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:"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.

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.