Remember when you were a kid and wanted to be an astronaut? Well, now that social distancing is being encouraged due to the coronavirus (covid-19), it may be the best time to try and train like one to see what it's really like in the shoes of an astronaut.
Isolated at home? Then train like an astronaut.
That was the inspirational advice which was given by a public engagement specialist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena, California, as a suggestion to what people should do during their free time.
An astronaut wannabe by the name of Rachel Zimmerman-Brachman has just recently said that being in isolation has quite a lot of similarities to astronaut training coming up with a positive message which was launched to Facebook on Thursday saying, "Attitude is everything: I'm on an adventure in a confined space with a small crew for a long duration mission, with occasional space walks and resupply missions. Sounds like astronaut training to me."
Zimmerman-Brachman is a longtime JPL employee who possesses degrees in both space studies as well as physics. According to her, the dream of becoming an astronaut has been with her ever since childhood.
Zimmerman-Brachman has already applied four times through NASA as well as the Canadian Space Agency due to her dual citizenship status which allows her to qualify for both applications to agencies.
Zimmerman-Brachman has quite the imagination
According to Zimmerman-Brachman, the thought of her friends who have been fortunate enough to have lived in simulated Marian habitats and have taken part in other long-duration isolation studies have come up during the social distancing due to the covid-19.
According to her, the social distancing and the space program employees both shared the same environment as they were urged to work from home! Zimmerman-Brachman has a 14, year old son who stays at home as well in Sherman Oaks located in California currently dealing with schoolwork.
Zimmerman-Brachman suggests that since both space program employees and people who are advised to practice social distancing both deal with quite an amount of isolation, it is better to think of it as astronaut training!
The JPL is currently working on space-related educational activities
JPL is currently making an effort to build a list of space-related educational activities with high possibilities of teaching youngsters more about space while staying at home.
According to Zimmerman-Brachman in an email to The Associated Press, "Life is a combination of what happens to you and what you do about it. We're going to be at home for a while, so we may as well make the best of it," she wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
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Ending her email, Zimmerman-Brachman wrote that "We're all in this together."
The battle against the coronavirus (covid-19) does not have to cripple productivity as this social-distancing can actually give people more time to develop other skills, try new things, or even learn more about space and how to become an astronaut!
