Astronaut Class of 2009

CAVES Training Day 1

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Tim Peake

By Andreas Mogensen

Monday morning 8:00 am and we are already slightly behind schedule! Our introductory
classes from Sunday evening had to be postponed due to delayed flights. Perhaps not
surprising when a multinational group of astronauts have to arrive simultaneously from the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan, and Germany. But it is a small price to pay for the
opportunity to train with astronauts and cosmonauts representing all of the international
partners behind the ISS program. Our multinational backgrounds and their relation to human behaviour and performance were the focus of our morning lessons. International cooperation is one of the most important achievements of the ISS program and a primary reason for its success.

However, cultural misunderstandings can and do occur. Our cultural backgrounds and the
strengths and weaknesses that we inherit from our cultures influence our team behaviour
and thus form an important driver for team dynamics. The question of my own cultural identity is difficult to answer. Clearly, Danish culture is a significant factor of my personality, having been born in Denmark to two Danish parents. But I was less than a year old the first time I left Denmark with my parents, who were subsequently stationed in Thailand for three years. What followed was a childhood spent in eight different countries on four different continents. Apart from a single year spent in a Danish third-grade class, all my schooling took place in either international or American schools. What does this say about my cultural identity? It's difficult to say. All I know for sure is that when the Danish national football team plays, I am 110% Danish.

The discussion of our cultural backgrounds was an excellent ice-breaker that helped us to
get to know each other: NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Drew Feustel, both
experienced, multiple space-fliers; JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, also a multiple spaceflier; and in addition to myself, the rookies CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques and
Roskosmos cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov. The opportunity to work in such a multinational
team is a unique aspect of the CAVES training and a great privilege.

After lunch, our focus shifted from our personal cultural histories to the geological history
of Sardinia and the Lanaitto valley, where our training will take place. This part of Sardinia
is full of limestone mountains that were deposited as sea sediments during the Jurassic
period, when Sardinia was still connected to mainland Europe. The vast network of caves
under these mountains will soon be our home for a week. Before that happens though, we
have much to learn about living and working in a cave.

We got our first taste of the vast caves last night, when we explored a wet cave. Wearing a
full-length wetsuit with booties and gloves, we descended and swam our way through the
Sa Oche cave. The techniques we learned will be useful later when we will be living in and
exploring the Sa Grutta cave, which includes a large underground river. It was also the
perfect opportunity to test my new GoPro camera. The results were used as part of this video compiled by Vittorio and Sirio, our two professional photographers/film makers who will be accompanying us throughout the mission:

Getting wet in Sa Oche

Posted in Andreas Mogensen | 1 Comment

#Shenanigans09

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Andreas Mogensen

In The Matrix, one of my favourite movies, Neo is walking up a set of stairs when he spots a black cat in a corridor. The cat disappears around a corner only to reappear in the corridor a few seconds later. Neo casually dismisses it as a case of déjà vu. However, Morpheus and Trinity immediately recognize it as a glitch in the Matrix and as a sign of the danger that is about to befall them.

The same sort of situational awareness and attention to detail is necessary when you are a member of the Shenanigans 2009 class of ESA astronauts. Is your coffee cup still on the same side of your computer as when you left your office? Is your desk chair the same height as when you last sat in it? These are all clues as to whether or not you are about to become the victim of another shenanigan. Unfortunately, long periods of calm can give a false sense of security and dull the senses. As a result, it is a skill that has to be relearned occasionally.

I recently had this lesson taught to me again, when I noticed that the name tag on my flight suit was missing. We all have extra sets of Velcro name tags and national flags for our training flight suits, so I dismissed it as a case of careless misplacement. I should have known better…

As readers of this blog know, Tim recently took part in NASA’s NEEMO 16 mission. The team of four aquanauts spent 12 days living underwater, testing the operational and technical concepts needed for an asteroid sampling mission. Read more about the mission and check out the awesome pictures at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/index.html. Tim brought back not only a wealth of experiences, but also the video below, which illustrates magnificently why our astronaut class of 2009 is called the Shenanigans.

Thomas’ and my name tags are now four miles of the Florida coast and 20 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, waiting to greet the next visitors to the gazebo of the Aquarius habitat. The only way to retrieve the name tags is for one of us to participate in the next NEEMO mission. Here’s to hoping!

