By Nathan Stiff
The most striking thing about traveling to space is the “awe-inspiring” view of planet Earth, according to NASA astronaut and UMD graduate Richard Arnold II.
Dozens of students gathered to hear Arnold talk about his experiences, both in space and on Earth, May 2 at the Cambridge Community Center.
“Two things you notice upon arriving in space: everything floats, you’re in microgravity, you’re in free fall around the Earth; and the second thing you notice that you just can’t train for is the view of this magnificent planet, from the windows of the space station and space shuttle,” Arnold said.
Arnold first left the planet in 2009 onboard the space shuttle Discovery, on a mission to assemble the International Space Station (ISS). The station — built as an international collaboration between the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan — was already partially crewed at that point. He helped install the final set of solar panels on the station.
“It was absolutely an amazing, amazing day. I was really fortunate to be able to fly on Discovery before the space shuttle was retired,” Arnold said. “We were kind of the guys [who were] coming and crashing someone’s house, sleeping on the futon, doing a little bit of work and then leaving after 13 days.”
Arnold graduated from University of Maryland in 1992, with a master’s degree in marine, estuarine and environmental science. Before becoming an astronaut, he taught science at American middle and high schools in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Romania. He said he applied to NASA after coming across a news report that said the program was looking to hire astronauts.
“I applied, fully expecting to have a really cool rejection letter to hang in my office,” Arnold said. “The process played out, and lo and behold, a year later my family and I were moving to Houston.”
In 2018, Arnold returned to the ISS and lived and worked in space for 197 days. As well as maintaining the station, astronauts on the ISS perform experiments in microgravity, ranging from growing plants to researching cancer.
“[On] any given day there are, like, 300-and-some science experiments going on in the ISS,” Arnold said.
Arnold said that spending time away from Earth on the ISS gave him a unique perspective on international collaboration and the issues facing humanity today.
“We left your generation, frankly, with a bit of a mess,” Arnold said.
Regardless, Arnold said he remained optimistic for the future.
“These problems we’ve created can be solved,” he said. “There’s no us and them, there’s only us.”
Arnold said he hoped to see some of the students in attendance go to space themselves someday.
“I would love to go back, but what I’m really interested in is people of your generation getting that opportunity,” he said. “I highly recommend the journey.”
During the talk, freshman physics and astronomy major Katie Hancock asked Arnold what NASA looks for in an aspiring astronaut.
“We look for people who haven’t spent their entire time in a laboratory. We want people that challenge themselves,” Arnold said. “One of my [astronaut] classmates hiked the Pacific Crest trail by himself. A fair number of people spent time at the Poles, or in remote locations. The thing they were interested in [about me was that] I spent about three months working on a sail training vessel.”
“I thought that was actually really interesting,” Hancock said. “That it’s not just about what classes you take or what your level of education is, it’s more about who you are as a person, furthering yourself.”
Matthew Bernstein, a junior aerospace engineering major, said he was most interested in how Arnold’s perspective on the Earth changed after traveling to space.
“I’m really interested in space exploration, so I thought I’d learn from the best and hear what he had to say, and it was really great,” Bernstein said.