NASA Ames' Vertical Motion Simulator, the largest-such simulator in the world, has been used since 1980 to help train pilots to fly helicopters, fighters, and space shuttles. Now, it is being used for training on the next-generation lunar lander.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--There I was, staking my claim to a pilot's slot in one of NASA's next-generation lunar landers, and to be perfectly frank, I think I'd better not quit my day job.
"I think we probably walked away from that," said NASA aerospace engineer Eric Mueller, after one rough touchdown. It was an overly charitable assessment of my performance. I'd hate to know what he was really thinking.
If you've been paying attention, you're probably aware that there are no current missions to the moon, and so you know that I wasn't actually trying to land there. But I was piloting the same equipment that real-life astronauts have been using to prepare for potential future lunar trips, and so you'll have to forgive me for being a bit disappointed that my skills are likely not up to snuff.
This indulging of my astronaut fantasies was part of a visit last week to NASA's Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS), the world's largest tool for training those whose actual job is to fly lunar landers, space shuttles, helicopters, Joint Strike Fighters, and even bobsleds on the skills and tricks necessary to get their crafts safely to their destinations.
Based in the Aviation Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center, the VMS offers those who use it six degrees of freedom, including 60 feet of vertical and 40 feet of lateral motion simulation inside a huge, 100-foot-tall chamber that looks like something over which an auto mechanic would salivate. Those "flying" the simulator (see video below) have 20 feet of movement in both in the left and right directions, as well as 4 feet forward and back, and 25 degrees of roll, pitch, and yaw.
Originally opened in 1980 to enable pilots to test-fly helicopters, the VMS is currently being used, among other things, to help NASA get ready for what is likely to be its next great mission: a return to the moon with Constellation, the space agency's long-awaited next-generation program and the followup to the Space Shuttle program.
Over the years, according to Kathleen Starmer, the deputy director of NASA's SimLabs outreach team, VMS has been used by a wide range of private companies and military agencies that have needed to run vertical motion tests, including Boeing, Lockheed, Grumman, and others. And today, even when the simulator is not set up for faux lunar landings, it is in use 100 percent of available time, Starmer said. Those wishing to use it need only show that their project can offer some benefit to NASA, and be able to pony up about $5,000 a day.
Flying Altair
But I hadn't come to the VMS to see what it would be like to fly a helicopter. I'd come for a shot at Altair, the next-generation lunar lander, and the one that will be the business end of the Constellation program, at least on the surface of the moon.
According to Karl Bilimoria, an aerospace engineer in the VMS program, NASA is now in the process of running its third formal Altair simulation. When reporters aren't being allowed to barely land in the simulator, "pro astronauts," as Bilimoria put it, are coming to Ames and spending full days in the VMS. One reason for that, he said, is that with Altair, the pilots will need to master pinpoint landing accuracy: they'll need to put the craft down within 10 feet of their designated landing sites on the moon, requiring far more precision than what was required of the pilots of the Apollo age.
This is expected to be a difficult task with Altair because one of the design philosophies of the Constellation program will be to shave as much mass as possible off the payload in order to reduce takeoff weight--and save tremendous amounts of money that each additional pound costs to put in space. Bilimoria said NASA hopes to outfit Altair with the smallest possible control jets, a configuration that makes minute control of the landing craft more difficult than was the case with its much sportier Apollo counterpart.
Which would mean, of course, that NASA is trying to offset the loss of some of the brute force control that comes with less propulsion on the lander with state of-the-art electronics: advanced control systems and advanced cockpit displays.
It might not be possible to achieve the kind of landing accuracy NASA wants with the reduced control jet profile, Bilimoria said, but "before we throw our hands up," it will try to solve the problem with technological advances. "We can always squeeze out a little more," he said. "The question is, is it enough?"
To date, Bilimoria said that multiple simulations have shown that technology isn't quite up to the task at hand, and that it could be another year of running tests in the VMS before it's known if the goal is possible. Of course, any return trip to the moon is many years away, but Mueller explained that NASA is doing this work now in order to have the most advanced notice possible if it's going to be necessary to design Altair with larger control jets.
Rough landings
Inside the cockpit, I was strapped in and given some quick instruction (see video below) on how to read the two major digital displays and how to use them in conjunction with a set of joysticks to properly land the craft. The space is set up to resemble what an actual Altair interior would look like, down to the view out the window, and the narrow working space that is partially made possible by having both the pilot and co-pilot stand up straight rather than sit down.
In fact, the Altair cockpit simulator is one of five separate "interchangeable cabs" used in the VMS to mimic different kinds of vehicles, from rotorcrafts to fighters to transport vehicles. Each cab can be set up with conventional aircraft instruments or advanced avionics, depending on the needs of the client using the simulator.
On an Altair pilot's right is what is known as a vertical situation display, which Mueller said is a fairly typical glass cockpit-type display that, for the most part, would be familiar to fixed-wing pilots, and which is new for a lunar lander. The idea, said Mueller, is that this display provides good cues for landing.
