How Do Astronauts Scratch and Itch When In Their Space Suits?

Without the use of their hands, astronauts have to rely on other means to scratch various itches. For any itch outside of the face, retired astronaut Clayton Anderson explained, “You shake, rattle and roll, baby!  That’s the only thing really that you can do to alleviate that itch. Hopefully, between the incredibly bulky and stiff suit itself and the liquid cooling garment you are wearing beneath the suit, you can wiggle your body enough to effectively scratch that itch!”
Itches on the face can be a bit more tricky, but there are things within reach. For instance, under the helmet astronauts wear what is sometimes referred to as a Snoopy Cap that is equipped with earphones and a microphone. If an itch presents itself on the lower half of the face, the microphone is one commonly used scratching post. The downfall of this method is that the action sometimes moves the microphone out of position, interfering a little with the sound quality in communications.
Another option astronauts use is the valsalva device, which is a foam piece attached to the bottom interior of the spacesuit helmet. The purpose of the valsalva device is to allow an astronaut to block up their nostrils and blow to equalize pressure in the ears when necessary. Beyond its intended purpose, the foam block is a handy device for scratching an itch.
Of course, you could potentially get a little snot rubbed on the itchy spot if you’ve previously used the humps on the valsalva to stopper your nose, but desperate times and all that…
A third option to address facial itches is a strategically placed piece of Velcro. This was particularly used during the Apollo missions. (And, note, contrary to popular belief, Velcro was not invented by NASA, nor specifically for use in the space program.) The astronauts would typically place the Velcro on the little feed port flap that is held closed via the pressure in the suit when out in space. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt noted, “Everybody seemed to agree that you needed that [Velcro]…”
If an itch pops up where nothing sufficiently abrasive can be rubbed against it, the astronaut simply has to endure, generally using the distraction tactic until the itch fades. This is easier than in some other settings. A typical spacewalk lasts between five and eight hours and being out there working is incredibly laborious due to how stiff the space suit gets when in the near vacuum of space (even just flexing your fingers to grip things is relatively difficult). Between the straining and extreme focus needed to complete some of the tasks the astronauts are out there for, not to mention the absolutely beautiful view and the knowledge that there is very little between you and the near vacuum of space, there’s plenty to get caught up in and forget all about the itch.
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Bonus Facts:

• Beyond having to deal with itches that are sometimes impossible to scratch, astronauts out space walking also have to potentially deal with having to go to the bathroom. The solution here is simple- essentially, an adult diaper specially designed for maximum absorption. Now just think that those space suits are re-used by other astronauts…  One can imagine space walking flatulence also isn’t terribly pleasant.  (And if you’re curious, see: Why Other People’s Farts Smell Worse).
• The term “astronaut” is derived from the Greek words astron, meaning “star,” and nautes, meaning “sailor” -so, essentially “star sailor”.
• In the free-fall state astronauts orbiting the Earth find themselves in, sweat and tears do not flow downward and instead cling to surfaces and blob together. This can become a major vision problem when sweat and tears form bubbles in the eyes or on eye lashes.
• Even worse is a potential coolant water leak during a space walk. This happened to astronaut Luca Parmitano, resulting in his space walk abruptly terminated as his helmet began to fill up with a giant glob of water.  Towards the end as he was waiting for the pressure to equalize on the hatch, with the water in the helmet continuing to increase, he was beginning to have trouble seeing, hearing, and even talking. The bigger concern, of course, was that he might accidentally suck up some of the glob of water as he was trying to breathe around it. This would have resulted in him coughing uncontrollable, only making the situation worse and potentially causing him to drown in the suit. As Flight Director David Korth said of the event, “You can imagine, you’re in a fishbowl… That’s not anything you take lightly.”  It was later discovered that one of the suit’s coolant line filters got clogged, causing water to leak out and into his helmet.  In total, the coolant system contains a little over a gallon of water and is essential to keep the astronaut from overheating in the suit.
• Before an astronaut ventures into space, the interior of the face shield is treated with an anti-fogging chemical to ensure body heat and sweat don’t fog it up. However, in 2011 astronaut Andrew Feustel went out on a spacewalk and ended up getting a droplet of the anti-fogger solution in his eye. The substance caused major irritation and his eye started to burn and tear up. Without the ability to use his hands, he was forced to use the valsalva device to try and reduce the stinging and get the tears to stop clinging to his eye so he could see from it again.
• Sneezing in space also presents problems and astronauts learn how to sneeze in the suits during training. Astronaut Dave Wold states that the trick is to have good aim– “Aim low, off the windshield, because it can mess up your view and there’s no way to clear it…”

What Happened to Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s Parents?

