What a full day for the Lake View RGO team! We started with a morning briefing and then our Test Readiness Review. It was our presentation to all the important NASA engineers about the safety of our experiment. It went well and they didn't have too many questions for us....so I guess we passed the test!
Next, we were off to our Hypobaric Chamber Flight. They issued us a gas mask and flight helmet. Then they basically put a bunch of us into a steel room and sucked all the air out of it (to simulate flying up to 25,000 ft) while we breathed pure oxygen from our mask. At that altitude we had to remove our mask for 5 minutes and see how our body would react to lack of oxygen or "hypoxia". Some people became very silly, sleepy, dizzy, or had fuzzy vision. The idea was to recognize how you might react should anything happen on a real flight. Everyone survived and Ms. Wright even taught the NASA doctors a few things about how to clear your ears upon descent!
Last, we had a wonderful tour of the NBL or Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. This is the 6.2 billion gallon "pool" where astronauts train to do space walks. They actually have real mockups of modules from the ISS in the pool so trainees can practice fixing things while in space! It was fascinating and again gave us a sense of appreciation for all that these NASA employees do for us here at Johnson Space Center!
Check out Jiji....he's traveled here from Huntington Beach!!
Next, we were off to our Hypobaric Chamber Flight. They issued us a gas mask and flight helmet. Then they basically put a bunch of us into a steel room and sucked all the air out of it (to simulate flying up to 25,000 ft) while we breathed pure oxygen from our mask. At that altitude we had to remove our mask for 5 minutes and see how our body would react to lack of oxygen or "hypoxia". Some people became very silly, sleepy, dizzy, or had fuzzy vision. The idea was to recognize how you might react should anything happen on a real flight. Everyone survived and Ms. Wright even taught the NASA doctors a few things about how to clear your ears upon descent!
Last, we had a wonderful tour of the NBL or Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. This is the 6.2 billion gallon "pool" where astronauts train to do space walks. They actually have real mockups of modules from the ISS in the pool so trainees can practice fixing things while in space! It was fascinating and again gave us a sense of appreciation for all that these NASA employees do for us here at Johnson Space Center!
Check out Jiji....he's traveled here from Huntington Beach!!
Valsalva!
ReplyDeleteHi from Room 12!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you are doing a lot of interesting things in Texas. We can't wait for the teleconference! We miss you!!
Oh what fun!! Must say nice look with the mask!!! Did Colette act silly???? Sure you will have fun stories. Geoff, you should have gone for a swim tnhat could have been fun....
ReplyDeleteBeth