On the left side is the horizontal situation display, a newer system that provides Altair's pilots with velocity vectors, and a touchdown display. This system features a set of "bells and whistles" developed at Ames and designed to help the pilot keep a "nice hover" over the landing spot and to improve their hover and descent skills.
One display in the cockpit shows the ground and the landing pad, and the lander's progress towards a proper touchdown.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)And, just to help the pilot with more true-to-life visual cues, there's also a "view" out the front windows, as well as a view from straight down underneath the lander at the ground below.
For someone skilled at piloting any kind of aircraft--even simulated ones in video games--landing the faux Altair is not that hard. The visual cues are extremely intuitive--basically, just keep a little dot in the center of the screen by tapping the joystick one way or another--and it's designed to be fairly simple, in the VMS, at least, to land.
Adding to the realism, of course, is the fact that the cockpit rocks back and forth and left and right, as it would in real life. So if you overcorrect, get ready to tilt the wrong way. Given my lack of skills, I found myself doing that far more than I should have.
Still, in each of my landing attempts, I managed to get the craft onto the lunar "surface," not even crashing once.
The progress of the lander is marked by the green line on the display in this picture. The long, squiggly line is evidence of a rather lengthy and roundabout approach to the lunar surface.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)To be sure, though, none of the current or future astronauts have to worry much about me being a competitor for their spots on actual moon missions.
Nor would they worry about competition from a CNET colleague who accompanied me to the VMS. As he attempted to fly the lander, his progress was recorded as a long, very squiggly green line on one of the displays, evidence of a remarkable lack of precision.
In the control room, two VMS scientists watched my colleague's progress and shook their heads.
"We've never seen anything like this," said one, of my colleague's roundabout approach to the ground.
"He still hit the pad," said the other. "It's amazing."
The rear section of the first-ever completed Ares I solid rocket booster, which will be test-fired on Aug. 25. This signifies a major milestone for NASA's Constellation program, which will replace the Space Shuttle program, and which is intended to send humans back to the moon.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)PROMONTORY, Utah--"This is the world's biggest solid rocket motor."
Those eight words, with which Kevin Rees described the Ares 1 rocket to me on Monday, are at once entirely understated, and hugely consequential. Rees is the director of test services for ATK, the primary rocket contractor on NASA's Constellation program.
Since 1981, the Space Shuttle has been NASA's main program. But now, with just a few more Shuttle launches left, the space agency--and the huge ecosystem of contractors who support it--are seriously turning their attention to Constellation, the next program. Constellation is expected to take Americans back to the moon, and may someday take them to Mars. And like the Apollo and Mercury programs in the 1960s and '70s, Constellation is designed with a crew capsule that will be placed on top of a giant rocket--in this case, the Ares I.
And here before me, in what can be described as essentially a huge shed at ATK's massive complex about two hours north of Salt Lake City, the first of those rockets is resting on its side, awaiting its first moment of glory, a planned August 25 test-firing.
Though the Ares I has been on the drawing board for some time, and many people have seen imagery of it, no reporter has ever seen one fully assembled. As part of my Road Trip 2009 project, I had the honor of being the first, and of sharing the first pictures with you.
The Ares I rocket is a five-segment behemoth, fully 154 feet long. By comparison, the Space Shuttle used two four-segment rockets, each of which was 126 feet long. But lest you think that an entirely new program means entirely new equipment, think again.
I was told throughout my visit to ATK that every effort is being made to reuse components from the Space Shuttle program. And that's why every single 12.2-foot-wide cylinder used to make this first Ares rocket--known as DM 1, or developmental motor 1--has been recycled from previous Shuttle missions. Indeed, the various components that make up DM 1 have been used in 48 different Shuttle launches.
Still, it's not as if the pieces are just picked up out of the ocean and thrown back into the rotation. Rather, they are painstakingly reconditioned and made ready for reuse, as they have been throughout the Shuttle program. That's one way NASA has kept costs down during the program, and how it intends to do so going forward into Constellation.
The reason it's possible for ATK to reuse segments from Shuttle launches in the Ares program is that Ares rockets have a lot in common with those used in the Shuttle program. To be sure, the Shuttle used two boosters, and didn't have a capsule installed on top, while Constellation will comprise a single booster with an Orion crew capsule on top. But the boosters will be very similar, beginning with their exact same width and segment dimensions.
There will be some differences, however.
For example, the insulation on the interior of the cylinders is different on the Ares segments than it was with the Shuttle, and one big reason is an effort to be better stewards of the environment than in the past. For instance, the insulation of the Shuttle segments used asbestos, while the Ares segments have done away with that poisonous material.
'A little bit of melancholy'
But as demonstrated by the fact that the segments in DM 1 have been into space so many times as part of the Shuttle program, there is a heavy emphasis on reuse. Even the ATK professionals couldn't always tell right away whether a segment that was being worked on was for the Shuttle or for Ares.
At one point in my visit, we passed by a spot where sections were being put together to make segments for what, apparently, will be the very last Shuttle mission. While nothing around the work there signaled this momentous detail, it's clear that the folks at ATK are well aware of it.
Artist's rendering of the Ares I crew launch vehicle during ascent.
