< Previous70 COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 HOMEPORT “I like desks, since I dedicated so much of my life to academics,” she said. Mrazek now is on the faculty of the University of Texas Medical Center as an assistant professor of surgery. Upstairs are the bedrooms and the area where her collections come alive. Off the primary bedroom is her “doctor’s office,” filled with antique medical equipment, supplies, fur- niture, clothing and a World War I operating table. “I will travel to find medical antiques,” she said. In a medical display case are old (From top) A blonde, mid-century modern breakfast table, one that has been in the family for years, is tucked into a sunny nook off the kitchen; a quartz- topped island spans the length of the large kitchen. Vintage china and crystal are displayed in glass-fronted cabinets. (Opposite, from top) Dr. Amy Mrazek displays her antique medical collection in a second-floor room she calls her “doctor’s office”; Mrazek’s “dress shop,” a room off of her primary bedroom, is where she displays her collection of vintage dresses, lingerie, hats, shoes and accessories. COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 7172 COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 HOMEPORT thermometers, scalpels, ether masks, old bed- pans and early doctor’s bags filled with peri- od instruments and medications in glass vials. She has a library of vintage medical books, old IV poles, recruitment posters for the Red Cross and a nurse’s uniform still intact. Her enviable clothes closet — with lighted glass-fronted cabinets and a large dresser in the middle — is where her wardrobe lives. But right next door is her costume room, filled with vintage dresses, lingerie, hats, shoes and boots — most rescued from antique stores and estate sales on the island. “This is my dress shop with flapper dress- es and black mourning clothes,” she said. “It feels like a lost art.” And perhaps the part of her house she enjoys most is the expansive yard. “This is what sold the house to me — this yard,” she said. A pond, surrounded by brick pathways, gives the plot a New Orleans courtyard feel, with wrought-iron fencing and a wide vari- ety of plants and flowers. She has a cactus and succulent area, another section is all native plants and the entire space is deco- The backyard gives a New Orleans vibe with brick pathways, a three-tiered fountain and wrought-iron accents. COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 73 Call Shani Atkinson 409.770.3840 shani@shaniatkinson.com www.ShaniAtkinson.com 16602 San Luis Pass Rd., Galveston, TX 77554 This home offers an exquisite blend of comfort and coastal living, providing an unparalleled island experience. As you step inside you are greeted with an open-concept living-dining area, with tile flooring throughout. The well-designed kitchen equipped with stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops, ample storage space, and large island. There are 2 bedrooms located on the first floor. The second floor greets you with 2 bedrooms, both with private baths, including the primary bedroom & bath boasting floor-to-ceiling tile, a spacious shower, and dual vanities. This residence offers stunning views of the Gulf of Mexico. Just a short walk or golf cart ride to the beach. The community enriches your everyday life with amenities such as a swimming pool, fishing pier, tennis/pickleball court, park and pavilion. This property has a wonderful rental history. I sell the island lifestyle! 4310 Palapa Circle • Galveston • $815,000 6807 Emmett F Lowry Expressway, Suite 303, Texas City, TX 77591 832-706-3326 • www.HeightsSkin.com General DermatologyCosmetic DermatologySurgical Dermatology SERVICES Heights Dermatology | Dermatologists & Mohs Surgery located in The Heights and Willowbrook, Houston, Rosenberg, Lake Jackson, Portland, Corpus Christi, Palacios, Columbus, Inside the THRIVE Healthplex, Gonzales, Dallas, Mansfield, Beaumont, Bay City, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Spring, Wichita Falls, Tomball and Texas City, TX rated with art works — new and old — that enliven the yard and her home. “You have to have patience and be will- ing to dig for the special pieces,” she said about her quest for interesting antiques. “But I believe we are the caretakers and leaving our own impressions while preserv- ing the past. We are not homeowners, just stewards of the property.” 74 COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 75 FEATURE SUITING UP NASA engineers share lifetime of spacesuit experience with the next generation story by KATHERINE ADAMS photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS W ithout space- suits, astronauts couldn’t safely explore space. The extraordinary garment has an out-of-this-world story to tell, and nearly ev- ery detail starting with its earliest inception more than 60 years ago, to the engineering marvel that it is today, lives in the memory of Joe Kosmo, Joe McMann and Bill Spenny. Spacesuits help astronauts in many ways, protecting them from getting too hot or cold and giving them oxygen to breathe while they’re working in space, according to NASA. They also hold water for astronauts to drink during spacewalks. And they keep astronauts from getting hurt by space dust. “Space dust may not sound very dangerous, but when it moves faster than a bullet, the dust can hurt someone,” according to NASA. In 1961, Kosmo and McMann began their careers as a senior project engineer for ad- vanced spacesuits, and as a project engineer, section chief, and space suit subsystem man- ager, respectively. Spenny, who joined the two in 1984 and ultimately became the Shut- tle and International Space Station spacesuit subsystem manager, refers to Kosmo as the “grandfather” of the spacesuit. Combined, they possess more than 150 years of knowledge and experience about the evolution of the spacesuit, which they (Left) NASA engineers Joe McMann, from left, Joe Kosmo and Bill Spenny are sharing their spacesuit knowledge with those designing the next generation of spacesuits for missions to the moon and Mars.76 COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 FEATURE are passing to the next generation of engineers. “I have 62 years of stories,” McMann said. “We were part of the team that put together Ed White’s suit for Gemini,” Spenny