Meeting Astronaut Rick Mastracchio

Nothing beats meeting and speaking directly to an astronaut about his experience in Space! Fulfilling day at the pre-conference of the 2016 ISS R&D Conference. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio, a veteran of four space- flight missions, gave a fun and insightful presentation about his missions to the ISS. The space that he shared from was awe-inspiring. Now having met one, I can see why astronauts have celebrity status. It is so exciting to get to ask him all my burning questions about his experience of physiology and pathology of living in the ISS and on re-integrating back to earth. He also did several Space Walks while being stationed in the ISS and it was good to learn about his experience in the spacesuits. Also although there has been experiments being carried out in the ISS in the last 15 years, none has been focused on CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) research, so there is room to learn and find out more! Also made the acquaintance of a Japanese Astrophysicist today, Mihara San, who works on watching stars through X-rays on the Japanese Module on the ISS.