Edited Transcript of SPACE.com Chat Session Conducted Monday February 14, 2000, 8:00-9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Dr_Sally_Ride: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here and I'm looking forward to answering everybody's questions.

guest-astronut: What did your first launch feel like?

Dr_Sally_Ride: A launch is very difficult to describe, as you might expect. Even though I trained for it for well over a year in simulators at NASA, and the simulators try to prepare you for the launch - they lay you on your back, they shake you, there is lots of noise. It's just not the same. It's not the same as sitting on top of tons of explosives and both the physical feeling and emotional experience are much different than the simulator.

guest-JillAndBeth: Besides gravity, what did you miss most about Earth while in orbit?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Actually I didn't miss gravity. Weightlessness is a tremendous amount of fun and I enjoyed every second of it. But the thing that I missed most was being with my friends and my family. I was lucky that my space shuttle mission was only about a week long the first flight, and about 9 days on the second flight, so it wasn't really too long to be away.

guest-Caileigh: While the shuttle is on the nightside of Earth what do the stars look like?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The stars don't look very much different than they do from a high mountaintop on Earth on a very clear night. You feel a little bit closer to them. They stand out more. They are very clear and it's a spectacular view, but it's not that much different than being on a high mountaintop. What is spectacular about being on the night side of the Earth is looking down at the Earth below and seeing all of the glimmering city lights, the reflection of the moon in the water, and the kind of things that you don't really expect to see, or you don't really think about before you go into space.

douglas71: When did you know that you wanted to be an astronaut?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Even when I was in elementary school, I was very very interested in astronomy and in the space program. It was the very earliest stages of the space program but I remember my teachers wheeling a big old TV set into the classroom to watch the first launches, and even then, I was very interested in it and excited by it. I have to admit that I didn't really plan on a career as an astronaut until I was in graduate school.

guest-astronick: While in space, what did you enjoy most?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I enjoyed weightlessness and I enjoyed the view of Earth.

guest-MarciaSue: What was your project on your flight?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I had several projects. On my first flight, I was one of the astronauts in charge of the Space Shuttle's robot arm and we were the first ones to use the robot arm to release a satellite into orbit. And then retrieve the satellite - use the arm to grab the satellite and bring it back to Earth. So we did several experiments with the robot arm. I was also in charge of a series of pharmaceutical experiments. I helped launch two communication satellites. On my second flight, I used the robot arm to release a satellite into space and helped operate a radar, and other Earth observing experiments.

guest-Landlubber: Dr. Ride, what's the most difficult thing about being an astronaut? What's the easiest/most fun?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The most difficult thing is the preparation and the training for the flight. And by that I mean, the mental preparation and the studying. It's important to know everything there is to know about the space shuttle and the experiments that you are going to operate. The most fun thing, again, is weightlessness.

guest-launch: Dr. Ride, what educational background is required for someone entering the space program? Any on-the-job training? <g>

Dr_Sally_Ride: The educational background varies. That is, astronauts have a range of different educational background. My own background is in physics. I have a Ph.D. in physics. But there are astronauts with advanced degrees in geology, biology, all fields of engineering, some who are medical doctors. So the important common thing is that all astronauts have a very strong educational background in some area of science or engineering.

guest-manolis_varnas: Mrs. Ride, what does this site on www.space.com offer, and do you update it often?

Dr_Sally_Ride: We update it every day, more than once a day. Space.com is the definitive website for everything related to space, so we cover space news, provide information about space, the solar system, the Earth, astronomy. We have a part of the site for kids that has activities and games. We cover space business, science fiction - just about anything that you can think of. If you want to watch a space shuttle launch, we show live video on the site. In fact, we have live audio and video on the site for the shuttle that is in orbit right now. We have quizzes and polls related to space. And we are improving the site and adding more material to it every day.

guest-AuthorToo: You have written three children's books. Any plans for a book aimed at adults?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Not yet, but my fourth children's book just came out last November. It's called "The Mystery of Mars" and it describes what we have learned about Mars through robotic exploration, and what we have yet to learn.

guest-astronick: How do you feel women's role in space flight has increased over the past 10-15 years?