PS. I will be participating in ESA's CAVES training in September. The training is similar to NEEMO, except that we will be living underground in a cave in Sardinia for six days. Check out the video from last year's CAVES team, which included Thomas and Tim at http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMBNGFURTG_index_0.html. Suggestions by tweet welcome for how to get back at Tim.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged #Shenanigans09, Shenanigans | 3 Comments

Incredible special effects

Posted on June 18, 2012 by julien

Tim seen from NEEMO base Editor's note: this is Timothy Peake’s blog during NEEMO 16

The past 24 hours has simply been an incredible experience. And considering that this entire NEEMO 16 mission has so far been an incredible experience that is saying something. About this time last night I was heading out the wet porch with fellow crewmember Steve Squyres for a night dive, with only one objective...to have fun

Night time underwater is something very special. Having lived with the marine life for several days now we have begun to recognize their routine. As the sun goes down, the fish start to get excited. Small larvae gather in the external lights of Aquarius and climb all over our port hole windows. The food chain kicks in and before we know it the huge, beautiful silver Tarpons are darting around at the top of the chain, with Barracuda taking their fill too and 'Gordon' the Goliath Grouper lazily keeping score like some oversized referee.

Steve and I were sitting on the ocean floor being awed by this amazing scene when in the corner of my eye I noticed an unmistakable tail swishing movement of a fish larger than even the Tarpon...Nurse Shark! It glided elegantly past us, looking a bit put out since we were sitting right where it had been sleeping the previous night...time to move over a little bit and free up some bed space. We were so thankful just to Tim in NEEMO have the time, peace and quiet to enjoy this wonderful scene, being able to lie back look up at the surface, watching our bubbles causing a bioluminescent firework display.

Only one person can enter and exit the habitat at a time, and it takes several minutes to hat and unhat a diver. So when it was finally time to come back inside I remained outside whilst Steve 'staged in', and during those few minutes I was able to enjoy the feeling of complete isolation, with all my lights turned out and just enjoying the environment and the eerie glow coming from the Aquarius wet porch. Steve's comment earlier had been spot on...just like a scene from the movie 'Aliens'!

With the previous night's dive fresh our minds, the morning brought the prospect of something completely different but equally exciting...submersibles. Today was the day that the crew began to work with our 'Space Exploration Vehicles' in order to assess how they contribute to the efficiency of the tasks that we have been performing throughout the mission. NEEMO Submersible By the time we were back in the water the light was fading slightly and the visibility dropping, so by the time the subs arrived we were once again treated to a completely surreal image of these two awesome floodlit machines slowly appearing out of the gloom. It really wasn't that hard to remind ourselves that we were simulating an asteroid mission... the special effects have so far been worthy of an award!

Posted in NEEMO, Timothy Peake | Tagged exploration, fish, underwater, vehicles | 1 Comment

NEEMO 16…Teamwork!

Posted on June 14, 2012 by julien

Editor's note: this is Timothy Peake’s blog during NEEMO 16

'Good Teamwork' - it's something that makes the difference between winning or losing, success or failure and in extreme cases living or dying. As jargon, 'teamwork' is easy enough to say - much harder to define and it can be a tricky little recipe to create.

When everyone is working selflessly towards a common goal...that's a good start...and as a crew member of NEEMO 16 I am witnessing daily so many fantastic examples of great teamwork. Often it's the little things that make all the difference, like the thankless task our support divers had removing the trash bags from Aquarius this morning, or coming in from nearly 5 hours in the water and being met by Steve offering hot chocolate and Wasabi peas. I had told Steve that I didn't need anything, but he knew I did...and he was right!

Then there is the bigger picture, the huge support infrastructure from Mission Control and the immense logistical effort to ensure that we have the right tools, equipment, communications, medical support and IT to do the job, without which we could not accomplish the mission. There are people enduring many hours a day in a 5 foot Atlantic swell above us, or monitoring computer screens 24/7 in windowless rooms, not to mention those topside divers and supervisors who are looking after us in the water and ensuring that we have a seamless transition from one task to the next.

And then there are our two habitat technicians James and Justin, who quietly go about their business (OK, maybe James is not that quiet!) of knowing exactly what we need and when we need it...keeping us on track and safe in our temporary underwater home. And I have have only mentioned a fraction of the team so far.

