AnnLucille   What university courses were most relevant for your work today? Do you do research? Any applications for our "everyday life" (quoting Oran) in your work? Do you work with OSHA?
DH   The most important courses, in high school & college are the basic math & science classes. No matter WHAT field you go into, if it's at all technical, you will be using algebra, probably geometry, and chemistry & physics. That's the basis of the workings of the world.
My research is rather limited, mostly in exotic applications of propellants (like, what kind of plastics can we sneak in here that won't cause a spark or a fire?), but there are others who do full-blown research right here at Kennedy Space Ctr. (Some of the other Ctrs are devoted almost entirely to research.)

As far as applications to the real world, well, nothing legal. I personally am an explosives expert. Although it does help when I'm working around the house to know what materials are the best use for what. We do indeed work with OSHA. (Oh, boy, do we.) We also interface quite a bit with other govt agencies, such as the time we had to design a tanker to carry nitrogen tetroxide, Class A poison, over the public roads, and the Transportation Dept got heavily involved (after they finished throwing fits.)

AnnLucille   Do you have to continue to stay physically fit to do your work like when you were training to disarm explosives?
DH   Physical fitness is recommended if you're going to be working on the pads, or around flight hardware, because it involves a lot of climbing stairs. But it's not a primarily physical job like having to run for your life.
One of the chemistry hints that's probably in Heloise is that vinegar is a great cleaner, that peroxide is effective on more stains than chlorine bleach, and that ammonia should not be used to clean out cat litter boxes (wait, that's not from work; I should say, ammonia should not be used with certain nickel-containing metals).

Of course, peroxide is usually sold only in the 3% concentration, 10% at some health food stores, and we use it at far higher concentrations, which tend to explode at any slightest excuse. Do not leave any of the sodium-based cleaners in dry form lying around, because they absorb water from the air and eat holes in things.

Oran/NASAChatHost   Ann, Dian has been experiencing some technical difficulties that maybe slowing her response time to your questions. We apologize for the delay, and again thank you for your patience today.
DH   One of the technical difficulties was my boss wanting a file RIGHT NOW; some things never change.

AnnLucille   My main interest is cognitive development & educational applications. I was previously funded by NSF; lately I've done projects ranging from changes in workmans' compensation laws to comparing the best SUVs on the market..Mahalo for your very inspiring comments & best wishes.
DH   Now that's a wide-ranging combination! I'm sure some of our own employees will be interested in your work on workman's compensation laws. Good to here from someone with so much of interest to offer, and best of luck!

The next day, the mechanics were rinsing off their hands & face in the safety shower when a puff of N2O4 gas came out of the safety shower! This is a lot worse than finding half a worm in the apple you just bit into. N2O4 is highly toxic, and causes burns on contact.
So we had to shut down the water system to the whole area and sample it at a dozen places to find the source of the N2O4. Sure enough, there it was, at the same place that had been used to rinse out the molecular sieve.

Sample activities:
Here's a project concerning how close people should be to the shuttle when it launches. When the Delta rocket blew up right after take-off Feb.1997, falling pieces burned up a lot of cars and left craters in the ground. Fortunately no one was hurt, since everyone was inside specially constructed buildings. We need to decide how many people really need to be in that area, and what kind of protective gear they'll need.

Here's a design blueprint for the construction of a new building. Some rooms have to have special pipes to carry hazardous gasses under high pressures to the test cells, and special monitors to detect those gasses in case of a leak. I don't think we want to run that electrical wire through the same space as that pipe. And those lights are going to have to be the sealed, explosion-proof kind.
Here's a question about the cloth booties we use in the clean rooms. People wear "bunny suits" when handling flight hardware & payloads, because even a little bit of dirt or hair can damage the electronics. We found a new type of bootie cover that's much cheaper than the old ones, which makes a big difference when hundreds of them are used & thrown away every day. We tested the material to make sure it would meet the requirements of clean room use and stand up to the abuse that some people's feet put it through, but one technician thinks the booties may not provide enough traction. We call a meeting to discuss and test the booties to make sure no one will slip on the slick floor while wearing them.

