This past week I was able to get one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Early this year I was selected to be a citizen scientist-astronaut candidate with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). This prestigious institute led and managed by Dr. Jason Reimuller and Mr. Chris Lundeen along with other highly skilled professionals gives the selected candidates a taste of simulated astronaut training. Multitudes of simulated microgravity environments, experimental challenging tests, and real-life remote environment tests help candidates get trained in a highly competitive research field. A month of intensive webinars, workshops, and the hands-on training was rigorously paced and took place in Melbourne, Florida. Along with my classmates, we were pulling more than 12-hour shifts (8 am to 9 pm) daily for weeks at a stretch. However, the purpose of this program was so humbling and noble, that we never felt an ounce of exhaustion, but rather a sense of belonging and purpose. We all were trained on concepts and sciences of upper atmospheric science, mesosphere, global climate, noctilucent cloud science, atmospheric scattering, hypoxia awareness, space physiology & medicine, spacesuit design & operations and various space mission simulations.
FLIGHT SUIT
The first sense of belonging to the astronaut and space community came when on the first day of training, all the candidates were given their own custom-sized flight suit. Each suit was a Nomex fire retardant material and donned each individual's name, graduating class and nationality flag.
HYPOXIA TRAINING
The first segment of training included hypoxia training. Candidates were taken to the local hypo/hyperbaric chamber, which is used for various purposes to serve the community. The leading clientele of this chamber involves medical patients who are victims of large wounds, burns etc. who benefit from this hyperbaric setup where their injuries are healed with high pressure and high oxygen supply to their body cells. Similarly, victims of decompression sickness, mostly scuba divers are also brought here to treat the urgent fatal condition. Lastly, this chamber is also used by commercial and fighter pilots to test their abilities to identify hypoxic symptoms when the chamber is set to high altitude, and low oxygen conditions.
From the instrument panel, technicians were equipped to set the altimeter and monitor each candidate's performance through audio and video feeds. At all times, there were two critical care doctors present, wearing oxygen masks in the hyperbaric chamber with the candidates.
Trained technicians and doctors were watching this live feed from within and outside the chamber to monitor our symptoms. The bottom left panel shows the altitude setting and each candidate was biometrically monitored with a pulse oximeter. Our blood oxygen saturation was being monitored and displayed on the monitor screen placed on our right side. The whole hypoxia simulation testing lasted about 45 minutes. Each candidate was trained on how to don and doff oxygen masks provided within 5 seconds of symptoms. Also, each candidate was placed in front of a flight simulator where we were asked to perform various maneuvers, following instructions given to us from outside.
The goal was to test if we could follow instructions and maintain safe flight throughout hypoxic conditions. In this setup, initially, the chamber was set to ground level 1 ATA (atmospheric absolute) pressure and then gradually raised to 5000 ft. I was confident that I wasn't going to show any symptoms at least till 6000 ft as I have significant real-life experience flying at that altitude generally in my Cessna over the last couple of years. However, as the altitude was slowly raised to a maximum altitude of 18,000 ft, I started noticing my chamber mates display hypoxic symptoms. Some of the common symptoms faced by our group members included tingling of fingers, warm flush feeling, abdominal discomfort, headache, tunnel vision, loss of color vision, loss of motor control, and euphoria in a high altitude facility.
I was happy to find that I did not display any symptoms of hypoxia. On top of that, I was able to follow instructions and maintain a safe flight attitude throughout the exercise at 18,000 ft without any supplemental oxygen supply. However, as per the medical doctor's instructions, I was instructed to put on my oxygen mask when they noted my oxygen saturation dropping below 70%.
The lesson from this hypoxia awareness even though I did not show any visible symptoms was that I should still be aware and mindful of the typical hypoxia symptoms. As learned, it cannot be predicted who will show symptoms and who will not. So, it's critical that every flight pilot is careful about altitudes and their respective oxygen deficiencies which could alter human perceptions, judgement, and performances significantly thus posing various risks in missions.