The fact that so many people have come together from such diverse backgrounds and cultures, and in a short space of time gelled together into a tight knit and highly efficient team speaks volumes about the common goal that has united this team...pushing the boundaries of mankind's exploration into the solar system. And that is something most definitely worthy of all of our effort.

So NEEMO 16 has successfully achieved that tricky little recipe of great teamwork and as with all good recipes this also has a lot to do with the chef...but that is a subject for another blog...LEADERSHIP!"

Posted in Timothy Peake | Tagged leadership, NEEMO, teamwork | Leave a comment

Splashdown!

Posted on June 12, 2012 by julien

JAXA Astronaut Kimiya Yui, NASA Astronaut (and Neemo 16 Commander) Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, ESA Astronaut Tim Peake, and Veteran Aquanaut Dr. Steve Squyres.

Editors note: this is Timothy Peake's blog entry reprinted from the NASA Neemo Blog

After months of training and preparation the day finally arrived... Splashdown for NASA's NEEMO 16 mission. The crew woke early, eager to pack the few last remaining items into the 'pots' that our superb support crew, amongst their many other tasks, would be taking down to the Aquarius habitat ahead of our arrival.

The atmosphere on the Key Largo dockside this morning was buzzing with activity, conversation and good humour. The NEEMO mission team had gathered to say farewell to the saturation crew - and despite our intense excitement at what lay ahead we were genuinely sorry to say goodbye to all our friends and colleagues who have dedicate so much time and effort into making this a successful mission so far.

The weather today was kind, as it had been all week, and with only a 2-3 foot swell to deal with, our dive boat made quick work of the 8km out to Life Support Buoy, which feeds Aquarius with electricity and clean air. It felt quite weird -- donning SCUBA gear for what could have been a routine dive but knowing that we would not be surfacing for 12 more days! With our team photo complete and the hot Florida sun beating down on us -- finally jumping into the ocean was just the best feeling ever.

Since we had full cylinders of air on our backs the team enjoyed a great dive around Aquarius, which included of course posing for the customary pre-mission photos! As we positioned ourselves around one of Aquarius' port holes we were joined by an inquisitive little turtle, who we later learned was called Little Joe and was a huge fan with previous NEEMO crews. With the air getting low it was finally time to say goodbye to our topside dive buddies and head into the wet-porch of Aquarius, where our lab technicians James and Justin were waiting to greet us. Some of the first things we noticed were the higher pitch of our voices and the fact that it was very hard to whistle in the thick air under a pressure of 2.5 atmospheres.

Aquarius is such an amazing place -- unique as it is currently the only underwater habitat in the world and as James took us through the initial briefing it was hard not to be distracted by the Wrasse, Grouper, Barracuda and myriad of other marine animals who were queuing up outside the portholes to look at these strange humans who had come to share their environment for a short period of time.

Unfortunately, our free time to enjoy the new environment was limited as we had to get to work setting up our 'IV Station' with communications, IT, cameras, etc., and getting back into the water in pairs with our mini-workstations and jet-packs attached for more familiarization and practice of our asteroid extravehicular activity techniques.

So a successful and busy start to this amazing mission, and as we acclimatise to our new surroundings, it is very clear to see that the real fun is only just beginning!

To learn more about the NEEMO 16 mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/neemo.

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Leonardo and the guardian angels

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Samantha Cristoforetti

If you ever have a chance to visit NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) – and it’s well worth a visit - you will notice a brightly coloured painting on the wall of the main control room. On the left side is an unusual depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, which seamlessly fades into a human being in the same pose, but dressed in a white spacewalker’s EMU. That’s the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or simply “the suit”.

Part of the NBL. The control room is on the right sight and you can see the painting on the wall. (Photo courtesy of NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman)

I love how this painting strikes a connection between human spaceflight and Leonardo, a figure who explored the potential of the human genius in engineering, art and the observation of nature. I wish I could somehow tell Leonardo that today not only we have flying machines – albeit quite different from the ones he envisioned – but human beings can even “walk” in space. And I wish he could fly on the Space Station and use his talent to tell and depict the story of those human beings up there.

What I think is missing in Leonardo’s original drawing, however, is the connection between people, the idea of a collective endeavour. The NBL painting, on the contrary, is a tribute to the team, and in particular to some very special people: the NBL divers.

The painting on the NBL control room

Divers are our guardian angels in the water. First and foremost, they are in charge of our safety and are rigorously trained to respond to any suit emergency in an expeditious and effective manner to protect the life and health of the guys or girls entrusted to them.