In 1934 Walt Disney introduced the world to Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse’s lovable ill-tempered friend. Donald was an instant success, becoming one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time. Three short years after his creation, comic artist Al Taliaferro got the idea to create three nephews for Donald: Huey, Dewey and Louie. In the trio’s comic debut on October 17, 1937, Donald received a letter from his cousin, Della, just before the boys arrived:

“Dear Donald:
I am sending your angel nephews Louie, Huey and Dewey, to stay with you while their father is in the hospital. A giant firecracker exploded under his chair. The little darlings are so playful. I hope you enjoy them.
Your cousin,
Della”

With open arms and a willing heart, Donald welcomed his nephews into his home. Of course, he soon realized that the “angels” and “little darlings” that Della referred to were rebellious, destructive monsters.
So what happened to their dad? As Della’s letter touched upon, their dear old dad was sent to the hospital after a firework exploded under his chair- a firework placed there by his own sons: Huey, Dewey, and Louie (or perhaps it was their phantom brother, Phooey!- the mysterious fourth nephew who appeared at random times in various comic panels).
This is the last we really hear about their dad. On one version of the Duck family tree, the triplets’ dad is nothing more than an obscured duck with no first name and a big question mark on his head. On other depictions of the family tree, their dad is seen as a nameless face beside his wife. His appearance on the Duck family tree is the only visual of Della’s husband.
Drawing from what little information is available, Daddy Duck either died in the hospital or abandoned his kids and fled as far away as possible to avoid any more of their high jinks.
So what about Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s mom? Dumbella Duck, aka Della, is a bit more complicated of a case. In her aforementioned letter, you may have noticed that it was signed, “Your cousin” not “Your sister.” She also explicitly states the three kids in question are Donald’s nephews. This would imply that Della was not their mother given she is Donald’s cousin here, unless the boys’ father was supposed to be Donald’s brother and we simply have a case of cousin marriage- not totally uncommon in this era (see: The Surprising Truth About Cousins and Marriage). Another possibility is that she is somehow Donald’s cousin and sister, but we’re not going to go there…
If the “Donald’s brother was their father” scenario isn’t correct, given that Della was seemingly caring for the children while their father was in the hospital, it would seem to indicate that their real mother was out of the picture at this point.
However, when a similar letter is read in the 1938 cartoon, Donald’s Nephews, the letter and story are modified slightly,

Dear Brother-
I am sending your angel nephews to visit you -Sister, Dumbella

To make things more confusing, when Carl Barks released his version of the Duck family tree in the 1950s, he refers to the triplets’ mom as Thelma Duck (perhaps going back to the original comic book story where Della was a cousin). On this line thinking, some fans have suggested that Dumbella, Della, and Thelma are different characters, while others argue that Della is just short for Dumbella. Since the name Thelma is never used in the comics or theatrical shorts, and her name changed back to Della Duck with Don Rosa’s 1993 revised version of the Duck family tree, Thelma seems to be null and void and simply a mistake in Barks’ work.
Given later story lines, it would appear the “Della and Dumbella are the same duck” theory is correct. For instance, in the comic book series, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, written in the mid-1990s, Donald and Della were shown wearing identical sailor outfits as kids and depicted not only as siblings, but as twins.
Thus, it would seem that when Della was originally introduced as Donald’s cousin, her character (and the boys’ backstory) was not given much of any thought as Huey, Dewey, and Louie at this point were only supposed to be around for a short visit- just a convenient plot device for an issue of the comic.  However, when they put the boys in the cartoon, they decided to explain where the characters came from in a way that made a little more sense; so Donald ended with a sister, instead of a cousin, sending him his nephews.
This brings us back to what happened to Della Duck.  It turns out that in the Donald Duck comics and cartoons, aside from the aforementioned letter, neither parent was ever heard from again. So did they die or just abandon Huey, Dewey, and Louie?
According to the Duck family tree, Della and Donald are equal in terms of their familial relationship with Scrooge McDuck, yet Donald is always the one referred to as Scrooge’s closest living relative. This strongly suggests that she died, perhaps along with her husband. Or, as others have speculated, they simply faked their deaths and went into hiding to avoid having to take back their children. (Donald himself would later abandon the children for a while, leaving them in the care of their great uncle Scrooge while he went off and joined the navy.)
That said, while Scrooge’s frequent assertions about Donald seem to indicate Della was a dead duck, in the comic strip, Amen!, the triplets are depicted saying prayers for their mom and dad, which may indicate that they are still alive and well…somewhere. Or maybe no one bothered to tell them their parents had died.
Whatever the case, in the 1942 cartoon, The New Spirit, it stated that Donald had officially adopted the triplets. As mentioned, the parents were never heard from again.
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Bonus Facts:

• Donald Fauntleroy Duck was first thought up after Walt Disney overheard Clarence Nash doing his now famous duck voice. Disney decided to hire Nash to do the voice of a duck character that would take over the role of some of the negative attributes that Mickey used to portray, but now with Mickey being a role model, could no longer do. Donald made his debut in The Wise Little Hen where he and Peter Pig tried various means to get out of doing work, such as faking stomach aches. Nash continued to do the voice of Donald for nearly a half century until he died of leukemia in 1985.  Other voices done by Nash included: Daisy Duck; Huey, Dewey, and Louie; and the bullfrog in Bambi.
• Like any set of identical triplets, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are difficult to tell apart. Originally they were created as “one” character split into three, as was evident by the way they flawlessly finished each other’s sentences, as if they were operating off the same brain. Only when they appeared in DuckTales, and then later, Quack Pack, did they really start to exhibit individual characteristics. The only way to tell them apart was by the colors of shirts and hats they wore. However, prior to the 1980s, when they weren’t dressed identically, colors for each nephew were chosen at random and rarely consistent. Once they established signature colors for each brother, Huey was dressed in red, Dewey in blue, and Louie in green. Dave Smith, Disney’s archivist said, “Note that the brightest hue of the three is red (Huey), the color of water, dew, is blue (Dewey), and that leaves Louie, and leaves are green.” This is not to say the triplets didn’t switch it up every once in awhile or appear in colors deviating from their “signature” color.  Not that it would have mattered to Donald necessarily. In the wartime short, Donald Gets Drafted, Donald Duck is shown to be colorblind, though it isn’t clear what type of colorblindness he suffers from.
• As if the triplet’s identities aren’t complicated enough, enter Phooey. Phooey is Donald’s phantom fourth nephew who has appeared in at least seven comic book panels over the years as a result of artistic errors not caught in time prior to publication.
• Huey, Dewey, and Louie joined the scouting organization, Junior Woodchucks, when they were 11 years old. Their involvement in this group is often attributed to bringing about the change in their behavior, going from rebellious monsters to fairly respectable individuals interested in helping their Uncles Donald and Scrooge in their adventures.
• Huey and Dewey were named after two political figures, Huey Long of Louisiana, and Admiral George Dewey of the Spanish-American War. Louis was named after Louie Schmitt, one of Disney’s animators. Their full names are Huebert, Deuteronomy, and Louis.

Why There Is No E in the A-F Grading Scale

Some schools do hand out E letter grades instead of an F, but they are in the minority. A majority of schools in the United States, particularly beyond primary age, give grades of A, B, C, D, or F.
Rather than a failure on the part of academic institutions to know the alphabet, the simple answer is that “F” stands for “fail.” The other four grades are more or less considered “passing” (though in some districts a D is also a failing grade), which is why they go in alphabetical order. The F is considered separate as it denotes a failing grade, and does not need to go in alphabetical order. It just so happens that “fail” starts with a letter that skips one letter alphabetically on the scale.
That said, E was used at one point. The first college in the United States to use a grading scale similar to the one we know today was Mount Holyoke College, an all-women’s university in Massachusetts.
Before that, Yale used a ranking system in 1785 where “optimi” was the highest mark, followed by second optimi, inferiore (“lower”), and pejores (“worse”). William and Mary ranked students by number, where No. 1 was the first in their class and No. 2 students were “orderly, correct and attentive.”
For a while, Harvard had a numerical grading system where students were graded on a scale from 1-200 (except for math and philosophy classes, which were 1-100). Yale had a four-point scale in 1813, switched to a nine-point scale somewhere down the track, and back to a four-point scale in 1832.
In 1883, there’s a single reference to a student earning a “B” at Harvard, but historians haven’t found additional documentation to back up the idea that a letter grade system was actually in place at that point. It is known that just a few years later, Harvard had a system of Classes in place—students were either Class I, II, III, IV, or V, with V being failing.
That brings us back to the 1887 Mount Holyoke system, which looked something like this:

• A: excellent, 95-100%
• B: good, 85-94%
• C: fair, 76-84%
• D: barely passed, 75%
• E: failed, below 75%

A year later, Mount Holyoke modified their grading scale. “B” became anything from 90-94%, “C” was 85-89%, “D” was 80-84%, and “E” was 75-79%. Below that, they added in the dreaded “F.”
Over the years, the letter grading scale became popular across colleges and high schools alike. A lot of schools skipped E and went straight to F. Apparently, some teachers were concerned that students and parents thought E stood for “excellent,” though there is no evidence suggesting that they thought A stood for “awful,” so it’s possible that schools were just trying to simplify the scale. After World War II, some schools—many in the Midwest—decided to go back to E, getting rid of F.
In truth, any letter could stand in for E or F and still mean the same thing. Some schools use “U” for “unsatisfactory” or N for “no credit.” Educators could use just about any letter and it would amount to the same thing. It is simply an indicator of a non-passing grade.
The grading scale itself has been marked with an F (or E, or U, or N) by some people who believe it is no longer a relevant way to judge students’ work. For one thing, there are variations across institutions. Some schools use + and -; some don’t. Some say an A is 90% and up, or 93% and up, or 95% and up. Some consider a D to be a failing grade rather than a passing one.
Critics of the grading scale believe a written analysis of students’ work would be more effective in terms of feedback, but they recognize that students and parents probably wouldn’t read them and teachers, who are often overworked as it is, don’t have time to write them anyway. Letter grades are just an easy way to generalize a student’s performance; so despite the discrepancies between schools, they’ll probably be around for a long time.
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Bonus Facts:

• Finland had one of the highest-ranked education system in the world for many years, but they lost out in 2013 to Japan.  The UK rang in at #3 in 2013; Canada #7; and the United States #18, out of 200 countries considered.  Surprisingly, Japan only spends and average of $10,596 per student and Finland just $10,157.  In contrast, the U.S. spends $15,172 per student, the highest of any country.  That’s about 2.5 times more per student than the #17 ranked Estonia, which is one ahead of the United States.
• According to the National Center for Education and Statistics, around 50.1 million children were attending U.S. public schools; 5.2 million were in private schools; over 1.5 million were homeschooled; and 21.8 million people were attending university.
• With record numbers of students attending university, around 2 million high school students took 3.7 million Advanced Placement exams in 2012, trying to earn college credit. Advance Placement exams are graded on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the best. The minimum score to earn college credit is a 3, with many universities requiring a 4 or 5 on individual exams. When taking an AP exam, correct answers obviously count toward your score, but wrong answers will knock points off your score, while answers left blank do nothing.
• Two major standardized tests that U.S. high school students take in order to get into college are the ACT and SAT. Colleges usually accept one or the other. The first is scored out of 36, while the latter is scored out of 2400. In some states, these standardized tests have been integrated into state standardized testing.
• In the UK, the dreaded E grade is much more common than the F. Again, they both mean you probably should have studied more, so there isn’t much difference between them except for preference.
• 14% of adults in the U.S. are illiterate, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. A further 29% demonstrated only a “basic” reading level.

