Category Archives: Transhuman News

The near drowning of a space-station astronaut from water that had collected in his helmet during a spacewalk stemmed from acceptance of unusual conditions known to increase risks.

Willingness to accept as routine minor amounts of water in a space-walking astronaut's helmet and a misdiagnosis of a previous water leak helped set the stage for an incident last summer that could have cost an International Space Station crew member his life, according to an analysis of the event.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

In a 122-page report released Wednesday, a mishap investigation board identified a range of causes for the near-tragedy, including organizational causes that carried echoes of accident reports that followed the loss of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia and their crews in 1986 and 2003.

About 44 minutes into a 6.5-hour spacewalk last July, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano noted that water was building up inside his helmet the second consecutive spacewalk during which he reported the problem. Twenty-three minutes later, he and partner Chris Cassidy were ordered to end the spacewalk.

"The good news was that Luca was very close to the air lock when this happened," said Chris Hansen, space-station chiefengineer and head of the board,during a briefing Wednesday that outlined the findings. "When we terminated the EVA, Luca had a pretty close path to the air lock."

Still, as Parmitano worked his way back to the air lock, water covered his eyes, filled his ears, disrupted communications, and eventually began to enter his nose, making it difficult for him to breathe. Later, when crew mates removed his helmet, they found that it contained at least 1.5 quarts of water.

NASA officials immediately set up the five-member mishap investigation board to uncover the broader causes behind the incident, even as a team of engineers at the Johnson Space Center worked to find the precise mechanical cause for the buildup of water.

Engineers traced the leak to a fan-and-pump assembly that is part of a system that extracts moisture from the air inside the suit and returns it to the suit's water-based cooling system. Contaminants clogged holes that would have carried the water to the cooling system after it was extracted from the air. The water backed up and flowed into the suit's air-circulation system, which sent it into Parmitano's helmet. The specific cause of the contamination is still under investigation.

Read more here:
Near-drowning of astronaut tied to wrong diagnosis, slow response

Space Station Live Student Science Heading to Space Aboard Cygnus.mp4
NASA_s Space Shuttle Secret: Painstaking Pursuit of Perfection: Tiles! While I had thoroughly enjoyed my career life of 40-odd years working in aircraft engi...

By: ScienceAndTecnology

Read more from the original source:
Space Station Live Student Science Heading to Space Aboard Cygnus.mp4 - Video

HOUSTON, Feb. 27, 2014-- Chris Ferguson, Boeing's director of Crew and Mission Operations and commander of the final Space Shuttle flight, virtually returned to space recently in the Boeing [NYSE: BA] Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 simulator to satisfy a NASA testing requirement for the spacecraft.

Ferguson performed manual piloting activities including on-orbit attitude and translation maneuvers, docking and backing away from a virtual International Space Station and a manual re-entry to Earth in the simulator.

"It was great to be back in the pilots seat, even if I didn't leave the ground," Ferguson said. "It's important for the spacecraft to have manual controls because although it's designed to be largely autonomous, the pilot should always be able to back up that autonomy. Manual flight controls provide a sort of a belt-and-suspenders capability for piloting the spacecraft."

The testing for NASA officials satisfied a CST-100 development milestone known as "Pilot in the Loop." It is the final milestone before the spacecraft's critical design review.

Ferguson, a veteran of three shuttle missions and commander of STS-135, the final shuttle flight, has logged more than 40 days in space and 5,700 hours in high-performance aircraft. He now oversees the crew interface of the Boeing CST-100 spacecraft and plays a key role in development and testing of system concepts and technologies for the vehicle and integrated launch and ground systems.

"This was the one opportunity to really show off, from a user's perspective, just how real our vehicle is becoming," said Ferguson. "We demonstrated that the CST-100 is on track to return Americans to space in an American spacecraft."

The Boeing-developed simulator will be used for astronaut training as part of a full suite ot training devices for crew members and mission controllers.

More information about the future of human space exploration can be found atwww.beyondearth.com.

A unit of The Boeing Company,Boeing Defense, Space & Securityis one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the worlds largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $33 billion business with 58,000 employees worldwide. Follow us on Twitter:@BoeingDefense.

View original post here:
Last Shuttle Commander Virtually Flies Boeing CST-100 to Space Station

February 27, 2014

Image Caption: European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Expedition 36 flight engineer, attired in an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit, participates in a session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as work continues on the International Space Station. A little more than one hour into the spacewalk, Parmitano reported water floating behind his head inside his helmet. The water was not an immediate health hazard for Parmitano, but Mission Control decided to end the spacewalk early. Credit: NASA

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Last year, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned in space due to a leaky helmet, and yesterday NASA said this isnt the first time this suit model has misbehaved.

On July 16, 2013 two International Space Station crew members exited the US Airlock to begin a spacewalk. About 44 minutes into the spacewalk Parmitano reported water inside his helmet on the back of his head. Slowly the water began to fill up his helmet, and he was just moments away from actually drowning inside his own helmet while in space.

After this incident took place, NASA launched an investigation to help identify factors that may have contributed to the incident and it recommended changes that could be implemented to prevent it from happening again.

The investigation found that the same suit failure occurred a week earlier, and if this event was properly investigated it could have prevented Luca from being placed at risk the following week.

In summary, the causes for this mishap evolved from inorganic materials causing blockage of the drum holes in the EMU water separator resulting in water spilling into the vent loop; the NASA teams lack of knowledge regarding this particular failure mode; and misdiagnosis of this suit failure when it initially occurred on EVA 22, NASA said in its report.

The space agency said the inorganic materials blocking the water separator drum holes had not been seen during a spacewalk before and is still undergoing investigation. It said the investigation does not have the required data yet to determine the root causes of the contamination source.

Essentially, when the helmet first messed up the team misdiagnosed the problem, allowing Luca to be put in a position where he used the helmet. NASA said that had the issue been discussed in more detail at the end of the spacewalk, the team would have likely realized that the water experienced in the helmet needed to be investigated further before pressing ahead.

See the original post:
Astronaut Nearly Drowning In Space Could Have Been Prevented