Results tagged “astronaut”

Cian O'Luanaigh, reporter

A toxic ammonia leak and a jammed fitting have foiled plans to fix a cooling pump on the International Space Station, forcing astronauts to delay the repairs until Wednesday at the earliest, reports NASA.

On Saturday, Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson suffered setbacks that stretched their space walk to 8 hours 3 minutes - the longest in space station history and the sixth longest ever undertaken, according to NASA.

The astronauts began their excursion outside the International Space Station at 0719 EDT (1119 GMT) as the outpost flew 220 miles (354 km) above Earth.

They planned to remove a broken ammonia coolant pump and install a replacement, which involved disconnecting four ammonia hoses and five electrical cables from the pump on the station's truss.

Jamie Condliffe, reporter

Over the course of this week, we have done our best to persuade you that becoming an astronaut is almost impossibly difficult and extremely dangerous. But if you are reading this, then you are probably not buying it. Despite all its drawbacks, many people can't wait to get into space - in fact some think it is the best way to secure humanity's future.

So that just leaves one question: where are you going to go?

You've won a place at astronaut school, you've survived the training programme, you've faced up to the possibility of sudden, unpleasant death - and you've made it to space. A universe of wonders awaits, but so do some gritty realities.

Bad taste

Space missions can last for months, and the nearest supermarket is a long way off. That means food has to last for the duration. Most fresh food, such as fruit and vegetables, is in any case frowned upon for other reasons: it can decompose and produce persistent, unwelcome odours. Bananas are out of the question. But dry food can be problematic, too: crumbs can get into delicate instruments, or even into the lungs of our intrepid space explorers.

Jamie Condliffe, reporter

Yesterday, we looked at how you could join the elite ranks of those who've visited outer space. But are you sure you want to?

We've all heard about the wonders of space flight - from the sensation of weightlessness to the sight of planet Earth. But it's fraught with peril too; the risks astronauts run have long cast a shadow over the prospects of humans in space.

And this isn't just doom-mongering: the fatality rate for astronauts is a worrying 5 per cent. That's 50 times the death rate for sea fishermen, considered to be the most dangerous Earthbound job.

Read on to find out more about the risks you'll face as a trained astronaut.

Failure to launch

As the famous quip goes, the scariest thing about space flight is the realisation, as you prepare for blast-off, that you're sitting on top of tonnes of explosive fuel and millions of parts, all of which have to work perfectly and all of which have been built by the lowest bidder. Despite endless safety checks and multiple fail-safes, things can still go wrong.

The Challenger space shuttle flew for just 73 seconds before disintegrating, after a seal failed under the stress of launch. Columbia broke up when re-entering the atmosphere - but it, too, was doomed by a failure during its launch phase: a chunk of insulation that broke off its external tank damaged its left wing, leading to uncontrollable build-up of heat as it prepared to land.

The Shuttle's vulnerability to launch accidents was an important factor in NASA's decision to go back to more conventional rockets, which are easier to evacuate. Crew capsules can also be fitted with rocket-powered abort systems that will pull them to safety. These have proved their worth in the past, saving two cosmonauts from a fiery death in 1983 and work is continuing apace to improve their design.

Fragile protection

Once in orbit, there's only a thin skin between you and the vacuum of space. So it's small wonder that astronauts and spacecraft designers worry about the possibility of that skin being pierced by a meteorite or, increasingly, by space junk deposited in orbit by careless humans.That's a very real threat.

The Hubble telescope has racked up over 500 hits from space debris, leaving centimetre-sized craters in its exterior - but it's not just satellites that are at risk. NASA plans Shuttle missions so that they avoid high-risk areas, but its records show that the craft was nonetheless struck no less than 1951 times during 54 missions. Most of those impacts were of little consequence, but a significant number required windows to be replaced, or penetrated the shuttle's radiator.

The obvious risk is that such impacts damaging crucial components, rendering the craft unusable, or expose its passengers to the vacuum of space by piercing the hull. The unhappy fate of three Soviet cosmonauts, who died in 1971 after a mechanical failure depressurised their landing craft, demonstrated what happens next : we'd black out pretty quickly, due to suffocation and oxygen starvation. That's probably a mercy, given that the low pressures would quickly cause nitrogen bubbles to form in our blood and boil our bodily fluids.

Invisible enemies

We can barely see the kinds of debris that could cause catastrophe - and there are other perils we can't see at all.

Chief amongst these for astronauts are cosmic rays. These streams of protons, radioactive particles and high-energy photons pose a huge barrier to space travel: some estimates suggest that they would give 1 in 10 astronauts cancer over the course of a mission to Mars - odds that could put off even the keenest of space explorers. Fortunately, there may be ways to guard against this threat, using that old science-fiction staple: the force-field.

Space travel, at least using today's technology, is still a dangerous business. But that doesn't seem to put people off - and nor do the more mundane downsides of space travel: the boredom, isolation and terrible food. We'll take a look at these tomorrow.

Jamie Condliffe, reporter

Yesterday, we described how tough it is to get into astronaut school. But it's tougher still to graduate.

