Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - January 8, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 8, 2013 6:55:33 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - January 8, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Help 'NASA Johnson Style' Reach 5 Million Views!

2.            This Week at Starport: Rodeo Tickets, Sports Leagues and Recreation Classes

3.            Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group (ERG) Monthly Meeting

4.            Global Communication Lunch-and-Learn Sponsored by ASIA ERG

5.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today

6.            JSC: See the Space Station

7.            POWER of One Award: Nominate Your Peer Today

8.            Fire Extinguisher Training

9.            Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher Training

10.          Control Team/Crew Resource Management: Jan. 23-25; Building 20, Room 205/206

11.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Feb. 1; Building 20, Room 205/206

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."

 

-- Helen Keller

________________________________________

1.            Help 'NASA Johnson Style' Reach 5 Million Views!

Viral video "NASA Johnson Style" has become a Web phenomenon. Since its release on Dec. 14, the video has garnered more than 4 million views, making the video the most-watched clip on the agency's "Reel NASA" YouTube channel. If you haven't seen "NASA Johnson Style," check it out here and help the video reach 5 million views!

Ciandra Jackson x32924

 

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2.            This Week at Starport: Rodeo Tickets, Sports Leagues and Recreation Classes

Registration is now open for Spring 2013 Sports Leagues. Register your team here for basketball, dodgeball, kickball, soccer, softball, ultimate frisbee and volleyball.

Boot Camp is back for the spring! Early registration ends Jan. 11, so sign up now for the discounted rate of $90 per person. Regular rate is $110 per person. The intense workout begins Jan. 23.

The Run to Excellence Half Marathon Training program begins Jan. 26. Sign up today! Returning participants pay only $60 each ($80 for newbies).

Get your Rodeo Houston tickets from Starport! Tickets go on sale today in the Building 11 Starport Gift Shop. Numbers will be issued at 7:30 a.m. Doors open for sales at 8 a.m. Tickets are sold in pairs, with a maximum of four tickets per customer. Prices range from $22 to $25 depending on the section (while supplies last). Cash, Visa, Mastercard and Discover only.

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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3.            Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group (ERG) Monthly Meeting

All JSC team members -- government; contractor; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT); and non-LGBT allies -- are invited to the Out & Allied @ JSC ERG monthly meeting tomorrow, Jan. 9, from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 4S, Room 1200. The Out & Allied @ JSC team consists of LGBT employees and their allies (non-LGBT supporters). This month, we'll discuss our plans for this year, including June Pride month activities, the "It Gets Better" video and future luncheon and happy hour plans. Please join us, meet others and network! For more information about our group, including how to become involved, any listed Out & Allied member on our SharePoint site may be contacted via phone or email.

Event Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: Bldg 4S, room 1200

 

Add to Calendar

 

Steve Riley x37019 http://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/LGBTA/SitePages/Home.aspx

 

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4.            Global Communication Lunch-and-Learn Sponsored by ASIA ERG

George Bernard Shaw aptly said, "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

In our global world, the English language has acted as a unifying bridge, allowing people from around the world to work together. However, there is a specific set of challenges that have emerged with the use of varied English in our global working environment: How we say what we say, how we listen, what we hear and how we respond. While the diversity between each individual on a global team adds richness and greater results, the differences between our hearing expectations can act as the very barrier to the creation of synergy, effective interactions and quality outcomes.

This lunch-and-learn will focus on equipping the learner with new perspectives to evaluate what areas need to be worked on in order to improve the quality and results of spoken interactions in global teams.

Event Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Bldg 45, Rm 751

 

Add to Calendar

 

Krystine Bui x34186

 

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5.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today

"One day at a time" reminds Al-Anon members to live today in the moment and with a plan for our future. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. Our first meeting for 2013 is today, Jan. 8, in Building 32, Room 146, from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Visitors are welcome.

Lorrie Bennett x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx

 

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6.            JSC: See the Space Station

Viewers in the JSC area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 6:13 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)

Path: 10 degrees above SSW to 10 degrees above NE

Maximum elevation: 48 degrees

Friday, Jan. 11, 6:11 a.m. (Duration: 5 minutes)

Path: 25 degrees above WSW to 10 degrees above NNE

Maximum elevation: 43 degrees

The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.

Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...

 

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7.            POWER of One Award: Nominate Your Peer Today

The POWER of One Award has been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for standouts with specific examples of exceptional or superior performance. Our award criteria below will help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal.

o             Single achievement: Explain how the person truly went above and beyond on a single project or initiative.

o             Affect and impact: What was the significant impact? How many were impacted? Who was impacted?

o             Standout: What stands out? What extra effort? Did the effort exceed and accomplish the goal?

o             Category: Which category should nominee be in? Gold - agency impact award level. Silver - center impact award level. Bronze - organization impact award level.

If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared in InsideJSC.

For complete information on the JSC Awards Program, click here.

Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 https://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov

 

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8.            Fire Extinguisher Training

Fire safety, at its most basic, is based upon the principle of keeping fuel sources and ignition sources separate.

The Safety Learning Center invites you to attend a one-hour Fire Extinguisher course that provides instructor-led training on the proper way to safely use fire extinguishers.

Students will learn:

o             Five classes of fires

o             Types of fire extinguishers and how to match the right extinguisher to different types of fires

o             How to inspect an extinguisher

o             How to use a fire extinguisher - P.A.S.S.

o             Understand the importance of knowing the locations of extinguishers where you are

o             Rules for fighting fires and the steps to take if a fire occurs

o             Hands-on (weather permitting)

Date/Time: Jan. 22 from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Where: Safety Learning Center, Building 20, Room 205/206

Registration via SATERN required:

https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...

Aundrail Hill x36369

 

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9.            Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher Training

Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher Training covers updated pressure systems requirements, lessons learned and written hazard analysis.

Date: Jan. 31

Location: Safety Learning Center, Building 20, Room 205/206

Use this direct link to SATERN for course times and to register.