Life savers in an emergency situation, in a nominal EVA training run divers are instrumental in providing astronaut with smooth and effective training. Briefly, it is on their shoulders to make the gap between pool training and real weightlessness as small as possible.

So, how do they do that? First of all, by means of a good weighout, the process of adding or removing weights and foam blocs from different locations of the suit to stabilize it in the water. When I’m in the suit, I really enjoy these moments, because I can relax as the divers spin me in different orientations to pinpoint residual tendencies of the suit to rotate.

Divers performing initial weighout at the beginning of the run (Photo: NASA)

Another trick to fool gravity in the pool is to use low-fidelity, neutrally-buoyant substitutes for tools and replacement parts, as long as it is compatible with training objectives. For example, you might have noticed that spacewalking crewmembers carry a Power Grip Tool (PGT) tucked away on their right side. In the pool we carry a lighter, fake PGT during translations. When we need to use it, we retrieve the light PGT from the swing arm and hand it to a diver, who will promptly swap it for a higher-fidelity PGT that can actually drive fasteners. Yes, that’s what the diver is doing in the paining!

Throughout the run, divers will continuously help to offset the weight of high-fidelity tools and replacement units or stabilize the suits in orientations that happen to be unstable in the water in that particular moment. They operate the underwater cameras that record the action and feed live images to the control room. And they are a great source of invaluable feedback and suggestions, since many of them have supported countless EVA training runs over the course of many years at the NBL.

Divers take charge of us in the moment we are lowered in the water. For a six-hour run, they work on three two-hour shifts, with the first-shift divers typically coming back in for the third shift.

Also, remember that suits in the pool are supplied with Nitrox and cooling water from the surface via umbilicals. Divers manoeuvre the umbilicals out of our way and sometimes they will ask us to let go of structure and they will fly around a module or a truss segment to reroute them. I like these occasional brief breaks from the hard work. Not only I welcome the opportunity to rest for a minute or two, but immensely enjoy the bird’s eye view of the Space Station under water offered by the quick “flyarounds”. It’s an immense privilege to be able to train in the NBL. If it wasn’t for the suit, I would probably pinch myself once in a while.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Astronaut training, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, Shenanigans | 10 Comments

We expect the best, but prepare for the worse

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Samantha Cristoforetti

Fellow ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst bringing “unconscious” crewmate Reid Wiseman back to the airlock during a practice rescue scenario in the NBL (Photo courtesy Alexander Gerst)

Most astronauts dream of having the opportunity to perform a spacewalk at least once in their career and I am no exception to that rule. There’s something appealing about the idea of leaving behind the relative safety of the Space Station wearing your own little spaceship, about the thought of driving bolts while oceans and continents majestically pass by, about the challenge presented by the most physically and mentally demanding activity ISS crewmembers are confronted with.

There are also specific risks inherent to a spacewalk and one of the most dreaded scenarios involves a spacewalker going unconscious due to a medical issue or a malfunction of the pressurized suit. Over 150 spacewalks have been performed to assemble the Space Station and such a dramatic scenario has never occurred. However, you will not be surprised to hear that it does materialize quite often during training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL).

During the EVA training flow future crewmembers are required to demonstrate the ability to rescue an unconscious fellow spacewalker by bringing him or her safely back into the airlock within 30 minutes. I had a chance to try the rescue for the first time last Thursday during a six-hour run in the NBL with veteran spacewalker Steven Swanson (Swanny).

Ready to be lowered into the water for an NBL training run. Notice lying on the floor the reel of an 85-foot safety tether. The big hook attached in front is connected to structure after airlock egress, while the reel follows along.

This being my first attempt at the rescue, the scenario was extremely simple. I knew in advance that Swanny was going to simulate unconsciousness and I was right next to him on the truss. Also, neither of us was carrying anything at that point, and we were both attached to structure only with our respective safety tethers and one extra tether. We call this latter the local tether, since we attach it locally at a worksit to be able to work with both hands.

Safety tethers, on the other hand, are thin steel cables that are coiled in a reel. We attach one end to structure as soon as we exit the airlock, and since we carry the reel with us, the cable uncoils as we move away and recoils when we come back. If we need to go far out on the truss, we might even have to carry a second safety tether to attach when the first one runs out, and having to make the swap on the way back with an unconscious crewmate would require extra precious time.

