 Ed
Lu
Space Station Science officer
Ed Lu was NASA’s science officer on the Expedition 7
mission to the International Space Station from April until October
2003. He and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were the first two-person
crew to live board the Station following the loss of the Space Shuttle
Columbia in February 2003. The crew flew to and returned from the
Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
On riding the Soyuz spacecraft:
“I had the pleasure to fly twice on the Shuttle, and I can
tell you the experience in Russia is very different,” Lu said.
“When you’re launching on the Shuttle, it shakes a lot.
It’s like driving over a dirt road at 40 to 50 miles per hour.”
The vibrations are caused by the Shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters.
Since the Soyuz rocket relies entirely on liquid-fuel engines, it’s
a much smoother ride. However, the Soyuz is a three-stage rocket,
and there’s a strong acceleration when the stages separate,
particularly the last one. “When that thing went, if felt
like we’d been kicked in the butt by a giant.” Another
difference was that he and Malenchenko were not allowed to carry
as much with them on the Soyuz for their 6-month stay. Landing was
also very different. For example, the Soyuz uses an ablative heat
shield, which means it burns up as the craft re-enters the atmosphere.
“I remember looking out the window watching pieces of our
ship burn off, which is normal, but it’s still a little bit
disconcerting,” he said. The Soyuz also uses a parachute attached
to the side of the spacecraft. When it opens, the crew is hanging
sidewise, spinning in a circle.
On
the International Space Station:
“The Space Station is like a big tube now,” Lu said.
“It’s about the size of a large jetliner.” As
the Soyuz approached the Station, he said it “looked like
a small model. It really feels like you’re in a science fiction
movie.” With the smaller crew and fewer supplies coming up
from Earth, keeping equipment operational was an important part
of the crew’s duties. “We spent a lot of time working
on equipment,” he said. “Another thing we spent a lot
of time doing was exercise.” The exercise paid off—Lu
was one of the first American astronauts to return from a long-duraction
spaceflight with almost no loss in bone density and little loss
in muscle strength. The crew was given an “exercise prescription”
for the work-out they had to perform. “And, I did extra on
top of that on my own,” Lu said. “I came back with less
bone loss than anyone.” His experience will help astronauts
healthy when they begin making the long trips to other worlds. “When
we do fly to Mars or asteroids or far away locations, it will take
months,” he said. “It could even take years.”
Lu said he enjoyed his stay on the Station. “It was a blast
from start to finish. Towards the ending I was wishing it would
last a little longer. I wasn’t ready to come home yet.”
On
eating aboard the Space Station:
“The food up there is pretty good, actually,” Lu said.
However, while the food is tasty, it gets monotonous after a while,
much like eating at your favorite restaurant every night would be.
“For us, it’s 3 months before we get to eat somewhere
else.” That’s why the crew looks forward to the arrival
of the Progress cargo ship, carrying supplies from Earth. “It
is a welcome thing, because it brings fresh food.” Another
welcome delivery of the Progress is odors. “Space Station
has no smell whatsoever,” Lu said, explaining that, because
of the air circulation system, when you open a can of food, you
can smell it only for seconds before the odor is circulated away.
When the Progress docked, however, the astronauts could smell food
inside. “When you opened the valve up, before you actually
open the hatch, you could smell apples in the Space Station,”
he said. “We were looking at our watches (until it was time
to open the hatch). Those things tasted terrific.”
On
playing the piano upside down in microgravity:
You can’t do it. When you’re upside down, “everything’s
reversed,” Lu explained. “If you ever try it, it’s
not as easy as it looks.”
On
the view from the Space Station:
“With binoculars, you can see airplanes in flight,”
he said. “You can see individual buildings. I even have a
picture of my home. You can also see lots of craters on the
surface of the Earth.” Lu showed us a picture he took from
the Space Station which showed the Moon and Mars next to each other
in a single frame. “This is one of my favorite pictures from
the mission, because it shows where we’re going.” Mars,
which was closer to Earth than it had been in 60,000 years when
Lu was on the Station, put on quite a show for the crew. Ordinarily,
it is difficult to see celestial objects from the Station while
the lights are on, since the crew’s eyes are adjusted for
the brighter conditions. “Mars was bright enough last summer
that it was always out the window,” he said, explaining that
it was visible even with the lights on.
On
being on a two-person crew with Malenchenko:
“I learned to like, believe it or not, Russian rap music,”
he said. “We got along great. We never had a single argument.
We think a lot a like.” He said that he and Malenchenko were
fortunate that they had similar philosophies about the mission,
and that they each worked to be a good crewmate.
Biographical
Data
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii, and Webster, New York
Born: July 1, 1963
Education: Graduated from R.L. Thomas High School,
Webster, New York, in 1980. Bachelor of science degree in electrical
engineering from Cornell University, 1984. Doctorate in applied
physics from Stanford University, 1989.
Spaceflight
Experience:
Mission Specialist, Atlantis STS-84—Docked with the Russian
Space Station Mir on this May 1997 mission.
Mission Specialist, Atlantis STS-106—Lu and Malenchenko performed
a space walk to perform assembly work on the International Space
Station.
Science Officer, International Space Station Expedition 7—Lu
lived aboard the Station for 6 months, and became the first NASA
astronaut to both launch and land aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
For more information
about Lu, visit the following links:
Ed Lu’s Biography
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lu.html
Expedition 7 Information
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp7/index.html
Greetings, Earthlings
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp7/luletters/index.html
NASAexplores On-Orbit Interview With Lu
http://nasaexplores.com/show2_articlea.php?id=03-053
Official Ed Lu Web Site
http://www.edlu.com
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