Why Neil Armstrong Got to Be the First to Step on the Moon

On July 20th, 1969, with “one small step,” Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Since that date forty five years ago, the moon landing has been the subject of intense study and historical analysis. From what Armstrong actually said with his first step to if the American flags the astronauts planted are still there, mankind’s first rendezvous with the moon has captured the world’s attention in a way few other things have. Despite this, there are still several noteworthy facts that have remained obscure after all these years. Allow us to bring just a few to (moon) light:
Neil Armstrong was chosen to be the first person on the moon due to the basic structural design of a part of the Eagle.
Out of a group of 29 astronauts that trained for the Apollo mission to the moon, only three were chosen when the final announcement was made in January of 1969. Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and the oft forgotten Michael Collins became the official crew of Apollo 11. Immediately, attention turned to which crew member – Armstrong or Aldrin — would be the first to walk on the moon (Collins was the command module pilot and, therefore, was ineligible).
Even though both men were going to walk on the moon, it was a great honor to be the first. In fact, the question was asked at the press conference and the response was that it had yet to be decided.
Over the next four months, as the astronauts continued their training, debate and rumors circulated among the media. At first, it seemed that Aldrin would have the honor. This speculation came from the precedent set by the Gemini program, which made ten crewed flights for the purpose of testing ships and astronauts to spacewalk. During the flights, the commander (which Armstrong was to be for Apollo 11) stayed inside the ship while the pilot (which Aldrin was to be for Apollo 11) did the space walking. Further fueling this thinking was that it was rumored that Aldrin was actively campaigning to be the guy. According to the memoir written by Chris Kraft, head of Mission Control, “Buzz Aldrin desperately wanted that honor and wasn’t quiet in letting it be known.”
In April, only three months before liftoff, it was announced that Neil Armstrong would be the first man to walk on the moon. The main reason NASA gave for the decision was that the Eagle’s hatch opened to one side – rather than up or down – and that side was towards the pilot, Aldrin. The bottom line was that when the hatch was opened, the commander, Armstrong, had a clear path to exit, while the pilot was pinned in the rather cramped space of the module. By a sheer happenstance, it made more sense for Armstrong to exit first. Plus, as NASA’s heads pointed out, Armstrong was actually the more senior member of the team anyway, having entered the program in 1962, while Aldrin came in 1963.
In later years, despite the official hatch story, some, including Kraft and fellow astronaut Al Bean of have come out and said that NASA wanted Armstrong to have this honor rather than Aldrin because they thought Neil’s ego could handle it better than Aldrin’s. So perhaps the hatch design simply gave them the excuse they needed.
Armstrong’s famed “one small step” line was pre-planned, at least according to his brother.
Even until his last breath in 2012, Armstrong adamantly insisted that his first line was spontaneous and was only settled on in the moments prior to the walk. A BBC documentary released after the astronaut’s death disputes that. In the film, Dean Armstrong – Neil’s brother – tells the story of a note passed during a late-night game of Risk (yes, the board game).
In the months leading up to the mission, Dean, Neil, and their families spent time together on Cape Cod. After both men put their boys to bed, Neil challenged his younger brother to a hearty game of Risk. During that game, Neil handed Dean a piece of paper:

“On that piece of paper there was ‘That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.’ ‘He says, ‘What do you think about that?’ I said ‘fabulous.’ He said, ‘I thought you might like that, but I wanted you to read it.”

That said, both Aldrin and Collins made it clear that at no point did Armstrong share his thoughts about what he would say. Of course, perhaps his brother was an exception.
The second thing said on the moon was a tad less poetic than the first.
While everyone remembers that first line, few can recall the second. That’s because it didn’t hold the same “oomph” factor. According to the official Apollo 11 Air to Ground Voice Transcription, that line was “And the – the surface is fine and powdery.”
Armstrong continued on this line of thinking,

“I can – I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.”

After further discussion about the ease of movement on the moon, they began to go back and forth about Buzz’s placement of the camera and backlighting. Exciting conversation, indeed!
President Nixon had an “In Event of Moon Disaster” speech ready
After the Apollo 1’s tragic fire in 1967 and the unproven nature of space travel at the time, the safe return of Apollo 11’s crew was far from an assured thing. To that point, President Nixon had to prepare for every scenario when he addressed the nation, including the tragedy of a “moon disaster.” So, he had his speechwriter, William Safire, prepare remarks that are both chilling and inspiring. The speech begins with these two lines,

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.”

Additionally, below the “death” speech were instructions to what needed to be done both before and after the address to the nation. Before, the President should “telephone each of the widows-to-be.” Afterwards, NASA will end “communications with the men” and “a clergyman should adopt the same procedure as burial at sea, commending their souls to the ‘deepest of the deep,’ concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.”
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Bonus Fact:

• Buzz Aldrin’s mother’s name, before getting married, was Marion Moon.