(Credit: NASA/MSFC)"There's a little bit of melancholy" about it, said one of my hosts, Gregg Kotter, program director for the Ares I First Stage Five-step motor program. Still, whatever sadness the people here feel seems more than offset by the excitement at being part of what NASA clearly hopes will be its standard-bearing program for another 30 years or so.
Yet the Shuttle work is still very much in evidence. One stop on my ATK tour was to the propellant mixing facilities where it was explained to me how the crews here make the solid fuel that is used to light the Shuttle--and soon, the Ares--rockets.
We weren't able to go inside the facility to see the systems because it was a Monday, and on Mondays they are mixing propellant. From a safety standpoint, I can see why they don't want visitors in a facility where someone is actively mixing a fuel that can launch a Space Shuttle.
But again, given that ATK here is working simultaneously on both Shuttle and Ares, my hosts had no way to know which program was getting the propellant being worked on while we were there.
And when asked which program the fuel was for, a technician gave about as simple an answer as he could: "Shuttle."
We did get to talk a fair bit about how the propellant mixing is done, and one thing was clear: It takes a whole lot of fuel to get a giant rocket off the ground. Each segment of the rocket requires 40 giant (600-gallon) mixing bowls full of propellant, which is made up of a binding agent polymer; iron oxide, a burn catalyst; aluminum powder, the fuel source; an epoxy bonding and curing agent; and ammonium perchlorate.
When mixed, it becomes a true solid. I'd heard the term "solid fuel" before, but had never really understood what it meant. In fact, it's just what it sounds like: A fuel that, as I saw inside a small device called an igniter--which is placed at the top of the rocket--looks like plastic, and which is very much a solid. In fact, it's brown, flexible and cool to the touch.
Once mixed, the propellant is cured for 44 hours, and then applied to the interior surface of the rocket segments, where it is then cured for another 52 hours.
After the rocket segments are fully assembled and filled with propellant, they are then put through an X-ray and ultrasonic inspection to make sure they don't have any bubbles in them. If they do, Kotter told me, they can either be rejected altogether--which is an extremely unpopular option--or technicians can try to assess the problem and see if it can be fixed. It wasn't clear how often this happens.
Gentlemen, start your engine
For the teams getting ready for the August 25 Ares I test-fire, it has been a long time coming. Some members, Rees said, have been working on this for more than two years.
Once everything is in place, the ignition of the rocket--which will be laid flat on its side and will shoot its massive blasts of fire back into a giant pit of sand and rock--is an extremely fast process. First, a pellet is dropped into the igniter--a small device that is larger than the tactical motor on a lot of rockets, and which has 300 pounds of propellant inside--which will then set off the main rocket bore. From zero to full thrust takes 600 milliseconds.
Assuming the test goes well, it will only be a matter of time before ATK starts shipping rocket segments, one at a time, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they will eventually be assembled into a rocket that the space agency will launch into space. Those segments will be put on trains that will take ten days or so to cross the country before they reach Kennedy.
And if you were to see one of them on the road, you wouldn't be able to tell if they were for the Shuttle or for Ares. But if you happened to have a chance to ask someone in the know which they were for, there's a good possibility they'd give you a one-word answer: "Shuttle" or "Ares."
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
On Thursday, NASA announced it has released a set of 3D photo collections of the International Space Station and its Mars rover. The photos were created using Microsoft's Photosynth technology, which automatically stitches together hundreds of images from standard digital cameras.
(Credit: NASA)NASA said on Thursday that it has released a collection of 3D photographs of the International Space Station and its Mars rover.
The photos, which were created using Microsoft's Photosynth tool, show both internal and external views of the space station, as well as a model of the rover.
Because the images were prepared using Photosynth, users can zoom in or out of any of the images, allowing them to see "details of the space station's modules and solar arrays or...a more global view of the complex."
At the same time, the Mars rover images depict the latest iteration of the hardware being crafted at NASA's Mars Science Laboratory. The rover, NASA said, is expected to be launched to Mars in 2011.
Both collections are made up of hundreds of photos taken with standard digital cameras that have been stitched together automatically using Photosynth.
And this isn't the first time NASA has used Photosynth to present images of its various projects. In 2007, it employed the Microsoft Live Labs technology to showcase a 3D view of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South and North Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
The space shuttle Discovery touching down at Kennedy Space Center on June 14, 2008. NASA now says it is going to solicit proposals for how to display the shuttles once the program ends in 2010.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)Want your very own authentic space shuttle?
Well, if you're part of the community of "educational institutions, science museums and other appropriate organizations," NASA just might have something for you after the shuttle program ends in 2010.
On Wednesday, the space agency issued a request for information (RFI) soliciting ideas for what to do with the shuttle orbiters and main engines once the program ends.
Sponsored by NASA's Office of Infrastructure, the RFI seeks input from appropriate officials and decision makers from museums, science centers, institutions, and other organizations dedicated to education or educational outreach with experience in public display of space hardware and nationally-recognized historical artifacts," NASA said in a release. NASA will use information gained from this RFI to develop strategies for eventual placement of two space shuttle orbiters and a minimum of six unassembled space shuttle main engine display "kits."
