When astronauts return to Earth, Dr. Menon is often the first to greet them. A lean man in scrubs and a face mask might disappear into the background of historic photos.
You will see a dragon peeking out of his sleeve.
He was drawn to space by the tattoo. He stood at the foot of the Space Shuttle Challenger Monument years ago. He went to a tattoo shop named after Ellison Onizuka, who died in the explosion. A beast drapes from his chest to his left arm.
He said that his skin is his story.
Menon is getting more looks. He and nine others were chosen by NASA for training. He applied for the fifth time. The man who pulled the astronauts out of the capsule could be on the other side of the hatch.
NASA's 23rd class will report to Johnson Space Center in Houston in January as the agency sets its sights on a moon landing in five years.
One of the 10 new astronauts will be Dr. Menon. Credit: NASA.
Many of the candidates have served in the military. Menon is the only one who is also an ER doctor. Menon said he modeled his career after Dr. Scott Parazynski, who retired in 2009.
Menon said that his plan was to dedicate himself to a profession that would give him a reason for living. Emergency medicine could have fulfilled that sense of purpose if he had become anastrologer. It just so happens that space medicine was more of a problem.
Menon is a doctor who works at a local trauma center and is assigned to an aviation or space crew to look after their health before, during, and after a mission. The doctors work in mission control under the callsign "surgeon", but they don't perform surgery. These physicians have expertise in microgravity, radiation exposure, G-forces, emergency ejection injuries, and low-oxygen levels.
Menon first thought of becoming anastrophysicist after seeing The Dream is Alive, a documentary on the space shuttle program, in IMAX at his local science museum. He credits his parents with instilling a love of exploring. He and his sister were sent to India to visit relatives.
Menon said he was sold when he saw that there was a career in adventure and being able to travel to the most extreme environment.
He went to medical school at Harvard and then to the Air Force for a residency in medicine. He deployed with the critical care air transport team to treat soldiers. He works some Friday and Saturday shifts at California Hospital Medical Center.
Along the way, he has had some unusual life experiences. He was able to care for climbers on Mount Everest through studying wilderness medicine. In 2010 and 2015, he was a first responders during earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal.
The medical director of the company is with the astronauts after the landing. Credit is given to Bill Ingalls/NASA via a photo.
The year of the dragon tattoo was when Menon started working for NASA. He wanted to keep his body art under wraps when he entered the tech world.
It became one of the last images people would see before they left the planet.
The astronauts wanted to borrow Menon's Apple TV in the run-up to the launch. He didn't know his phone was storing photos to their screensaver.
People with personal photos on their phones would rather their colleagues not see them.
He said that they were like sitting around for weeks before their launch, and that screensavers came up with his tattoo. NASA is a very accepting place, so it helped me get used to being part of the team.
The tattoo took 30 hours to stipple across his body, but it was more fitting for his next job, as the Dragon was the first commercially built and operated spaceship to go to and from space.
It's possible that Tweet has been deleted.
Menon was the company's first flight surgeon. He had been preparing for the role for a long time.
Traditional kits must advance in order for people to go on extended missions to the moon or Mars. Those long-duration voyages will be possible with new technology. There are now small, portable, and connected to a phone.
We used to have no idea about you, so we would say, "Oh, you've got abdominal pain, maybe take some of this pain medicine and let's make sure you don't have appendicitis and maybe we'll start an antibiotic,'" We can now see what your appendix looks like on your phone and telemeter, thanks to the fact that we can put that ultrasound on your lower quadrant.
Menon helped keep the company on track during the Pandemic. The first manned test flight and the first operational manned flight will be launched in 2020.
His dream job is to fly to Mars.
Anna Menon will remain at the company as her husband returns to NASA. The couple used to sit together. She will be the mission director for Crew-4, a six-month research mission at the International Space Station.
He wants to fly to Mars, a destination that is not likely to happen in a decade. He knows that he will end up in low-Earth orbit, where he will do research at the space station, which is a critical testbed for the next generation of astronauts who will penetrate deep space.
The dragon under his spacesuit could be in for a ride. He will have another tattoo to commemorate the occasion of his joining the NASA astronaut corps. He said it was the most important part of his life.
When the sky is no longer the limit, how to choose?
He said he would take any good ideas.
