamic pressure.
In our case dynamic pressure max q to a space shuttler
to a rocket means that point at which the pressure outside
the dynamic pressure outside the vehicle reaches its maximum. It's about the time you go through the speed of
sound on the way up hill. It also roughly equates to acoustic
noise. Hence the application to our band.
But I suppose my Idler days helped a little bit with
my Max Q playing anyways.
And what were your favorite subjects in school?
My favorite subjects in school were math and science hands down. And that probably helped
as well.
Well Captain Dan Burbank, Coast Guard astronaut, thank you very much
for joining us here at Coast Guard headquarters today. Thank you for taking the questions from our Facebook
fans. Have a great day.
Thank you. It was great to be with you today.