Astronaut Andy Thomas was born in Adelaide, studied mechanical engineering, getting a PhD from the University of Adelaide in 1978. He joined the astronaut program at NASA in 1992 and flew his first mission on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1996. He then spent 141 days on the Russian space station Mir in 1998 before two more shuttle missions in 2001 and 2005 working on the construction of the International Space Station. You can read more about the International Space Station in the September issue of create magazine.
How did you get involved in the space program?
After I finished my PhD, I moved to the US where I worked for Lockheed doing research into fluid dynamics, aerodynamics. After a few years, I moved to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena which was run by NASA and worked on microgravity materials processing as well as developing hardware for future shuttle missions. From there, I applied to join the space program.
Was it something you had always been interested in?
As a student engineer, the moon landings were taking place and I was captivated by it so I did have it in the back of my mind that I would like to work for NASA. Just to work there as an engineer probably would have been enough but getting into the space program was special.
Is it important to have an engineering background to be an astronaut?
It certainly helps. There are a lot of tasks requiring technical competence and understanding. Engineers are well suited to it. You do have scientists and physicians in the space program but a lot of them also have engineering degrees.
What sort of tasks did you undertake in space?
There was a whole variety of different things. One of the important skills they look for in astronauts is diversity, being able to turn your hand to multiple tasks. Over four flights into space, I launched a satellite, operated the robotic arm on the space shuttle, conducted scientific research in the laboratory, went on a space walk, did emergency repairs. I even did inventory control on a payload which required logistics skills. That’s why NASA tends not to select specialists for the space program but people who have demonstrated a diversity of skills and experience, who have the ability to take on different challenges.
There is a lot of international cooperation involved in the ISS. Are there challenges in dealing with that?
Up there, it’s mostly invisible. You might have a power tool that only plugs into the US section of the station or something like that because it runs off a different voltage to the Russian section. There are different voltages, different communications protocols, different units of measurement even, so you need good documentation of everything but the interfaces between the different sections have been done very carefully.
You spent time on Mir, the Russian space station. How did that compare to visiting the ISS?
The Russian section is almost identical to Mir. In 2001, when I first went to the International Space Station, I was struck with déjà vu. It looked the same. It smelt the same. It even sounded the same. That module was originally going to be attached to Mir before they decided to make it part of the International Space Station.
Conducting engineering tasks in zero gravity must require different challenges and skills to Earth gravity. What additional training did you have to undertake?
You can’t train for it on Earth. You can’t have extended periods in zero gravity. You can have brief periods in parabolic flights but not long enough to do anything.
On my first flight, I savoured the micro-gravity at first. It was quite enjoyable. Then I had to do work which included taking notes with a pencil. On Earth, you take for granted putting something down and picking it up again. In the movies, when people are in space, they can let something go and it will just float there till they need it again. It doesn’t work that way. If you let something go for a few seconds, it will float away in any direction. I was always losing things. Unless it was tied down or attached by Velcro to the side of the craft, it would float off behind a panel and you’d never see it again.
What was the international cooperation side of the International Space Station like, dealing with people who came from different backgrounds and spoke different languages?
On Mir, I flew with an astronaut from Russia and one from Kazakhstan. Neither spoke English so I had to get by with basic Russian. It was the same on ISS. But one of its big successes is the way it has brought different nations together to work collaboratively.
Australia doesn’t really have much involvement in the space industry. Do you think this is something we should do more of?
It’s sad to see the erosion of technical sophistication in Australia. More and more talent and research is going offshore. As a student, there was an aircraft manufacturing industry in Adelaide and white goods manufacturing. They’re both gone and car manufacturing is on its way out. Does that serve Australia well? No. You end up with an economy that’s reactive to overseas influences.
Andy Thomas working on the outside of the International Space Station in 2001. Photo courtesy NASA.