Dr_Sally_Ride: It's increased significantly. When I first joined NASA, there were no women in mission control and of course, no women astronauts and only a couple of women engineers at the Johnson Space Center. Now that is completely changed. Not only are there women astronauts, there are lots of them. In fact there are 2 women in orbit right now, on a crew of 6. But there are also women in mission control and lots of female engineers throughout NASA. So not only do women now play a part in every aspect of the space program, but their numbers have increased significantly.

guest-RudyZ: What was it like the first time you saw the sunrise above the Earth?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The sunrise above the Earth is spectacular. The space shuttle travels very fast in orbit around the Earth. It travels 5 miles per second. That's 17,500 miles per hour. If you do the math, that means that the shuttle goes once around the Earth every 90 minutes. That means it's in sunlight for 45 minutes and darkness for 45 minutes. There is one sunrise and one sunset that you get to see every 90 minutes. Or 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets that you can see every 24 hours. So not only is it a spectacular sight, it's a very frequent sight for astronauts on board the space shuttle.

guest-NFWarrior: Are u a sci-fi fan? I'm a big Star Wars/Star Trek one.

Dr_Sally_Ride: Yes, I am a Sci Fi fan! I'm a big fan of Star Trek and of course, of Star Wars also.

guest-astronick: Have you ever heard of the high school robotics competition, FIRST? Our team is asking these questions!

Dr_Sally_Ride: I have heard about it, but I don't know very much about it.

guest-Marty: Hello Sally, Where do you see NASA heading in the future?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The next very important step is the building and the completion of the international space station. NASA has started that. The first two pieces of it are in orbit right now but people can't stay in the space station yet. It's only occupied when the shuttle goes up to visit. All that will change later this year and NASA will be adding pieces to the space station over the next several years until it becomes a very large, very impressive, very capable facility, almost the size of a football field.

Dr_Sally_Ride: Beyond that, I think our country has to make a decision how to continue human exploration, whether we first go back to the moon and explore the moon more thoroughly, or whether we next go directly to Mars and carry out human exploration of Mars.

guest-Martian: What is the general feeling among astronauts about a manned mission to Mars?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I think almost any astronaut would love to get a chance to go to Mars. The astronauts in general strongly support the idea of an eventual mission to Mars that would involve human exploration and human adventure.

guest-NFWarrior: What will be the crew complement of the International Space Station (ISS)?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The first crew that goes up there will be a crew of three. They will be launched from a Russian rocket. Probably sometime towards the end of this summer or early fall. The three crew members will include on American, who is the commander of the mission, and two Russians. They will be replaced a few months later by another crew of three and the crews will rotate every few months after that. But as the space station grows, as the assembly continues, there will be room for larger crews.

guest-Marty: Hello Sally, did you get to meet the President after your mission to space at the White House?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Yes, I did. I met the President before my mission when our whole crew was invited to the White House for lunch with the President and I met the President again just after my launch when the whole crew was invited to Washington to see the President and to attend a state dinner.

SallyFan: I remember watching your mission, and being SO inspired! How does it feel to have been - and continue to be - a role model for young people, especially girls?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I'm honored to be considered a role model. Of course, I didn't go into the space program in order to be a role model. I went into the space program just to get a chance to go into space. But I think that it is very important that young boys and girls growing up have role models that they can identify with in all walks of life and in particular, in the areas that particularly interest them. So that they know that those are possible career paths for them.

Tiger04291: Why go back to the moon? What more is there to learn there?

Dr_Sally_Ride: We actually shortened the Apollo program. There were other Apollo flights that were planned but the program was ended early. There are a lot of things that we have yet to learn about the moon. We really only scratched the surface in those few Apollo flights. One important thing to learn is whether there is water ice anywhere on the moon and if so, how much of it. The moon can also tell us a lot about Earth's past and the moon also turns out to be a very interesting place from which to study the stars and other parts of the solar system.

guest-Politico: You mentioned a decision that our country has to make about the future of space exploration. Does there need to be grass-roots support for investment in NASA to goad the politicians in that direction?

What can we do? Any petitions at Space.com? ;-)

Dr_Sally_Ride: Grass roots support is very important. The space program belongs to the country. It belongs to the public and it is the public that determines its direction. The government only reflects the public's opinions, so it's critical for members of the public to let their representatives know how important the space program is. A good way to do that is to send email or faxes to your local Member of Congress. There have been petitions in the past. Space.com does not have petitions on its site. I think, though, that the most effective way to make your voice heard is directly to your local representatives.

guest-Lynseec: Who influenced you the most to go into space?

