Laurel Clark Quotes

A lot of scientists on Earth think of things that they could do in zero g. Things like the way metals cure, for example, and the way fluids react in space can tell us a lot about some of the unknowns we have on Earth.

Space is not a good place to mix foods because as soon as you take something out of the package, it becomes a flying object.

The microgravity or the very, very low amount of gravity that we have up in space forces some changes in different processes. It forces changes in us as human beings.

The reason space missions need artificial gravity is clear: humans simply did not evolve to live in zero gravity.

One thing we've learned about space is that the human body starts to fall apart after relatively short exposures to microgravity.

Your arms don't hang by your side in space like they do on Earth because there is no gravity. It feels awkward to have them floating in front of me.

The one thing we can't really train for is weightlessness, real weightlessness. It's a ton of fun. It's pure Newtonian physics. You push in one direction, you go in the opposite direction with an equal force.

Zero G and I feel fine.

There's a tremendously satisfying freedom associated with weightlessness. It's challenging in the absence of traction or leverage, and it requires thoughtful readjustment. I found the experience of weightlessness to be one of the most fun and enjoyable, challenging and rewarding, experiences of spaceflight. Returning to Earth brings with it a great sense of heaviness, and a need for careful movement. In some ways it's not too different from returning from a rocking ocean ship.

We were only on orbit a little over two days, so we had no adverse effects from being weightless.

Water is very forgiving. Everything lifts in water.

Adaption of the human body in space is not yet mastered. As soon as you hit space, you feel your body is going through a period of mutation. There's no blood in your head; you have a hard time swallowing. We're not born to naturally be in space.

When you talk to crews that went to Mir or have gone up to International Space Station, they say that you go through different phases of adaptation or getting used to the space environment.

In space, you need to exercise your heart since it's not pumping blood around at the same rate.

There's a world of insights to be gained into human health and disease by understanding how gravity and space radiation influence biology.

Sleeping here is harder here in space than on a bed because the sleep position here is the same position throughout the day. You don't ever get that sense of gratifying relaxation here that you do on Earth after a long day at work.

Adjusting to space is easier than adjusting to Earth for me.

On Earth, men are seen as superior because of their physical strength, but it means nothing in space, where there is no gravity.

Just like the bones and muscles, the heart is designed to work in one gravity here on Earth, so when you put the heart in space, it operates differently and changes shape.

Gravity is a really heavy force and you don't realize how heavy it is until you haven't felt it for six and a half months.

So here in space, obviously, in microgravity, we have to use our hands to get ourselves around, to float around the modules, because our feet, we don't necessarily walk around, we just grab hand holds and move ourselves around, which means that we need our hands free to do just that.

The feel of space... Some folks have asked what it is like to work out in space. Yes, you can work upside down, right side up, sideways - anyway you want to to make it convenient.

We sleep very well in space. We have a sleeping bag each, and when you get into it, you float in the sleeping bag.

The feeling of reduced gravity and the limitations of the space suit resulted in a slow-motion movement. Perhaps not too far from a trampoline, but without the springiness and instability.

Two hundred miles from the surface of the earth there is no gravity. The laws of motion are suspended. You could turn somersaults slowly slowly, weight into weightlessness, nowhere to fall. As you lay on your back paddling in space you might notice your feet had fled your head. You are stretching slowly slowly, getting longer, your joints are slipping away from their usual places. There is no connection between your shoulder and your arm. You will break up bone by bone, fractured from who you are, drifting away now, the centre cannot hold.