The agency said the purpose of the initiative is to decide whether institutions or other members of the community have the appropriate wherewithal to display a shuttle or engines, including the ability to fund such efforts.
Interested applicants have until March 17, 2009 to respond.
It's probably safe to say, however, that NASA doesn't intend for the recipients of the shuttles to fly them, and as such, probably won't be providing astronauts with the delivery of the spacecraft.
When the Space Shuttle Endeavour launches Friday afternoon, assuming it is not delayed, the astronauts onboard and the technicians on the ground at mission control will have at their disposal new software that could streamline the process of problem reporting and analysis.
The software, called the Problem Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action (PRACA) system, was created by the Human-Computer Interaction Group at NASA's Ames Research Center, and is designed to give a wide cross-section of people in the Space Shuttle ecosystem access to a single database package for tracking problems with the Shuttle and its associated infrastructure.
According to Alonso Vera, the lead of the Ames Human-Computer Interaction Group, the single, universally accessible PRACA package is replacing a set of more than 40 different database systems that had been used over the past 30 years by the many different parts of that Shuttle ecosystem.
And, like a related database system known as Items for Investigation (IFI) that is used for tracking International Space Station issues, the new PRACA was written using open-source Bugzilla tools that will save NASA considerable amounts of time and money.
Vera wouldn't say exactly how much the new systems cost to build, but he said they were an order of magnitude cheaper than what was being used before, closer to $100,000 than the $1 million it would have cost in the past.
More to the point, Vera explained, by using open-source Bugzilla tools, technicians will be able to make changes to either PRACA or IFI more or less on the fly, rather than having to submit any proposed changes to the publishers of proprietary software, steps that often took weeks to achieve.
The PRACA system is used, Vera said, to help anyone trying to diagnose problems with the Shuttle find reports of similar issues from the past to see how they were resolved. The IFI system, by contrast, is used by those involved with the Space Station to report new problems for later analysis.
Already, the new PRACA systems are being used in NASA's Constellation program, which will replace the Space Shuttle after 2010. But Friday's launch will be the first live test of the system, given that Constellation has yet to go into space. However, since it's only a test, the existing PRACA system will also be used.
Similarly, the Space Station program has now phased out its older IFI system and turned on the new version.
Vera said that the Space Shuttle program has yet to commit fully to the new PRACA system, though the Space Station program will do a full switchover in March 2009.
The crew of STS-126, the Space Shuttle launching Friday, will be delivering to the International Space Station a wastewater regeneration system that will recycle astronauts' urine.
(Credit: NASA)If you're the kind of person who wants to do research on the International Space Station, it appears that you may need to cross some boundaries of taste many of us wouldn't even consider.
According to a BBC News story Friday, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Friday afternoon, will be handing off to their Space Station colleagues a water regeneration system designed to, among other things, recycle urine for reuse as fresh water.
The system, which will ionize, filter, distill, and oxidize wastewater, "will make yesterday's coffee into today's coffee," one astronaut told the BBC.
The idea behind the $250 million system seems to have been to figure out a way to ensure that residents of the Space Station had a supply of fresh water. To date, the Space Station has had the luxury of getting water deliveries from newly arrived Space Shuttles. But the Shuttle program is slated for retirement after 2010, and that looks to end the program's role as, among other things, the Space Station's personal water truck.
Still, the system won't be implemented right away. First, NASA wants to be sure that it works, as designed, in a zero-gravity environment.
On Earth, astronaut testers are apparently convinced that the filtration technology works just fine.
"Some people may think it's downright disgusting," Endeavour astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper told the BBC, "but if it's done correctly, you process water that's purer than what you drink here on Earth."
Some who have tried the recycled water did report a faint taste of iodine, but they didn't see that as a problem.
"Other than that, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water," said Bob Bagdigian, who ran the system's development. "I've got some in my fridge. It tastes fine to me."
One of the first things I did on my Road Trip 2008 project this summer was report on the landing of the Space Shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It was great to watch the shuttle land, but I was a bit disappointed I hadn't been able to make it to Cape Canaveral just a couple of weeks earlier to watch the launch.
Well, it turns out that all I would have needed to do to see the launch would have been to fly by. At least, that's how it seems, given a video that's going around the Web right now that purports to have been shot from an Air Canada flight that just happened to pass close enough by Kennedy Space Center for a passenger to shoot video of the shuttle rocketing into the sky.
It's not 100 percent clear that the launch in the video is Discovery, which went up on May 31. But it seems likely, given that that was the last shuttle launch and the video only just went up a few days ago.
Either way, it's a pretty cool video, and one of the things that's compelling about it--other than the fact that it's a space shuttle launch filmed from miles above the ground--is that you can get a very good sense of just how fast the shuttle is going when it blasts off.
Next time there's a launch--this fall, in fact--maybe I'll find out what flights might be in the vicinity at the time. On the other hand, given how hard it can be to book tickets on flights serving popular destinations on impacted dates, I might not be the only one.
This is the flight control room used for the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions, as well as for most of the manned Apollo missions, including the first to the moon, Apollo 11, and Apollo 13. It is now a Historical Landmark.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)HOUSTON--"Houston, we have a problem."
