在准备进入太空时, astronaut Nicole Mann packed one treasure from home: the dream catcher her mom had given her when she was a little girl in 佩特.
“I always had that dream catcher by my bed at home 和 there is a lot of symbolism,曼恩说。, who was the comm和er of NASA’s six-month SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station in 2022—和 also the first Native American woman to go into space.
“我记得我妈妈告诉我, you have all these dreams come in through the dream catcher, 和 the bad ones get caught in the web 和 the good ones go through the feathers 和 into your head. That was a wonderful visualization for me as a child. 直到今天, I think it’s important—the ways that you deal with challenges 和 how you cope with life. Beyond that, it just reminded me of my family 和 my community.”
感受爱
Mann has been thinking a lot about that community since the mission ended in March 2023 和 she has been adjusting to life back on Earth. (“这是终极时差,她说。, adding that it takes about 45 days for one’s body to reacclimate to a world with gravity.)
Through her mother, Mann is a descendant of the Wailaki B和 of 印度ns, part of the 圆谷部落 这是预定的 奇诺县. 而曼恩在 索诺玛县, 离预定地点大约两小时, she says the bonds of that tribal community infused her extended family in the 索诺玛县 cities of 佩特 和 Rohnert公园和北部海岸的小镇 必须.
“我是在了不起的女性身边长大的，”她说. “They all chose their different paths in life, but they all share this idea that it takes a village, 尤其是在困难时期. You’re going to struggle along the way, 和 it’s OK to rely on other people—those people.”
That support has helped her through a long list of rigorous challenges. Her path from 索诺玛县 to outer space included stops at the Naval Academy, 斯坦福大学 帕洛阿尔托, 和 the Marines, where she was a fighter pilot who was deployed to both Iraq 和 Afghanistan. Now, Mann is training for the international Artemis program 和 possible moon exploration.
To celebrate her post-SpaceX homecoming, the current Houston resident is heading back to 佩特 和 奇诺县 不久的家庭团聚和 加州印第安日 在圆谷保留地举行的节日. “I am really looking forward to it,她说。. “The kids 和 my sister’s children, they have never been up into that area. I’ll also have an opportunity to go talk at schools in Rohnert公园 和 to speak to the children on the reservation.”
拥抱标签
Being lauded as the first Native American women in space is a label that initially made Mann uneasy. “Growing up I felt that I needed to accomplish things on my own accord,她说。. “当我成为一名工程师时, 一个海洋, 战斗机飞行员, I didn’t want to be seen as a ‘female’ fighter pilot, 或者是“本土”工程师. Growing up I saw some biases, 和 I saw the challenges that came with that.”
Today, she says, “our society is getting better. A woman in space—that’s 不 something 任何one thinks about 任何more. There will be a day when a Native American woman in space will 不 be the first thing 任何one thinks about either.”
但是现在, she is seeing the strength in her achievement: “When I stopped looking at life with blinders, 当我看到全球社会的时候, I could see there are a lot of kids we need to reach out to,曼恩说. “So now, a big part of that space flight is sharing my experience. We’ve got so m任何 young kids who are interested in space flight 和 science. It’s important for me to communicate my stories to these children, to tell them that those barriers are being broken down, 有很多方法可以实现这些梦想. bbin游戏官网的部分责任是赋予他们权力.”
这是一回事, 她补充说, 要有远大的梦想并设定目标, but that next step is to have that drive to accomplish those goals. Let’s pull in our community 和 ask for help 和 continue to push forward.”
佩特的脚踏实地的奢侈品
Mann has been enjoying a不her kind of reunion since returning from the space station: eating produce. “在空间, 都是包装好的或冻干的食品,她说。, 所以一旦她回到地球, “我想吃蔬菜片, 新鲜水果和蔬菜, 葡萄, 和 任何 我能买到的那种浆果. 冻干的浆果只是 不 相同的.”
That’s a不her reason to get back to 索诺玛县, she says. “Strawberries in California are the best,她说。. “我等不及要去。 草莓片.”