Needs More Bouncy Chair (#sctweetup – Part 4)

We sat in our command center as our instructor crammed what seemed like at least a day’s worth of mission briefings into 30 minutes.  Push this button for this, say this for that, use this command for the other thing, push the other thing to send this command – it was all rather confusing.  On top of all that, we were skimming over about 8 different mission positions.  So whatever criteria we were just told for this position now doesn’t apply to this other one.  I looked out the window of our conference room and down below over all the shuttle mock-ups and EVA simulators.  This wasn’t going to be child’s play after all…

After our briefing, we took the elevator down to the auditorium-like room housing all the mission equipment and then broke up into 2 groups.  I was with the Discovery group and the other group was the Atlantis group.  Each group had a shuttle simulator (orbiter) and mission control room.  I was assigned to the orbiter position of Mission Specialist #1.  I was a bit bummed as this meant no hands-on control of flying the shuttle.  However, I was a bit intrigued as to what I was going to do as a Mission Specialist as they mentioned I would have an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity – or space walk).  Oh boy, was I just going to walk around outside the simulator?  I’m sure they had something more interesting than that planned for me, but I wasn’t sure what.

A team of instructors were ready to guide us through this training session.  Our actual mission wasn’t until tomorrow morning, and this was just going to be a practice run through of the mission to get our bearings.  The first thing we needed to do was board our orbiter in order to start our mission into space.  We entered the Discovery simulator which was the older and smaller of the shuttle simulators at Space Camp.  Mike was our Commander, and as such would be flying the shuttle and running the show.  I had full confidence in Mike’s abilities and knew he’d make a fine commander.

Our Pilot sitting next to Mike at the controls was Sierra (@Sig727), a wonderful young lady with a Twitter handle that sounded like the name of a firearm.  Sierra was somewhere in her early or mid 20′s and despite a somewhat low-key demeanor struck me as someone capable of handling high-stress, highly technical situations.  She had a military vibe to her as if she was secretly training as a fighter pilot or other skilled military profession.  Therefore, like Mike, I knew she’d handle her role well and make a fine pilot.

I took the Mission Specialist #1 seat behind Sierra and looked to my left to see Mission Specialist #2.  Unfortunately, we seemed to have lost her.  Apparently, our other Mission Specialist had a business related meeting to attend to and had to skip out on training.  I guess she wasn’t fully on vacation from work like the rest of us, and from what I understood, was local to the area.

Mike and Sierra were busy prepping our orbiter for launch as I got a quick prep by one of the instructors of what I was supposed to do after launch.

“You see that hatch there behind you?” asked the instructor.

“Yes.”

“That’s the airlock.  After launch, you open the airlock and exit the cabin through it.  Once you are through the airlock you will suit up for your EVA.  Would you like to go ahead and try it?”

“Sure!”

My instructor opened the hatch to the airlock, “Go on through.”

Oh boy, that’s a pretty small hatch I thought as I bent over to make my way through it.  Once through the hatch, I was in a long tunnel that I had to crawl through on my hands and knees.  Obviously, this tunnel was much easier on a younger set of knees than mine.  I made it to the end of the tunnel which put me in a small, dark, closet-like room.  I looked back through the tunnel to let my instructor know I made it through ok, but instead saw the hatch close and heard the latch click to the locked position.  On all fours I looked back up the dark tunnel, “They locked me out!”

The room I was in was empty.  Actually, it was more like a small hallway.  As I stood up at the end of the tunnel somewhat bewilderingly, I figured it was up to me to determine what I was supposed to do next.  Looking down one end of the hall was a door about 20 feet away.  It was very dark in that direction so I figured that wasn’t the right way for me.  The other direction had a drop off to the ground some 5 feet below as the simulator was positioned on a large platform.  There was a ladder leading down and another small hatch at the bottom to crawl through.  Light was emanating from the hatch and I could tell from my orientation and auditory sounds that it lead to the main floor from which we entered the simulator.  That had to be the direction I was supposed to go so I crawled down the ladder and through the hatch to enter out into the main floor as expected.

Another instructor was there to greet me and show me what I would be doing as a mission specialist.  She explained that I would have to change into my EVA outfit, proceed over to the zero G simulator, build a section of space station truss while strapped in the zero G simulator and wearing bulky gloves and then change out of my EVA outfit and get back in the orbiter before they initiated their de-orbit burn to re-enter the atmosphere for landing.  If I didn’t get back in time I would be left in space to die alone as an orbiting satellite.  Sounds easy enough.

