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research. The type of research that I do is laser physics. It has nothing to do with the Space Program.

The other half of me is Director of the California Space Institute, which is within the University of California. It's headquartered at UCSD. We're responsible for developing curriculum in space sciences and engineering at all the U.C. campuses, and conducting research in interdisciplinary areas of those areas. We're concentrating our research efforts in remote sensing of the earth and of atmospheric modeling, and generally global change processes.

Question: The 9th grade Girl Scouts would like to know how they can direct their educational careers towards the Space Program or being astronauts.

I think the answer to that is pretty general. NASA is looking for a broad experience base and a broad educational base of people. They're looking for people who are highly motivated towards the Space Program, very interested in the Space Program, and who have a good educational background in science or engineering. So, what you need in high school is to develop a real good background in math and science, and pursue whatever area of science or engineering is of interest to you in college. Then, it's even better to go on for an advanced degree, but that's not entirely necessary.

The background of the astronauts is sort of illustrative of this. My Ph.D. is in physics. There are a lot of people in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, ceramic engineering, aeronautical engineering, geophysics and geology. There is one oceanographer and several medical doctors. So, there's a real broad range of people with a range of educational backgrounds that they accept. They're really interested in you demonstrating an interest in one particular area and an interest in the Space Program.

Question: What was the hardest thing about being in the shuttle environment for a week at a time?

There's absolutely nothing hard about being in the shuttle environment for a week. It's just lots of fun. It's easy to get that from watching television and the live reports you get from the space shuttle. The crews always look happy and that's because they always are happy. It's just a lot of fun. Your body adapts very quickly to weightlessness. The moment of launch is exciting, to say the least. John Young, who was an astronaut in Gemini and an astronaut in Apollo, and flew on two space shuttle flights, used to say, "At the moment of launch, if you're not terrified; then you don't understand what's about to happen to you." That describes it pretty well.

Question: Is there a special kind of technology that NASA doesn't have to detect the hydrogen leaks?

The answer to that is, no. Hydrogen leaks are hard to find because hydrogen is a very small molecule. It can wind its way into, and through, small cracks and through flat plates, if they're thin enough. When you're looking for leaks, you have to have something that you inject that will follow the molecules that are leaking. All the molecules that you inject are bigger than hydrogen, so some of them can't make it through the same little crevices that the hydrogen gets through. Even helium, which is one of the things they're using for a tracer, is the best you can use and still isn't small enough. It's very difficult to