This evening I met up with a blast from
the past, the lovely Brienna of the NASTAR Center, who I ran into in
Washington, D.C. last week for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
meeting. She and I had a great discussion about our respective
companies and the future commercial space industry. Both of our
companies have a role in training for and educating the public about
commercial spaceflight. Our conversation brought me back to me time
training at the NASTAR Center over four years ago (wow time files!).
My NASTAR opportunity was
serendipitous. I was attending a Next-Generation Suborbital Space
Research Workshop at Kennedy Space Center in July 2010, representing
my grad school group run by Josh Colwell of the University of Central
Florida. Alan Stern was talking with Jaydeep Mukherjee the director
of the Florida Space Grant Consortium. Alan mentioned that he is an
advisor for a private facility called the National AeroSpace Training
and Research Center (NASTAR) that provides aerospace training
programs and that the next NASTAR Suborbital Science Training Program
would take place the following week. The conversation went something
like this:
Jaydeep: "We would love to send a
student to NASTAR!"
Alan: "Her boss," points to
me, "and one of his graduate students attended the first NASTAR
suborbital training session."
Me: "Yes, they went right before I
started at UCF."
Alan: "Would you like to go?"
Me: "Yes, I'd love to go!"
Jaydeep: "We'll send you next
week, then."
Me: "Seriously?"
Jaydeep: "Yes, call me tomorrow
and we'll arrange it."
I later found out that this was a bit
of a set up between Alan and my grad school advisor to send me to
NASTAR with Florida Space Grant Consortium involvement. FSGC
sponsored my attendance to the NASTAR program, my flights, and my car
rental. It just so happens that the NASTAR Center is located close to
my hometown in Pennsylvania where my parents were still living at the
time, so I opted to stay with them. I have to give props to FSGC who
has been very willing to invest in opportunities for Florida students
and open to innovative new ideas for projects and activities. FSDC
also sponsored my NASA Academy internship in 2005, but that's a topic
for another time.
My NASTAR class consisted of 8 students
including Clara Moskowitz of Space.com who was covering the program.
The purpose of the three-day program was to train scientists who will
(hopefully) someday conduct experiments on suborbital spacecraft.
Day 1 consisted of lectures on human
physiologically so that we'd understand how our bodies react to high
G loads and low air pressure such as blackouts and hypoxia. We donned
flightsuits and entered the altitude chamber. Altitude training gave
us exposure to a hypothetical situation where a spacecraft would
become depressurized at a high altitude. It is uncertain whether all
private astronauts will wear pressurized spacesuits or air masks. If
the cabin depressurizes below 60,000 ft, the astronauts not suited up
will need to know how to breath in low-pressure environments. Above
60,000 ft, there's no hope for humans in a depressurized environment
because of out-gassing of fluids, so training won't help in that
scenario.
They brought us to a pressure
equivalent to 18,000 ft, around the altitude a small airplane would
fly, still not that high comparatively but enough to give us an idea.
We removed our oxygen masks. Nearly immediately I felt lightheaded, a
symptom of hypoxia that lasted a minute or two before I adjusted to
the lack of air, then the symptom went away. It's also possible that
I experienced a second symptom, euphoria, because I felt great for
the rest of the experience!
Day 2 began with lectures on a variety
of subjects: the history of spaceflight, an overview of the
commercial space industry, and centrifuge training. Because there is
a possibility of G-force-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC), they
taught us some techniques to avoid passing out. With Gz, the blood in
our body is pushed down, which makes it difficult for the heart to
pump blood to the head and the brain may not get enough oxygen. At 5
Gz, blood can no longer reach the head. We learned anti-G stress
techniques to mitigate against the risk.
Finally, the moment we had been waiting
for – centrifuge time! I entered the single-person chamber at the
end of the centrifuge arm and strapped into the seat. The first
flight was a calm 2 Gz maximum for 15 seconds. That doesn't sound
long, but sustained G forces are hard to take, and "sustained"
means greater than half a second. I had no problem with that first
flight and smiled the whole time.
The second flight profile got me up to
3.5 Gz for 20 seconds, which was noticeably more difficult. I was one
of the only students to have any vision loss. My eyes started getting
fuzzy a little like I had been awake for a really long time, but
anti-G techniques brought my vision back immediately. To my surprise,
I could still lift my arms up and move around quite a bit despite the
increased heavy feeling pushing down on me.
The third flight profile brought me up
to 3 Gx for 15 seconds, which I think is the maximum Gx on an
amusement park centrifuge/gravitron ride, so I had great fun with
that. But the best part came with the fourth flight, 6 Gx for 20
seconds. So much fun! I did have difficulty breathing with what felt
like a huge weight on my chest. The hardest part was focusing while
laughing. I was giggling the entire time! At 6 Gx, I was attempting
to breath, giggle, and answer the instructor's question of "Can
you breath?" all at once, which was pretty much impossible to
do. I had such a blast! I didn't find out until I returned to the
observation room that they had turned on the intercom audio for
everyone to hear, so everyone witnessed my giggling fit. That
actually helped one of the students feel less anxious about the
experience, because if I was laughing the whole time, it must not be
so bad.