Certified Pressure Systems Operator - 9 to 11 a.m.

https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher - 11:01 a.m. to 12:01 p.m.

https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Aundrail Hill x36369

 

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10.          Control Team/Crew Resource Management: Jan. 23-25; Building 20, Room 205/206

Two-and-a-half days. This training directly addresses human factors issues that most often cause problems in team and crew interaction. No one working on a team or a crew, especially in high-stress activities, is immune to these effects. The Control Team/Crew Resource Management course deals with interpersonal relations, but doesn't advocate democratic rule or hugging fellow team members to improve personal relations. Rather, this course provides awareness of human factors problems that too often result in mishaps and offers recommendations and procedures for eliminating these problems. It  emphasizes safety risk assessment, crew/team coordination and decision-making in crisis situations. This course is applicable both to those in aircrew-type operations and also to personnel operating consoles for hazardous testing or on-orbit mission operations, or any operation involving teamwork and critical communication. It is preferable that "teams" experience course as a group, if possible. SATERN Registration Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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11.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Feb. 1; Building 20, Room 205/206

Class is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This course is intended as an overview of the requirements and will merely introduce the payload safety and hazard analysis process. It is intended for those who may be monitoring, supervising or assisting those who have the responsibility of identifying, controlling and documenting payload hazards. It will provide an understanding of the relationship between safety and the payload integration process, with an orientation to the payload safety review process. It will also describe payload safety requirements (both technical and procedural) and discuss their application throughout the payload safety process: analysis, review, certification and follow-up to ensure implementation. System safety concepts and hazard recognition will be briefly discussed and documentation requirements explained in general terms. Those with primary responsibilities in payload safety should attend Payload Safety Review and Analysis (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0011). Contractors need to update their SATERN profile before registering. SATERN Registration Required. Approval Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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________________________________________

JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

 

 

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – January 8, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

In The Market For A Very Large Garage? Call NASA.

 

Audie Cornish - National Public Radio

 

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/07/168817795/in-the-market-for-a-very-large-garage-call-nasa?ft=1&f=2

 

NASA is facing a conundrum of large proportions; shuttle-sized, in fact. Now that the shuttle program has ended, NASA is no longer using shuttle facilities and equipment. That includes everything from a launch pad to space in the building where rockets were assembled. So NASA is conducting a secret auction. Orlando Sentinel staff writer Scott Powers explains what NASA is selling, why, and who the buyers might be.

 

Mock Mars trek finds down-to-Earth sleep woes

 

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

 

Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows. In a novel experiment, six volunteers were confined in a cramped mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate a 17-month voyage. It made most of the would-be spacemen lethargic, much like birds and bears heading into winter, gearing up for hibernation.

 

Mars Mission Could Turn Astronauts Into Couch Potatoes

 

Sean Treacy - Science Magazine

 

Imagine life on a spaceship headed to Mars. You and your five crewmates work, exercise, and eat together every day under the glow of fluorescent lights. As the months pass, the sun gets dimmer and communication with Earth gets slower. What does this do to your body? According to an Earth-based experiment in which six volunteers stayed in a windowless "spaceship" for nearly a year and a half, the monotony, tight living space, and lack of natural light will probably make you sleep more and work less. Space, for all intents and purposes, turns you into a couch potato.

 

Long space missions may be hazardous to your sleep

Crew on simulated Mars trip moved less and slept more during 520-day project

 

Laura Sanders - Science News

 

Astronauts on a months-long mission to Mars and back will have more to contend with than boredom and a lack of gourmet cuisine: Disrupted sleep may be a serious side effect of extended space flight, potentially changing crew dynamics and affecting performance on high-pressure tasks. In an epic feat of playacting, a crew of six men lived for 520 days inside a hermetically sealed 550-cubic-meter capsule in Moscow. As the grueling experiment wore on, the crew drifted into torpor, moving less and sleeping more. Four men experienced sleep problems, scientists report online January 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Space 2013: Sierra Nevada Has 6 Commercial Crew Milestones to Meet

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

In continuing our look at the upcoming year in space, we find that the Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser vehicle has five milestones to meet this year under the current Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of NASA's commercial crew program. It also has a milestone still to meet from the previous Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase.

 

Astronaut Backs Notre Dame in BCS Championship

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

http://youtu.be/dvLSYBaSE3c

 

When it comes to college football, NASA astronaut Kevin Ford is Irish through and through. Ford will be rooting for Notre Dame all the way from space during the BCS Championship game against Alabama tonight (Jan. 7). Ford is currently living on the International Space Station, where he commands a six-man team, but tonight his heart will be with Notre Dame —his alma mater —when the team faces off with Alabama's Crimson Tide in Miami.

 

Astronaut Chris Hadfield gets panned after supporting Leafs from station

 

Canadian Press

 

Orbiting Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield may have lost a few fans after tweeting a picture of himself holding a Toronto Maple Leafs plaque. Commenting on the end of the NHL lockout, Hadfield tweeted from the International Space Station on Sunday he was ready to cheer for the Leafs from orbit. Professing his support for Toronto did not sit well with a number of hockey fans.

 

Spacewalks that never were: Gemini extravehicular planning group (1965)

 

David Portree - Wired.com

 

At 0700 UTC on 18 March 1965, the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Central Asia bearing rookie cosmonauts Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov. As soon as Voskhod 2 entered a 167-by-475-kilometer orbit inclined 64.8° relative to Earth's equator, Belyayev assisted Leonov with preparations for the mission's main objective: to accomplish humankind's first-ever spacewalk.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

In The Market For A Very Large Garage? Call NASA.

 

Audie Cornish - National Public Radio

 

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/07/168817795/in-the-market-for-a-very-large-garage-call-nasa?ft=1&f=2

 

NASA is facing a conundrum of large proportions; shuttle-sized, in fact. Now that the shuttle program has ended, NASA is no longer using shuttle facilities and equipment. That includes everything from a launch pad to space in the building where rockets were assembled. So NASA is conducting a secret auction. Orlando Sentinel staff writer Scott Powers explains what NASA is selling, why, and who the buyers might be.

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

If you're in the market for a garage, a very large garage, say big enough to hold a space shuttle, well, you're in luck. A year and a half after the last shuttle landed, NASA is seeking renters or buyers for some of its shuttle facilities and equipment. That includes a hangar and even the launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Scott Powers is with us to tell us more about this unusual auction. He wrote about it for the Orlando Sentinel. Hi there, Scott.

SCOTT POWERS: Hi, Audie.

 

CORNISH: So basically, NASA is selling off anything that was made just for the shuttle program. Is that correct?

