Jbrackettssa - John Brackett, NASA / JPL Solar System Ambassador

Saturday night viewing.

My Mars 2020 - Perseverance Shirt arrived today! @nasajpl @nasa #nasa #nasajpl #mars #mars2020 #perseverance #marsrover #space #planets https://www.instagram.com/p/CESvYFBjhre/?igshid=1hzm65821uipl

Caught the ISS passing near Ursa Major this evening. https://www.instagram.com/p/CCm6ufWnIz3/?igshid=1a6ftf1h88yta

Finalized Lunar images from last night. #celestron127slt #celestrontelescope #backyardastronomy #moon #solarsystemambassador https://www.instagram.com/p/CZxsfAEs74A/?utm_medium=tumblr

Spent yesterday afternoon talking about “NASA In The 60s” to kids at a Gwinnett Parks Summer Camp. I love being a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador!!! #stemeducation #nasa #solarsystemambassador #nasasolarsystemambassador #gwinnetcountyparks https://www.instagram.com/p/CfHbeldO82N/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Behind the scenes documentary about the Voyager probes.

Gravity, Hazard of Alteration

A human journey to Mars, at first glance, offers an inexhaustible amount of complexities. To bring a mission to the Red Planet from fiction to fact, NASA’s Human Research Program has organized some of the hazards astronauts will encounter on a continual basis into five classifications.

The variance of gravity fields that astronauts will encounter on a mission to Mars is the fourth hazard.

On Mars, astronauts would need to live and work in three-eighths of Earth’s gravitational pull for up to two years. Additionally, on the six-month trek between the planets, explorers will experience total weightlessness. 

Besides Mars and deep space there is a third gravity field that must be considered. When astronauts finally return home they will need to readapt many of the systems in their bodies to Earth’s gravity.

To further complicate the problem, when astronauts transition from one gravity field to another, it’s usually quite an intense experience. Blasting off from the surface of a planet or a hurdling descent through an atmosphere is many times the force of gravity.

Research is being conducted to ensure that astronauts stay healthy before, during and after their mission. Specifically researchers study astronauts’ vision, fine motor skills, fluid distribution, exercise protocols and response to pharmaceuticals.

Exploration to the Moon and Mars will expose astronauts to five known hazards of spaceflight, including gravity. To learn more, and find out what NASA’s Human Research Program is doing to protect humans in space, check out the “Hazards of Human Spaceflight" website. Or, check out this week’s episode of “Houston We Have a Podcast,” in which host Gary Jordan further dives into the threat of gravity with Peter Norsk, Senior Research Director/ Element Scientist at the Johnson Space Center.

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A little fun celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11. #nasa #usspaceandrocketcenter #apollo11 #apollo50thanniversary https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Cd1fyHVBX/?igshid=btqoa800zd26

Another Side Project...

John’s Side Project #248 - Tagging NASA footage for the National Archives.

If you know anything about anything, volunteer for the National Archives and Records Administration. They need people to do the things computers can’t... Things such as transcription, identification of things and places, and tagging films that have been digitized. For example, they have a collection of photos from World War I. These photos often have handwritten captions or locations that a computer can’t make out. It takes people to examine the captions and transcribe them for searching.

For my current project, NASA has thousands of hours of footage from tests and missions that need to be tagged in order to be searchable. This is where my insomnia is put to good use.