The last activity of the day was
distraction training, another component that's specific to the
suborbital scientist training. Scientist astronauts or payload
specialists will need to conduct experiments while in space, and
suborbital space travel only allows for a few minutes of
microgravity. We were each assigned a payload which was stored at the
front of the "spacecraft" and not told ahead of time what
our experiment involved. We raced to the front to collect and conduct
our experiments while everyone else was doing their own thing and
music was playing loudly before five minutes was up without
interfering with anyone else's experiment.
It was hard! There is not much time at
all in suborbital weightlessness to conduct experiments, especially
with other people floating around in a confined area. And if this had
been real, I'm quite certain that at least half of my time would be
spent doing somersaults and staring out the window rather than
working. These are important concepts to keep in mind for future
research astronauts.
We then broke into pairs and did a
different kind of experiment. One of us was an Earth observer looking
at pictures of the Earth with our telescope (a paper tube), and the
other was a note-taker. The observer needed to stare at the images of
Earth with the telescope in order to locate and read off the
alphanumeric code typed somewhere on the image. The trick: the
observer spin around in circles between images to become disoriented.
The altitude chamber didn't make me sick, the centrifuge didn't make
me sick, but spinning in circles made me sick!
Day 3 was the ultimate centrifuge ride:
the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo flight profile! The flight profile
is complex with both Gx and Gz at the same time. Launch is the most
intense, followed by a period of "weightlessness" in space,
then a reentry pattern which is mostly Gx. Our first flight was only
50% of the intensity of the Virgin Galactic flight to prepare us for
the second flight, which was 100%, the same G forces a Virgin
Galactic passenger would feel on a mission to space. The visuals on
the display matched the flight storyline, a narrator provided some
description of what was happening.
There was a countdown to drop, and I
really did feel like my spacecraft was being separated from the
carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo. A second or two later, the countdown
to launch began, and then the craziness! My chair started vibrating
to simulate the rocket launch, I was pushed down and against the
chair, my vision went fuzzy, my chest felt heavy, and my adrenalin
kicked in as I let out laughs and shouts of joy. I did anti-G
techniques and my vision returned instantly.
Immediately after "the rocket
stopped firing" I was "floating in the microgravity of
space.” I lifted my arms and they really did feel lighter than
normal. This phase lasted a while but shorter than an actual
suborbital flight because there's no training to be done. Out of the
display windows I could see stars, the Sun, and the curvature of
Earth. Then was "reentry into Earth's atmosphere," which
was an intense feeling of Gx against my chest that let up a little
after a few seconds then started back up again. I was able to get
through it just fine. At the very end of my second flight during the
slow-down, I felt a little dizzy, probably from moving my head too
much to look around while the centrifuge was still in motion. That
was and awesome roller coaster ride and I'd love to do it again,
especially the real thing!
We then discussed our feedback as
scientists who may someday fly on one of these private suborbital
flights. We were unanimous: all of us were strongly of the opinion
that any person – tourist or scientist – who plans to fly on a
suborbital flight needs to undergo some kind of G-force training.
Without it, a person wouldn't know what to expect, wouldn't know how
to deal with the G forces, and may pass out or become sick. If a lot
of money is being spent to send someone up to space, that person
should be prepared for what will happen to them so they don't become
disoriented or unconscious and lose valuable time.
Another important observation was just
how little time there is on a suborbital spaceflight and how
distracted a first-time astronaut would be. We're human, we will want
to float around, play with the microgravity, and enjoy the stunning
beauty of our world from space. If a scientist is to get any work
done, the experiment needs to be very simple, mostly automated, and
very short. There's no guarantee that a scientist will even be able
to get out of his/her seat in order to conduct an experiment, so the
easier, the better. Prior to this experience, all my focus had been
on how cool being in space and experiencing microgravity would be, I
hadn't even thought about the intensity, strength, and disorientation
of launch and landing. A scientist and a payload will need to be able
to withstand launch and landing in order to successfully complete the
mission.
I proudly display my NASTAR wings at
home next to my Space Camp wings. I'll admit to being really nervous
at first and unsure if I'd even be able to do it, but now that I've
been through the NASTAR program, I have the confidence to know that I
can handle a suborbital spaceflight. A real space mission would be
the ultimate thrill. I would go in a heartbeat. Yes, it's very
expensive. Yes, it's very dangerous. But it's so worth it. To live
that dream and to help start a new chapter in humanity's history,
it's so worth it. I am very grateful to Josh, Alan, and the Florida
Space Grant Consortium for sending me to NASTAR!
Clara Moskowitz's article on the
experience can be found here.
Visit the NASTAR Center website for
more information.
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