How Astronauts Train for Space

Before an astronaut ever sees Earth from an orbit, he or she spends years preparing for a place where even breathing depends upon machinery.

Space may appear calm in pictures, floating astronauts, aglow Earth, silent spaceships but arriving at that moment requires some of the toughest training on the planet. Astronaut preparation is not only about learning to operate spacecraft. It is about training the human body and mind to live in an environment where gravity is absent, radiation is on the rise, isolation is rampant and small errors can have catastrophic effects.

Space agencies like the NASA, European Space Agency and others go through rigorous and multiple yrs of training programs which simulates the physical and psychological conditions in space.

Becoming mission-ready is a long process and it starts long before launch day.

The Selection Process: The First Challenge

Astronaut training starts with astronaut selection. Agencies receive thousands of applications for few job locations for instance, the most recent (2017) class of astronauts chosen by the National Aeronautics and NASA included 12 candidates out of more than 18,000 applicants.

Requirements for candidates usually include:

• Advanced degrees in the fields of STEM
• Years of Professional Experience
• High physical fitness
• Strong ability to work in teams and leadership skills

Selection is meant to select not only intelligence, but resilience. Space missions demand peaceful decision-making under pressure, flexibility, and emotional stability in an isolated environment.

Only after surviving this filtering process does formal astronaut training start.

Learning to Live Without Gravity

One of the most complicated parts of astronaut training is to trains for microgravity.

At NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, provided by the National Space Laboratory under the space agency, astronauts train underwater in the large pool that has full-scale models of the International Space Station (ISS). By adjusting buoyancy engineers simulate weightlessness. Astronauts practice spacewalks (also known as Extravehicular Activities, or EVAs) in six-hour swims under water.

These are physically exhausting simulations. Space suits weigh more than 100 kilos on Earth and working in an underwater environment requires precision.

Microgravity, on the other hand, has its effect on the human body too. It is in orbit that astronauts train to handle disorientation, weakening of the muscles and fluid shifts.

Psychological resilience is as important as physical strength

Surviving High G-Forces

During the launch and re-entry, the astronauts are subjected to excessive acceleration forces.

To prepare for it they go through a centrifuge training. A huge spinning arm spins the astronaut in a capsule, recreating the G-forces felt in the ascent. This teaches the body to be conscious and carry out tasks with extreme acceleration.

Jet aircraft training also occurs. It is common for astronauts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to take to the skies for T-38 jet flights, in order to exercise reaction time and maintain situational awareness.

These exercises prepare astronauts to be functional during the most physically strenuous phases of flight.

Emergency and Survival Training

Space missions involve risk. Astronauts need to be prepared for off-nominal landings or emergency cases.

Training includes:

• Splashdowns of the ocean-in case of a water survival drill
• Cold weather survival in remote areas
• Desert survival exercises
• Fire and depressurization emergency simulation

Inside spacecraft simulators astronauts practice system failures over and over. They use to practice responding in an electrical fault, oxygen leakage, difficulty in checking the navigation, and loss in communication etc.

Every emergency procedure is repeated until instinctive.

Emergency response is rehearsed repeatedly under stress conditions

Psychological and Isolation Training

Long duration missions, such as those aboard the ISS, require astronauts to live in restricted spaces for months of time.

Agencies perform psychological tests and simulated missions in order to test mental stamina. Astronauts practice in analog habitats in such remote places as the desert and underwater laboratories.

Team dynamics are critical. Conflict resolution and communication discipline and cultural awareness are part of the training. International crews have to work as a team when stressed.

For deep-space missions, communication delays will make it impossible to communicate in real time from Earth. Astronauts must always be able to work autonomously.

Robotics, Science, and Geology

Astronauts are not mere operators, they are researchers.

Training involves the use of robotic arms for capturing spacecraft and cargo modules. They learn advanced scientific procedures for experiments run in microgravity.

For missions to the moon under Artemis, geology training has become important. Astronauts go to volcanic fields and isolated terrain where they learn how to recognize rock samples that are scientifically important.

The next generation of missions will require astronauts to use another world as a field scientist.

Preparing for the Moon and Beyond

Future missions are not like ISS operations.

Under the Artemis program, astronauts will be training to move around the lunar surface, conduct experiments with the resources, and work long on the moon. Lunar force is one-sixth of the Earth's gravity and there are some new physical challenges.

Radiation exposure will also be enhanced outside of the protective coating of our magnetic field on Earth. Training has also become common on radiation awareness and shielding the habitat procedures.

The next frontier and requires more broad-based skill sets than ever before.

Future lunar missions require geology and surface mobility expertise

Why Training Is the Success of a Mission