Eileen Collins, STS-114 Commander: Well, I still go to schools and talk to children about the space program. I love what I’m doing so it’s easy for me to talk to kids. Let me just give you an example. I’ll just tell them, "This is what the 114 mission is all about. We’re going to the Space Station, we’re very excited about our flight. There are astronauts in space right now, orbiting the Earth, they’re operating a Space Station, they’re helping us learn more about people living in space for long periods of time so someday your generation will be able to go farther and to do more things. The Space Shuttle flights, and my flight going next, are going to resupply the Space Station, we’re going to help build the Space Station, and we’re going to be doing science experiments, not just our country but other countries. We’re going to be thinking about the next missions…maybe going back to the Moon or going on to Mars someday, and eventually leaving the solar system and exploring other worlds." To me this is so exciting that I try to get the children interested in being part of this great mission someday. I encourage them in three things: Do well in school, do well in your academics; get involved in sports and community activities where you can learn to work as a team with other people; and, keep yourself healthy, sleep right, eat right is important, but stay away from drugs and alcohol, keep your friends away from drugs and alcohol. And think about the, the higher calling in life -- exploring and learning and helping our world be a better place to live. So, those are the messages I try to give to schoolchildren. Now, in the aftermath of the Columbia accident, we can use their mission and their crew as an example of people that were so dedicated to their mission and how well they worked together -- they, the Columbia crew, were smart, they studied, they were dedicated to their mission, they worked together as a team, they communicated well, they were just a model for other crews to look at. They kept themselves healthy. You can use them as an example of these things that I like to encourage children to do. And, despite the fact that there is a tragedy here, good things can come from this. I don’t try to focus on the accidents, but children will often ask about them so it’s important that we find the good things that can come out of this. The rededication and bringing out the best in people and trying to make the space program better as we learn from these things. There is something positive that can come out of this. And this is what I want to pass on to schoolchildren.
What is it, Eileen, that you envision as the long-term future for human space flight? Where do you think we’re headed?
Eileen Collins, STS-114 Commander: Well, I would like to see people walk on the surface of Mars someday. That’s my dream, and I hope that happens sometime in my lifetime. I certainly would like to see our country lead that effort. But do we go back to the Moon first? Do we go straight to Mars? How do we do this? There are a lot of questions there. Obviously, the Space Station must be completed. We’re almost there. We’ve got more components that we have to fly but the Space Station is going to be a test bed for missions to Mars in the sense of studying the human body. How does the human body adapt to space, microgravity, over long periods of time? What kind of countermeasures do we need to develop? This is what the Space Station is really for, in my opinion, but I would like to see people leave this planet. I would like to see Space Stations built in various places in the solar system, whether it’s on the Moon or on Mars or at points throughout the solar system that, that will provide a good scientific study. I’d like to see better means of propulsion developed so we can travel to places outside of the solar system. And, sure, this is science fiction, this is beyond my lifetime, but these things will happen someday. It’s been a hundred years since the first flight of an airplane; and look how far we’ve come. Where are we going to be a hundred years from now? Who knows? I’m hoping that there’s some smart person out there, maybe a schoolchild who someday will come up with a new propulsion system that can get us places faster. So this is my dream and I know that with the Space Shuttle we’re taking baby steps. Butt we’re taking the right steps right now. And I hope to see the next commitment that we make is to put people on Mars.
