vestibulo

Have you ever imagined how it would feel being weightless? Most people need to rely on their imagination to have a similar adventure or – go to space. But that’s not the only possibility to turn the world upside down! Currently the German Aerospace Center and the European Astronaut Center conduct a study, in which 12 participants stay in bed for 60 days. That might have an impact on your sense of gravity… 

a participants protocol 

„Das erste Mal hatte ich das Gefühl schweben zu können, als ich vom Training  kam. So ab dem 10 Tag in Bettruhe. Zuerst hatte ich es nur bei hellen Decken, dann überall – das Gefühl, dass ich schwerelos bin. Am liebsten fliege ich über Rohre, die sind ja so uneben. Und wenn ich in die große Halle fahre, wo die Decke ja mehrere Meter höher ist, habe ich das Gefühl, dass ich falle. Ich sage dann dem, der mich schiebt „Vorsicht, Stufe!“ Aber dann fällt mir ein, dass mir nichts passieren kann, weil ich ja schwebe und jemand der schwebt kann nicht fallen.

Zuerst wusste ich nicht, ob ich mir alles nur einbilde. Werde ich jetzt verrückt? Dann habe ich mit unserem Arzt gesprochen, der mir gesagt hat, dass das alles völlig normal wäre. Der Gleichgewichtssinn schaltet sich nach einer Weile einfach von selbst ab – und man nutzt nur noch seine Augen zur Wahrnehmung Dann ist eben oben gleich unten.

Ich habe keine Angst vor dem Schweben – ganz im Gegenteil, ich freue mich jedes Mal darauf. Es ist wie ein Abenteuer. Ich weiß ja, warum ich mich so fühle und kann es deshalb vielleicht genießen. Ich habe gehört, dass es nach dem Aufstehen nach 60 Tagen auch vorkommen kann, dass man nicht weiß, ob man sich selbst bewegt oder jemand anderes. Es ist eine ganz neue und spannende Erfahrung für mich und ich freue mich, dass ich sie haben kann.

Ich kann nur schweben, wenn ich mit dem Bett gefahren werde. Dann spüre ich selbst meinen Rücken, der auf der Matratze liegt, nicht mehr. Ich denke auch nicht mehr an meine Füße, da ich sie ja nicht brauche, wenn ich fliege. Es fühlt sich alles schwebend an. Ich habe früher immer den Traum gehabt, einmal ins Weltall zu fliegen um Schwerelosigkeit zu erleben. Jetzt ist es gar nicht mehr so stark, denn ich „weiß“ ja wie es sich anfühlt.

Aber, wenn ich mir vorstelle, nur noch in der Schwerelosigkeit leben zu müssen, dann würde ich den Boden unter den Füßen schon vermissen. Schwerkraft ist ja schon ziemlich praktisch.

In unserer Einrichtung gibt es auch ein Deckenfenster. Aber wenn ich dort entlangschwebe freue ich mich jedes Mal so sehr den Himmel zu sehen, dass ich selbst das Schweben vergesse.“

“The first time I felt weightless, just happened after my training. It was my 10th day in bed. First, I only had the sensation, when I passed over bright ceilings, but then I would experience it, every time someone would shift me from one place to another. My favorite sensation is, when I pass pipelines, which are settled in a lumpy way under the ceiling. Once I travel towards the big hall, which is much higher than the corridor, I have the impression of falling. I tell the person guiding me: “Pay attention to the steps!” But then I realize that nothing can happen to me, because I am weightless.

The first time I had the sensation of being weightless, I wasn’t sure if I will turn mad now. Our doctor assured me, that this is pretty normal, because my vestibular organ loses it orientation. Then, I only use my eyes for orientation. This could turn my world upside-down.

I am not afraid of being weightless – no: I really like it! It is an adventure. I know why I feel like that, which offers me a safe feeling to enjoy the journey in zero gravity. I’ve heard that the same effect can reappear after my bedrest phase. Some former participants could not distinguish between their own movements or the movements of other people. For me, the whole thing of being weightless is a new experience and I am thankful to have it.

I can only ‘fly’ when someone is moving me in my bed. Then I even don’t feel my back, which is settled on the mattress, anymore. I even don’t think about my feet anymore, because I don’t need them while flying. Everything is weightless. Years ago, I’ve always been dreaming of going to space one day to feel zero gravity. Today, I don’t think I have to there anymore – I’ve been there!

But, if I think about spending every day in zero gravity, I would decide to live on earth under normal conditions. I would miss touching the floor with my feet – and gravity has some practical benefits.