Here's a proposal to make fertilizer out of the waste nitrogen tetroxide. Since N2O4 is very poisonous & corrosive, it has to be disposed of in special stainless steel drums and in special hazardous waste landfills, which is very expensive. It can be neutralized, though, and chemically converted into fertilizer, which would save us both the cost of disposal and the cost of the fertilizer we now put on the orange groves.
The problem is that the neutralizing chemical is also explosive! We have to write safety procedures for handling the 35% hydrogen peroxide, same chemical you use at home, only ten times more powerful.

Jason/California   I read that the shuttle has tiles that keep it from heating up. What's the difference between the tiles on the shuttle and the heat shield on the Mars spaceship?
DH   Tiles on the orbiter are a kind of foam ceramic, very light & easily damaged. You could poke a hole in one with your finger, for example. The heat shield on the Mars vehicle is more like the heat shields that were on the early capsules of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, etc., tough & solid. Some of it burns away, or "ablates," when entering an atmosphere. Of course, Mars doesn't have much of an atmosphere, so not much heat shielding is needed.

John/Fremont   How do you know what kinds of metals to use on the shuttle? What are the best metals to use on the shuttle?
DH   Selection of materials, esp. metals because of their weight, depends on the trade-off between strength & weight. If we made the whole structure out of gamma-aluminum titanium, for example, it would be almost completely indestructible, but it would weigh ten times what it does! We'd never get it off the ground.
Deciding which materials to use sometimes requires experiments on small-scale models (the scientific version of trial and error). That's why, with the new space vehicles being developed, they build & test a small-scale version first. We narrow the selection down, of course, from what we know about materials from long experience, but sometimes there are four or five different kinds of steel, or aluminum, or plastic, that would serve our needs, so we do a lot of research and investigation.
Computers really help out a lot there, with both the lists of characteristics of different kinds of materials, and the ability to make computer models from those lists.

Jason/California   Why are the tiles used if they are easily damaged? How much of the heat shield burns away in the atmosphere?
DH   Tiles are the best thing there is at what they do, which is keep the inside of the crew compartment cool. An ablation shield, like on the capsules, not only doesn't work as well, but is heavier. None of the tiles or the "blankets" (the upper part of the orbiter is covered with a thick blanket-like material instead of tiles) burns away during re-entry, although some are usually damaged by space debris during orbit.

Kelly/Fairfield   I want to know how long it takes to build or repair parts of the shuttle.
DH   Repairs & refurbishing we do between each launch, which also includes installing the new payload, usually takes about 4 months. We can speed that up if we have to, but only so many people can work on a shuttle at once! Every 5 years or so, a shuttle goes through a complete overhaul, which takes about 8 months. It took over 2 years to build the latest orbiter, the Endeavour.

John/Fremont   What other kinds of space ships are you working on right now? Do you help decide which metals to use on spaceships?
DH   The latest thing we're working on is the new Expendable Launch Vehicle (a rocket, like the Delta & Centaur), which will be cheaper and carry more weight. We're also investigating the idea of changing the solid rocket boosters to liquid-fueled, and equipping them to fly back to the landing strip instead of falling into the ocean. I'm one of hundreds of people who are investigating various designs and questions for these new vehicles.
The other concept being worked on is the X-33 & X-34, which, like the Delta Clipper, will hopefully lead to a single-stage-to-orbit spaceship. But private companies are working on that, not NASA, so I see only a little of that work when someone wants to ask the opinion of someone at NASA.

Farm Home Class   Hi Die-Hard! What type of metal is used to withstand the tremendous heat at the bottom of the shuttle rocket during liftoffs?
DH   The heat blast at the engines is a problem. The main engines, 3 attached to the orbiter, are cooled by their own propellant as it runs through the tubing inside the nozzles themselves. The engines on the bottom of the SRBs are high-temperature steel and fire-proof felt lining (which does burn away during ascent).
A deluge of water that pours into the trench below the shuttle about 10 seconds before liftoff not only keeps everything from catching on fire, but keeps everything from vibrating to pieces from the power of the sound shock- wave.

