I've known about astronaut and electrical engineer Christina
Koch for several months, but it's only very recently that I learned more details
about her life. She's currently the record holder for the longest space flight
by a woman, and you can read about her at space.com: https://www.space.com/record-breaking-astronaut-christina-koch-female-space-records.html
There's a fun interview with her, during which she does a
neat microgravity trick. Much more importantly is her perspective on long term
spaceflight. And this isn't her first time in extended isolation. In 2004
through 2007 she traveled the arctic and Antarctic regions, and also spent a
winter season at the South Pole, where she experienced -111 degree temperature.
She's been a member of firefighting and
ocean glacier search and rescue teams. She helped invent an x-ray spectrometer
for NASA, among other things.
Number 5 on that list is that she traveled and worked in
Ghana – and so did my daughter Jamie! (I admit my wife Ellen and I were not happy about Jamie's original plans for
that trip. Ebola was breaking out in nearby Nigeria and Cote d'Ivore at the
time.)
Ms. Koch will be returning to Earth on 6 February, and I
wish her a very safe flight home. I think I might have one of her descendants show
up on Pearson Space Station or elsewhere in the solar system for my follow-up
to my MG/SF novel The Other Side of Space. I already have Dr.
Maggie Jemison in the first book – a fictional descendant of the real astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison. (Maggie saves Jason's life, by the way, and helps him to save... oops. You'll just have to read the book!)
