Science and Exploration

Latest Skype Video: ‘Please No One be Under There…’

By Keith Cowing
May 24, 2013
Filed under

“Astronaut and soon to be Everest Summiteer (we hope) Scott Parazynski checked in for a Skype vidchat with me a short time ago. This five-time shuttle flier and veteran spacewalker admitted he has some butterflies as the summit date approaches. Given the weather conditions areound Everest now, his team leader Eric Simonsen is expecting to make a bid to top off sometime between May 11 and 14 – give or take.

Scott’s sidekick in this Mutt and Jeff team is Keith Cowing. I asked him about some of the scientific experiments Scott will be taking to the summit. One of the big questions astrobiologists have is how life does in conditions where there is little protection from the atmosphere’s ozone layer. Four billion years ago, in the pre-Sunblockian era, living things managed OK even though they got blasted by unfiltered UV rays.

I also asked Scott about this scary avalanche footage that he and Keith captured earlier Sunday:” [More]
“Astronaut and soon to be Everest Summiteer (we hope) Scott Parazynski checked in for a Skype vidchat with me a short time ago. This five-time shuttle flier and veteran spacewalker admitted he has some butterflies as the summit date approaches. Given the weather conditions areound Everest now, his team leader Eric Simonsen is expecting to make a bid to top off sometime between May 11 and 14 – give or take.

Scott’s sidekick in this Mutt and Jeff team is Keith Cowing. I asked him about some of the scientific experiments Scott will be taking to the summit. One of the big questions astrobiologists have is how life does in conditions where there is little protection from the atmosphere’s ozone layer. Four billion years ago, in the pre-Sunblockian era, living things managed OK even though they got blasted by unfiltered UV rays.

I also asked Scott about this scary avalanche footage that he and Keith captured earlier Sunday:” [More]

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.