If there is a five-word phrase more recognizable than that in the annals of modern science or space exploration, I want to hear it.
For my entire life, the "Houston" in that phrase was an abstract term, a reference to a disembodied place where people wield God-like powers--or don't, as the case may be--over the astronauts who were themselves abstract to me. I'd never seen them, and I wasn't old enough to have watched any of the mythical rocket launches prior to the Space Shuttle.
But earlier this week, I finally was able to put a face to this "Houston" name. That's because, as part of Road Trip 2008, I spent a big part of a day at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) here, the very center of everything in that science-fictional image of space exploration.
Today, JSC is in the middle of preparing for one of the biggest transformations that exists in the space business: the roll-over from one major program to the next. That's exactly what's under way, in one form or another, here and at every other NASA center, as the agency begins to move from the Space Shuttle--which most likely has just nine more launches in its future and which is planned for a 2010 phase-out--to Constellation, the let's-go-to-the-moon project scheduled for official launch around 2013.
But for now, the shuttle is still king of the hill here, with the International Space Station, of course, whose constant stocking with parts and modules and supplies is one of the major jobs of the shuttle program these days, playing the role of, er, prince? Queen?
Where history was made
My first stop was taken at Building 30, Mission Control.
That meant starting with a swing past the current Mission Control room, where every Space Shuttle mission since 1995 has been run. It's actually a much smaller room than I had imagined. It's compact, and packed tight with computers, desks, people, and chairs, yet it still maintains a much-deserved aura as a room where really important and historical things are being facilitated.
Nearby was the Mission Evaluation Room, where a posse of technicians go over data coming in from the shuttle when it's above the Earth. These people are called the "chit kickers," because a chit is an open data-processing work order, and their job is to close them.
The 'chit kickers' are technicians who work in the Mission Evaluation Room to evaluate all the Space Shuttle data as it comes in. A chit is an open work order. Their job is to close them.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)We also visited three other mission control rooms, including the original International Space Station (ISS) flight control center, which it outgrew not long ago. This is now being used to train the teams that will run the October shuttle mission to work on the Hubbell telescope and is also the spot for ISS mission control training.
Next up was the current ISS control room, which, back in the day, was used as mission control for the early Apollo launches and was later, until 1995, the spot for running the shuttle. The very first Space Shuttle mission, in 1981, was run out of this room.
As we peered into the room from an observation deck above, we noted that Shannon Lucid, herself an astronaut from 1979 to 1996, was working CAPCOM--or spacecraft communicator--for the crew currently on the space station.
Before there can be astronauts in space, however, they have to train their tails off. And JSC is a very, very big part of that process.
That's why our next stop was the home of the fixed space simulators.
As with much of JSC--and Kennedy Space Center, for that matter--this facility is finishing up its shuttle work before moving on to Constellation. But right now, everywhere you look on its huge main floor, there are very visible reminders of where NASA is in its evolution.
In the building, there is also a series of training rooms where instructors take the future astronauts and lead them through what amounts to classroom work.
Among the elements covered are communications, data processing, control aerodynamics--that is, rocket motors--and more.
One thing that's good about these facilities is that they can be fully integrated with training rooms and simulators at any NASA center--or even foreign partner center. That means that specialists can be brought in via video link to any training, as necessary.
While I was there, several crew members, including upcoming STS-125 shuttle mission commander Scott Altman--who did a lot of the stunt flying in Top Gun, I was told--were inside the Shuttle Motion Base Simulator, a mock-up of a shuttle cockpit that can be shaken or tilted to give the crew a little bit of experience of a launch.
There's also a fixed base simulator, which is aimed at giving the crew a taste of running the shuttle in zero-G conditions.
From my perspective, because I got to go inside it, the best part was the cockpit simulator, a full replica of a real shuttle cockpit that is designed to present the astronauts with exactly what they will be dealing with at launch and while in space.
"We have to have it the way it is," said Jerry Swain, the Fixed Space Simulator facility manager. "They'll be strapped in and...get used to the way it is in the real vehicle."
I can't really comment on the veracity of that, having never flown a Space Shuttle, but it was pretty cool being in this faux cockpit. I stood there, knowing that probably most Space Shuttle astronauts, and other luminaries, like Bill Clinton, had sat in the seats here.
The electronics were real. The switches were real. The set of controls used to dock the Space Shuttle with the space station were real. The view of outer space was real. Okay, perhaps not that.
Inside the Space Shuttle cockpit trainer, which is designed to be an exact replica of a real shuttle's cockpit, these are the rear docking controls that allow the pilot to dock with the International Space Station.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Our next stop was Building 9, the Vehicle Mock-up Facility.
Here, there were two full-scale models of the shuttle, as well as several mock-ups of specific parts of it. Among them was one of the giant robotic arms used to move cargo in and out of the shuttle's massive bay.
But much more interesting--and forward-looking--was something called Chariot.
This is a prototype of the lunar truck NASA wants to put on the Constellation missions and take out on the moon. This will be a rover unlike any seen before. It will have the ability to range away from its power source for up to eight hours on six sets of wheels, each of which has fully independent movement, making it possible to move around in any direction at any time.