Kelly/Fairfield   I heard that the Columbia is the oldest space shuttle. What kinds of things did you need to do to keep it running so long?
DH   She's been through several of those major refurbishments, where a lot of the interior wiring & seals are replaced. Also, the engines themselves have been upgraded over the past few years, with better metal in the turbines. We hope to keep her flying another 10 years, with any luck!

John/Fremont   I also heard that the big orange rocket on the shuttle burns up after each shuttle launch. Is this true? What is it made of and why can't we build just one for all the shuttles?
DH   The big orange External Tank does indeed burn up after being separated from the orbiter when she reaches orbit. The tank is very very light, with only thin skins of tanks inside, one for hydrogen and one for oxygen, and the surface is kind of like felt, for temperature protection.
To build it any sturdier would add a lot of weight. Some of you may remember that the first shuttle launch featured a white ETank; that was paint, and that one layer of paint weighed 400 lbs. But we would like to have a ship that doesn't have to drop its tanks, which is why the next generation of spaceships that are being worked on are all "single stage to orbit," meaning they don't drop anything off.

Kelly/Fairfield   What happens to the shuttle after it can't fly anymore? Do you use the parts from one for another one?
DH   Yes, they do salvage parts from one orbiter to repair another orbiter sometimes already. Some of them are specially made, and won't fit any of the others, like the FRCS Forward Reaction Control System, or nose thrusters. A term for an orbiter w/ raided parts is a "hangar queen."

Jason/California   How long does it take to build another external tank after a shuttle launch?
DH   About 2 months to build an ET. They're not very complicated. We have 3 or 4 lined up waiting for the next launches at all times.

Farm Home Class   That's amazing about the water also controlling the shock-wave at liftoff! What kind of research is currently being done on lighter propellants? Aren't the current propellants relatively heavy?
DH   The current propellants for the main engines, hydrogen & oxygen, are about as light as you can get. You're right, though, solid fuel in the boosters is pretty heavy. If we go to liquid fly-back boosters, they'll also use hydrogen & oxygen, which is also environmentally a lot safer. Solid fuel produces hydrochloric acid when it burns; the main engines produce only water as an exhaust.
We also use the hypergolic propellants in the nose and rear thrusters, which are VERY heavy, but they don't need an ignition source, so we made that trade-off for the safety of the crew.

John/FremontHow thick does the shuttle have to be to keep the space junk from penetrating the hull? What kinds of metals are used on the Mir Space Station that were damaged in the collision with the space ship?
DH   That depends on the size of the space junk! And how fast it's moving relative to the orbiter. Several years ago, a chip of paint hit the orbiter's window and cracked the outer pane. (The orbiter windows have three layers of panes: inner & outer ones are 0.625 inches thick, and the middle one is 1.3 inches thick.
The windows are the thickest piece of optical quality, that is that you can see through, glass ever produced. The inner & outer panes are built to withstand 8600 psi and 800 degrees F.
The thermal protection tiles & layers of blankets are 2½ to 5 inches thick, depending on the location; some parts get hotter than others during re-entry. They're not structural; you can poke a finger through a tile (we call them tiles, but they're more like a ceramic foam), and the blankets are about like a heavy quilt ; but they can absorb impact from small pieces of space junk. We have to replace a lot of them after every flight!

The "skin" of the orbiter is made up of aluminum plates in some places, aluminum "honeycomb sandwich" in some places, and graphite epoxy composite in some places. (There are also titanium fittings & Inconel hinges. The skin may be as thin as 2mm and as thick as 6, according to what kind of stresses it has to take. The whole orbiter weighs about 100 tons, world's heaviest glider!
If a meteorite hit the orbiter, though, nothing known to mankind could stop it. Look at the hole a meteor made out in Arizona. The crater is over 4000 ft feet long. The meteorite was traveling at an estimated speed of 9mi miles per second.

