About life and work on the International Space Station
On June 22, the planetarium in Novosibirsk was named after Anna Kikina, a native of the city, the only girl in the Roscosmos cosmonaut squad. She also became an honorary resident of Novosibirsk. Anna returned from a space trip in March and has already completed post-flight rehabilitation. Anna Kikina told TASS in an interview about how weightlessness feels, what medical experiments took place in orbit, who sends gifts for astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and how a festive menu is created in space.
— You became the first representative of Russia to fly into space on the Crew Dragon ship, a planetarium in Novosibirsk was named after you. Has it already come to the realization that you have inscribed your name in the history of Russian cosmonautics?
— I don't think that my name is written somewhere. We don't have many women who have flown into space, there will be more. And it's great that the cosmonaut profession is being popularized in Russia, including my beloved Novosibirsk. I just do my job with pleasure, I don't do anything specifically to make my name fit somewhere.
— Can you remember now the first thought that came to mind at the moment when you felt weightlessness?
— I didn't have any thoughts, only feelings.
— Can they be described in words?
— You can try to describe it in words. The feeling of floating, complete dehydration. When I unbuckled the seat belts, my body instantly soared out of the chair, and at that second I felt weightlessness.
— Was it comparable to zero gravity flights in the Il-76MDK laboratory aircraft?
— There are similarities, but the real weightlessness is different from the one we feel during training in a laboratory plane.
— What difficulties do you have to face in space flight due to the fact that you are a girl astronaut?
— I was only in my body. I don't know how men feel in space, I can't compare.
— Did the astronauts try to help you because you are a girl? Maybe they said that some work is hard?
— When a person finds himself in space surrounded by those devices and devices with which he has to work, will he pull someone to help him? It's unreal. Every cosmonaut has his own niche of tasks. You need to be able to cope with the work. If someone was released earlier, he can offer help to others. If it's relevant. This is called camaraderie, feeling the elbow, but not doing the work for another person.
— Earlier you said that you enjoyed doing ultrasound in space, what other medical manipulations are possible to do on the ISS? Have you ever taken blood from a colleague's vein? Should I put a temporary seal?
— We were lucky, no one had to seal anything, even though we had such training on simulators. There is a tool on board, but the situation did not arise. I didn't take blood from my vein either. It depends on what kind of experiments and research you are assigned. It is also known on Earth what you will do in space.
— Were there any other medical manipulations, how do they differ from terrestrial ones?
— The only difference is in the conditions under which it is performed. It is necessary to collect the material correctly, not to lose it, create conditions for storage, fix it so that it does not fly anywhere. Yes, in zero gravity there are difficulties with blood collection. We took capillary blood from the fingers, placed samples in a centrifuge to separate it into fractions with further determination of parameters.
The Earth constantly monitors the medical parameters of astronauts on board: both at rest and when performing physical exertion. A very big emphasis is on monitoring the cardiovascular system, checking the response of the heart to a particular load, its condition. The same experiment studies the compensatory and regulatory mechanisms of the cardiovascular system under the influence of space flight factors, it is called "Cardiovector".
— In April 2021, Roscosmos announced plans to involve doctors in the study of the use of gene and cellular technologies, medical effects on individual organs for deep space flights. Cosmonauts are all testers. Are you ready to test such new drugs on yourself?
— Right now I can't sign up that I'm ready for anything. It depends on many parameters of the experiment: the study of a particular organ system and the effect of certain drugs on it. Before agreeing to the experiment, I will study it carefully, I will try to observe the situation as much as possible so that there is no negative response to my systems or organs directly or indirectly involved in the study.
— Usually, gifts from relatives arrive on cargo ships to the ISS. What was the most unusual gift you received during the expedition?
— Postcards, New Year greetings and sweets from the psychological support group of the Mission Control Center.
— What are the usual sweets?
— There were little chocolates, candies in the form of astronauts with space drawings. It was done with such warmth and care. It was unexpected that in addition to relatives and relatives, someone could send us something. The attention from people was very nice.
— What was the most missed food in space?
— I've thought about it many times in space, but I haven't come to any decision. I had enough of everything from food.
— That's fine.
— I agree, we have a very diverse menu. Even vegetables and fruits are sent by trucks, we stretch the pleasure so that it lasts for a long time.
— You also had a very responsible mission — to control the ERA manipulator. When there was an emergency situation with the ship — the depressurization of the outer circuit of the ship's thermal regime system, you had to inspect the possible damage site. Was it difficult, was there some morally or psychologically difficult moment?
— It was not difficult to operate the ERA manipulator. If you are well prepared on Earth when interacting with a support group, specialists from Earth, this is not a problem. In general, working with this robot is arranged on a step-by-step basis. It is quite problematic to drive yourself into an unpleasant situation, there are limiting factors that it automatically triggers. There was a very close interaction with specialists on the Ground. We did it together at a measured, comfortable pace. We examined the surroundings of the damage site. I hope this helped in some way in assessing the situation.