The idea here is that rather than having one rover, there will be several Chariots on the moon. And this would mean that any one of them would not need to come all the way home each day, allowing crews to range farther and father away from the landing site.
Inside the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at Johnson Space Center, there is a full-scale replica of the robotic arm used to move cargo in and out of the shuttle's bay.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Additionally, it is being built to support a pressurized module that can sustain a couple of astronauts for a day or two, all with the goal of being able to perform much more complex experiments than were possible during the Apollo moon missions.
But there are other kinds of training these astronauts have to do, and my last visit of the day was to the VR Trainer, a specialized room where folks like Dave Homan design virtual-reality systems that help crew members learn how to prepare for the extravehicular activity (EVA) they will take part in on the space station.
Essentially, that means learning how to handle themselves in open space, outside the ISS.
Among the tools created here is a software program that can run on powerful machines at JSC or even on laptop computers on the space station. Astronauts can either step into a VR helmet and gloves in Houston, or run the software on their laptops in space and try out various maneuvers they will have to do on the outside of the ISS.
And so when I put on the helmet and gloves, I suddenly found myself in a very realistic representation of space, floating around outside the space station, wiggling my hands in front of me as Homan rotated me around the floating research institution.
It wasn't exactly photo-realistic, but it was certainly better than a video game, particularly because of the immersive nature of wearing a specialized helmet.
And that was more or less it. After a day at JSC, I walked away having been to several of the trainers used by real astronauts and even tried my hand, sort of, at a space station EVA experiment.
So, NASA, next time there's an opening for a crew member, I think I'm ready. Think seriously about giving me a call.
Please stay tuned to find out if NASA does call, or even if they don't, on this blog and on my Twitter feed and my Qik channel.
CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman gets spun around at high speed in a multi-axis trainer at Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--I'm spinning around at high speed, and I'm going in all directions.
You might think it's a state of mind, but it was actually my body doing the spinning, as I was strapped into a multi-axis trainer, a three-ringed device used to demonstrate to participants at Space Camp here one of the things would-be astronauts had to go through to be chosen to be launched into space.
Space Camp, if you're not familiar with it, is an Alabama state program that since 1982 has given more than half a million kids a week of training in what it takes to be an astronaut. I had come here as part of Road Trip 2008, my journey through the South, to see a little bit of what I had been hearing about since my teen years.
During their week here, kids aged 7 to 18 get a primer in a series of space-related activities, including piloting a space shuttle, running a shuttle mission, repairing a busted satellite, moon walking, and, yes, being spun around with huge force on the multi-axis trainer.
The program here is not just hands-on, however. It also mixes classroom training, all with the goal of teaching kids how to work together, how to make better decisions, and how to lead when under stress.
While the kids may ultimately be most drawn to come here by the prospect of playing astronaut for a week, and two graduates of the program are in NASA's actual astronaut program, those who run Space Camp don't consider their curriculum to be about creating the next generation of visitors to the skies.
"We're not in the business of training astronauts," said Al Whitaker, media relations manager for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, which also hosts one of the best collections of authentic U.S. rockets in the world. "That's NASA's job. Our function is that we use that space-science curriculum as a vehicle to get kids interested in math and science."
Indeed, according to materials Space Camp puts out, 93 percent of participants took more science classes after visiting than they had before. And that's important as it is well-documented that American students are, on the whole, less and less interested in the sciences.
If you're older than 18, though, don't fret. Space Camp offers programs for adults, though it's mainly in the realm of corporate team-building workshops. Essentially, it's the same program that the kids go through, but ratcheted up a notch or two in difficulty.
At Space Camp, a group of teens works at a set up made to represent a space shuttle mission control while two of the group pilot the shuttle in a different part of the facility.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)"It takes them out of the boardroom and puts them in simulated life or death situations," Whitaker said. "And we hope that they'll perform better afterwards than they used to."
Whitaker told me that there is really only one curriculum for the kids, regardless of their age. But the counselors differentiate the program depending on how old campers are by fine-tuning the software running the exercises they're put through.
An example, Whitaker pointed out, was a space shuttle mission we walked into. This was putting a large group of the oldest kids through the paces of getting a computerized rendition of a shuttle back to Earth. Two of the teens were piloting it and three others were running mission control. The rest of their group was kibbitzing.
When we wandered in, the pilots had managed to upend their shuttle, and it was flying in upside down. The rest of the kids were laughing uproariously.
But the point, Whitaker later explained, is that because this was one of the older groups, they were allowed to maintain complete control over the flying of the shuttle, while the younger kids would have had less autonomy.
One of the things I tried at Space Camp was the one-sixth gravity trainer, which essentially allows you to experience what it's like to walk on the moon.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Later, Whitaker took me into another one of the exercises, in this case a module of the International Space Station. There, a teacher was leading three young kids through some experiments, including one called "superball," which is designed to see how things react under zero gravity conditions, and another to see what happens to various chemical reactions in the same environment.