Like almost everything in space, Mir is made mostly of aluminum. Most of it is sheet aluminum, anywhere from 2 to 5mm thick, over structural supports. There are steel reinforcements in areas such as the docking module ring, and titanium is used sparingly for load-bearing fittings. Titanium is much heavier than steel, about the same as lead.
Collisions in space are a good demonstration of the principle of inertia; once an object is set in motion, it keeps on going until something stops it!

Jason/California   Where do you keep all the ETs when you're building them? They look pretty big.
DH   The external tank is made by Martin Marietta Aerospace, and manufactured at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, LA. They send them to us at Kennedy Space Cntr one at a time, on a barge. We may have 2 or 3 in processing (in the process of being attached to the orbiter) at any one time, in one of the bays in the Vehicle Assembly Building (the VAB).
The external tank (ET) is the largest single element, and the only major non-reusable component, of the Shuttle system. The ET is 154 ft long & 27.6 ft dia. and carries more than 528,600 gallons of cryogenic propellants that are fed to the orbiter's 3 main engines during powered flight. The ET is the structural backbone of the Shuttle system and absorbs the total 6,610,000 lb thrust loads generated by the orbiter's 3 main engines and 2 solid rocket boosters.

High-powered xenon spotlights' beams trained on the launch pad are blurred by the humidity, guaranteed to cost you your night vision if you so much as glance to the east. Atlantis is heading for a supply & repair mission to Space Station: 40 thousand lbs of antennas, cameras, life support equipt, that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, a lot of it is for repairs, such as the batteries, and most of the repairs are for the Russian components. I don't think the Russians even have a word for "quality control." Practically everything we've received from the International partners has had to be completely reworked here at Kennedy.

It would have been "better, faster, and cheaper" to build the whole damn station ourselves (or to simply bring all the intl engineers over and make them American citizens), if Congress had the sense to appropriate the necessary funds up front. Congress is always willing to force everyone except themselves and their own personal pork barrels to operate on a shoestring. You cannot build a space station on a shoe string!

The count picks up at T-20 at 0507, one hour (more or less) until launch. The Station is in a highly elliptical orbit, and slightly erratic due to drag, so the launch target keeps drifting back & forth by a minute or two. Hitting a moving target is easy. Docking gently with a fragile port is the tricky part.
There's an odd trick of perspective when you look at the whole shuttle, and then look at isolated parts of it, magnified by the sharp shadows of the spotlights. One minute it looks graceful, even fragile, poised against the enormous forces it has to exert and to withstand. The next it looks every bit as massive as its fully-loaded four- million-nineteen-thousand-plus pounds. (The orbiter itself weighs about 222K pounds, or just over a hundred tons, empty. And remember that she lands WITHOUT ENGINES....)

Countdown reaches the built-in T-minus-9 minute hold at 0518. Most of the hold is taken up with polling, each manager badgering each system lead and each lead badgering each subsystem engineer before putting their own "go" on the line to their Director. Which is as is should be. Everyone IS responsible.
Then there's the "Clear Caution & Warning memory, verify no unexpected errors" routine. Response is: "Roger, no unexpected errors." So what are the EXPECTED errors...?
The only technical problem being worked is Range tracking's hassles with a balky obsolete radar.

The Station itself passes overhead at 0546, reaching its high point 30 degrees above us at 0550, just as the sky begins to shade from black to cobalt. We search for it, but with only 2 pieces connected, it would take an extremely sharp stargazer to locate it. One the solar panels are attached, you'll be able to see it just about every time, fully assembled, Station will be bigger than 3 football fields.
0555, and the high cirrus begins to glow pink above the bands of purple & blue clouds on the horizon. Here on the east coast, a wall of clouds from the ocean runs before the dawn wind. Polling is complete and the count picks up at 0602. All gods forbid NASA should ever use an even number.

The shuttle seems to come alive as the last-minute preparations begin, the details, in which the devil is. Vented cryogens make the metals flex & waver in temperature differentials, as if she were breathing. Essential busses are connected to fuel cells. The orbiter access arm, where the astronauts crawl into the shuttle, retracts. The Auxiliary Power Unit recorders are started, then the APU prestart check; APUs have only about 5 minutes of full power, and more than once we've had to hold at T-5 because of an APU problem. But this time the three APUs come up green. T minus 5 minutes.
There are pink & turquoise reflections from the sky in the lagoon beyond the countdown clock. Heaters reconfigured, liquid oxygen replenishment terminated, aerosurface profile check. (That means moving the wing & tail flaps.) Main engine gimbal (move around) check. T minus 3 minutes.