— Do astronauts ever get scared? Anton Shkaplerov once said that the main fear of an astronaut is not to fly into space once. What is your main fear?
Therefore, there is some attitude when performing certain more extreme sections of the flight in order to minimize the effect of surprise for yourself. Moreover, all astronauts on Earth are preparing a lot to localize emergency situations, to respond to them. We are trained to do this in order to preserve life, health, and mission.
— Do psychologists work with you at the Cosmonaut Training Center (CPC), who tell you how to behave correctly in a situation when it becomes scary? Is there any life hack that you can share with us?
— There are psychologists in the CPC, we have been training with a certain frequency. There are special simulators that can somehow train some qualities of a person's psychological state and reaction. There are no classes to combat fear as such. In our case, the shutter speed is polished during training, special types of space training. Gradually we learn how our body reacts in certain extreme situations. A person learns in this way, is brought up how to behave correctly and effectively.
— What is the most important skill that you acquired in space and it came in handy later on Earth?
— There is no such thing.
— So basically what you learned on Earth was useful to you in orbit?
- yes. What I learned on Earth came in handy in orbit.
— Were you offended that you were leaving earlier than Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, because you arrived later?
— It's a shame — it sounds like the girl went to the corner and started crying. No, what kind of grievances can there be! Space flights and cosmonautics are very lively, they depend on many factors. Let's say there is a risk to the safety of an astronaut. Various options for the development of the situation are being considered, how to do so in order to prevent this. Specialists on the Ground can change the schedule, both removing and adding work.
In our case, the guys' expedition lasted — they will go down on another ship. We worked together on the Russian segment, but I arrived on an American ship and flew away on it in due time. I'd like to work a little more. I also had a mission shortened by a month, because the start was delayed. I feel like I've been a little short (laughs).
— So, we must definitely go again.
— Of course! And take your own.
— How did you like to spend your free time in orbit? Did you really keep practicing on the synthesizer?
— Where does this information come from? Why don't you ask me about the accordion, for example. I saw the synthesizer only from the side, I never even pressed the keys. But what every cosmonaut loves is taking pictures. Everyone has objects that they want to photograph from space. For example, a favorite city or something else on the planet. And the gambling photo hunt begins. When we have free time, we look at what we can catch in the lens.
In addition, someone finds an opportunity to play musical instruments, someone likes to talk longer with his family, someone will go to sleep, someone even reads. I do not know how to read there: the eyes are very much involved in the work, so after that I just want to relax them and not strain them.
— Did you have any of the musicians in the carriage?
— Yes, Sergey Prokopyev plays the guitar well here.
— What did he usually play? Does he have some kind of "signature" song?
— He has a fairly large repertoire. He plays different songs.
— Do you have any team building in orbit? I know that you often gather for dinner at the end of the week, are there any other traditions?
— In the Russian segment, we regularly meet with the guys at meals. Basically, we plan it so that it is about the same time, although sometimes it does not work out. But after work we have dinner most often together. We try to gather at least once a week at the table with the whole expedition, together with foreign colleagues. It happens that we combine this with watching a movie. Most often, in English, Russian is more difficult for those who have not spoken it since childhood.
But it also happens in Russian. For example, on New Year's Eve, we asked for the film "Operation "S" and other adventures of Shurik" to be uploaded to us from Earth, there is not so much talk there. Even when the heroes of the films said something, we translated briefly. Colleagues looked-looked, laughed too. It was cute and fun.
— Have there been such cases that Sergey or Dmitry tried to shift some of the responsibilities from the series of cooking or cleaning at the station to you, because it is considered that these are purely women's affairs?
— No, they didn't try. I do not know how everyone is, but all the people in my crew were self-sufficient, they could cook their own food and wash their clothes, even though they did not have to do this at the station. Everyone can serve themselves. If the preparation of some kind of festive table, where we are trying to make some kind of cake or salad, we don't even need to force anyone.
— And who usually makes the holiday menu?
— Someone comes to mind: "Let's do this!" After that, we begin to think about what products we have, look for them somewhere in the bins, put them somewhere so that no one eats them, so that at the right moment we get it and start using it as an ingredient.
— Do you share products with foreign colleagues if they lack something, or maybe you?
— Yes, of course. We went to each other for some products.
— You have become the prototype of a Barbie doll, and a toy in your image was also presented at the Novosibirsk planetarium. Would you like to become a prototype of the heroine of a computer game to popularize cosmonautics?
— It's an interesting idea. I like her. Why not? I love computer games, they're cool. If the game is well made, everything is good in moderation — then this is a developing business. Cool!
— Do you believe that somewhere in the universe there is life, as on Earth? Or maybe in other forms?
— Yes, I do!
— Do you think humanity will live to the moment when contact will be established with them?
— I hope so. Let's live, please! We can. Well, or at least those who are after us.