But it was not the case for me on my first try. I merely had to detach Swanny’s local tether and use it secure him to myself, and then stow his safety tether, since we would be both secured by mine. Sounds quick and easy, right? Well, I guess it could have been. In reality, when I was ready to move, I realized that I had created a tether tangle and I would have to take the time to fix it if I was going to go anywhere. Good lesson learned!

Christer Fuglesang stands on end of Canadarm2 (Credit: NASA)

ESA astronaut colleague Christer Fuglesang stands on a platform at the end of the Station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, during operations to relocate a CETA cart on the ISS (Credit: NASA)

Nothing in the suit is easy, but the rescue seems to be in a category of its own. It’s quite a challenge to manage the bulky suit of the unconscious crewmate by pushing or pulling it on a tether, while at the same time making sure that it doesn’t bump into structure, especially not with the relatively fragile visor. And it’s quite a challenge to manoeuvre him or her into the airlock in an expedient manner, and to enter as second without the colleague helping, or at least getting out of the way. I was sure thankful to Swanny for showing me some veteran’s tricks to do that!

For a scheduling coincidence, I had my first rescue scenario as a robotic operator the very next day. When EVA crewmembers are attached to the Space Station Robotic Manipulator System, or Canadarm 2, they must count on the robotic operator to bring them quickly and safely back to structure in case of an emergency. One more skill I’ll be trying to acquire in the next few weeks, but the details are for another day...

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Astronaut training, NBL, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, Shenanigans, spacewalk | 3 Comments

Outdoor staircases and brain gymnastics

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Samantha Cristoforetti

Love the outdoor staircases in Montreal!

I’ve been in Montreal for a week now, staying in the charming neighborhood of Plateau Mount Royal and spending full days of robotics training at the Canadian Space Agency.

I haven’t ventured far beyond the commute route so far, except for the brief stroll to nearby cafés for breakfast, a little daily ritual that has progressively shifted later in the mornings as I have slowly digested the six-hour time shift from Europe. I have taken great pleasure in exploring the little quaint streets flanked by trees and row houses, each with a unique façade and with an outdoor staircase leading to an independent entrance on the second floor. Straight or curved, simple or elaborate, rigorously in metal with open steps, these external staircases conjure up a dynamism that matches the colorful livelihood of the neighborhood.

With Canadian colleague David Saint-Jacques and a real-size Canadarm2 mockup. Every boom is 7 meters long, but it's an amazingly light piece of hardware (Credit: CSA)

It’s a delightful way to start the day before making my way to the facilities of the Canadian Space Agency for training on the Space Station Robotic Manipulator System. Short: the SSRMS. For friends: the Canadarm2. In case you ever wondered how a 400-ton structure was put together on orbit, the short answer is: piece by piece, with the help of the SSRMS.

You can imagine the Canadarm2 as a robotic replica of your own arm in a bigger size. It has a shoulder, an elbow and a wrist. Like your arm, it has two straight booms between the joints. And like your arm it can bend the elbow and it can rotate shoulder and wrist in pretty much any orientation. In engineering terms it means that it has seven degrees of freedom, although we can lock one of degree of freedom to force the arm to move in a more controlled way. Station is precious; bumping into it is not an option.

Working at the Robotic Work Station. The two monitors relate to the simulator and are not present on orbit. Instructos using to run the simulation (Credit: CSA)

To train future ISS crewmembers in SSRMS operations the Canadian Space Agency has Robotic Work Stations that are identical to the ones on orbit. There are hand controllers for translation and rotation, a computer and a control panel to configure the system and to input commands, and three monitors for camera images. There is no real arm, of course, but simulation software runs in the background and the camera views will show you exactly what you would see if you were flying the arm on orbit.

A typical simulator session might well start with what might look like playing with a toy. On a small-scale model of the robotic arm we reproduce the initial configuration based on the given deflections of each joint. I like to see it as a warm-up exercise for the brain.

Placing the Canadarm2 on the ISS model in proper position and configuration. The prop David is holding is useful to visualize coordinate frames (Credit: CSA)

If you’re a model-builder you’ll love what comes next: to be able to visualize the arm movement with respect to the Space Station, we have a tremendously detailed rapid-prototyping model of the ISS right next to the simulator workstation. I find it an object of intrinsic beauty, I’ll confess. But it’s of course intended as a tool of visualization and as an aid in the extensive brain gymnastics to come: mentally flipping camera images, predicting how the arm movement will look from different points of views, identifying the best camera combination to monitor clearances from structure, determining hand controller inputs in different coordinate frames, visualizing joint movements – these are some of the tasks that are sure to keep your brain on its toes as you fly the arm.