Any problems from here on would require a recycle to T minus 20, and since our launch window is only 5 minutes, that would pretty much shoot the wad for today. Pressurize liquid oxygen tank, clear caution & warning signals (again), no "unexpected" errors (again). Retract the oxygen vent arm (the "beanie cap"). From the ground comes the order to "Close & lock visors and initiate oxygen flow."
From the cockpit comes a "roger," a "thanks," and a "See you in about a week & a half." T minus one minute, 30 seconds. The pink has mostly faded to daylight in the sky, but there are still deep shadows inside the pad structure. Dawn isn't for another 20 minutes. Final check of SRB steering commands. Computer handoff from the ground to the orbiter at T minus 31 seconds.

People begin counting under their breath. 25. 20. 15. Minus 10, and the sparklers light off to burn off any stray hydrogen. Minus 6, main engine start. They go steady & hot almost immediately, almost eagerly. Two. One. The sudden brilliance drowns out the xenons, seems even to scare the sun back down a few degrees. Certainly it gets darker as she clears the tower and pulls away. For all the millions of pounds, she's HAULING, eating up the sky like a, like a, well, like a rocket.
The trajectory is north, pointing the flame right at us, too bright to see except as a half-size orange sun. The contrail shades up from purple to blue, suddenly edged by and glowing with pink highlights, then illuminating orange, yellow, white, white, and the never-to-be-forgotten checkpoint, "Go at throttle up."
"Roger, go at throttle up."

The shockwave rattles the humid air, rattles everything. Bones & blood vibrate. Staring at the incredible glowing colors of the contrail and the white star as the twinkling pinpoints of the SRBs drop away, barely able to breathe against the sound, I FORGET TO RAISE MY BLOODY CAMERA until the sound fades and the star is almost out of sight.
The speed she accelerates to in those 8½ minutes until Main Engine Cut-Off is hard to comprehend, even as the distances downrange are announced. They ought to put it on a curve on the website. Surely it's on some weenie's computer around here. T + 8 minutes 40 seconds. MECO, and humanity is once again in space, taking another step towards putting us there permanently.

Dian will be returning to her primary job in safety in the very near future. She believes that safety should continue these rotational assignments so that each safety team member will have a better idea of what is going on within each directorate. She points out that a lot has changed in her field since she began with safety 11 years ago.
For example, finite element analysis has become an entirely new process. Newly developed software allows engineers to conduct very accurate stress analysis of objects on the computer. Objects are now modeled on the computer that can represent the type of material it is made of and the environmental conditions it will be used in. Engineers can apply stresses to test the object and determine its stress characteristics. Objects can even be combined by programming the type of weld that will be used.
This process & the new software being used didn't exist until fairly recently, and the engineers would have to create the model and test it in a laboratory. Imagine the time and money saved by doing this!

One of the projects that Dian worked on during her assignment is the Chandra satellite, the Advanced X-Ray Facility. Chandra will be the payload onboard STS-93. Chandra is one of the "Great Observatories," like the Hubble Space Telescope & the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Chandra will be in a higher orbit than the Hubble (an elliptical orbit of 2,200 miles to 86,000 miles!), so it can't be visited & repaired by astronauts during its 5 year lifetime and must carry a large amount of hypergolic fuel & oxidizer. More about Chandra at http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/payload/missions/axaf/

Joel-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   What is the most complicated problem with the mechanical parts when astronauts are in microgravity?
DH   biggest hassle in microgravity inside the orbiter as there's nothing to push against if something gets stuck. All the valves have to be designed to very close tolerances so that they won't leak, but also that they won't jam.
Outside the orbiter, of course, the biggest problem is that those spacesuits are very bulky, and it makes it hard to get a grip on things. All the tools have to be designed to be handled wearing thick gloves, and to not slip.