POWERS: Yeah. It's - most of the leased facilities are actually for rent at this point. They're everything from a parachute packing plant. There's an array of radar stations. There's a couple of buildings out there that are used to refurbish and install shuttle tiles. Those kinds of things have a lot of specialized equipment in them and they can be used for other things, I suppose. But NASA realizes their money is going to run out for these facilities soon, and they figured that they need to get partners to continue their use or shut them down and padlock them. They'd rather find partners.

 

CORNISH: So let's talk about that launch pad for a minute. Given that the shuttle program is over, who's going to want to use that?

POWERS: Probably no one. The problem is with all of the government launch pads out there, there are a lot of hoops that a private space company would have to jump through to use it. A lot of private industry would rather have their own launch pad out there. And there's some talk about building a private launch pad out there someday. And if that were the case, then many of those would work together with a new launch pad.

 

CORNISH: So other than commercial space flight companies, who else would want to buy some of this stuff? Who are the potential customers?

POWERS: Well, for example, one of the big things out there is the shuttle landing facility, which is basically a runway. It's 15,000 feet long. It's 300 feet wide. It's enormous. You can land any known air or spacecraft in the world there that can land horizontally, which means that it also has some appeal to non-space air traffic. Well, we're not seeing, you know, see that turned into an airport or anything like that. Right now, by the way, that strip has been used for all sorts of things, from testing NASCAR cars to - I understand there was recently an experimental vehicle that was running down that as a drag strip more than as a landing facility.

 

CORNISH: So in the future, will Kennedy Space Center be completely transformed into essentially a rental space?

POWERS: You know, there are a lot of people who'd like to see that happen because what that would mean is a lot of private rocket launches from there and a lot of jobs. And a lot of those jobs were lost a couple of years ago when the space shuttle program shut down. So people are thinking, you know, if this becomes a private space port in five or 10 years, and you see all sorts of private rockets going up, maybe that replaces the economy that was there under NASA during the shuttle program.

 

CORNISH: Scott Powers covers NASA for the Orlando Sentinel. Scott, thank you.

POWERS: Thanks so much, Audie.

 

Mock Mars trek finds down-to-Earth sleep woes

 

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

 

Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows.

 

In a novel experiment, six volunteers were confined in a cramped mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate a 17-month voyage. It made most of the would-be spacemen lethargic, much like birds and bears heading into winter, gearing up for hibernation.

 

The men went into a prolonged funk. Four had considerable trouble sleeping, with one having minor problems and the sixth mostly unaffected. Some had depression issues. Sometimes, a few of the men squirreled themselves away into the most private nooks they could find. They didn't move much. They avoided crucial exercise.

 

"This looks like something you see in birds in the winter," said lead author David Dinges, a sleep expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

 

The experiment was run and funded by Russian and European space agencies. A report on the simulation's effect on the men was published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Dinges said scientists can't tell if the men's lethargy was just lack of sleep or was also caused by other factors: the close quarters, lack of privacy with so many cameras or being away from their families for so long.

 

It's a problem that has to be fixed — and can be — before astronauts are sent to Mars, as President Barack Obama proposes for the mid-2030s, Dinges said. The trip to Mars, Earth's closest neighbor, would take about six months each way.

 

The world record for continuous time in space — 14 months — is held by Dr. Valery Polyakov, who was on the Russian space station Mir in 1994 and 1995. American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled to spend an entire year in space on the International Space Station, starting in 2015.

 

When leaving confinement in November 2011, the six volunteers — three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese — called their experience successful: "We can go forward and now plan to go to Mars and move confidently," said volunteer Romain Charles of France.

 

The data scientists collected wasn't as rosy. Devices on the volunteers' wrists measured their movements and showed that when they were asleep and awake they were moving much less than they should have been, an unexpected and disturbing finding, Dinges said.

 

One of the six volunteers — who were paid $100,000 to live in the mock spaceship with limited and time-delayed contact with the outside world — slept nearly half an hour less each night than he did when he started the mission, affecting how he went about his day, Dinges said.

 

The loss of sleep matters because astronauts will have to perform intricate tasks on the way to Mars and while on the red planet. And they have to do vigorous exercises daily to fight the toll that near-zero gravity takes on the bones and other parts of the body. And most of the volunteers weren't doing that.

 

The Moscow study, based on the ground, couldn't take into account the added difficulty of near-zero gravity.

 

Former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who holds the American record for longest space mission, said he could relate to the study findings. During his 215 days in orbit on the space station, he sometimes had trouble getting back to sleep because he didn't have a sense of lying down or having his head on a pillow.

 

The lack of sleep and lots of work caused him to sometimes nod off during the day, and the lack of gravity meant that when he fell asleep accidentally he would float away and awaken elsewhere in the station, he said.

 

"It happened more than once, but I never thought it was a big deal. I thought it was amusing in a way," Lopez-Alegria said in an interview.

 

Excerpts from astronaut diaries in a NASA report show prevalent sleep problems, with space station residents talking about nodding off while typing and obsessing over getting too much or too little sleep.

 

"I just need sleep," one unidentified astronaut wrote.

 

"The morning started disastrously. I slept through two (wake-up) alarms... My body apparently went on strike for better working conditions," wrote another.

 

Jerry Linenger, a medical doctor and NASA astronaut who spent more than four months on the Russian space station Mir in 1997, said he watched cosmonauts fall asleep in mid-conversation. And after a couple months, Linenger started having sleep problems despite his best efforts, which included using eye shades and bungee cords to put pressure on his body.

 

"It's kind of like you're wiped out after New Year's Eve, kind of like a hangover or something," Linenger said. "You are aware you're not performing. So I'd be extra careful if I had to switch some buttons."

 

Later in 1997, a cosmonaut on Mir who had a sleepless night accidentally disconnected a system that gathered solar power for the aging station, said Charles Czeisler, a sleep professor and space researcher at Harvard Medical School.

 

Czeisler, who wasn't part of the Dinges study, said the new work was important in demonstrating the challenges of a Mars mission.

 

Astronauts do use sleeping pills to help them sleep.

 

And one solution experts like Dinges and Czeisler agree on is lighting. Blue evening light is essential for resetting a body's natural rhythms, Czeisler said, and changing the color and timing of lighting has been shown to help people sleep on Earth.