Back in the room with the multi-axis trainer, I also tried out another exercise, this time something called the one-sixth gravity trainer. This is a contraption that is designed to give you a sense of what it's like to walk on the moon, and I have to say, it's very cool. I strapped in and before I knew it, I was taking huge steps, leaping high into the air with each foot forward.
For many kids, Space Camp is such a good experience that they come back time and time again. Some even come every year. For some, it's their version of summer camp, except with better rockets.
In fact, it's that very idea that led to the creation of Space Camp, Whitaker said. He explained that Wernher von Braun, the leader of the U.S. space program, noted that while there were camps for kids for many other things, there was nothing that taught science. Thus was born one of the most successful state programs in U.S. history.
And why Huntsville? It turns out that von Braun and a coterie of other German scientists ended up here after World War II because of the Redstone Arsenal that is based here. They began working on rocketry and before long, NASA was founded here (see video below).
If Space Camp wasn't here, it's not at all clear that any of the thousands of kids who do some here would have. Whitaker said that the program draws kids and adults alike from all 50 states and many countries. He also said that after September 11, 2001--which happened to be his first day on the job--Space Camp had to figure out how to market itself to families driving in to Huntsville because for many months afterward, airlines weren't letting kids fly alone, something that was and is, once again, a mainstay for the program's attendance figures.
And while most of the kids who come here stay for the full week of training, there are also shorter programs. Packages--which are all-inclusive, except for transportation to Huntsville--run from $399 to $1,600, Whitaker said.
So if you or your kids have a hankering to experience some of the astronaut's life and aren't on the short list to go into space yourselves, you could do worse than showing up here for a day or for a week. Just make sure that you take everything out of your pockets before you get on the multi-axis trainer.
Launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. The pad was originally designed for the Apollo program, and has been used for many space shuttle launches. Now it's being readied for the Constellation program, NASA's next-generation launch vehicles.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--I'd just walked into the press center here the day before the scheduled landing of Space Shuttle Discovery and located Allard Beutel, the head of public affairs, when I sensed that something was wrong.
Apparently, some little piece of the shuttle had broken off in space. Now, reporters from around the world were barraging Beutel and his team of NASA PR folks with demands to know what was going on.
"'You're stranding your crew in space, they can't come home,'" Beutel told me was the common sentiment he was getting from the reporters on the phone. "Ahhh, I didn't say that."
Suffice it to say, it was decided that there was no threat, and later in the day, we heard the landing had been given the thumb's-up.
I had come to Kennedy Space Center on Road Trip 2008 for a series of tours of KSC, one of the most storied space sites in the world and the host of, counting Discovery's successful return Saturday, 69 landings over the years.
Of course, being here so close to the shuttle landing, I stuck around to watch what turned out to be a nearly flawless event, blessed with clear skies, perfect timing, and a smooth arrival.
One of the well-recognized engine nozzles from the rear of the space shuttle sits on the ground of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)On Friday, the first stop on my tour was what is known as Pad B. It's actually launching pad 39B, and it was originally designed for the Apollo program. It's rarely used these days for launches, while its counterpart, Pad A, is where most of the recent space shuttle launches have been from.
However, this October, Pad B will be set up for a launch because simultaneously, over on Pad A, a shuttle will be heading off into space for a Hubble Telescope repair mission. But Pad B is made ready with a second shuttle, just in case NASA has to undergo an emergency rescue mission.
Either way, the minute the Hubble Shuttle mission is over, NASA will begin modifying Pad B for the launch of the Ares 1X rocket, the first Constellation-era test rocket, which is planned for next April.
Constellation is NASA's next big space program. It encompasses a five-stage rocket, topped by the Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV). And while there are still nine more shuttle launches planned through 2010, Constellation will supplant the shuttle when the first Ares 1 shoots into space, sometime in 2012 or 2013.
"Once Hubbell goes out, we need to start working as fast as possible to get ready for the launch of Ares 1X," said Jose Perez Morales, the Constellation pad senior product manager.
Next up, I was taken over to the VAB, a gargantuan building that stands 525 feet tall and takes up 8 acres of space.
The VAB was built in 1962 for the Apollo program, and it is still the building where the space shuttles are mounted to their external tanks and solid rocket boosters. The building has four "high bays," each a huge working area that rises all the way to the 525-foot height of the VAB, and where different kinds of work are done.
And, since NASA is transitioning to Constellation, the VAB will play its part there. According to product manager Phil Bennardo, high bay No. 3 will be converted for the assembly of the Ares 1 rockets. Similarly, high bay No. 1 will be converted for assembly of Ares V cargo launch vehicles after the Shuttle program ends.
Being that this was a day of tours, we had to hustle off to the launch control center (LCC) next. This is a complex with a series of large control rooms, called firing rooms, that are straight out of the movies: the huge windows, banks of computers, large numbers of chairs and sense that you could run a rocket mission from them.
Firing room 1 in the launch control center (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center is currently being retrofitted for the first test launch of the Constellation program, which is scheduled for April, 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Well, the truth is that NASA's missions are run out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, but the firing rooms at KSC are where the launch director and other top officials sit and monitor progress as craft like Discovery are on the go.
