The Ultimate Innovator Test

Due to unforeseen technical issues, our regularly-scheduled Over Coffee® episode will air next Monday, March 16th at 12:01 am.  Please enjoy this repost of one of our all-time most popular interviews!
What does it take, to be an astronaut?  Especially since NASA is currently accepting applications from candidates who would ultimately like to explore the Moon and Mars?  (Deadline: March 31, and here's the link for applications.)

NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas H. Wheelock can certainly offer some guidance in that department.

"Space has lots of surprises for us," he says.

In 2016, we had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Doug, as he prefers to be called, during NASA International Space Apps Challenge, in Pasadena.   Doug has flown twice aboard the International Space Station.  In total, he has spent more than 178 days in space, according to NASA's biography page.  And at the time we talked, he was training the new class of astronauts who had come into the program in 2013, and was looking forward to training another new class that would begin in 2017.

Doug's own experience included more than 178 days in space.  In 2007, he served as a flight mission specialist on STS-120, the space shuttle's 23rd mission to the International Space Station.  And in 2010. he returned to the ISS as a flight engineer for Expedition 24, and commander of Expedition 25.

Each time, he encountered an unforeseen issue.

The first time, a solar panel malfunctioned, necessitating emergency repairs by the crew.

And the second time was much more dramatic.

The spacecraft went into "survival" mode, shutting down half the ISS' external-cooling system.   Doug and his team were able to innovate against the clock--and their repair of the Space Station's technology, won numerous innovation awards in the process.

Here is our interview with Doug, from 2016 NASA International Space Apps Pasadena.
On this episode of Over Coffee®, you’ll hear:

How Doug first became interested in aviation and space travel;

What Doug tells the astronauts he trains, about efficient  spacewalking;

What an average day is like, aboard the ISS;

How Doug spent his leisure time, aboard the International Space Station;

How the crew manages “crew sleep”, with a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes;

The procedures NASA astronauts are trained to observe, after an emergency alarm;

Doug’s recollections of his experience in 2010, when half the ISS’ cooling system shut down;

Some of the innovations Doug saw teams coming up with, at 2016 International Space Apps Pasadena;

Doug’s advice for innovators.