 

Mars Mission Could Turn Astronauts Into Couch Potatoes

 

Sean Treacy - Science Magazine

 

Imagine life on a spaceship headed to Mars. You and your five crewmates work, exercise, and eat together every day under the glow of fluorescent lights. As the months pass, the sun gets dimmer and communication with Earth gets slower. What does this do to your body? According to an Earth-based experiment in which six volunteers stayed in a windowless "spaceship" for nearly a year and a half, the monotony, tight living space, and lack of natural light will probably make you sleep more and work less. Space, for all intents and purposes, turns you into a couch potato.

 

A mission to Mars would take about 520 days—including the months it takes to travel there and back and the time spent on the Red Planet. But the longest any human has spent off Earth is 437 days straight, a record set in 1995 by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who was orbiting relatively close to home in the space station Mir. Polyakov seemed to bear the burden of long space flight fairly well, but many questions remain about just what a long mission farther from the sun would do to astronauts' ability to sleep and keep energized.

 

For answers, scientists turned to the Mars500 mission simulation in Moscow, which ended in November 2011. Six crewmen—who are an international mix of astronaut trainers, engineers, and doctors between 27 and 38 years old—stayed in a series of tunnellike chambers and played out the 520-day mission to Mars. "It was thought to be a safe way to try to begin to understand those questions instead of just launching into an extremely long space flight," says study co-leader and sleep scientist David Dinges of the University of Pennsylvania. The crew could communicate with the outside world, but with a time delay depending on how far the mission was supposed to be from Earth. Halfway through the mission, the volunteers even worked on a simulated martian landscape inside a large room with a sandy floor and a black ceiling dotted with fake stars. Throughout the experiment, video cameras and activity-monitoring wristwatches recorded the crew's movements, enabling scientists to observe how often the crew members slept and how much of their time awake was spent lazing about.

 

The study's finding, reported online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was that the crew suffered from hypokinesis, meaning "they simply moved less," Dinges says. The volunteers moved less while awake and asleep, and spent more waking hours each day engaged in restful activities—playing video games, reading books, or watching movies. The crewmembers' wristwatches, which were equipped with light sensors, showed that the more lethargic they became, the more they shunned the lighted parts of the ship. By the final few months of the mission, three of the crewmembers slept about an hour more per day than they had at the beginning of the simulation.

 

The beds were small, recalls French crew member and flight engineer Romain Charles, and so narrow that he often had to sleep with his arm across his face. "I just had to learn to sleep like that," he says. But even though he adapted to the sleeping arrangements, it became difficult to take on intellectually laborious tasks, like improving his Russian language skills, in the final few months of the mission. Instead, he spent his spare time playing the video game Counter-Strike. "It really helped me get through that," Charles remembers.

 

It wasn't until the final 20 days of the mission that the crew, excited for their seclusion to finally end, became nearly as energetic as they were when the mission began.

 

These findings are important because a crew in space needs to be at peak performance to work competently and act quickly should an emergency strike, says psychologist Gloria Leon of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who was not involved with the study. "What they're showing is that NASA and other organizations need to pay close attention to developing some measures that will prevent hypokinesis."

 

The unnatural conditions of future space journeys have to better emulate the natural qualities of life on Earth, Dinges says. For example, the fluorescent lighting in the Mars500 chamber mostly emitted wavelengths in the green and yellow part of the visible light spectrum, but not much blue. Blue light is important, Dinges notes, because the light from the Earth's natural dawn is largely blue and signals the brain that it's time to wake up. The crew would also have to hold a tight schedule for meals and physical activity.

 

The sleep times of the Mars500 crew were not quite synchronized, which would increase the risk of accidents. "Imagine a watch that's running 24 hours and 20 seconds a day and another that's got a 24-hour day exactly," says Dinges. "Over time, those two watches will go completely out of sync, and that's what we want to make sure doesn't happen to a crew." One crewman seemed chronically sleep deprived, the researchers noted, sleeping less as the simulation progressed and reporting poor-quality sleep throughout the whole mission. Another crew member's sleeping habits went completely off schedule. He lived on a 25-hour sleep-wake cycle and frequently snoozed while the rest of the crew was awake.

 

The findings show that agencies recruiting astronauts for such a long mission should take their candidates' established sleep habits into account, says physiologist Derk-Jan Dijk of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, who was not involved with the study. "You definitely want to be sure that these people, while going about their normal lives, are not already extreme late sleepers, for example."

 

Long space missions may be hazardous to your sleep

Crew on simulated Mars trip moved less and slept more during 520-day project

 

Laura Sanders - Science News

 

Astronauts on a months-long mission to Mars and back will have more to contend with than boredom and a lack of gourmet cuisine: Disrupted sleep may be a serious side effect of extended space flight, potentially changing crew dynamics and affecting performance on high-pressure tasks.

 

In an epic feat of playacting, a crew of six men lived for 520 days inside a hermetically sealed 550-cubic-meter capsule in Moscow. As the grueling experiment wore on, the crew drifted into torpor, moving less and sleeping more. Four men experienced sleep problems, scientists report online January 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Developed by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the "Mars 500" project was designed to test the feasibility of sending people on a journey to Mars and back. The simulation was realistic: The chamber was sealed, mission control was on standby 24 hours a day with built-in communications delays during parts of the mission, and the crew had specific jobs to do during transit and on a simulated landing on Mars.

 

"If we at some point really want to go to Mars and we want to send humans, then we need to know how they will cope with this long period of confinement," says study coauthor Mathias Basner, of the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Basner's team was one of many that conducted studies on the six men during the long simulation. 

 

Several months into the experiment, crew members seemed to drift into inactivity, sleeping more and moving less, Basner and his team found. Wristwatch-like gadgets that took measurements of activity once a minute revealed that the crew became more sedentary as the experiment progressed. The crew got more sleep, too: On average, crew members slept over half an hour more per day in the last quarter of the mission than in the first.

 

If a similar torpor strikes people on a real mission, it could have important effects, says study coauthor Jeffrey Sutton of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Houston and Baylor College of Medicine. Sedentary crews might need to ramp up their exercise to stay healthy in microgravity, for instance.

