Sub-Orbital Space Flights & Satellite Exploration
WEPCTV guest contributor Miles O’Brien brings us this special report on the same day NASA astronauts complete their final space walk — and zero-g repair job — on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #4. Miles says: ———— Astronauts spend a lot more time training for missions than flying in space. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for them as the training is an amazing adventure unto itself. They practice in airplanes that fly a roller-coaster pattern to give them brief stints of weightlessness (the so called Vomit Comet); they get to zoom around in supersonic T-38 training jets; they fly approaches to shuttle runways in a Gulfstream jet rigged up to fly (or more accurately, plummet) like a real orbiter; they get time in high-fidelity full motion simulators; they use virtual reality goggles to practice tasks they will perform in space – and if they are a spacewalker, they get to spend a lot of time in a huge swimming pool in a former hangar at Ellington Field – near the Johnson Space Center in Houston – learning the nuances of working in the void. Astronaut John Grunsfeld, who is an astronomer and a huge fan of the Hubble Space Telescope, invited me to join him during one of his 6 hour “runs” in the big pool – officially known as the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. I watched him as he practiced the most challenging spacewalk of his long career – the resuscitation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Worried as he was about accomplishing this intricate …
Tags: boingboing, Telescope, shuttle, make
This episode of Boing Boing Video is brought to you by www.wepc.com Boing Boing Video guest contributor Miles O’Brien brings us this special report on the same day NASA astronauts complete their final space walk — and zero-g repair job — on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #4. Miles says: ———— Astronauts spend a lot more time training for missions than flying in space. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for them as the training is an amazing adventure unto itself. They practice in airplanes that fly a roller-coaster pattern to give them brief stints of weightlessness (the so called Vomit Comet); they get to zoom around in supersonic T-38 training jets; they fly approaches to shuttle runways in a Gulfstream jet rigged up to fly (or more accurately, plummet) like a real orbiter; they get time in high-fidelity full motion simulators; they use virtual reality goggles to practice tasks they will perform in space – and if they are a spacewalker, they get to spend a lot of time in a huge swimming pool in a former hangar at Ellington Field – near the Johnson Space Center in Houston – learning the nuances of working in the void. Astronaut John Grunsfeld, who is an astronomer and a huge fan of the Hubble Space Telescope, invited me to join him during one of his 6 hour “runs” in the big pool – officially known as the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. I watched him as he practiced the most challenging spacewalk of his long career – the resuscitation of the …
Tags: boingboing, miles, fixit, maker
WEPCTV guest contributor Miles O’Brien brings us this special report on the same day NASA astronauts complete their final space walk — and zero-g repair job — on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #4. Miles says: ———— Astronauts spend a lot more time training for missions than flying in space. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for them as the training is an amazing adventure unto itself. They practice in airplanes that fly a roller-coaster pattern to give them brief stints of …
Tags: science, boingboing, Repair, Grunsfeld
More in this BB post: www.boingboing.net Boing Boing Video guest contributor Miles O’Brien brings us this special report on the same day NASA astronauts complete their final space walk — and zero-g repair job — on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #4. Miles says: ———— Astronauts spend a lot more time training for missions than flying in space. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for them as the training is an amazing adventure unto itself. They practice in airplanes that fly a …
Tags: astronaut, diving, zerogravity, Grunsfeld
