What I'm very concerned about is how do we bolster our self-awareness as humans, as biological organisms?

The biggest challenge we all face is to learn about ourselves and to understand our strengths and weaknesses. We need to utilize our strengths, but not so much that we don't work on our weaknesses.

Some people say they feel very small when they think about space. I felt more expansive, very connected to the universe.

I think science fiction helps us think about possibilities, to speculate - it helps us look at our society from a different perspective. It lets us look at our mores, using science as the backdrop, as the game changer.

When I left NASA, I was looking at how you could use space technologies for developing countries' work.

As an astronaut, you have a very defined set of tasks to do. Those tasks may require you to work 60, 70 or 80 hours a week.