NASA Engineers Building Mockup of Deep Space Station

MarkWhittington writes "NASA engineers at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are building a mockup of what appears to be a deep space habitat, though it could also be part of an interplanetary spacecraft. The purpose is to do human factors studies to find out how to sustain astronauts on lengthy deep space missions."

Comments

The key is preparation

[halltk1983]

I'm glad to see that they are working more on this. The more we understand about the effects of solitude, the better we will be able to combat them. Glad we're getting this out of the way so that when propulsion and radiation shielding are ready, so are the people that will use them.

Re:The key is preparation

[HornWumpus]

There are many /.ers who could do the trip to Mars standing on their heads. After decades in their mom's basement with no human contact except mom and the pizza delivery guy, 2 years in a capsule will be a breeze. Just so long as mom can come along.

Re:The key is preparation

[Baron_Yam]

You jest... but people with hermit tendencies who are satisfied getting most of their social contact through a computer interface might be the pool from whom we select deep space astronauts.

Finding them in suitable physical condition, with appropriate education, and with proper social skills to deal with a small group of people just like themselves would probably winnow that group down considerable. Still, probably a much better starting point than air force pilots.

Re:The key is preparation

[Teancum]

It isn't like space stations area new concept that has never been tried before. I'd dare say that unless you are planning on doing something really daring like a space station capable of holding about 100 people simultaneously and deal with significant logistical issues that sort of scale of activity presents, you aren't really cutting new ground in this area of human endeavor.

The Manned Venus Flyby looked like an interesting project that certainly would require things like radiation protection and long term sustainability in space without immediate or even short-term resupply. On the other hand, I wish they would expand upon the concept of the NAUTILUS-X, which instead of simply an Earth-Moon L-5 laboratory like seems to be presented with this article is a genuine spaceship (as opposed to spacecraft).

The lack of using either a Trans-hab like module or one of the Bigelow modules seems to be a real lack of even seeing what the current state of the art technology in this area is even at. The idea of using cylinders that would need to be limited in size by the the cargo bay of a shuttle seems incredibly old fashioned thinking in particular. There is no particular reason why the quarters need to be cramped, other than the fact that the modules presumably must be built on the Earth and get through the atmosphere in some fashion first before being deployed. Space is huge, so mind bogglingly large that it seems ludicrous that quarters in spaceflight should be cramped at all. Mass has some role to play, but moving a cubic meter or two of air (which is needed anyway) is trivial by comparison.

Bigelow Aerospace has been studying these issues, and will likely relegate projects like this onto the ashheap of other failed NASA programs like SLS, Constellation, Dynasoar, and DC-X. If they don't actually plan on building these things, I wonder in part why they even bother with progressing yesterday's technology one step further towards today.

Submariner experience?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Since this seems to be about how little space do you need to give a human over a long period of time before he/she goes insane, why not start with the actual experiences of our submariners under similar conditions?

Re:Submariner experience?

[plaukas pyragely]

And you are quite right: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_(laboratory):

Since 2001, NASA has used Aquarius for its NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) program, to study various aspects of human spaceflight in a similar environment. Like the environment of space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. Aquarius provides a safe harbor for scientists to live and work for weeks at a time.

Re:Submariner experience?

[DerekLyons]

Modern submarines, especially the boomers aren't all that cramped. (Of course, I'm a former submariner so my perception may be... somewhat warped compared to the norm.)

But seriously, I've been saying the same thing for years. Submariners are used to close conditions. Used to paying 110% attention 24/7/365 to things like life support, propulsion, navigation, and communications. Used to limited and asynchronous communications. Used to missions lasting weeks or months... Etc... etc...

But turning the space program over to a bunch of work-a-day bubbleheads won't square well with the mythology of the steely eyed, square jawed fighter pilot. And the steely eyed, square jawed fighter pilots dominate the NASA astronaut corps.

Re:Submariner experience?

[Teancum]

In fairness to the Mercury astronauts, they were working in a very different kind of environment with different mission requirements than what will be expected for the spaceflight missions of the future. When Alan Shepard was going into space, there were so many unknown factors about what would happen while in orbit that they didn't even plan on having the astronaut urinate while in flight. It was a perfect environment for test pilots, with relatively short missions and needing the skills of a pilot to be able to work with the situations they faced most of the time. Even the Apollo flights only lasted a little over a week at the most.

If people are going to be traveling away from the Earth, it will be missions of several months long using skills like you say are more appropriate to a submariner. Unfortunately for NASA, the test pilot mentality still is a part of their internal culture. Then again, the current NASA astronaut corps is in a state of transition where the old time shuttle astronauts are leaving with the remaining astronauts facing a very uncertain future.

Re:"Deep Space 9" mission?

[tverbeek]

The unveiling of this "mock-up" is obviously NASA trying to cover their tracks after their secret plan to fake a deep space mission was discovered.

Mockup

[19thNervousBreakdown]

*runs around in circles with arms out*

"Ooooooh I'm soooo deep, ohhh the vast emptiness and hard radiation, a bloo bloo bloo look at me I'm the only hope for humanity's long-term survival, I'm soooo important!"

Do you play D&D? Yes, why? You're in!

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> proper social skills to deal with a small group of people just like themselves

"Do you play D&D?"
"Yes, why?"
"You're in!"

Re:Do you play D&D? Yes, why? You're in!

[HornWumpus]

Like I said, they will need to bring mom along to keep the peace and enforce washing.

Re:Deep Space 9

[GodfatherofSoul]

They're dilithium fusion struts. They're used to reverse the polarity of the tachyon inducer field. Seemed pretty obvious to me.

Re:Do you play D&D? Yes, why? You're in!

[painandgreed]

>> proper social skills to deal with a small group of people just like themselves

"Do you play D&D?"
"Yes, why?"
"You're in!"

Of course, then it turns out after launch that one is a AD&D grognard and the other is a fan of 4E. Interpersonnel violence occurs and the mission never makes it past the moon.

Re:Build the damn thing in LEO!

[Robotbeat]

Why does everything have to be the size of a sardine can?

Because they aren't there for a luxury cruise, that's why.

The module shown is so cramped because of payload restrictions for the launch vehicles. Why can't they send up a handful of these into LEO and assemble the spacecraft there? ...

Ummm.... That is the plan. To assemble it at ISS, at least for the prototype. But you are forgetting that it takes a lot of propulsion to move these things around in space... your mission costs are hugely impacted by having a more massive deep space module. It's not the cost of putting it into LEO that is the expensive part. It's all the propellant and propulsive capability and RCS/power systems needed for a larger module. Or, if you have a smaller module with the same size propulsion system, that means you can go a lot more different places (instead of just a tiny near Earth asteroid 10m in diameter, you could explore a sizable 300m diameter one, perhaps, which aren't as common) and/or do the mission a whole lot faster. The idea is to see what the smallest feasible module is, since that means you can go do your mission faster and with less money. I say, the sooner the better!

Or, if you CAN afford one twice as large, why not instead use the extra money for a lander (or SEV) or to do two missions?

Here's a much more informative article: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/03/dsh-module-concepts-outlined-beo-exploration/