On Thursday, May 21 I had the true honor of sharing the HARRY G. ARMSTRONG keynote with my esteemed colleague and friend Dr. Bindhu Oommen, M.D. at the annual Aerospace Medical Association (ASMA) meeting, Denver, Colorado.
Of course, we worked on slides ’till midnight for our 8AM presentation. The room was filled with hundreds of decorated Air Force and Navy officers, seasoned NASA veterans, and researchers from across the globe, including colleagues I’ve come to know and appreciate in the realm of human space exploration research.
I spoke of the courage required to ride controlled bombs to space, and the courage required to fight bureaucracy and the increasing complexity of the workplace (which is arguably far more dangerous); the relentless pursuit of our shared goals, and the lessons we have and will continue to learn (which is why we need doctors in space).
I provided an overview of all we have accomplished at SAM, touching upon air quality management, food waste recycling, water condensate, the Mars yard and reduced gravity simulator. I concluded with a nod to entropy as the underlying function of thermodynamics that in time causes every component of everything we build, including airlock seals, pressure suit fabric, and habitats themselves to break down.
“But what happens when we break?”
I exited as Bindhu entered and it was my true pleasure to watch her light up the stage. She told her story of working as a surgeon for the past fifteen years, then took the audience into a near future in which telesurgery fails due to light travel-time delays, where deep space habitats are nearly fully autonomous (not to be confused with automated) with staff capable of conducting advanced medical procedures without immediate support from Earth.
Bindhu later described the experience, her first on such a stage as “I felt like I was on fire!” and indeed, she was. I could not ask for a more audacious way to summarize seven years in ideation, research, fund raising, and hands-on fabrication with my agile, dedicated, capable team.
We thank Warren Silberman, Yolanda Silberman, Stacy Harmon, and the host of intelligent, enthusiastic, and capable colleagues for inviting us to give this keynote, and for treating us like royalty. The ASMA conference is like none other that I have ever attended, and will surely attend again.