Alex-Ms.Botero/HolyFamilySchool   ] What did it feel like when you saw the Challenger explode?
DH   Disbelief is probably the best word. We simply couldn't believe anything like that could happen. We certainly never want to go through anything like that ever again!

Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   We appreciate your concern about the environment! How does NASA dispose of contaminated propellents, since they are so toxic?
DH   All of our toxic materials are sealed in special drums and disposed of in special landfills which are lined to make sure that no leaks can contaminate the environment. We also work on ways to convert poisonous fluids into something useful: for example, we just finished a project to turn one of the propellants, nitrogen tetroxide, into fertilizer.

Leslie-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   From what experience since you have been at NASA have you learned the most?
DH   Every day is a learning experience! What I like best is to be given the responsibility for something completely new, and go out and start researching and designing it from scratchl that's how you learn best!

Joel-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   How did it feel when you learned that the probe to Mars was a complete success?
DH   We were all grinning and celebrating, even the little old stuffy scientists. I even gave my cats some extra treats that night. It's great to have all your work come out right!

Shannon-Shannon/STM   Do you think we should or shouldn't spend more money on space exploration? Why or why not?
DH   We definitely should spend more on space, and on science in general. We really spend very little on space, less than 1% of the federal budget. Exploration is the greatest achievement of human beings, and the more we explore, the more we find to help life be better for all.

Shannon-Shannon/STM   Are there any job opportunities in Colorado?
There are NASA Centers all over the U.S. but none in Colorado. However, we do have programs where we work with universities on various research projects; Univ. of Colorado is one. There will almost certainly be more & more launch centers once the new space vehicles get up and running, too.

shilo-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   What is the newest project that you will be working on?
DH   One of the projects is the fuels for the new space planes, perhaps using hydrogen peroxide instead of nitrogen tetroxide. Another is a project to make fuel, air and water out of the sands of Mars, so we can live there long-term.

Shannon-Shannon/STM   What would you recommend to a young person wanting to work for NASA?
DH   Math & science. Once you get a handle on math and science, you can do anything.

Leslie-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   What is the project you enjoyed working on the most?
DH   Designing the new tankers to carry the explosive fuels. We did such a good job on them that the federal govt adopted them as the new standard for all poisons! The chlorine industry was rather put out with us for that.

Maria-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   What obstacles have you had to overcome to get where you are at?
DH   My major obstacle was learning to study. I was always kind of lazy, and it took a lot of self- discipline to get myself to realize that if I didn't buckle down now, it would be too late when I finally got arond to it.

Michela-Ms.Botero/HolyFamilySchool   Was it hard to learn how to disarm bombs?
DH   Not really. Bombs are easy. What was hard was learning to be VERY careful & patient!

Joel-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   What kinds of things is NASA researching to explore the ocean depths?
DH   NASA provides some of the research in high-reliability components for use under pressure. That kind of equipmt is something that deep water exploration can use just as well as we can. For example, the high-power lights used on deep-submersibles were developed by a NASA contractor.

Shannon-Shannon/STM   Do you believe in other intellegent life?
DH   I sincerely hope there is other intelligent life out there! It would be a very strange & lonely universe indeed if, among all the trillions and trillions of stars, we were the only sentients.

Kelly-Ms.Botero/HolyFamilySchool   Do you find it hard to juggle your time with foster kids, your job, your cats and your hobbies?
DH   Yes. Sometimes I think I live minute to minute on a planning schedule! But it can be done; you just have to decide what's the most important & highest priority at the time.

Shannon-Shannon/STM   How many engineers are there @ NASA? What does it take to become one?
DH   There are about 2000 people at Kennedy Space Ctr and maybe 25,000 people working for NASA altogether. I'd say maybe two thirds of those are engineers or scientists, and another few thousand are technicians.

Joel-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   Were you excited when you saw the different galaxies in photographs with the Hubble Telescope?
DH   It's just amazing, all the different ways hydrogen can combine to make stars and galaxies!

