Former Nasa scientist Dr Ravi Margasahayam exclusive on Sunita Williams' return

India Today

Former Nasa scientist Dr. Ravi Mardasayam discusses Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore's return after 286 days in space.

Transcript

00:00Okay, let's go straight across to Dr. Ravi Margasayam.

00:03He's a former NASA scientist who's worked closely with various NASA space missions.

00:09He's in Florida at the moment.

00:11Appreciate your joining us.

00:12First, let me turn to you.

00:13When you saw that wonderful moment, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore finally landing

00:18back on Earth after almost nine months in space, your first reactions, relieved?

00:25Well, welcome home.

00:28Yeah, I've been in the midst of many challenges with NASA for 38 years.

00:35And one of the things I always thought that, you know, I couldn't bring Kalpana Chawla

00:38back home safely.

00:41And this time, yes, we were on tenterhooks.

00:44Yeah, we were really concerned about it.

00:47But also, we knew that NASA team and the SpaceX team would do a great job because it's all

00:53about putting your full effort and, you know, anything can go wrong.

00:59But I was very happy to get them back.

01:01They were never stranded there, nor they were stuck.

01:05You know, this was a plan by NASA to continue their journey because I've been in space exploration

01:12and human space exploration for 30 years.

01:16And you know, we take advantage of humans in space because we extended mankind's reach

01:21to low Earth orbit.

01:23And with that, I want people to understand that they were never struck, or NASA didn't

01:28fail.

01:29You know, it's just a new plan we decided to extend their stay.

01:34Like, you know, if you go from here to Dubai, from Mumbai to Dubai, you don't want to stay

01:37one hour and come back, you know, you understand, spend 10 days there.

01:43And imagine I got in 1970, we got three astronauts stranded from the moon on Apollo 13.

01:50So 240 miles is nothing for me, you know, and we have already docked Soyuz rockets.

01:56So what happens?

01:57Let's say if there's a fire on ISS, you know, we can't ask Elon Musk or anybody to send

02:03a rocket to get them because it will take 24 hours.

02:06So that's where Soyuz comes into the picture.

02:09So there is a lot of misrepresentation, misinformation in India and other parts of the world that

02:14they're stuck.

02:15You know, we have to rescue them.

02:17I'm sorry to say it's not.

02:21You know, you alluded there briefly, sir, to Kalpana Chawla and how that mission sadly

02:27ended tragically.

02:28Surely, therefore, the last leg must have kept NASA and its scientists on their toes.

02:32The last leg of the return journey can always be tricky when the SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft

02:38enter re-entered the atmosphere.

02:40Yes, it's always a difficult job.

02:47As they say, I come from the launching world.

02:49I had launched 100 special rockets with 700 humans to space.

02:54And I know the importance of launching.

02:56Launching is always the most difficult part of the program.

03:00But landing is more easy.

03:01But then we found out with a really bad situation with Kalpana Chawla and I still look back

03:08at that and cry every day.

03:10But on this token, when Sumita Williams was coming from SpaceX, yes, we have checked all

03:16the things.

03:17There still can go things can go wrong because space is very unforgiving.

03:23It's like baseball.

03:24When you have like like three strikes and they're out in space, you get one mistake

03:28and you're out.

03:30So that means you have an accident or a disaster or a near miss or a close call, whatever you

03:35call it.

03:36Yes, we are always on our toes.

03:38And that's why we have the best team at NASA to work together.

03:44The extended period of time that they spent in space, do you believe they've made the

03:50best of it?

03:51What, according to you, has NASA gained from Sumita and Barry spending these nine months

03:57out there in space?

04:00Great, great question, great question.

04:04So once we found out that they couldn't come back after eight days, we decided to let them

04:12stay there.

04:13And they were never in any danger because we had supply missions from not only a Cygnus

04:20rocket and SpaceX and Soyuz and Progress to supply food and shelter food for them.

04:28So if you look at it that respect, we extended the stay because we want to do experiments

04:34in space.

04:35So what is our ultimate goal to send humans, make them live and work in space?

04:40And we have been doing that for 25 years now without any hassle.

04:44So on this thing, we did a lot of microgravity experiments, studying yeast samples, a lot

04:53of biomanufacturing, exploring how nutrients work in space and deep space missions.

05:01We also did a lot of water recovery system, which is very important for long duration

05:07travel in space, gardening, waste management, water management, improve sustainability.

05:13The whole aspect of long duration space, when I say long duration, I'm talking about more

05:18than three months to six months to nine months, you know, and this is what we are talking

05:23about going to moon, I mean, Mars will evolve.

05:28And that's where we did a lot of experiments, over 600 science, individual science missions,

05:37More than 600 science experiments carried out by Sunita and Barry in space.

05:43From a final question, from a personal point of view, how do you think Sunita Williams

05:48will now have to adjust to being back on earth after over 280 days in space?

05:52There have been concerns expressed over her health.

05:55Are you confident that she will be healthy enough maybe to go back to the space in the

05:59near future?

06:00Well, if you ask me and knowing Sunita, I launched the first two Indian women to space

06:08and I launched Kalpana twice.

06:11Second time I didn't get her back.

06:12I launched Suni in STS-116 and got her back immediately in STS-117 mission in 2006 and

06:202007.

06:21So as far as I'm concerned, if you ask her now, she says, I want to go back.

06:25But NASA won't let her do that.

06:27But yes, we have seen astronauts stay there more than 286 days, which is for Sunita Williams.

06:34She will adjust.

06:36Because don't forget that we continuously monitor them 24-7 in space, 365 days.

06:43We have doctors, we have instruments there in space, we make sure that they're monitored

06:49not only for all the physiological or psychological problems and the blood samples, dosimeters

06:56for radiation, and then they do exercises.

07:00So basically, they're part of the human research facility, HRF, where we are controlling how

07:09they feel.

07:10Now, let's say Sunita Williams got sick about six months ago or three months, I mean, not

07:14six months ago, three months ago, instead of 286 days, after 100 days, she got sick.

07:21I could put her on SOUs and get her back.

07:24So there was no problem at all.

07:26And NASA doctors are continuously working with ISS.

07:29And we have all kinds of telemedicine going on, including understanding of cancer, blood,

07:34you know, we have a centrifuge to check the blood tests and stuff like that.

07:38When she came to the ground, yes, it will take her six weeks, maybe six months to recoup.

07:44But yes, it will be slow.

07:46But sure, I've seen astronauts coming back from space to humans, they were sleeping literally

07:51like that.

07:52I mean, I've seen Andy Thomas from Australia, he stayed more than 300 days there.

07:55So it's like, you know, we do have a problem for her to adjust the bodily functions and

08:00stuff like that.

08:01But it's not nothing new that we don't know.

08:05We know all the details of how to counteract or countermeasure.

08:10Well, that's very reassuring.

08:12What you're saying is Sunita could be back in space, who knows, in the near future.

08:17I appreciate you, Dr. Margus, I am joining me there from Florida, giving us in a way

08:22an insider's view from NASA.

08:25Thanks so much.

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