Q&A
The three-time NASA astronaut tells us about life in space and the significance of Artemis
During his career at NASA, Swanson logged over 195 days in space, undertaking five spacewalks. His three missions to the ISS include two Space Shuttle flights (STS-117 and STS-119) and one Soyuz flight (TMA-12M).
How does NASA select astronauts?
Nobody knows for sure. Really it’s up to the chief of the astronaut office to make that selection, and sometimes others depending on how high profile the mission is. But it’s partly just where you are in the queue, because we come in as a group together. The people who came in the group before will fly before you do. I didn’t think about an astronaut career until I was about 25. It took 12 years from that point to become one, and I ended up working 11 of those years at NASA as an engineer.
What’s it like to spend significant time away from Earth?
I spent about six months in space, and it’s not tremendously difficult. Family and friends is the first thing you miss, but we could Skype and the communication with our families was good. You can get down periods when you get a little tired of it – you haven’t really gone outside and the food gets old after a while.
How much have the spacesuits improved for Artemis?
The biggest difference is in the shoulders. You get the ability to really reach around and have more movement, like you would without a suit on. They also have better mobility on the legs. On the International Space Station you didn’t really use your legs much for anything, so it didn’t matter how much mobility you had in your lower body. Now it’s going to matter tremendously on the Moon, so they’ve modified the lower part to be more moveable.
What changes can the Artemis crew expect in their bodies?
The first thing we have to worry about is muscle and bone loss. Astronauts now work out two hours a day, so we do a pretty good job of mitigating that,
