An Astronaut’s Experience
Down to Earth
Space exploration might be
considered the ultimate outdoor adventure. Nicole Stott, an
astronaut who retired from NASA
after 27 years with the agency,
delivered the keynote address
at AORE’s 2015 conference in
Atlanta.
Stott lived on the International
Space Station (ISS) for three
months. She performed a
spacewalk during her first
flight, which she described
as 6 1/2 hours of feeling both
more alone than she had ever
felt before and more connected with and supported
by her flight and ground
teams than ever before. The
ISS is an amazing place to
live, she said--in addition
to being a masterpiece of engineering, a world-class laboratory,
and an excellent example of
how people can work together
globally for something good.
It’s also the ultimate experience
living “off the grid,” because
all power is generated by solar
arrays, water is recycled, and the
air gets filtered and cleaned to
keep it safe to breathe. Stott also
explained how the crew on board
the station must be “jacks of all
4
trades”—they are responsible for
all the science and maintenance
on board, so they have to be
prepared to respond when things
don’t go as planned.
to stay alive; respect for your
environment; what to do if/when
things go wrong; and leveraging
all this for your crew’s success
and safety.
Stott drew parallels between the
training and preparation required
of astronauts and what’s required
on Earth-based outdoor adventures. All such training involves
She said that NASA’s training
also includes NOLS trips and
underwater missions to prepare
for spaceflight. Whether it’s
hiking the Utah canyon lands or
kayaking in Alaska or living and
working from an underwater habitat, she explained, these trips get
people completely away from the
space center environment—and
get some of them into an environment that’s not comfortable
for them. “You discover you can
feel pretty powerful when you
have a strong team,” she said.
103 days
5 hours
49 minutes
Nicole Stott’s Time in Space
balancing the level of acceptable risk with the overall benefit
of the training. She explained
that much of her training, called
expeditionary training, was all
about working successfully as a
team—including self, team, and
situational awareness and management; understanding your own
and your crew mates’ strengths
and weaknesses; challenging
yourself outside your comfort
zone; how to use your equipment
Stott said she enjoyed being part
of AORE 2015 and having the
opportunity to talk with a lot of
the conference participants. She
said, “Some of my best memories
of astronaut training are from the
‘outdoor adventures’ that helped
prepare me for spaceflight, so
it’s always nice to spend time
with people in other fields that
understand the value of a great
adventure.”
AORE Outdoor Insider | Winter 2015-2016