JOSH: To explore the Universe, NASA is testing new
technologies in a place you might not imagine.
See how the Sea provides an immersive environment to expand
the limits of Space Exploration Next... on Real World.
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JOSH: To get set for exploration of worlds beyond
our own NASA looks to places right here on earth that mimic
other places in the universe where we might explore.
NASA calls these Analog Tests, because these places are
analogous to places like moons, other planets and asteroids.
You know, when two things are analogous, they have a similar
relationship. You’ve probably done word analogies in
school... things like Jupiter is to Titan as Earth is to...
yep, Luna... our moon.
NASA looks for those same kinds of similar relationships when
it does analog studies in Hawaii, where the volcanic soil
is similar to the soil on the moon. NASA studies rovers and
robots in the deserts of northern Arizona, where the
landscape might be similar to what you would find on another
planet or perhaps even a big asteroid.
And NASA studies the effects of gravity in Key Largo Florida,
below the surface of the gulf of Mexico. We got some help
from NASA engineer and special Real World correspondent,
Heather Paul, who had a fish eye’s view
of the events in Key Largo.
HEATHER PAUL: Thanks Josh. We’re out here in the Florida
Keys and this is a really unlikely place. You don’t
thing about this when you think about going to the moon or
Mars. But in fact, NASA is doing underwater research right
here. So let’s go find out what we’re doing...
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BILL TODD: This is the facility where the Aquarius Habitat,
which is the worlds only undersea research habitat.
It’s about 5 miles off shore. And it‘s the closest thing to
living in space that we can find anywhere.
JOSH: Bill Todd is the mission manager for NASA’s
underwater research activities.
BILL: And what we do is we send crews to the habitat, astronaut
research crews. We send them to the habitat. And they go
and live there, to get a feeling of what it
would be like to live in space.
JOSH: The undersea environment simulates space exploration in
several important ways. First, it provides an isolated, fully
engaging setting, similar to what astronauts might encounter
exploring other planets, moons, etc.
In this environment, they can test various systems, like
communication and life support in a realistic setting.
And it has a huge advantage over simulators.
BILL: We can do all types of things in simulators. In those
simulations, we flip switches and we talk to the mission
control center and we go through a dress rehearsal,
but at 5 o’clock we go home. The day is over and we go home
and back to our families, and kind of wind down from all
that. It doesn’t really give you the sense, the feel for
what it’s like to live in an extreme environment.
Here, it’s a lot different. You stay. You do your
activities during the day, your EVAs. And then, at 5 o’clock,
you’re still right immersed, literally, in all of your
activities, the life sciences they have to go on, the public
outreach, and everything else that you have to do, which is
similar to flying in space. This is the real deal.
When we’re doing missions and working here and when we’re in
the habitat, that is a true, extreme mission.
There’s consequences and risks to your actions,
just like there is in space.
JOSH: This underwater analog also allows engineers to test
other systems, for instance, the backpacks that astronauts
wear for EVAs, called the portable life support system,
or PLSS. It supplies oxygen, removes carbon dioxide,
regulates temperature in the space suit and contains
communication hardware. By using a backpack rig to
simulate the PLSS, the underwater environment allows
engineers to figure out how best to configure this pack in
different gravity settings, to make the astronauts as
comfortable and productive as possible on each EVA.
Here’s Heather with Nick Skytland,
a Project Manager in NASA’s Space Life Program.
NICK SKYTLAND: For each dive, we’ll take them down and put
this backpack on, and we’ll have them do a number of
activities. We have them walk back and forth. We have them
kneel and recover. We have them fall and recover and by
recover we mean, just get back up. And then we have them pick
up rocks and put them on a crate. And then at the end, we
have them climb a ladder, and then come back down.
JOSH: The exercise allows Nick and his team to adjust the
backpack rig, and find the most effective center of gravity to
accomplish the tasks. Center of gravity is the point on
which an object’s weight is balanced. We use this same
principle everyday. Let’s see how to calculate the center of
gravity using a seesaw. The fulcrum is the point that
supports the board for the seesaw. The weight must be
evenly distributed on both sides of the fulcrum for the
board to be balanced. But what would happen if a child who
weighs 20 kilograms sits on one end of the board, and a second
child who weighs 25 kilograms sits on the other end?
The see saw is no longer balanced. Math can help us
solve this problem. Think of the fulcrum as the center of
the equation. What’s on one side of the equation must
balance with the other side. Remember that our board is 5
meters in length. Five meters is equal to 500 centimeters.
The fulcrum is located at the center of the board, 250
centimeters from the end. If the child weighing 20 kilograms
sits on a mark at the end of the board, she is 250
centimeters from the center. Where would the second child
need to sit to balance the see saw? We could write the
equation to look like this: Twenty times 250 equals 25
times what? By balancing the equation, we can determine the
distance from the fulcrum that the second child must sit.
The board will balance when the child weighing 25 kilograms
sits 200 centimeters from the fulcrum – that’s 50 centimeters
from the end of the board. The team in Key Largo often uses
this kind of mathematical reasoning to solve problems,
like figuring out the center of gravity for many different
kinds of exploration activities.
Here’s Nick and Heather with another example.
NICK: Actually you have a backpack right there. Why
don’t you put your backpack on. Now imagine you were outside
working and you had a shovel. And actually, pretend you’re
just in your back yard and you’re just shoveling
some things up. HEATHER: Can I be on the moon?
NICK: Well, Not yet. HEATHER: Oh! Okay. All right.
NICK: Not yet. All right, so there you go. You’re
shoveling. All right. It’s pretty easy, right.
HEATHER: Yeah. It’s easy. NICK: Now imagine someone comes
along and they put a jug of water in your backpack.
HEATHER: Okay. Now it’s getting kind of heavy, Nick.
NICK: Right. It’s getting kind of heavy, so now try it again.
HEATHER: Yeah. I think I’d probably have to change up how
I would do the shoveling. NICK: Right. And so that’s
changing your center of gravity. So we have this c.g.
rig that allows us to change the center of gravity from
being very very backwards, to very very forwards, to very
high to very low and even to the side if we wanted to.
And we can see how this affects the crew performance
when doing a number of activities.
JOSH: Once they figure out how to best configure the rig,
they can take those lessons learned and apply them to the
actual portable life support system that astronauts will use
on EVAs.
NASA has more analog tests planned throughout the year,
including more work in Key Largo.
You can follow the progress at www.NASA.gov.
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