I looked at the zero G simulator that I would be using, but was told I wouldn’t have any training time on it today.  Instead I got a thorough session on how to build the space truss.  The truss is assembled using truss rods and nodes.  The truss rods are easy enough to explain as long metal rods with screws at each end.  The nodes, however, are quite unusual.  Each node is a small, heavy metal ball with what seemed like a hundred threaded screw holes all around it.  Apparently the holes formed different patterns depending on which way you held it.  My EVA instructor mentioned something about an “X” pattern either being good or bad to have in front of you.  I couldn’t remember which as I was just trying to find the pattern to begin with.  The only pattern I saw was a ball with a lot of holes in it.  Once the instructor informed me I had the ball positioned the right way I was then to screw in one of the truss rods.  But into which hole?  I kept picking different holes until my instructor confirmed I had the right one.  I had no problem visualizing the shape of the structure I was supposed to build, but making each node line up between the truss rods was more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle that the dog had eaten a couple of pieces of – finding the holes that matched all the intersecting truss rods was tough.  On top of that, screwing in one end of a truss rod into a new node loosened it from the node at the other end.  It was hard enough with bare hands, I could only imagine with thick gloves while hanging from a zero G simulator.

With my EVA training complete I re-entered the orbiter to join my crew for re-entry and landing.  We could see the airstrip of Edward’s Air Force Base in the distance, but Mike was having a heck of a time keeping us on track for the landing.  There is a certain finesse to the shuttle’s joystick that is hard to master on the first use.  This would account for the barrel roles and nose dives that we were going through.

“Pull up, pull up!”

Mike managed to pull the nose of the orbiter back up, but a little more than expected as the next sight we saw was the sun shining in through the orbiter’s front windows.

“Pull down, pull down!”

Mike, who had apparently lost all control of the orbiter by that point simply responded, “No, you didn’t give us enough time in space so I’m going back up.”

Our Mission Controllers were having a delightful time with it all and our landing sequence was reset a number of times to allow Mike more opportunities to entertain them.  It was no secret that the sims had various settings of difficulty to them and I suspect our Mission Control team had Mike running on the highest difficulty level.  Our final landing attempt ended in a fiery crash with a “No survivors” message on the display screen.  Maybe tomorrow during my EVA I’ll just stay in orbit as a human satellite to extend my lifespan a little longer.

With our mission training complete it was now time to play on the motion simulators.  First up was the MAT, or Multi Axis Trainer.  The MAT consisted of 3 concentric steel circles with a seat in the middle.  The steel circles all pivoted on different axis points to allow the seat in the middle to spin wildly in all directions at once.  Whoever was in the seat was in for one very wild ride.  I had already experienced the MAT before at Kennedy Space Center and already knew what the sensation was like to ride it.  One time was plenty for me.  I happily watched the others take their turns as I patiently awaited the next motion simulator – the 1/6th gravity chair.  This was a simulator for me.  Take a small bicycle-like seat, strap yourself into it and then hang it from a large spring attached to a truss some 30 feet above.  While strapped in the chair you can walk around with a very big spring to your step.  It is roughly the equivalent of walking on the moon in its 1/6th gravity.  I was the first to volunteer and couldn’t wait to see how much airtime I could get.

After getting strapped in with the chair locked to the ground, the chair was then lifted off the ground and I hung from the spring with my toes just touching the simulated moon surface ground below me.  Once cleared to proceed by our motion simulator instructor (yep, there’s an instructor for everything at Space Camp) I took off with as big a leap as I could and sailed upward to the ceiling.  I must have went 6 feet off the ground but felt I could do even better so each time I came back to the ground I pushed off again with as much force as I could.  Each time I seemed to be topping out at 6 feet and was sure I could go higher but didn’t realize at the time that the instructor had me on a leash.  Each time I jumped up he pulled me back down, possibly to keep me from over doing it in my reckless excitement.  Regardless, it was amazing fun and all too brief an experience as I was brought back to the floor after a few strolls across the moon’s surface.

Others strapped in for the 1/6th gravity chair as Mike came over to get a post-simulator reaction from me on video.  I’m afraid I didn’t give him much material to work with other than a big smile and a repetition of the word “Awesome”.

