RIP Sally Ride

[jerseydevil]

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died today at 61.  Growing up in the 80's the shuttle program was a big deal, with assemblies at school to watch launches.  We have lost a pioneer today.   

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died today at 61.  Growing up in the 80's the shuttle program was a big deal, with assemblies at school to watch launches.  We have lost a pioneer today.   

Whoa... that's a bit of a shock... still pretty young to shuffle off the mortal coil...   

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's funny- I was just reading an article in Wired.com about the hazards faced by astronauts. There were a few (like blindness ) I hadn't heard of before.

Sad to hear she passed away. She was a pioneer indeed.

Def

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[duckman1975]

You will live long and prosper in humanity's heart...........

[Gareth]

Wow, very sad news indeed.

[Craig]

Too young. RIP.

[nuphoria]

I suppose the only good thing here is that in her shorter than deserved life, she experienced incredible things none of us ever will.

Go in peace Sally

[Ashley]

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[82brutus]

Awww, so sorry to hear this.  She lived an extraordinary life and she had so much inspiration left to share with others.    Just too young to move on.  RIP Sally. 

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[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

One very brave lady

[David]

RIP Sally Ride.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

It's funny- I was just reading an article in Wired.com about the hazards faced by astronauts. There were a few (like blindness ) I hadn't heard of before.

Sad to hear she passed away. She was a pioneer indeed.

Def

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It's from all the radiation they're exposed to while in space.  There's an episode of The Universe that has some retired astronauts talking about it, how they see flashes as subatomic particles penetrate the photoreceptors in their retinae, and stuff like that...  They have something like a 200x greater risk of cancer and other things like that because of the exposure they get.  Of course, all of them say it's totally worth it, and I probably would too.

When I was in grad school at UC Santa Cruz, I had some friends who worked over at NASA Ames Research Center, and who I did some research with.  Perhaps it was just by proxy, but I was hit pretty hard when Columbia went down...  Many of my friends over there were literally in tears for days. 

It's a shame we're not still really doing our own manned missions anymore; I just hope that the inspiration that people like Dr. Ride and those at NASA I've been privileged to know can get us back on track with the space program.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Actually there was a lot more to it than just radiation.  Bacterial infections were much worse in zero G and many suffered loss of vision that doctors believe is attributable to the redistribution of internal pressure inside their bodies- the same thing that causes facial swelling.

Of course many of the astronauts refused to admit they were having vision issues for fear of being grounded, so for many years it has gone very unnoticed.

While radiation is indeed a significant issue, it is only one of quite a few issues astronauts face.

Def

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Actually there was a lot more to it than just radiation.  Bacterial infections were much worse in zero G and many suffered loss of vision that doctors believe is attributable to the redistribution of internal pressure inside their bodies- the same thing that causes facial swelling.

Of course many of the astronauts refused to admit they were having vision issues for fear of being grounded, so for many years it has gone very unnoticed.

While radiation is indeed a significant issue, it is only one of quite a few issues astronauts face.

Def

Ah, I hadn't thought of that... (I'm not as up on my space-physiology as I probably should be...  )  The work I did with my grad school advisor and the people down at Ames was actually about space sickness... we were working on trying to find ways to shorten adaptation times to zero-G and reduce down time after reaching orbit from effects of space sickness.  (Zero-G throws the vestibular system all out of whack, and creates a lot of conflicting motion perception information in comparison to motion information from the visual system, creating space sickness.  It's like car sickness from hell...)  The conclusion we came to is that there isn't much that can be done about it... each astronaut has their own individual rates of adaptation and they just have to wait it out until their nervous systems adapt.  We tried adapting various forms of visual and balance exercises to see if it would facilitate adaptation, but in most cases it only made the space sickness worse.

But, back on topic... thanks for the info, Boss... I had completely forgotten about that other physiological stuff.  This is making me want to do some library research and see if I can find any papers she may have done or been a part of.  When I get back from my hiking trip with my son, I'll see what I can find.  If I can come up with something and post it for you guys, I think it'd be a nice little way to honor her. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I actually heard another interesting fact about Sally Ride that I think is more or less immaterial, but some may find controversial.  According to George Takei, aka Sulu from the original Star Trek series and an activist for Gay Rights, Sally Ride was a lesbian, and leaves behind her partner of 30 years.

Apparently that was something she had tried to keep quiet, which I find to be a bit of a sad state of affairs.  In fact, given that this would likely have put more hurdles in her path than she would normally already face in being the first woman in a very male dominated role makes her that much more of a hero in my mind.

Def