I got to do a thing....
Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2024 10:35 am
Our youngest started this fall at William and Mary. At a parents weekend we met the parents of one of our daughter's new friends and found out that she was a pretty big deal (she's in charge of all astronaut training and evaluation) at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. We mentioned that we were going to see our kids/grandkids there in January and she volunteered to hook us up with a behind the ropes tour which we did this past Monday. I'm a life long nerd about the space program so I had a dopey grin the entire time.
We started out in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab which is a 40' deep massive pool holding 6.2 million gallons of water. It's so big that even with tight environmental controls it evaporates about 5,000 gallons a week. They have a very accurate version of the entire International Space Station submerged in the pool that is used for training EVAs and how to move in/out of the airlocks.
This is the Artemis II crew module that will take 4 astronauts back to the moon in a couple of years. They use this one to test the systems that correct the attitude of it after splashdown and on how the crew evacuates in the water under different scenarios.
While we were there one of the Artemis II crew, Victor Glover, was suiting up to get in the water.
They also have recreated the lunar surface on the bottom of the pool where they train on working and using tools on the moon. It's pretty clever how they adjust the buoyancy of their suits to simulate the moon's gravity while in the water.
They've got other cool things like the robotic arms used on the ISS and both hyperbaric and hypobaric chambers on site. They also rent this place out to the oil companies and universities to test their gadgets.
Next stop was the Mission Control Center for the ISS:
Those are live images on the displays from cameras on the ISS and each desk was manned by someone that looked like what they were doing was serious which made it kinda surprising when our friendly W&M parent called the mission director and asked if we could come down for a visit on the MCC floor:
We're standing there just taking it all in when the guy at the CAPCON station (a astronaut himself/the guy that communicates with the crew on the ISS) stands up and invites our kids to come sit at his station:
As they're sitting there posing for photos a guy across the room says something to CAPCOM guy who replies, "Nah, I'll just talk to the crew on the next orbit." Whaaat? Our little photo moment delayed crew to ground communications by an orbit and I joked that I hope they didn't need help on a toilet back up.
Our last major stop on the day was in the mock up facility where the ISS and a number of other spacecraft are there in exact (inside) detail for astronaut training. We got to climb around all kinds of stuff in there like the Artemis crew module, the Soyuz capsule that had actually been to space and is used for training our guys that are given rides by the Russians, and the entire ISS mock up.
Soyuz:
There are a couple of companies competing for the contract to provide NASA with the spacesuit of the future and here is one of the companies doing testing while we were there:
This whole tour was one of the coolest things I think I've ever experienced all resulting from a chance moment sharing a pizza with Gracie and her friend/parents while in Williamsburg. I asked Morgan what it's like to have a mom that does what she does - does it get old? She said her mom brought her space suit to school for career day. How cool is that?
We started out in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab which is a 40' deep massive pool holding 6.2 million gallons of water. It's so big that even with tight environmental controls it evaporates about 5,000 gallons a week. They have a very accurate version of the entire International Space Station submerged in the pool that is used for training EVAs and how to move in/out of the airlocks.
This is the Artemis II crew module that will take 4 astronauts back to the moon in a couple of years. They use this one to test the systems that correct the attitude of it after splashdown and on how the crew evacuates in the water under different scenarios.
While we were there one of the Artemis II crew, Victor Glover, was suiting up to get in the water.
They also have recreated the lunar surface on the bottom of the pool where they train on working and using tools on the moon. It's pretty clever how they adjust the buoyancy of their suits to simulate the moon's gravity while in the water.
They've got other cool things like the robotic arms used on the ISS and both hyperbaric and hypobaric chambers on site. They also rent this place out to the oil companies and universities to test their gadgets.
Next stop was the Mission Control Center for the ISS:
Those are live images on the displays from cameras on the ISS and each desk was manned by someone that looked like what they were doing was serious which made it kinda surprising when our friendly W&M parent called the mission director and asked if we could come down for a visit on the MCC floor:
We're standing there just taking it all in when the guy at the CAPCON station (a astronaut himself/the guy that communicates with the crew on the ISS) stands up and invites our kids to come sit at his station:
As they're sitting there posing for photos a guy across the room says something to CAPCOM guy who replies, "Nah, I'll just talk to the crew on the next orbit." Whaaat? Our little photo moment delayed crew to ground communications by an orbit and I joked that I hope they didn't need help on a toilet back up.
Our last major stop on the day was in the mock up facility where the ISS and a number of other spacecraft are there in exact (inside) detail for astronaut training. We got to climb around all kinds of stuff in there like the Artemis crew module, the Soyuz capsule that had actually been to space and is used for training our guys that are given rides by the Russians, and the entire ISS mock up.
Soyuz:
There are a couple of companies competing for the contract to provide NASA with the spacesuit of the future and here is one of the companies doing testing while we were there:
This whole tour was one of the coolest things I think I've ever experienced all resulting from a chance moment sharing a pizza with Gracie and her friend/parents while in Williamsburg. I asked Morgan what it's like to have a mom that does what she does - does it get old? She said her mom brought her space suit to school for career day. How cool is that?