Preparation Before Space Travel

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Preparation Before Space Travel

• by Sila Virdell

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WWK The preparations astronauts must go through
before involving in space travel.
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Underwater Training

• To get the sensation of a no gravity atmosphere,
  astronauts do most of their training underneath
  water in neutral buoyancy water tanks to conduct
  space walks, or they use swimming pools. This is
  essential before space travel, so the astronaut
  is prepared for the conditions of space.
• Astronauts must also take a scuba diving class,
  to get a feel for how they should maneuver around
  in space.

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Keeping the body healthy while being in space.

• Being weightless for long periods of time makes
  muscles and bones weaker, and astronauts spending
  time in space must exercise and eat healthy to
  stay fit. Therefore, astronauts are taught
  several ways to keep their bodies in shape before
  they are sent to space. They have specific
  exercising equipment such as the picture shown to
  the right. Most of the equipment involves a
  resistor, because lifting weights in space would
  be pointless, considering there is no gravity.

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Safety Procedures

• As a mission commander, there always has to be
  two people running everything for a safe flight.
  Its crucial that everything goes as planned for
  the safety of the astronauts and for the safety
  of the million dollar project. Communication is
  also a huge factor to a safe flight, the
  astronauts and the technicians controlling from
  earth must constantly be in communication with
  one another to insure that everything is going as
  planned. For example, the mission control should
  always remind the astronaut about time and oxygen
  left.

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Amount of Time it Takes for Training.

• The total time spent training the simulators for
  a specific mission is about 300 hours, Including
  the 10-15, six-hour sessions of underwater
  training. A lot of time and effort is put forth
  into preparing for space travel.
• Many can be qualified to become an astronaut, but
  NASA chooses the best of the best to conduct
  outer space experiments, and astronauts have to
  have a total of three years of technical
  experience before they can go into training for
  space travel. So the process can be longer than
  expected.

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Prior Experience

• Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the
  moon, but it wasnt like he didnt have
  absolutely no experience at all. Before Neil
  Armstrong became an astronaut, he had been a test
  pilot for the X 15, the fastest aero plane ever
  built. Every astronaut must have a pilot
  background, or have experience with other planes
  before they can try to maneuver a space shuttle,
  along with other experiences such as dealing with
  high velocities, and also taking psychological
  tests.

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More training

• Not only do astronauts have to have so much
  experience, do hours of basic training, and study
  about space, but they also get to travel to
  Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan to study more
  about the scientific experiments and whatever
  else they have to do in space. It could also
  takes years for a space flight to open up, so
  being in the space field is obviously very
  difficult and very time consuming. Not to mention
  all of the learning you have to do.