Dr_Sally_Ride: That's hard to say. I think the astronauts that I most admired were John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, but it was probably the teachers that I had in high school that most influenced me to continue pursuing a career in science, and it was that career in science that eventually led me into the astronaut corps.

TotalRecall: Would you like to go back into space?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Yes, I would like to go back into space. I like the way John Glenn did it, so I might wait 20 years or so and then give NASA a call and see if they'd let me go up to the space station.

guest-flyer: Are astronauts paid differently due to their different roles in missions?

Dr_Sally_Ride: No. Astronauts are civil servants. They are government employees and each one is paid on a government scale based on his or her level of experience and years in the government. Astronauts are not paid according to the specific roles that they have on a particular mission.

guest-DarkHorse: I love everything about space and the Shuttle program. I know I'm not astronaut material, but how could I get more involved with supporting the work NASA is doing?

Dr_Sally_Ride: There are lots of different ways to be involved in the space program, whether it is through teaching, spreading the word about the space program, or actually being involved in a space mission either as a scientist on the ground or an engineer involved in helping to build components that go into space. I would say the best way to get involved is to go to either a NASA facility or a science museum near you and become familiar with the material that they have to offer, and begin to ask them what you can contribute.

guest-FloatingGourmet: Is it difficult to eat in space?

Dr_Sally_Ride: No, it's not difficult to eat in space. Before the first astronauts flew in space, there was a big debate about whether the people would be able to swallow and digest food in weightlessness. It turns out that it's very easy to eat in space. It feels just like it does on the ground. Your body has no difficulty swallowing or digesting the food. What is difficult sometimes is preparing the food because you can't set a jar of peanut butter down on the table, it just floats in the room, so you have to think about what you are doing as you prepare your food.

guest-Lynseec: Where can we get your children's books, and what are they

about?

Dr_Sally_Ride: "The Mystery of Mars", you should be able to get in any bookstore or online. And it's about the planet Mars and our past and future exploration of it. The first book that I wrote is called "To Space and Back" and it's about my experiences on a space shuttle flight. My second was called "Voyager - An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System" and it is about the flight of the two Voyager spacecraft that flew, cast, and studied the four giant planets in the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The third book that I wrote is called "The Third Planet - Exploring Earth From Space" and it is about what our planet looks like from space and what we can learn about our planet from space. All of them are available from online bookstores.

guest-rocketjim: Our there any major differences between how you were trained and the new astronauts that are being trained today?

Dr_Sally_Ride: No. There are almost no differences. The training program is very similar. In fact, the space shuttle is almost exactly the same. There have been very few changes to the shuttle. Probably the main difference is that astronauts now wear pressure suits during launch and re-entry. That is because of the investigation that was done after the Challenger accident. My flights were before the Challenger accident and we did not wear pressure suits during launch and re-entry. So astronauts now train to wear those pressure suits and we did not at the time that I flew.

Tiger04291: You were saying the crew members on the space station will be there three months at a time. What would happen if there was illness or injury?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The space shuttle will be visiting the space station more frequently than that, especially during the next few years, so if the problem is not too serious, the astronaut on board the space station could come down with the next space shuttle or things could be brought up to that crew member on board the space station.

Dr_Sally_Ride: However, more importantly, there will be a crew return vehicle on board the space station, so if there were any medical or other emergency on board the station itself, the astronauts would be able to get back down to Earth without the space shuttle coming back up to rescue them. This is very much like the situation on the Russian space station, Mir, which does not have astronauts on board right now, but did for many, many years, and those astronauts on board Mir always had a way to get down. They had a vehicle that they had come up to the station in, that they could get in and go back down to Earth.

guest-NFWarrior: What is the strain of launch like? How many Gs are you pulling during launch?

