You want my full name? It's my full name's Richard R. Arnold, but I go by Ricky. Well, it's been so long you know me, but then I'm a NASA astronaut.

You're listening to Brains on where we're serious about being curious. I'm Molly Bloom and I just want to make sure you heard what he just said.

I'm a NASA astronaut.

Okay, one more time, a little slower.

I'm a NASA astronaut.

You guys, an astronaut.

Richard is going to tell us a little bit about what it's like to float in space while we try to wrap our heads around the G-word gravity.

Our episode about roller coasters got us pretty curious about gravity.

We know what gravity feels like on Earth. It's the force that keeps your feet planted on the ground. When you throw a ball up in the air, it comes back down.

That's gravity. To get out of some of Earth's gravitational pull, you've got to get yourself a rocket. That's how astronaut Richard Arnold did it.

Five, four, three, two, one, zero, and lift off.

When you are on a rocket and you ride, take the eight and a half minute ride, just space its constant acceleration, constant acceleration, one faster and faster, and then all of a sudden the main engine cuts off.

And you kind of float up out of your seat. Once it stops, your free float until you decide to turn around and come back home.

For my first mission, it was 13 days, but for the last few years, the missions have been six months long.

Six months without needing to put your feet on the ground.

Whoa.

By and large, it's a lot of fun because you're just able to do things that you always dreamed about doing.

You can fly from one module to the next in the International Space Station. You can sleep on the walls, you can sleep on the ceilings. It doesn't matter how you're oriented.

You get used to kind of managing your personal life and your personal effects, but you misplace something for a second and you could spend days looking for it.

Because it's off floating in whatever direction it started moving, that's the way it's heading.

And it less than happens to be picked up by a fan and you can find it against the filter. You could spend days looking for something as simple as a fork or a toothbrush.

Whereas in your house, if you drop something, you got a pretty good idea of where it's going to be.

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