Shannon-Ms.Botero/HolyFamilySchool   What kind of physical training do you do in EOD training besides hard-hat diving?
DH   EOD is a BUNCH of physical exercise. Running miles every day, swimming miles every day, weight training, carrying heavy loads for miles. I'm too old for that any more!

Maria-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   Do you think that we will be able to one day travel from here to Mars or the moon as we do here between cities?
DH   Absolutely. Not only that, but it won't bee too long until we can travel all the way around our own world in a tenth of the time that it takes now. It's just a matter of getting the engines built and the airports or spaceports into place!

Shannon-Shannon/STM   Did you start out as a child loving space and wanting to be a NASA engineer?
DH   Yes. My parents tell me my first word was "moon" instead of "mama." I always liked to take things apart and put them back together. Not that I was as good at putting them back together as I was at taking them apart.

VJ-Ms.Botero/HolyFamilySchool   Were you treated differently than the other men because you are a woman (during training)?
DH   Not really. The women got a certain amount of joking & ribbing, but what really counted & still does is whether or not we could do the job. If we could, we got respect. If we couldn't, we didn't belong.

Joel-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   Would you ask NASA to send me a scholarship to major in AeroSpace Engineering?
DH   You can apply for a number of engineering scholarships. If you need help, I'll be glad to see what I can research on the web. NASA doesn't really have any scholarships, but once you're in college, NASA does have programs where you can work for any of the Space Centers during the summer.

Shannon-Shannon/STM   In your opinion are manned or unmanned missions better? Why or why not?
Unmanned missions can do things humans can't do (yet), like go to Saturn or Jupiter. On the other hand, humans can do things that robots will never be able to do, like improvise when something breaks down.
Astronauts spend a lot of time training just to be able to fix whatever might go wrong; they certainly get to use it, no matter how careful we are!

Florian-Florian/AMS I live in Austria. I donīt want to start a career as an astronaut, because I am more interested in the development of space equipt or working in the mission control center. Is it possible for me to work at Nasa?
DH   There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to work at NASA or at the space launch complexes in Europe. I suggest you start college and see what opportunities the school can help you get. A lot of people take 2 year degrees at one college then transfer to evem a different country

Shannon-Shannon/STM   What classes did you take in high school that effect your carreer today?
DH   My favorite science class was chemistry. That's where I learned I liked to blow things up. I didn't like biology because frogs gross me out. I also liked physics, because we got to do hands-on experiments, and because you could see the applications for the math instead of just memorizing equations.

Shannon-Shannon/STM   What colleges would you recommend to be able to pursue a space career?
DH   Any major university will have a diversified program in the sciences and various types of engineering. Some of the best engineers I know went to small schools.

Javier-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   Will space trash left from the early shuttle missions eventually lead to problems with future missions?
DH   We try to bring most of our trash home these days for exactly that reason. A wrench left in orbit could crack open the Space Station. Space trash is a growing problem, and there are whole teams of people working on what to do about it.

Joel-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   With the new technologies going into the 21st century do you think NASA will make more hitech shuttles?
DH   We'll certainly have new generations of space vehicles. I doubt we'll ever build anything quite like the shuttle, because of complexity & expense of operating it, but ones being tested right now, Venture Star & Delta Clipper for example, will also be reusable vehicles with wings, and much more hi-tech internal equipt.

Leslie-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool   How do you think fictional creations of books or movies will effect NASA's creations in the future?
DH   I used to gripe about exactly that. Books & movies make it look much easier than it really is! But I think it's good that people enjoy the fiction, because that might make them more aware of the reality.

Rick-Ms.Botero/HolyFamilySchool   How fast does the Space Shuttle go?
DH   Orbital velocity is about 20,000 miles per hour. It takes it 90 minutes to go completely around the Earth, at a height of about 150 miles.

Maria-Mrs.Doerrie/PerrytonHighSchool In order to work at NASA would I first have to join the military or the Navy or go to school for many years?
DH   A 4 year college degree in math, science, or engineering is the best way. Some people join as techs, with no degree, and work their way up, but that takes longer.