Dr_Sally_Ride: The physical stress during a shuttle launch is not nearly as severe as it was for the astronauts launching in the Apollo program or earlier. The maximum G-force that we feel is 3 Gs and the shuttle is limited to 3 Gs because higher accelerations could damage the structure of the space shuttle. So it's not a limitation imposed by the astronauts or for the astronauts, rather it is a limitation posed by the space shuttle structure.

guest-Martian: What presidential candidate is most supportive of space exploration and NASA?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I don't think we know the answer to that yet. None of the candidates have focused on that, and as far as I know, none have yet been asked that question directly. So none have incorporated space as a regular part of their campaign speeches. I think we have to wait until later in the campaign to find out the answer to that question.

guest-sally_brown: Do you think there will be an alternative to "rocket flight/fuel" in your lifetime? Are there any working theories?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I definitely think there will be alternatives to rocket fuel for transporting space probes, space crafts, from near the Earth through the solar system. And those means of propulsion might be solar sails, might be plasma propulsion, might be ion drive. All three are within our technology now. What will be more difficult is actually launching something from the surface of the Earth with something other than rocket fuel. I hope to live long enough to see that, but I'm not sure that I will.

bjr9797: Dr. Ride, I am such a huge fan of science fiction and I love all the "Space" movies. One of my favorites is "Armageddon." I was wondering, did you see it too and if so do the special effects compare at all to being in space? Thanks.

Dr_Sally_Ride: I did see it and I agree that the special effects were spectacular. Some of them were realistic and depicted what it's like to be in space and some didn't, or were at least outside of my experience. But I enjoyed the movie and especially the special effects.

guest-Marsman: Do you think the space station will be used as a launch point for Mars?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I think we will probably use a space station for a launch point to Mars. The space station that we are building right now is not designed to be such a launch point. It is designed to be a scientific facility and a research facility and a commercial facility. It is not built with the idea of being a launch point for Mars, and if it were, it would be designed differently. The type of space station that we need to be a launch point is quite different from the space station that we are building now.

LarryJames: What do you think about the recent debate concerning the U.S. missile defense research? Should we have SDI or not?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I think that the concept of SDI is very appealing, but that the reality of being able to practically build an effective missile defense is very far in the future, and that the technical capabilities just aren't there yet to be able to ensure a missile defense.

Tiger04291: Do you see "warp speed" as an eventual reality, or will our future astronauts have to "sleep" most of the way on longer missions?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I'd love to travel at warp speed! That's very difficult to say. Something like warp speed is very, very far beyond our current technical capabilities, but never underestimate the power of technology and of scientific thinking. So I am hopeful that some day - probably in the distant future - there will be something like warp speed travel that allows astronauts to stay awake through the travels across the galaxy.

guest-ChibiStar236: What do you love most about your job?

Dr_Sally_Ride: My current job is as President of Space.com, an internet company that is building a website covering everything related to space. And what I enjoy most about that job is being able to harness the power of the internet to communicate my enthusiasm for the space program. My previous job as an astronaut, that's easy! The thing that I liked most about that was being launched into space.

guest-countdown: If you hadn't pursued a career in space, what would you have done?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I would have pursued a career in physics as a university professor and a research physicist. In fact, that's the career I went back to after I left the astronaut corps. I went back to the University of California, San Diego to become a professor of physics.

guest-campbellcruisade: Do you think there other life forms out there?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Yes, I do think there are other life forms out there. I think there's a reasonable chance that there is very primitive life elsewhere in the solar system. Maybe hidden beneath the surface of Mars. Maybe hidden beneath the icy surface of one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. We know now that there is a large ocean beneath the ice on Europa and anywhere that we find water, we think there may be some chance that there is life. We've also, just in the last couple of years, discovered planets beyond our own solar system. That tells us that planets are likely very common, and since there are billions and billions of stars, there are apt to be billions and billions of planets. Some of them are almost certainly suitable for some forms of life.

guest-NFWarrior: What do you think the next "giant leap for mankind" (in space) will be?

Dr_Sally_Ride: I think the next giant leap will be when we send a human expedition to Mars. I don't think that will be for 10 or 15 years, but I see that as the next enormous goal out there for us in space exploration.

Spacecom: Dr. Ride, thank you for being here this evening to chat with us - and for being such a great inspiration and role model throughout your career! Do you have any final thoughts for our audience before we have to say good night?

Dr_Sally_Ride: Thank you for joining me. Thank you for all of the excellent questions, and I hope that you will maintain your enthusiasm for the space program, your interest in the space program, and that you will pursue that interest by visiting us at http://www.space.com.

Space.com: Thank you for very much for joining Dr. Sally Ride here at Space.com's live chat. To learn more about the crew of the Endeavour's current mission, check out our STS-99 Mission Special Reports.

This event was presented by Space.com and produced by Talk City, Inc.

Copyright 2000. All rights reserved.