HIGH G-FORCES SIMULATION
The second part of our candidate scientist program was to test our bodies' reactions to high g-forces. In order to simulate the load experienced by astronauts during launch and reentry, we were given the chance to ride in an aerobatic plane. Riding aboard the adaptable Extra 300 aircraft, this plane has an inherent design to sustain high load factors. With a tandem seating position, the view and first-hand experience I got in this plane was an out-of-life feeling for me. Before my flight, I was briefed on the safety mechanisms of the flight and ejection rules. In case of unforeseen situations, if the flight had to be aborted and we needed to eject from the aircraft, each individual pilot was equipped with a parachute, which we were trained on how to deploy once in a free-fall situation.
Along with the aerobatic-rated pilot, I was able to pull and sustain a maximum of 6.5 Gs through maneuvers such as hammerheads, barrel rolls, spins, loops and parabolas. Similarly, on the other side of the spectrum, we pulled a maximum of negative 1 G while hanging upside down on our seats for about 15 seconds.
This feeling was extremely surreal as the goal of this simulation was to disturb visual and sensory perceptions as experienced by astronauts during certain phases of launch as well as high-speed jet pilots.
I was one of the fortunate candidates who did not feel sick from these maneuvers and high g-forces. A tactic I had read a long time back taught me that fighter pilots used "The Hook" maneuver where there tensed up their bodies and breathed out really hard in order to prevent G-LOC (Gravity induced loss of consciousness) and in general from feeling bad due to these sudden flight attitude changes. I followed that tactic and perhaps it worked in my favor as not only did I not feel sick from this experience at all, but also thoroughly enjoyed it. I pushed my abilities a little more and moved my head around to challenge myself with different and unnatural visual perceptions.
I came out feeling even more satisfied with myself. I believe it's the power of staying positive that I was absolutely going to love this experience, that kept me from getting sick. Although each candidate was given a sick bag if needed, I think I had more fun overcoming my fear of aerobatics and thoroughly enjoying the challenge than having a scope of wondering if I am feeling sick at all.
To watch a recording of the live video - https://drive.google.com/file/d/12fVqZTPUQ8w3w0j6mKJEcpCsdv2P4ez9/view
PRESSURIZED SPACESUIT OPERATIONS & MISSION SIMULATION
The last part of this wonderful candidacy program was the pressurized spacesuit training. In order to simulate how astronauts train in a pressurized spacesuit, candidates were trained on how to don and doff an appropriately sized spacesuit, operate the pressure valve, and monitor the pressure within the suit.
After the pressurization of the suit, I performed some basic
initial tests that included walking, bending, kicking, tossing, etc. These were done to test motor skills in a pressurized condition which felt quite unnatural. I learned to don, doff, pressurize, perform safety checks, and conduct basic operations using a spacesuit.
The fact that everyone was willing to help each other and worked together to achieve a common goal was what really opened my eyes to an actual space mission. A real space mission where engineers, technicians, scientists, doctors, biologists, and other staff come together to obtain the same goal was recreated naturally in this program and I could not have asked for anything for rewarding and humbling than this.
Finally, I used their spacecraft and instrument operations skills to successfully conduct a simulated flight in confined environments that simulate actual missions.
The simulation exercise was done to take images of high-altitude Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC) or Noctilucent clouds at 270,000 ft and higher. The simulation was done in a chamber equipped with camera and flight controls to perform the suborbital flight maneuver. I was representing "Science" whose primary role was to perform scientific experiments at high altitude settings, take images for records, and guide the pilot to maneuver at specific altitudes and attitudes for having the ideal conditions for imaging.
What was most surprising was to find how much motor control gets limited in a pressurized suit such as the one I wore.
I was connected to the rest of the team with communication channels to ensure my safety inside the pressure suit at all times.
REWARDING TEAMWORK
Overall, this program was the most rewarding experience I gained ever since I was a member of an Emergency Medical Technician training program 3 years ago. Meeting highly skilled, ambitious, and humble people from different parts of the world, with diverse, highly capable backgrounds was truly humbling. Some of my fellow crewmates in this program were PhDs in Robotics, Aerospace Medicine, and Astrophysics. Others hailed from airline industries with multiple hours of flight log time under their belt who want to explore the domain of spaceflight now. Similarly, there were folks who had multiple analog astronaut mission experiences under their profile, and one of them even was selected to be an astronaut candidate at the European Space Agency previously.
On our graduation from the program, we were all successfully able to work together as unified crewmates with shared passions, desires and goals.
コメント