said. Kosmo worked on the team that advanced it, and a group including Mc- Mann developed the first extra-vehicular activities suit that was used by Astro- naut Ed White. That system was built at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. In the 1980s, spacesuits were well built, Spenny said. “They were like Fords — but it was our job to turn them into Ferraris,” Spenny said. Technologies always were being developed, and different groups would pull those technologies together and implement them into today’s spacesuits. “What Kosmo started was the base- line of the Artemis suit,” Spenny said. There were many lessons in the de- velopment of the spacesuit he, Kosmo and Spenny were passing along through the Spacesuit Knowledge Capture Program. The program was created in 2007 and is designed to share historical spacesuit information with engineers and others to enhance their understand- ing of the spacesuit and its limitations and capabilities, McMann said. “We are advisers to them about the spacesuits,” he said. One of the most significant lessons for new engineers to learn is the im- portance of failure. “I was Mr. Failure,” he said. “I found out that although we usually ended up doing the right things, we didn’t always start out that way.” Root cause was the key in under- standing failure, McMann said. “We have repeat failures because we never figure out the root cause,” he said. “Drill deep enough to find the underlying process that is the cause of the problem. Finding the root cause of a mistake is an important lesson we’re teaching new engineers.” (From top) Retired NASA engineer Joe Kosmo, known as the “grandfather” of the spacesuit, holds a photo of an early space suit pressure test; Bill Spenny, who was the shuttle and space station spacesuit subsystem manager for NASA, talks about the different layers inside the gloves of a spacesuit in the Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We tell people, NASA isn’t one person, it’s teamwork. It’s diligence on everyone’s part, and it’s the endurance to progress through the errors.” JOE KOSMO COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 77 Because failure isn’t an option at NASA, Spenny tells new engineers it’s best to fail when something is in its design stages. “That way, you learn the extremes,” he said. “One of the ways people have a chance to ask us how we did things is because we have so many years of failures, anomalies and other prob- lems. We remember those issues, and we tell people our life experience and our history. Use it to try not to have problems in the future.” Kosmo emphasized the importance of design verification testing with younger engineers. “Find out through prototype testing if your concept works,” he said. “Peo- ple want to gamble and start produc- ing, but I always say, don’t get into production until you can verify your design will work.” The Spacesuit Knowledge Capture Program covers topics that include spacesuit legacy knowledge from the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle and International Space Station programs. “Go out and learn everything, and find people that can help,” Kosmo said. “We tell people, NASA isn’t one person, it’s teamwork. It’s diligence on everyone’s part, and it’s the endurance to progress through the errors.” (Clockwise from left) Retired NASA engineer Joe McMann, who helped create astronauts’ spacesuits, talks about learning from failures and digging to find the root cause of a failure; a modern version of the suit worn by astronauts on extra-vehicular activities, or spacewalks, is displayed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center; a photo of NASA astronaut Ed White and his Gemini IV spacewalk hangs in the Johnson Space Center building where the engineers who designed the spacesuits work.78 COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 SHIP SHAPE POTENT PRESCRIPTION Strength-training with intent is one of the keys to aging well story by KATHERINE ADAMS photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS E ven if you’re not one of those retired people who can perform amazing feats of strength and endurance, there’s good news: You don’t have to be able to bench press 200 pounds to reap the benefits of strength training. Anyone at any age can begin strengthening and condi- tioning their bodies, but the starting point for each person is to determine their “why,” said Tyler Morrison, an exercise physiolo- gist in the Rehabilitation Services Clinic at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Training with intent, instead of just randomly exercising, is one of the keys to achieving a strong body, Morrison said. “Even a frail 90-year-old is not too old to train with a purpose,” Morrison said. “I’m here to help people understand the difference be- tween training and exercise. You need to start by understanding your program design variables. You can adjust and modify those variables to make it work for you.” That means it’s important to focus on what you can do — not what you can’t. “Think about the load you’re lifting,” he said. “If you can’t lift that, don’t stop lifting. Just lift less.” For many people older than 60, their “why” for starting a strength and conditioning program is to avoid problems caused by low- bone density and to address the hormonal changes that occur as we age. “Anyone can trip and fall, but fracturing a bone is a much bigger problem when you’ve got osteoporosis,” Morrison said. “If you load the muscles with some weight, the tendons will pull on the bone, and the bone will respond. That’s what you need.” Pain is a deterrent and often is the reason people stop their pro- gram, he said. If someone is in pain, it’s time to see a doctor, he said. “Research says 150 minutes a week of cardiovascular exercise is beneficial, but if you start from nothing and go straight to that, it will be hard on your body,” he said. “The ‘slow cooker’ or ‘microdos- ing’ approach, in which you move slower and in smaller doses, will make it more tolerable. Even just five minutes of walking is better than sitting.” COASTMONTHLY.COM | MArCH 2024 79 Tyler Morrison, left, an exercise physiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, watches Tom Hall, a competitive cyclist, as he does a set of cable pull X-flys in the Rehabilitation Services Clinic at the medical branch.Next >