Watching the others on the 1/6th gravity simulator surprised me as everyone else seemed more timid than they did with the MAT.  Maybe their senses were still discombobulated from all that crazy spinning on the MAT whereas my senses were fine from having passed on it.

Robert gave me his camera so I could take photos of him during his simulated moonwalk.  Robert is a young, fearless looking guy, so his gentle steps in the 1/6th gravity simulator just didn’t jive.  He thanked me for taking the photos but was seeming more reserved now.  Surely the bouncy chair wasn’t that scary for him?

I tried to take as many non-blurry photos as possible of the others in the 1/6th gravity simulator, but with two of them going at once, I was jumping back and forth.  Everyone was having a great time.  And don’t tell them I said so, but I think the girls were getting more air than the boys – other than this young stud, of course (pointing to myself as my latest mid-life crisis was dissipating).  Of course, now the lady in red was nowhere to be found as our news crews had departed back to their studios after our bus tour.

After a hard afternoon on the sims it was time for dinner.  We headed over to the cafeteria that had a great panoramic view of the rocket garden through its large glass windows.  I found a seat between Robert and Paul and stared intently at the odd serving in front of us.  Space Camp had arranged a special dinner for us with shuttle astronaut Dr. Don Thomas.  Their chef also had a trick up his sleeve with a special Marsian diet.  Our chef prepared a meal based on what we would eat if we were living in a colony on Mars.  Talk about a crazy meal!  I can’t even begin to describe it as it was so different from anything I have had before.  The first course, which was before us now, consisted of some form of orange mash that was quite tasty.  Sweet potatoes, rice and nutmeg (I think) were the only ingredients I could identify.  It was very rich and I found it hard to finish only for that reason.  Next was a Marsian salad followed by a fish entree on a bed of fish eggs – all this tasted much better than it sounds.

Dr. Don Thomas began his presentation during our dinner – he was a really relaxed and down to Earth guy, so I’m just going to refer to him as Don.  Don flew on 4 shuttle missions during the mid 90′s, three times aboard Columbia and once aboard Discovery.  Each time Don was a mission specialist either launching satellites or conducting experiments in the micro-gravity laboratories aboard the shuttle’s payload bay.  Prior to the building of the International Space Station (ISS) the US did not have a permanent orbiting space station.  Whenever we needed to conduct scientific experiments in the micro-gravity of space, we’d throw a small science laboratory in the payload bay of the shuttle, borrow the keys from NASA and spend a week or two in space.  Of course, there is more to it than that, and since shuttles had months between launches on average, you can imagine the jockeying for position in the science community to get your experiment on board one of these shuttle flights.  With the ISS we have a permanent laboratory in space, orbiting the Earth 24/7.  The only problem now is getting the experiments up there fast enough in order to keep the astronauts fully occupied.  We used to cram a module full of stuff that we’d drop off to the ISS whenever we sent a shuttle up.  Now, we hope the Russian cargo ships don’t blow up while we hurry to get private companies like SpaceX to pick up the resupply role.  I really admired Don – he kicked it the old school way by taking it up, doing the work and bringing it back all in one flight.

As Don entertained us while wearing his signature blue NASA jumpsuit with the golden sky of the setting sun shining over a fleet of Redstone rockets behind him I looked over to see how Robert was taking it all in but strangely he wasn’t there.  Judging from the untouched food on his plate I could tell he had skipped out.  Was he offended by the food?  I knew Robert was really looking forward to meeting Don so I was a bit taken back that he had left.  I inquired with my table mates and learned that he had been feeling intensely ill after riding the MAT.  He had to go back to his hotel room to sleep it off.  That explains the cautious steps in the 1/6th gravity simulator earlier and the dazed look he had post-MAT in the pictures I would see of him afterwards.  When I rode the MAT at KSC last year I had them stop it early.  Everything about me thought it was good fun except one thing – my brain.  When you start spinning on all axises your  brain fluids start sloshing around and you get weird pressure in your head.  Years ago I suffered a concussion and since then I have had negative reactions to fast head movements and vibrations.  I suspect this played a part in my unpleasant brain reaction to the MAT and why I avoided it earlier today.  I won’t speculate but I’m thinking Robert had a similar reaction as the MAT began spinning, but decided to ride it out.  I was really feeling bad for Robert and worried if we had just experienced our first Tweetup casualty?

(This is part 4 of a 6 part blog series on my experience at the Space Camp Tweetup.  Click here to proceed to Part 5)