David and I trying to understand how one of the HTV coordinate frames is oriented (Credit: CSA)

After one week of training I am starting to be familiar with nominal basic SSRMS operations. I’m now looking forward to learning next week about off-nominal situations like singularities and self-collisions, as well as practicing free-flyer captures, which consist in maneuvering the arm to grapple a vehicle that is not attached to the Space Station.

You can expect free-flyer captures to become more and more frequent on ISS in the coming years. Not only astronauts will continue to capture and berth the Japanese resupply ship HTV, but they will soon start doing the same for the new US commercial resupply vehicles Dragon and Cygnus. First Dragon capture is coming up soon, and I think it will be a historic moment. Make sure to watch!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Astronaut training, Canada, Canadarm2, Canadian Space Agency, robotics, Shenanigans, Space Station Robotic Manipulator System, SSRMS | 14 Comments

NEEMO 16 – In search of an asteroid

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Tim Peake

Welcome aboard the NEEMO 16 mission!

Destination: Asteroid, deep space

Date: 11-22 June 2012

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be assigned to NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 16^th mission to an underwater habitat called ‘Aquarius’, which lies about 20m under the ocean and nearly 8 miles off Florida’s Key Largo coast. Over the years, NEEMO missions have been used by NASA to provide vital research and development data to support future exploration missions.

Living underwater is an excellent space analog – the crew can practice EVA (‘spacewalk’) techniques using neutral buoyancy in water, whilst Aquarius offers an environment similar to a spacecraft: confined living space, total reliance on life support systems and no option for a quick return. The crew can only surface safely after 12 hours of decompression – to do otherwise would risk severe decompression illness or ‘the bends’.

The NEEMO 16 crew comprises NASA astronaut and mission commander Dorothy (Dottie) Metcalf-Lindenburger, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, Professor of Astronomy Steve Squyres and myself. In addition we will be supported by two habitat technicians who are also diving experts. The crew will spend 12 days living in Aquarius, conducting two EVAs each day. Like any space mission, there will be an experienced ground support team who will manage operations, communications and logistics from their Mission Control Centre (MCC) on dry land.

Working with DeepWorker subs - Aquarius looms in the background

The European Space Agency will also play a key role in NEEMO’s MCC thanks to the support of Hervé Stevenin - a highly experienced EUROCOM (Europe’s voice link to the International Space Station) and EVA/diving instructor at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC). Also supporting the mission will be Ben Douglas, an experienced flight surgeon from EAC’s Crew Medical Support Office.

As if the prospect of living for 12 days underwater wasn’t exciting enough…it gets better! The aim of NEEMO 16 is to simulate a future mission to an asteroid. This is the current focus for NASA’s first manned mission into deep space, venturing beyond the moon’s orbit and once more pushing the boundary of human presence in our solar system.

The Orion spacecraft will be instrumental in getting astronauts to asteroids, launched atop the Space Launch System. For the journey, which could last anywhere between 1-6 months, the crew would likely live inside a Deep Space Habitat and once there they would explore the surface using a Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV). The SEV would take astronauts close to the surface where they could perform EVAs that would involve deploying instruments and collecting samples.

Tim, Dottie and Kimiya training for NEEMO in NASA's Neutral Bouyancy Lab

NEEMO 16 aims to study some of the challenges that will be faced during an asteroid mission – how astronauts and SEVs can work together using restraint and translation tools and techniques in order to explore the asteroid surface (particularly difficult in a very low gravity environment), optimal crew size for efficiency and the inevitable communication delay that will increase with distance from Earth.

For this mission our SEVs will be simulated by two DeepWorker submersibles, piloted by fellow astronauts. The subs will be modified with a foot restraint attached to a manipulator arm, which will enable astronauts outside the SEV to hitch a ride as they explore the surface and collect scientific samples. In addition, astronauts conducting EVA will have the opportunity to wear ‘jet-packs’ (battery powered thruster packs) to move quickly and easily from one place to another. Is this beginning to sound like the best birthday present anyone could wish for? Well, I have just turned 40 so thank you, European Space Agency!!

