My name is Katie Presson; my team makes science
happen on the International Space Station.
The science that we’re doing is critical
to our journey to Mars.
As a Payload Operations Director, I lead the
team responsible for the planning, the product
development, the training and the execution
of the science on the International Space
Station.
Our main goal here at Marshall is completing
the science that will benefit both future
explores and us here on earth now.
And we do that here at The Payload Operations
Integration Center and at Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
One of the major milestones that we’ve had
recently, was when the crew ate the first
lettuce grown in space back in August of this
year.
This was lettuce grown in one of our veggie
facility which is in one of our Payload Racks
on The International Space Station.
For years now we’ve been learning about
how plants grow in a micro-gravity environment,
so this is an exciting milestone for us.
Also we’re doing experiments where the humans
are the experiment as part of the year-long
mission in space.
Also ocular health and any eye changes that
they might have.
Counter measure to bone and muscle loss and
any cognitive changes that they might also
have.
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of
International Space Station Research, is we
don’t know now what discoveries we may make.
Ten to fifteen years from now we have a new
technology, a new material or use for a material,
a new vaccine or cancer treatment.
All these thing we are making happen off the
earth now, in the first global research laboratory
in space and for these reasons the road to
Mars goes through Marshall.