 

Although on average the crew became lethargic, the responses were by no means uniform. One crew member actually slept less as time wore on, and his performance on a vigilance test suffered, the researchers found. Such a seemingly small problem could have deadly consequences, Sutton says. "When you are doing high-risk behavior in space, a performance deficit can be life threatening."

 

Another crew member stretched from a normal 24-hour Earth day into a 25-hour pattern of sleeping and waking. (Coincidentally, this rhythm is close to that of a Martian day.) This means that for about a fifth of his time, this man was awake when others were asleep, or asleep when others were awake. "His timing was totally out of whack and that could cause a huge problem," Basner says. That kind of mismatch could be dangerous if an emergency required all hands on deck.

 

The simulation results "help us understand what we need to do," says Lauren Leveton of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Knowing which people might struggle with sleep issues could help space agencies select the best crews and also devise ways to prevent problems from developing. For the most part, these sleep problems turned up early in the experiment, so a quick (relatively speaking) preflight simulation might flag some of these issues early.

 

Boosting levels of blue light during waking hours and reducing blue light when crews need to sleep is one way that might lessen sleep problems, Leveton says. In coming years, crews at the International Space Station will replace aging fluorescent bulbs with more thoughtfully designed lighting.

 

Space 2013: Sierra Nevada Has 6 Commercial Crew Milestones to Meet

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

In continuing our look at the upcoming year in space, we find that the Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser vehicle has five milestones to meet this year under the current Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of NASA's commercial crew program. It also has a milestone still to meet from the previous Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase.

 

The five CCiCAP milestones below are set for 2013, which are worth a total of $92.5 million out of a possible award of $212.5 million. Sierra Nevada has already completed the first two milestones for $75 million.

 

No.	Description	Date	Amount
3.	Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #1. The purpose of the Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #1 is to demonstrate that the systems safety analysis of the Dream Chaser Space System (DCSS) has been advanced to a preliminary maturity level, incorporating changes resulting from the Preliminary Design Review, The DCSS consists of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, launch vehicle, ground systems and mission systems.	January 2013	$20 Million
4.	Engineering Test Article Flight Testing. The purpose of these additional free flight test(s) is to reduce risk due to aerodynamic uncertainties in the subsonic approach and landing phase of flight and to mature the Dream Chaser aerodynamic database. A minimum of one and up to five additional Engineering Test Article free flight test(s) will be completed to characterize the aerodynamics and controllability of the Dream Chaser Orbital Vehicle outer mold line configuration during the subsonic approach and landing phase.	April 2013	$15 Million
5.	SNC Investment Financing #1. This funding represents SNC's commitment for significant investing financing. SNC to provide program co-investment of [REDACTED].	July 2013	$12.5 Million
6.	Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2. The purpose of the Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2 is to demonstrate that the systems safety analysis of the Dream Chaser Space System.	October 2013	$20 Million
7.	Certification Plan Review. The Certification Plan Review defines the top level strategy for certification of the DCSS that meets the objectives for the ISS Design Reference Mission described in CCT-DRM-1110 Rev Basic. SNC shall conduct a review of the verification and validation activities planned for the Dream Chaser Space System (Dream Chaser spacecraft, Atlas launch vehicle, Ground and Mission Systems).	November 2013	$25 Million
TOTAL:			$92.5 Million

 

Sierra Nevada still has to perform initial drop tests of Dream Chaser under the earlier CCDev project. Those tests are set to take place during the first quarter of this year at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

 

Astronaut Backs Notre Dame in BCS Championship

 

Tariq Malik - Space.com

 

http://youtu.be/dvLSYBaSE3c

 

When it comes to college football, NASA astronaut Kevin Ford is Irish through and through. Ford will be rooting for Notre Dame all the way from space during the BCS Championship game against Alabama tonight (Jan. 7).

 

Ford is currently living on the International Space Station, where he commands a six-man team, but tonight his heart will be with Notre Dame —his alma mater —when the team faces off with Alabama's Crimson Tide in Miami.

 

"The team's played great," Ford said in a recent interview with Notre Dame officials on NASA TV. "Obviously the defense is very special, and the offense is just really clicking. I'm looking forward to a great game on the seventh of January."

 

Ford has been living on the space station since October, when he blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. He took charge of the space station's Expedition 34 crew a month later and will return to Earth in March. He is a native of Montpelier, Ind., and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force.

 

Ford said he tried to keep up with Notre Dame's games while on his current spaceflight, but he admitted the timing of the games is a challenge. The space station runs on Greenwich Mean Time, so many of the football games last well into the wee hours of the morning for Ford.

 

For tonight's championship game, though, Ford said he asked Mission Control for some post-game recovery time. That way, he can watch most of the game live during the overnight hours.

 

Astronauts can watch live television via a satellite communications system, Ford said.

 

"It's normally used for science data, but on weekends, if it's free, they'll let us get a little bit of TV," Ford added. "I've been able to follow the team and see a lot of the games."

 

The astronaut even has his favorite Notre Dame garb on the space station to support the team. During his interview, he pulled off his Expedition 34 sweatshirt to reveal a "Play Like a Champion Today" t-shirt just for the team. He also has a sign that reads "Explore Like a Champion Today" mounted over one of the space station's hatches, much like the iconic sign Notre Dame players touch on the way to the field at their home stadium.

 

But before Ford ever signed up for NASA's astronaut corps, he was a student at Notre Dame. He studied aerospace engineering and graduated with a bachelors of science degree in 1982. He even learned Russian along the way, something that happened to come in useful recently.

 

"I took a Russian class at Notre Dame," Ford said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would fly someday in a Russian spacecraft with two cosmonauts, speaking only Russian."

 

While Ford is a die-hard Notre Dame fan, he did have some fun with flight controllers at the NASA's space station Payload Operations Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He played the University of Alabama's fight song in the "spirit of good sportsmanship" on Sunday, agency officials said.

 

Astronaut Chris Hadfield gets panned after supporting Leafs from station

 

Canadian Press

 

Orbiting Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield may have lost a few fans after tweeting a picture of himself holding a Toronto Maple Leafs plaque.

 

Commenting on the end of the NHL lockout, Hadfield tweeted from the International Space Station on Sunday he was ready to cheer for the Leafs from orbit.

 

Professing his support for Toronto did not sit well with a number of hockey fans.