Learning to love free fall

One of the most attractive aspects of space travel has to be zero or micro-gravity: something that is, obviously, difficult to prepare for on Earth. But astronaut training programmes do their best.

To get used to the dizzying feeling of weightlessness, astronauts spend a considerable chunk of time in water. The initial test is to swim three lengths of a 25-metre pool without stopping. That might sound easy, but candidates must then do it again, and also tread water for 10 minutes... in a spacesuit. As if that's not enough, each astronaut has to undergo a military water survival training course and become fully scuba qualified to start getting used to the exciting - but risky - sensation of being in space.

Wannabe astronauts get a more authentic taste of weightlessness as passengers in the so-called Vomit Comet - a converted C-9 jet aircraft that performs parabolic manoeuvres to produce periods of weightlessness that last about 20 seconds. Though that might seem fun as a one-off - even Stephen Hawking volunteered for it - prepare to feel queasy: the process is repeated up to 40 times in a day for trainees.

Going back to school

Budding astronauts have to demonstrate more than just physical endurance: they must also go through a year of intensive training in the theoretical and practical skills they'll need to control the spacecraft's systems, recognise malfunctions, and understand how to fix problems and make repairs.

If you have always dreamed of piloting a space ship, the odds are that you should dream on. Only one or two astronauts on any particular flight are fully trained as pilots, and they will have clocked up 1000 hours at the controls of a jet aircraft - and a substantial chunk of those are very likely to have been spent testing new and experimental aircraft.

It's more likely that you'll be given the standard training and then charged with specific duties once assigned to a particular mission, such as conducting medical or scientific research or testing new ways of working in space. You might learn how to conduct experiments in zero gravity, for example, how to space walk, or how to repair equipment already in orbit.

Buying your way to orbit    

The space shuttle has also carried "payload specialists". Some of these have been technical experts who have trained as astronauts so that they can apply their knowledge to a commercial or scientific satellite launch.

Others, however, have been politicians or "guests" from other countries - a rare opportunity to bypass some of the usual application requirements, though if anything it's even more daunting than the usual route.

Not all of these "specialists" have covered themselves in glory: US congressman Jake Garn fared so poorly that he gave his name to the unofficial unit of space sickness. In any case, NASA doesn't envisage that any more such opportunities will arise before the shuttle programme ends next year.

The other option is to pay your own way. So far, seven multimillionaires have stumped up their hard-earned cash to make it into space. Each paid at least a cool $20 million to spend time on the International Space Station, having ridden up on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Space tourism is clearly the preserve of the super-rich right now, but the dawn of commercial space flight should make it achievable by those who are merely very rich indeed.

So right now, it seems as though becoming a bona fide space agency astronaut will remain a fantasy for most people. Even those who complete astronaut training have no guarantee that they'll make it into space. Such boring realities as funding cuts and technical glitches stop many space explorers in their tracks.

But maybe you shouldn't be too upset about this quashing of your dreams. Today's spacecraft are extremely sophisticated, but astronauts still face an array of cosmic perils. We'll explore some of those tomorrow.

Jamie Condliffe, reporter

Ever wanted to be an astronaut? You're in good company: for many people, space represents the unexplored, a place free from boundaries. And space flight represents the extreme of human experience.

So it's not surprising that many of us harbour a burning passion to boldly go where few have gone before. But the selection process is extremely tough - there are thousands of applicants for every training place, and even if you make it onto a programme you're far from guaranteed a ticket to orbit.

Still, some make it - here's our beginner's guide to joining them.

Rachel Courtland, reporter

It has been called "radical", "dangerous", "a brave reboot", and "a giant step from greatness to mediocrity". Everyone seems to have an opinion on the White House's new plan for NASA. But one key figure has yet to weigh in on NASA's future – the president himself. That could change next month, when Barack Obama will travel to Florida for a conference on the future of the agency.

David Shiga, reporter

The Obama administration is axing plans to return astronauts to the moon, according to an Orlando Sentinel article, which cites unnamed officials.

"There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation programme at all," the article says. (Constellation is the umbrella term for NASA's efforts to develop new hardware for human space exploration.)

It has been clear for months that the NASA plan was on shaky ground.

Henry Spencer, computer programmer, spacecraft engineer and amateur space historian

About 50 years ago, as the US worked towards putting its first men in space, a few people thought there was another option: women in space. The facts about this episode have been somewhat obscured by the myths that have grown up around it.

In 1960-61, a small group of female pilots went through many of the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts, and scored very well on them – in fact, better than some of the astronauts did. A new study that presents the first published results of their physiological tests shows that much is fact.

Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to volunteer for the astronaut testing programme, stands beside a Mercury capsule. Cobb started flying at age 12 and held numerous world aviation records for speed, distance and altitude. She had logged more than 10,000 hours of flight time, double what the most experienced pilot of the Mercury 7 group of astronauts, John Glenn, had. During her physiological testing, she spent more than 9 hours in a tank of cold water meant to induce total sensory deprivation before the staff called off the experiment; previous tests on hundreds of other subjects had suggested that 6 hours was the limit before hallucinations started. A new study reports that Cobb tested in the top 2 per cent of all astronaut candidates, male and female. (Image: NASA)

Henry Spencer, computer programmer, spacecraft engineer and amateur space historian

Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong made the first footsteps on the moon. Was there some reason it was him in particular?