However, like much of KSC, the LCC is in a transition period, as it is being converted over from shuttle operations to Constellation.
We went first into firing room 1, which has the look of an office space after a dot-com has gone bust. It had lots of empty space, a stack of rolling chairs in the back, and a bunch of computer racks sitting empty.
In fact, though, this room is in the middle of being built-out for future Constellation mission operations.
Like Pad B, firing room 1 is getting ready for the April launch of Ares IX, and as a result NASA is training an entirely new team to work together in this room.
I was then escorted into firing room 2, which is still operational as a space shuttle support facility. During a shuttle launch and a mission, NASA will staff the room with several managers and chief engineers, but will not place any command and control people there. Essentially, it seemed like the place for managers to observe the mission while the folks in Houston run it.
However, there are two other firing rooms, Nos. 3 and 4, where the prime shuttle operations are run out of KSC.
Firing room 4 is also where the KSC shuttle landing team is based, though that part of a mission is still run out of Houston. But once a shuttle touches down and the team that processes the shuttle's cooling down, cleaning and oxygen, and hydrogen purging is finished, there is a formal hand-off of authority from Houston to KSC staff and the shuttle is then towed off the runway.
I was exhausted by now, so it was time for lunch. But afterward, the tour started right up again.
The assembly plant where the Orion crew exploration vehicle will be built.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Next was a visit to the operations and checkout facility, one of the older buildings at KSC and now in the process of being completely gutted and retrofitted so that it can house the assembly of the Orion crew exploration vehicle that will top the Ares 1.
As mentioned earlier, the date for the projected first launch of the Ares 1 is scheduled for 2013, but as Richard Harris, the director and deputy program manager of the Orion initiative--a Lockheed Martin employee--told me, the date keeps slipping because of budget problems.
We took a walk-through of the building, and what was incredible was how fast Harris' team is working. Right now it looks like construction has just begun on the facility, but he said that work will be done by November, and that he is absolutely on schedule.
After our visit to the O and C, I was escorted to a nondescript building that, it turned out, is where the parachutes for Orion and the space shuttle boosters are made.
And when I say parachutes, I don't mean for the astronauts. I mean for the rocket boosters.
These are unlike anything I'd seen before. They're simply massive, and, according to Terry McGugin, manager of parachute operations, the three parachutes required to bring the solid rocket boosters gently back to Earth would cover a total of up to 2 acres.
One of the first things we saw here was the washing machine for the parachutes, which must be thoroughly cleaned after each trip into space.
This is a packed parachute for the Ares 1X rocket, which is the first test of the Constellation program. In order to get the parachute into its package, it is put under 3,000 pounds of thrust.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)This, of course, is not the kind of machine you'd find in a laundromat. Rather, it's more like a car wash on steroids. McGugin's team loads one of the parachutes inside it, leaves it in five feet of water for four to six hours and then is hung out to dry in an equally large dryer.
There are three parachutes utilized to bring the solid rocket boosters down: a pilot, which gets the process started, a drogue, which slows the booster down and gets it pointed in the right direction and the main, which lowers it to Earth.
One interesting thing was that there were industrial sewing machines arrayed around the facility. That's because, McGugin said, each parachute requires up to 400 repairs after a trip to space.
Further, the parachutes use extremely strong materials and Kevlar thread to ensure that they can resist the rigors of space.
This is the cupola, a contribution from the Italian Space Agency. It is designed to give those living on the International Space Station extra windows.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)I particularly enjoyed seeing one of the parachutes packed up and ready to go. There was one already packed for the April 2009 Ares 1X test launch, and it was jammed into a package about half the size of a Smart car. McGugin explained that the facility has a machine that puts the parachute into the package with 3,000 pounds of force.
There were still two stops to go on the tour, and if you're exhausted by reading this, imagine my day.
The penultimate stop was to the International Space Station processing facility, where engineering project manager Shirish Patel showed me around.
He pointed out the express racks, which are packed with equipment for experiments, making sure that every single inch of space is used. Sixteen of these racks go into the multipurpose logistics module, which is essentially a shipping container that goes on the space shuttle when making a mission to the space station.
The Discovery mission, in fact, had taken up Kibo, the Japanese experiment module, which was built by JAXA, the Japanese space agency, and which is designed to help that country's scientists do research on the space station.
One of the last elements of the space station that still has to go up is the cupola, an add-on that will give those spending time there a set of windows to look out of.
The very last stop was to see a prototype of the heat shield that will go on the bottom of the Orion CEV (see video below).
Made by Boeing, the heat shield is currently being tested to see if a custom robot built just for it can detect intentionally made defects in its construction. The idea is that if it can, it should also be able to find any unintentional defects in the heat shield that actually goes on the Orion CEV.
By now I wasn't seeing straight anymore, so it was time to leave. My gracious hosts had ushered me through one of the most intense tours I'd ever been on, and they, too, seemed ready to drop.
But how can you complain after getting to peek behind the scenes at some of the most advanced rocket science going on in the world today? I know that when the next shuttle launches, and when the Constellation program begins to get under way next year, I'll be looking at things a whole lot differently.