In our research department we also have a window at the ceiling. Every time I fly by, I am so happy to see the sky, that I even forget being weightless.”

 more about the RSL bedrest study:
https://davidrsl.wordpress.com/
https://paulrsl.wordpress.com/

and: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Bedrest_studies/60_days_and_60_nights_in_bed

more impressions: live at http://www.spaceup.nl/

A keynote from Kaunertal

„Ahhhh – your playing a mission to Mars on a glacier. How fun!” 

I think, I’ve heard that sentence at least every second time, I’ve been telling people about the analogue mission to Mars I would participate in. 

The purpose of AMADEE15 was to simulate a real trip to Mars within two weeks. We focused on testing spacesuits in several experimental conditions in order to evaluate their usage regarding EVAs on Mars. We analyzed the environment – a glacier – in order to understand how life in extreme environment can s urvive. We simulated a real time communication to Mars, learning about the difficulties of a ten minutes time delayed communication. The aim of our mission was to target as much as possible a real manned mission to Mars and to prepare future astronauts, using our experiences, for the biggest journey mankind ever has conducted. 

 

After finishing the mission, my personal result looks like this: We arranged really careful and precise, but there are two things we can’t prepare in advance. The first aspect addresses the radiation and the second – the psychological factors of human spaceflight. 

Let us focus on the last aspect – the psychological human being in space. 

team communication

“You never listen to me!” “You have no idea about what I feel!” “- We all know these kinds of sentences, having experienced similar situations in our relationships to friends or partners. Let us assume that we solve most of these conflicts by talking about them. We might share a meet up, start talking – and at some point we find a common base again. 

Now – let us imagine we are travelling on a spaceship to Mars and need to solve a conflict. On earth, or even during an analogue mission, it’s not such a big problem: people can meet, have a beer, talk it through and continue their work. But on Mars we have a time delayed communication of 

approximate ten minutes – which forces us to improve the communication to that point, that not only information regarding the operation will be transmitted, but also clearness about the psychological aspects.

But – in order to have an efficient emotional and operational communication, people need to adapt good communication skills and rules – to learn HOW to state their own aspects and thoughts. 

Therefore I suppose that a future mission to Mars must prepare in a way that communication skills and rules are trained within the entire team (includes astronauts, ground, scientist). Intense communication training will – of course – teach methods of sharing ideas and thoughts, but moreover increase the awareness for the fact that communication is a subtle and sensitive mechanism – which brings me to my next point.

awareness and introspection

Everyone being involved in a working process might have experienced moments when you are caught in your own work, forgetting about everything else surrounding you. 

Regarding space missions: we need to create more transparency and exchange in our team. That could have helped to zoom out of everyone’s frog perspective and capture the whole mission more from an outside view.

We were divided into several teams, such as Flight Planning, Science Support, Astronauts, Field and Ground Control. To my opinion, one of the biggest issues we have to work on is the question how we can increase the awareness for each teams work in order to decrease the potential number of misunderstandings between them.

I would have loved to invent the position of a runner in each team during a mission such as AMADEE15. That means: each day a team member switches to another team – just to observe the way they work: the questions they have to deal with, the targets they have etc. 

One of the astronauts described a possible situation on a real Mars mission using a funny quote: “The Science team wants me to bring the results, the Flight Plan team wants me to follow the schedule, the Media team expects an interview while collecting the results and being in time – but they all forget that I am carrying a heavy suit.” 

pre-selection process

I realized that people set a high focus on the astronaut selection – also from the psychological point of view, but less on the selection process of people working on the ground. 

In a real mission to Mars it is important to change that. Selection process should include pre-trainings for everyone participating in the mission. That would also increase the awareness of the entire work, not only of someone’s specific position. We should check for someone’s resources and motivation.

Brings us to our next point….

decrease of motivation

During missions, it happens that plans fail. Experiments have to be shifted due to outside conditions etc. Astronauts experience boredom while the feeling of the first excitement disappears. That can decrease the astronaut’s motivation and provoke bad working results and conflicts. 

I suggest facing this aspect from a preventive perspective. We need to be really aware about everyone’s internal motivation to participate in a mission, to check his resources and use them. Internal motivation cues can be really tiny and invisible but can have a huge impact on someone’s psychological status.

and the last one – can we fake reality?

I have a conclusion about the factor of simulating a mission as well: I think, even though we call it a simulation, we act within reality and therefore we can’t fake reality, because we actually never leave it. AMADEE15 ended his daily simulations around 3pm but I think it never ended and still goes on, including the discussions, the following thoughts. The only thing we can’t test yet is the factor of being far away from earth.

photos (c) AMADEE15 (Claudia Stix&Paul Santek)