Donald Roy Pettit (born April 20, 1955) is an American astronaut and chemical engineer best known for his orbital astrophotography and in-space inventions such as the Zero G Coffee Cup, which received the first ever patent for an object invented in space.[1] He is a veteran of two long-duration stays aboard the International Space Station (with a third stay currently underway), one Space Shuttle mission and a six-week expedition to find meteorites in Antarctica. As of 2024, at age 69, he is NASA's oldest active astronaut.
An astrophotographer, Pettit captured thousands of unique star trails and photographic data sets, which he regularly shares online. One, titled 'Lightning Bugs', went viral on the internet.[5]
Spaceflight experience
Expedition 6
Pettit pictured during an EVA on Expedition 6
Pettit's first space mission was as a mission specialist on STS-113 and an Expedition 6 flight engineer on the ISS in 2002 and 2003. Pettit was the backup to NASA astronaut Donald Thomas, who was pulled from the mission just weeks before its scheduled flight due to medical concerns and replaced by Pettit.
Because NASA had already shipped up clothing and food for Thomas to the ISS, it presented Pettit and the agency with a few challenges. While Pettit needed to bring his own pants and shoes due to his taller stature, Thomas's polo shirts would fit, and the shared first name made the embroidery a non-issue. Given the high cost of launching cargo to the ISS, only a few additional comforts could be allotted to Pettit on the Shuttle's manifest. He was able to secure 12 cans of New Mexico chili to add spice to Thomas's bland food choices. After negotiations, NASA also approved 100 bags of instant coffee, although still not enough for every day of the mission.[6]
During his six-month stay aboard the space station, he performed two EVAs to help install external scientific equipment. During free time on his stay aboard the International Space Station, he conducted demonstrations showing how fluids react in an extremely low gravity environment in a series he called "Saturday Morning Science".[7]
The Expedition 6 mission was extended by about two months, following the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February 2003 and the subsequent grounding of the shuttle fleet. Instead of returning on a shuttle, the crew returned in the Russian Soyuz TMA-1 capsule, the first time American astronauts had launched on the Space Shuttle and landed in a Soyuz.[8]
Pettit's first landing experience on Soyuz was harrowing. He had been concerned that the film documenting his science experiments would be damaged by space radiation before the next shuttle could bring it home, so to safeguard the film and other items, Pettit secured them in a 20-kilogram (44 lb) pack he placed on his chest during reentry. While a normal Soyuz entry involves 3 G's, making the pack manageable, due to a guidance system failure during the Soyuz TMA's inaugural reentry, the capsule underwent a ballistic reentry, subjecting the crew to over 8 G's. This extreme force made the pack feel like a 160-kilogram (350 lb) weight pressing down on Pettit's chest.[9][10] Pettit was left exhausted and reportedly dislocated a shoulder, but the space agencies downplayed the situation saying the astronauts were in good shape.[11]
STS-126
Pettit was a mission specialist on the STS-126 mission to deliver equipment and supplies to the ISS.[12]
Pettit also performed experiments on board ISS related to the clumping of solid particles in microgravity. The experiments showed that particles of various materials which varied in size between 1 micrometer and 6 mm naturally clumped together in microgravity when confined to a volume of 4 liters that included a few grams of the materials. The cause was theorized to be electrostatic. This presents a plausible mechanism for the initial stages of planetary formation, since particles of this size do not have sufficient gravity to cause this phenomenon.[13][14]
Expedition 30/31
Pettit again launched to the International Space Station on December 21, 2011, as part of the Expedition 30/31 crew.[15] He and fellow crew members Oleg Kononenko and André Kuipers arrived at the ISS on December 23.[16]
Among his off-duty video demonstrations on the space station has been on water as thin film and the Marangoni convection.[17] On May 25, 2012, Pettit operated the Canadarm2 to grapple the first SpaceX Dragon 1 and berth it to the Harmony module.[18] During the capture, he was quoted saying, "Houston, Station, we've got us a dragon by the tail."
This marked the first time a private spacecraft had ever rendezvoused with the ISS. The Dragon capsule was carrying supplies for the ISS, and the successful capture demonstrated the feasibility of using privately developed spacecraft to resupply the station. Pettit was the first to enter the uncrewed supply ship on May 26, making him the first astronaut in the history of space exploration to successfully enter a commercially-built and operated spacecraft in orbit.
Angry Birds Space Demos
Pettit demonstrates microgravity using characters from 'Angry Birds'.
During Expedition 30, on behalf of NASA in cooperation with Finland-based Rovio Entertainment, creator of the Angry Birds franchise, Pettit also made another video by using an Angry Birds character to explain how physics works in space, including demonstrating trajectories in microgravity by catapulting a Red Bird through the space station.
NASA states that such collaboration may share the excitement of space with the game community, educate users on NASA's programs, and create interactive educational experiences for the public.[19]
The footage was released by NASA both on its official site and YouTube along with another commercial version by Rovio on March 8, 2012, to announce the launch of new game Angry Birds Space on March 22, 2012.[20]
Expedition 71/72
NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox (left) and NASA ISS Program Deputy Manager Dina Contella (right) walk Pettit to Soyuz MS-26. Bowersox was also Pettit's commander on Expedition 6.
Astronaut Pettit operates the barn door tracker he constructed for ISS-based photography of the Earth's surface.
During Expedition 6, Pettit used spare parts found throughout the Station to construct a barn door tracker; the device compensates for the movement of the ISS relative to the Earth's surface, permitting sharper high resolution images of city lights at night from the orbiting space station.[23][24]
In November 2008, Pettit invented the zero-g coffee cup, which used the wetting angle to carry fluid along a crease to permit drinking and avoid the necessity of a straw. This zero-g cup was featured in the May 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine, along with his notes on the relation of the internal cup angle to the contact wetting angle for various construction materials.[25][26] The cup received the first ever patent for an object invented in space.[1][27]
Antarctica
From November 2006 through January 2007, Pettit joined the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET), spending six weeks in the Antarctic summer collecting meteorite samples,[28] including a lunar meteorite. During the expedition, he was called on to perform emergency electrical repairs to a snowmobile and emergency dental surgery. Periods of tent-confining inclement weather were spent continuing his Saturday Morning Science series—"on Ice"—with photographic surveys of crystal sizes of glacial ice samples and collections of magnetic micrometeorites from ice melt used for cooking water. (He estimated Antarctic glacial ice to contain roughly 1 micrometeorite per liter.)
^US 20110101009A1, Donald Roy Pettit, Mark Milton Weislogel, Paul Concus, Roberl Finn, "Beverage cup for use in spacecraft or weightless environments", published 2011-05-05, issued 2011-12-13
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