Steve Squyres testing the 'jetpack' and translation boom

More to follow on the NEEMO 16 mission training in the build up to Splashdown on June 11th!

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

No molecule shall stand still!

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Samantha Cristoforetti

As part of my training on the systems of the International Space Station (ISS) I have passed my ECLSS exam a couple of weeks ago at Johnson Space Center in Houston. ECLSS is the Environmental Control and Life Support System and is one of the ISS systems that the crew interacts most with. What nature does for us when we are on the planet, we have to engineer for ourselves when we are in space. Things like water or waste management are very much on our minds on Earth as well, as we realize that we might be pushing the limits of nature’s ability to support our needs. But how about something so simple as air circulation?

André Kuipers performs inspection and cleaning of Columbus ventilation systems (Credit: NASA)

If you live in a part of the world that gets warm sometimes, you might have used fans in your home to circulate air and make the heat more bearable. If your part of the world gets very warm quite often, you might even have an air conditioning system in your home for comfort. But have you ever thought of a situation in which your health, your safety and even your life may depend on a constantly functioning ventilation system?

That is the case on the International Space Station. One of the consequences of gravity that we take for granted on our planet is natural convection : we all know that warmer air rises and cooler air descends, right? That’s one of the main drivers of our weather phenomena, and it’s also the reason why the heat from radiators is well distributed in our homes.

This buoyancy-driven effect does not exist in microgravity, therefore on the ISS we resort to forced convection. A carefully laid out system of ducting, fans and grids creates a known airflow pattern that satisfies the needs of astronaut health and comfort, as well as the requirements of a number of subsystems.

For one thing, we need forced air circulation to have proper mixing of atmosphere components. Imagine what would happen if that was not the case: as crewmembers breath, they exhale CO₂-enriched air, and without ventilation the concentration of CO₂in the air around their head would increase to dangerous levels. A little bit like breathing in a bag! Also, we constantly introduce oxygen into the ISS atmosphere to compensate for crew consumption. The Oxygen Generation System (OGS) has one outlet into the cabin and we rely on inter-module ventilation to distribute oxygen it throughout the Station. Without ventilation system not only newly produced oxygen would not reach all the modules, but the pocket of concentrated oxygen formed at the OGS outlet would cause a fire hazard.

André Kuipers uses a vacuum cleaner on the Columbus ventilation systems (Credit: NASA)

Besides maintaining a homogenous atmospheric composition, the ventilation system also makes sure that all the air is circulated through a number of subsystems. Remember, for example, that we don’t grow plants on ISS, so we need dedicated components, called Carbon Dioxide Removal Assemblies, to scrub CO₂ from the Station atmosphere. And of course we want the air to flow through our air conditioning system, which not only provides cooling, but also removes the humidity produced by crewmembers’ breathing and perspiration. By the way, the condensate recovered from the atmosphere is not lost, we have a way to process it into potable water. But that’s worth a story of its own…

I’d also like to mention a safety-related aspect which might not be so obvious. The automatic fire detection capability on ISS is dependent on running ventilation: for it to work, we need to circulate air through the smoke detectors, which are typically placed in air ducts and in front of inlet grids. Should the ventilation on ISS stop, you might notice on NASA TV that crewmembers will periodically check each module for burning odour. As we are taught during training, without ventilation the crew is prime for fire detection!

Last but not least ventilation contributes to the cooling of some components. This is especially true in the Russian segment, so much so that there are strict limitations on the opening of wall panels, since this inevitably causes some disruption of air circulation patterns.

Robonaut measures airflow for the first time on the ISS (credit: NASA/ESA)

By now I’m sure you’ll agree that maintaining a nominal air flow on Station is of paramount importance. That is why crew are responsible for making sure that inlets and outlets are kept free of obstructions at all time. Moreover, cleaning of the grids and the filters is part of the regular weekend housekeeping activities.

Crewmembers are also periodically asked to perform a measurement of the velocity field in front of outlet grids, so that experts on the ground can infer information about the health of the ventilation system. I’ll admit, it’s a bit of a tedious task, but also one that requires precision and a steady hand. That’s probably why it was the very first actual task that Robonaut 2 had a chance to try on-board a few weeks back. Who knows, by the time I get to ISS myself, R2 might have taken over this duty completely. Way to go, R2!