 

Former Montreal La Presse sports reporter Jean-Francois Begin jokingly warned Hadfield to be careful next time he flies over Montreal.

 

Hadfield is on a five-month visit to the space station and will become the first Canadian to take command of the giant orbiting laboratory in March.

 

Former Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau also got into the act. The Liberal MP tweeted Hadfield that he couldn't let his support for the Leafs pass without declaring: "Go Habs Go!''

 

Mike Lake, an Alberta Tory MP and Edmonton Oilers fan, reminded the 53-year-old astronaut that man reaching the moon (1969) is more recent than the Leafs last winning the Cup (1967).

 

Lake suggested that Hadfield might get to Mars before they win again.

 

Canadian actress Keegan Connor Tracy, who has starred in a number of TV series, said Hadfield is proof the disappointment of being a Leafs fan now extends all the way into outer space.

 

Spacewalks that never were: Gemini extravehicular planning group (1965)

 

David Portree - Wired.com

 

At 0700 UTC on 18 March 1965, the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Central Asia bearing rookie cosmonauts Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov. As soon as Voskhod 2 entered a 167-by-475-kilometer orbit inclined 64.8° relative to Earth's equator, Belyayev assisted Leonov with preparations for the mission's main objective: to accomplish humankind's first-ever spacewalk.

 

The 5682-kilogram spacecraft carried a 1.2-meter-diameter inflatable airlock called Volga mounted over the inward-opening crew hatch of its 2.3-meter-diameter spherical reentry module. The airlock was necessary because Voskhod 2's electronics were air-cooled, so would overheat if its cramped cabin were depressurized. Following inflation – a process that lasted seven minutes – Volga extended 2.5 meters out from Voskhod 2's silvery hull.

 

At 0828 UTC, as the spacecraft neared the end of its first orbit, Leonov entered Volga and Belyayev sealed the Voskhod 2 hatch behind him. Belyayev then depressurized Volga, and Leonov opened its 65-centimeter-wide inward-opening outer hatch. At 0834 UTC, over northern Africa, the 30-year-old cosmonaut pulled himself through the hatch, kicked off the hatch rim, and floated away until he reached the end of his 5.35-meter-long safety tether and rebounded.

 

Leonov wore a white backpack containing enough oxygen for 45 minutes outside Voskhod 2. The oxygen entered his white Berkut space suit – a modified Vostok SK-1 intravehicular suit – then vented into space, carrying away exhaled carbon dioxide, heat, and moisture.

 

History's first spacewalker experimented with positioning himself using his tether, reporting after his flight that it gave him tight control over his movements. Then, at 0847 UTC, over Siberia, Leonov reentered Volga and closed the outer hatch behind him. Belyayev repressurized the airlock and opened the Voskhod 2 hatch so that Leonov could remove his backpack and return to his couch. After the cosmonauts resealed the hatch, Belyayev fired explosive bolts that separated Volga from Voskhod 2. The spacecraft landed in the Soviet Union on 19 March after 17 Earth orbits. The Soviets declared that world's first spacewalk had been "easy."

 

NASA took notice. The U.S. civilian space agency had planned its first extravehicular activity (EVA) for Gemini IV, the second of 10 planned piloted Gemini missions. The Gemini IV EVA astronaut would not leave his spacecraft; instead, he would open his hatch (each Gemini astronaut had one) and stand up in the cockpit. This would test the G4C EVA suit and the life-support umbilical linking it to the Gemini spacecraft's life support system. The first full-exit EVA would take place on Gemini V, then EVAs would become progressively more complex with each new mission. After Leonov's easy spacewalk, however, NASA decided that Gemini IV spacewalker Ed White should try to out-do his Soviet predecessor.

 

Gemini IV's two-stage Titan II launch vehicle boosted it into a 283-by-161-kilometer, 94-minute orbit on 3 June 1965. Gemini IV separated from the Titan II second stage, then command pilot James McDivitt sought to rendezvous with it. The flight plan called for him to pilot Gemini IV to within seven meters of the stage during the mission's first orbit. Near the end of the second orbit, about three hours after launch, White would leave the cockpit and, using a Hand-Held Maneuvering Unit (HHMU), attempt to reach the spent stage.

 

Unfortunately, rendezvous proved to be more difficult than anticipated. The spent stage vented propellants, causing it to tumble. This subjected it to increased atmospheric drag, causing it to move away from Gemini IV. McDivitt set out in pursuit, but found his efforts thwarted by poor visibility, inability to accurately judge distance (Gemini IV included no rendezvous radar), and an incomplete grasp of orbital mechanics. With Gemini IV's propellant supply dwindling, McDivitt called off the rendezvous.

 

EVA preparation needed more time than expected, then White's hatch refused to unlatch, so the first U.S. EVA did not begin until Gemini IV's third orbit. After shoving back the stiff hatch, White pushed out of the cockpit. He successfully tested the HHMU, which contained only enough compressed oxygen propellant for 20 seconds of maneuvering (image at top of post).

 

White then evaluated his umbilical. He found it to be useful for controlling his distance from Gemini IV and for pulling himself back to the spacecraft, but he was unable to demonstrate the precision maneuvering Leonov had reported. At one point, in fact, he accidentally collided with and smeared McDivitt's cockpit window.

 

White's life-support umbilical was covered in a thin layer of gold to protect it from the fierce sunlight of low-Earth orbit. If the umbilical had for any reason ceased to supply him with oxygen, his chest-mounted Ventilation Control Module (VCM) could have supplied him with enough to return safely to his seat. As with Leonov's Berkut, oxygen passing through White's 10.7-kilogram G4C suit flushed exhaled carbon dioxide, heat, and moisture into space. America's first spacewalker reported later that he was more comfortable during his EVA than at any other time during the Gemini IV flight.

 

With Gemini IV moving rapidly toward night, White reluctantly returned to the cockpit. There he found that internal pressure had caused his suit to balloon slightly. During the five-minute struggle to squeeze back into his narrow seat and close his balky hatch, heat from White's exertions overcame the G4C's cooling capacity. His visor fogged slightly and sweat blinded him until he could remove his helmet in the repressurized cockpit and wipe his eyes.