There were two men aboard the Eagle when it landed: Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. Who would make the first footprints on the moon?

After the crew selection was announced, NASA delayed saying anything about who was going to be first out. That fuelled press speculation that it would be Armstrong because he was a civilian – at the time, the US military wasn't highly regarded in many eyes. Indeed it was Armstrong, who has since kept a famously low profile, turning down requests for interviews or speeches on the subject – but not because he was a civilian.

Maggie McKee, space editor

Spaceflight is risky and can be gruelling, but videos like this one, via Pink Tentacle, highlight just how fun it can be. Here, astronaut Koichi Wakata, who has been on the space station since March and is due to return to Earth on the next shuttle mission, performs some tasks suggested by the public that take advantage of the station's microgravity environment. These include flying on a 'magic carpet' (fast-forward to 2:21) and 'swimming' (his weightlessness does somewhat detract from the impressiveness of the one-handed push-ups, however).

Maggie McKee, space editor

The International Space Station is set to finally live up to its cosmopolitan name. Today, a Soyuz spacecraft blasted off for the station with three crew members, from Russia, Belgium and Canada. When they arrive on Friday, it will mark the first time that all five of the international agencies that built the station - from the US, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada - will be represented there.

It will also double the station's crew, from three to six people, for the first time. That will allow the crew to do more science than ever before possible. But it will also make for tighter quarters.

Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, who lifted off on the Soyuz today, described it this way before the launch, according to a story by CBS News consultant William Harwood:

"Everyone knows what it's like to have the in-laws and friends and other family members over for the holidays for several days," Thirsk said. "There are line ups at the bathroom, meals have to be properly coordinated, there are even line ups for use of the phone, and everyone loses their personal space a little bit. But it's something we're willing to go through."

Sounds like the perfect venue for a reality TV show - "Big Brother: Space. "

Henry Spencer is a computer programmer, spacecraft engineer and amateur space historian

Apollo 9 is almost forgotten now, as it was an Earth-orbit test flight sandwiched between more glamorous missions to the Moon. But it had an important part to play - the astronauts and mission planners thought it was the most difficult Apollo mission short of the actual landing. It lifted off 40 years ago today, on 3 March 1969.

Even though Apollo 9 would go no higher than Earth orbit, it was the first full checkout of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the troubled Lunar Module (LM). It would also feature the first Apollo spacewalk - the only in-space test of the Apollo spacesuit (and its life-support backpack) before the landing. Jim McDivitt, Dave Scott, and Rusty Schweickart had a lot of work ahead of them. Anything that went badly wrong could jeopardise landing a man on the Moon on schedule.

As I recounted in my previous article, Apollo 8 was a last-minute addition to the Apollo schedule. Plans got revised when lunar-lander development ran late and it looked like the Soviets were about to send cosmonauts around the Moon.

In response, NASA did something daring: rather than fly a third unmanned test of the Saturn V, the agency put a crew on it... and sent them to orbit the Moon. Today, Dec 24th, is the 40th anniversary of the day that Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders spent in lunar orbit.

This Sunday (21 December) is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to the Moon and back. Apollo 7 was interesting but relatively minor, an Earth-orbit test flight like others before it; Apollo 8 made headlines and history.

But it nearly didn't happen. In summer 1968, Apollo programme planners weren't quite sure what to do later in the year. Preparations were well underway for Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo, which would give the main Apollo spacecraft its first full checkout in Earth orbit. Assuming that worked, the next step in the original plan needed the Saturn V booster and the lunar lander . . . and both had problems. Worse, there were reasons for haste, since John Kennedy had vowed to land an American on the Moon before the end of the decade. How to proceed?

Given how fraught relationships of any kind can be under normal circumstances, I've always been fascinated by the interpersonal dynamics that can take place in "extreme" environments, like space missions. Future trips to Mars, for example, would probably last more than two years and could be a hotbed for intense crew relationships, some of which might become sexual.

The Planetary Society said today that NASA should focus on sending humans to asteroids and Mars instead of first aiming for the Moon. But some say returning to the Moon is an essential stepping-stone to more distant destinations.

NASA should learn how to walk before it runs, by going to the Moon before sending humans to Mars, says Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman: "I think the difficulty there has been underestimated."

Borman spoke at a rare event: a public reunion of the Apollo 8 mission's three astronauts, held on Thursday at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 7. It's now largely forgotten, overshadowed by later Apollo's, but in its own way it was an important event.

In a direct technical sense, the mission was fairly boring. Its job was to do a full in-space test of the main Apollo spacecraft in Earth orbit, and that went fairly smoothly. There were some little surprises, and some minor problems that needed fixing, but nothing very serious.

In fact, the biggest problems during the mission were not with the equipment, but with the crew.