How many astronauts does it take to change a lightbulb? By the look of things on a recent morning in the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston: two.
Plus hundreds of support personnel, including 14 divers suspended in the water with video cameras, all manner of tech support poolside, and a cadre of coffee-sipping flight operations specialists watching on screens in a control room overlooking the scene.
It's 9:11 a.m. when Col. Nick Hague, 42, encased in his 300-pound space suit, is lowered by crane into a pool that measures 202 feet long, 102 feet wide, and 40 feet deep. Submerged in it is a replica of the $75-billion-plus International Space Station, or ISS. For the next six hours, Hague and German astronaut Alexander Gerst will simulate an extravehicular activity (EVA), a.k.a. spacewalk, to perform maintenance tasks.
This fall, Hague will ride a Russian rocket to the ISS and begin a six-month stint. He's one of just eight members of NASA's class of 2013, and first in the class to be assigned a mission. On this simulated spacewalk he'll adjust (not literally change) a light on the robotic arm of the $1.7 billion service system, a task that astronauts currently on the ISS will do eight days later. He'll also upgrade some batteries, a job he'll later take on in orbit. The spacewalk (a misnomer—it's a hands-only climb across the station's exterior) is a physical challenge. Astronauts clench their hands thousands of times as they loosen and tighten bolts and screws, chafing fingertips, knuckles, and collarbones. It's the metabolic equivalent of running a marathon. There are no breaks; they wear diapers under their suits.
Source :- pulse
Plus hundreds of support personnel, including 14 divers suspended in the water with video cameras, all manner of tech support poolside, and a cadre of coffee-sipping flight operations specialists watching on screens in a control room overlooking the scene.
It's 9:11 a.m. when Col. Nick Hague, 42, encased in his 300-pound space suit, is lowered by crane into a pool that measures 202 feet long, 102 feet wide, and 40 feet deep. Submerged in it is a replica of the $75-billion-plus International Space Station, or ISS. For the next six hours, Hague and German astronaut Alexander Gerst will simulate an extravehicular activity (EVA), a.k.a. spacewalk, to perform maintenance tasks.
This fall, Hague will ride a Russian rocket to the ISS and begin a six-month stint. He's one of just eight members of NASA's class of 2013, and first in the class to be assigned a mission. On this simulated spacewalk he'll adjust (not literally change) a light on the robotic arm of the $1.7 billion service system, a task that astronauts currently on the ISS will do eight days later. He'll also upgrade some batteries, a job he'll later take on in orbit. The spacewalk (a misnomer—it's a hands-only climb across the station's exterior) is a physical challenge. Astronauts clench their hands thousands of times as they loosen and tighten bolts and screws, chafing fingertips, knuckles, and collarbones. It's the metabolic equivalent of running a marathon. There are no breaks; they wear diapers under their suits.
Source :- pulse
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