 

NASA judged White's 20-minute EVA to have been a resounding success. EVA, it seemed, presented few challenges. NASA management was, on the other hand, alarmed by McDivitt's inability to rendezvous with the Titan II second stage. Rendezvous was a critical part of NASA's Lunar Orbit Rendezvous plan for landing a man on the moon by 1970. By the end of June, NASA top brass were considering cancelling the progressively more challenging EVAs scheduled for Gemini missions V, VI, and VII so that engineers, flight controllers, and astronauts could concentrate on rendezvous.

 

In July 1965, NASA made decisions critical to Gemini EVA planning. On 2 July, the Gemini Program Office (GPO) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston, Texas, formed the Gemini Extravehicular Planning Group (GEPG) to revise EVA objectives for Gemini missions VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII. On 12 July, NASA Headquarters directed the GPO to postpone the next U.S. spacewalk until Gemini VIII. The GEPG submitted its recommendations to Gemini Program Manager Charles Mathews on 19 July.

 

The GEPG based its recommendations on several assumptions. First, of course, was that the EVA objectives planned for Gemini VIII would be attainable without the gradual development of skills that would have occurred during the Gemini V, VI, and VII EVAs.

 

In addition, the GEPG assumed that NASA would beat the rendezvous and docking problem. Gemini missions VIII through XII would each include a docking with a Gemini Agena Target Vehicle (GATV), an Agena-D upper stage modified to serve as a Gemini docking target and auxiliary propulsion stage. The GATV, launched on an Atlas rocket, would include a latch-equipped docking adapter sized to accept the Gemini spacecraft's blunt nose. During the Gemini VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII EVAs, the Gemini would remain docked to the GATV.

 

The GEPG noted that oxygen flow through White's space suit had kept him cool and dry "except when [he] was working at a high exertion level." On Gemini VIII and subsequent missions, an Extravehicular Life Support System (ELSS) would replace the VCM. The ELSS could be used with a backpack-mounted oxygen supply that would permit hour-long EVAs without an umbilical. The GEPG recommended that the Gemini VIII EVA astronaut test the ELSS chest-pack to ensure that it could cool even a hard-working spacewalker adequately.

 

The GEPG also recommended that EVA equipment too large for cockpit storage be stowed on the aft-facing concave surface of the Adapter Section, the aft-most and widest part of the Gemini spacecraft, as well as on the GATV. On Gemini VIII, oversize equipment would include an HHMU with 10 times as much compressed oxygen as White's HHMU. The Gemini VIII EVA astronaut would evaluate the Adapter Section stowage concept, then test the HHMU.

 

Before returning to the cockpit, he would also "inspect the Agena for engineering analysis," test a space hand tool, and evaluate a lightweight safety tether and a backup "suit exhaust" EVA propulsion system. By clambering over the two spacecraft, he would evaluate transfer between two vehicles, a skill of potential use in the Apollo Program if astronauts found themselves compelled in the event of docking problems to move by EVA between the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Module (LM). The many EVA tasks planned for Gemini VIII through XII would require EVAs of greater duration than White's, so the Gemini VIII spacewalker would also evaluate EVA operations during orbital night, which would last for about half of each orbit.

 

Gemini IX would see the first use of the U.S. Air Force Modular Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a hydrogen-peroxide-fueled "rocket pack" that would reach orbit stowed in the Adapter Section. The Gemini IX EVA astronaut would back up to the MMU, connect his ELSS to its integral oxygen supply, then grip t-shaped hand controllers and fly away from Gemini IX. The MMU's hot-gas thrusters would require that the astronaut's G4C suit be modified to include protective multilayer metal-fabric and foil leg coverings.

 

The GEPG noted that MMU development was proceeding to schedule, but added that NASA and the Air Force had yet to agree on the MMU's purpose or on whether it could fly without a safety tether linking it to the Gemini spacecraft. These questions were, it added, "beyond the scope of the present planning study."

 

The Gemini X EVA astronaut's tasks would focus on his spacecraft and the space environment. He would release "dense smoke" ahead of Gemini X and film its flow over the spacecraft's surfaces, photograph Gemini thrusters firing during day and night, gauge static charge on Gemini X and its GATV using a hand-held electroscope, measure hull temperature, and collect samples of contaminants (for example, the greasy contaminant that tended to cloud Gemini cockpit windows).

 

The GEPG also recommended two tether dynamics experiments for Gemini X. The spacewalker would simulate an untethered EVA using a "long slack tether," then would link his spacecraft and an inoperative Agena using a "towline."  After the EVA, Gemini X would attempt to pull the Agena through space in an "evaluation of dynamics of orbital tow."

 

Gemini XI would see a dramatic increase in EVA complexity. The spacecraft would intercept the 10.5-ton Pegasus 3 satellite, which was due to be launched into low-Earth orbit on a Saturn I rocket soon after the GEPG submitted its report. Like its predecessors, Pegasus 3 was designed to assess the likelihood that spacecraft in low-Earth orbit would suffer meteoroid impact damage. To do this, it unfolded a pair of 4.3-meter-wide-by-29-meter-long "wings" containing a total of 400 meteoroid-detection panels.

 

The GEPG reported that discussions with NASA Headquarters and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center had already led to Pegasus 3 modifications. Pegasus 1, launched 16 February 1965, had achieved an elliptical 510-by-726-kilometer orbit, while Pegasus 2, launched 25 May 1965, had entered a 502-by-740-kilometer orbit. When launched on 30 July 1965, Pegasus 3 entered a near-circular 535-by-567-kilometer orbit. This made it a more readily accessible rendezvous target for Gemini spacecraft.

 

In addition, 16 of Pegasus 3's meteoroid-detection panels had been replaced with removable aluminum meteoroid-capture panels and panels containing thermal control test surfaces. After rendezvous with the giant satellite, the Gemini XI spacewalker would use an HHMU to jet over and remove the panels for return to Earth. The GEPG stated that "[d]etermination of the method of accomplishing this task. . .must still be accomplished."

 

Gemini XII would see the second flight of the MMU rocket pack. If the Gemini IX MMU test was performed using a tether, then consideration would be given to untethered flight during Gemini XII. The mission would also rendezvous with the 2300-kilogram Missile Defense Alarm System (MIDAS) II satellite, which had been launched on May 24, 1960, and failed two days later. The EVA astronaut would inspect and photograph MIDAS II in an effort to determine the cause of its failure.

