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Tag: NASA’s Johnson Space Center

  • What an astronaut needs to know | Flight control, space weather and debris

    What an astronaut needs to know | Flight control, space weather and debris

    Recently, Andreas Mogensen, now getting ready for his ‘Huginn’ mission to the ISS in 2023, stopped by ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to meet with some of the experts who keep our satellites flying.

    Andreas usually works at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as an ISS ‘capcom’, and we don’t often see him in Europe. A few months back, while returning to Germany for some training at ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, we seized the opportunity to ask him if he’d like to stop over in Darmstadt for a look behind the scenes at mission control, and he immediately answered, ‘yes’!

    Andreas’ studied aeronautical engineering with a focus on ‘guidance, navigation and control of spacecraft’ and we thought he’d be delighted to meet with the teams at mission control doing precisely that sort of work for our robotic missions.

    We figured he’d also enjoy meeting colleagues from our Space Safety programme, especially the ones working on space debris and space weather, as these are crucial areas that influence the daily life of astronauts on the ISS.

    Andreas met with Bruno Sousa and Julia Schwartz, who help keep Solar Orbiter healthy and on track on its mission to gather the closest-ever images of the Sun, observe the solar wind and our Star’s polar regions, helping unravel the mysteries of the solar cycle.

    He also met with Stijn Lemmens, one of the analysts keeping tabs on the space debris situation in orbit, and Melanie Heil, a scientist helping ESA understand how space weather and our active Sun can affect missions in orbit and crucial infrastructure – like power grids – on ground.

    We hope you enjoy this lively and informative day at mission control as much as Andreas and the teams at ESOC did!

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  • Underwater spacewalk training with Thomas Pesquet

    Underwater spacewalk training with Thomas Pesquet

    In preparation for his second mission to the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is training for possible spacewalks at @NASA’s Johnson Space Center. His second six-month mission is called Alpha and will see Thomas launch as part Crew-2 on the @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronaut Megan Behnken and Shane Kimbrough and @JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 astronaut Aki Hoshide.

    Watch this underwater spacewalk training session in 4K with audio from the astronauts and “mission control” recorded on 2 December 2020. Thomas is moved into position on a functional mockup of the International Space Station’s robotic arm to install hardware.

    Astronauts practice spacewalks in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. The training pool is the largest indoor swimming pool in the world, holding over 23 million litres of water, but it is still not large enough to hold the complete Space Station. Instead, specific parts of the Station structure are used as needed for training.

    Training underwater is as close as it gets to experiencing weightlessness on Earth so spending time in a full spacesuit is used to practise techniques for spacewalks and neutral buoyancy is substituted for microgravity. Support and training divers are on hand to guide the astronauts during their tasks. In space, the astronauts are aided by mission control and colleague astronauts on the Station.

    Extra Vehicular Activities (known as EVAs or spacewalks) are the most challenging tasks for an astronaut. When venturing from their spacecraft in a self-contained spacesuit to carry out repairs or install new equipment outside the International Space Station safety and efficiency are vital.

    It might be relaxing and soothing to watch this underwater spacewalk at home, but spacewalks are marathons that require concentration and physical exertion for six hours at a time, with no food or bathroom breaks.

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.

    Copyright information about our videos is available here: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Terms_and_Conditions

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