 

The GEPG suggested alternate missions for Gemini XI and XII that would see one or both meet up with Apollo spacecraft in orbit. A Gemini might, for example, rendezvous with the SA-204 Apollo CSM, which in July 1965 was scheduled to be launched in September 1966. SA-204 was planned to be the first manned Apollo CSM flight, but it would be flown unmanned if either of the two suborbital test flights scheduled to precede it failed. The EVA astronaut would transfer to and enter the unmanned CSM, check out its systems, and return to the Gemini.

 

If Gemini XII were postponed until February 1967, then it could rendezvous with the unmanned LM planned for launch on mission SA-206. The spacewalker would enter the spindly LM, check out its systems, and jet back to Gemini XII.

 

NASA accepted many of the GEPG's recommendations. As it began to implement them, it conducted Gemini missions V, VI, and VII. After a rough start, Gemini V (Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad, 21-29 August 1965) successfully conducted an improvised "phantom rendezvous" with a point in space and remained in orbit for eight days. Gemini VII (Frank Borman and James Lovell, 4-18 December 1965) stayed aloft for 14 days, demonstrating that astronauts could survive in space for long enough to reach and return from the moon.

 

Gemini VI (Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, 15-16 December 1965) had been scheduled to launch on 25 October 1965, but NASA postponed the mission after its GATV was destroyed during ascent to orbit. The agency decided that Gemini VI should instead pay a visit to the long-duration Gemini VII crew. On 12 December, the Gemini VI Titan II booster ignited, then shut down before it could rise off its launch pad. Command Pilot Schirra opted not to trigger a perilous pad abort, saving the mission. On 15 December Gemini VI at last lifted off and performed rendezvous and proximity operations with Gemini VII. As 1965 ended, NASA looked ahead to dockings and spacewalks in 1966.

 

Gemini VIII (Neil Armstrong and David Scott, 16-17 March 1966) became the first manned spacecraft to perform a docking – and the first Gemini mission with a successful GATV – but then suffered a thruster malfunction that sent the docked vehicles spinning out of control. The astronauts made an emergency landing, so Scott was unable to perform the first spacewalk since Gemini IV.

 

Despite this, NASA proceeded with Gemini IX (Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan, 1-11 June 1966) as if the Gemini VIII EVA had succeeded. Cernan, the agency announced, would move to the aft end of the Gemini IX Adapter Section, don the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU) – as the MMU had been renamed – and fly up to 45 meters from the spacecraft.

 

Cernan's spacewalk was a near-disaster. He quickly overheated, fogging his faceplate. He found that handholds, loop-shaped foot restraints, and velcro patches on Gemini IX's exterior gave him scant help in controlling his movements. He estimated after the flight that 50% of his energy had been devoted to fighting the internal pressure of his modified G4C suit so that he could hold position. Nearly blinded by sweat, he tore his suit's outer thermal layers as he moved over Gemini's IX's hull. Through heroic efforts, and with his pulse racing at 195 beats per minute, he managed to reach and don the AMU before Stafford ordered him back to the cockpit.

 

NASA began to revise its ambitious EVA plans. Gemini X (John Young and Michael Collins, 18-21 July 1966) started with a low-key EVA during which Collins performed astronomical ultraviolet photography while standing in the cockpit. During his second EVA, which began just 90 minutes after the first, he used an HHMU to move to the derelict Gemini VIII GATV. His clumsy movements caused the GATV to gyrate, making it difficult for Young to keep Gemini X close by. Young called off the EVA, which was to have lasted 90 minutes, just 39 minutes after Collins left the cockpit.

 

Gemini XI (Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon, 12-15 September 1966) was, if anything, even worse. Gordon quickly overheated as he fought to attach a tether to the Gemini XI GATV without adequate handholds. Conrad called off the scheduled 107-minute spacewalk after 38 minutes. In his post-flight debrief, Gordon reported that "a little simple task that I had done many times in training to the tune of about 30 seconds lasted about 30 minutes."

 

No Gemini performed a rendezvous with Pegasus 3. The meteoroid and thermal control test surface panels that the GEPG had hoped a spacewalker would recover during Gemini XI were destroyed when the satellite reentered Earth's atmosphere on 4 August 1969.

 

NASA kept the AMU on the manifest of Gemini XII (James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin, 11-15 November 1966), going so far as to install it on the spacecraft on 17 September 1966. On 23 September, however, as the significance of Gordon's EVA troubles hit home, NASA Headquarters ordered the hot-gas rocket pack removed.

 

Desperate for a successful EVA, the agency revised Aldrin's training regimen and EVA plan. He spent extra time rehearsing his spacewalk while submerged in a swimming pool wearing weights that made him neutrally buoyant. His three EVAs had a relaxed pace and were spread out over three days. He had at his disposal a variety of new handholds, footholds, and other restraint devices. NASA also limited his EVAs to relatively simple tasks, such as testing space tools while firmly restrained.

 

The Soviet Union and Alexei Leonov maintained the fiction that his historic spacewalk had been "easy" until the late 1980s. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was revealed that Leonov's Berkut suit had ballooned in the vacuum of space. He became unable to reach a camera switch on his thigh, so could not photograph Voskhod 2 as planned.

 

After about 10 minutes outside, Leonov began his return to Voskhod 2. He entered Volga head first (not feet first, as planned), so had to turn in the airlock to shut its hatch behind him. After becoming trapped sideways in the fabric airlock, he flirted with dysbarism ("the bends") by lowering his suit's internal pressure so that he could free himself and seal the hatch. His exertions overwhelmed Berkut's air-flow cooling system, causing his core body temperature to rise 1.8° C in 20 minutes.

 

Leonov's EVA would be the last Soviet spacewalk until the Soyuz 4-Soyuz 5 docking mission of  14-18 January 1969. By the time Yevgeni Khrunov and Alexei Yeliseyev performed history's first two-person EVA on 16 January 1969, Soviet space suit designers and EVA planners had had time to benefit from NASA's Gemini EVA experience. Khrunov and Yeliseyev wore Yastreb space suits with cable-and-pulley systems and metal parts to prevent ballooning and improve mobility. Their 37-minute external transfer from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 took place without significant incident.

 

END