Exploring an asteroid without leaving Earth
2016-04-27
One building at Johnson Space Center houses a spacecraft that will bring its 10th crew face-to-face with an asteroid on May 2. HERA—the Human Exploration Research Analog—is one of several analogs used by the Human Research Program to research ways to help NASA move from lower-Earth orbit to deep space explorations. An analog is a situation on Earth that produces physical and mental effects on the body similar to those experienced in space. From ingress to splashdown, the HERA crew goes through all the motions of a real deep space mission without ever actually leaving the building.
The habitat used for the HERA analog study, located in Building 220, is a three-story research laboratory containing an airlock, medical station, work area, flight deck, four bunks, kitchen and a bathroom. It is a generic design, not meant to replicate any particular spacecraft.
The HERA X crew is made up of four males selected from JSC’s Test Subject Screening (TSS) pool. The four would-be astronauts are Chris Matty of Houston; Ron Franco of Lockport, New York; Casey Stedman of Olympia, Washington; and Oscar Mathews of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Each crew begins training for their mission two weeks before liftoff.
Lisa Spence, the Human Research Program’s Flight Analogs project manager, explained that ideally they would like the four-person crews to be comprised of two males and two females. Due to the applicant pool, HERA IX was an all-female crew, and HERA X is all male.
“Our intent is to keep the gender split at 50/50, at least within a campaign,” Spence said. A campaign is a connected series (four missions) of operations designed to investigate particular research protocols.
The crew will test hardware prototypes to get “the bugs worked out” before they are used in off-Earth missions. They will conduct experiments involving plants, brine shrimp, and create a piece of equipment with a 3-D printer. After their visit to the asteroid, the crew will simulate the processing of soil and rocks they have collected virtually. Researchers outside of the spacecraft will collect data regarding team dynamics, conflict resolution and the effects of extended isolation and confinement.
“This campaign is different than the others in at least two ways,” said Andy Self, Flight Analog Project operations lead. “First of all, it is longer in duration. Campaign One was seven days; Campaign Two was 14 days. The current campaign is 30 days.”
The increased timespan gives the crew time to conduct more extensive experiments and for researchers to conduct more analogous investigations.
“The other change is the mission scenario,” Self said. “In Campaign Two, two crew members boarded a space exploration vehicle that detached from the spacecraft and hovered above the surface of the asteroid. For Campaign Three, using the same simulation software and virtual reality goggles, two additional EVA [Extravehicular Activity] crew members will exit the vehicle and then float above the surface of the asteroid collecting samples.”
How real is a HERA mission?
“When we set up an analog research investigation, we try to mimic as many of the spaceflight conditions as we can,” Self said. “Obviously, we are not in microgravity, so none of the effects of microgravity on the human or on the vehicle can be tested. You can mimic isolation to some degree–although the crew knows they are not really isolated from humanity, the communications delays and ban from social media help them to suspend reality. We mimic confinement and the stress that goes along with it.”
Like real missions, every HERA mission gets its own patch. HERA X will take place during the anniversaries of Gemini X and Apollo X, each of which used a prominent Roman numeral “X” on their patches. The HERA X patch uses a similar “X” in kind, along with the names of the crew and symbols of the mission.
Scientists and researchers use analogs like HERA to gather more data for comparison to data collected aboard the space station and from other analogs so they can draw conclusions needed for a real mission to deep space—and one day for a journey to Mars.
For more information on NASA’s Human Research Program, visit: www.nasa.gov/hrp
HERA—the Human Exploration Research Analog—is one of several analogs used by the Human Research Program to research ways to help NASA move from lower-Earth orbit to deep space explorations. Image Credit: NASA
Monica Edwards
Laurie Abadie
Human Research Program Engagement & Communications
NASA Johnson Space Center
The habitat used for the HERA analog study, located in Building 220, is a three-story research laboratory containing an airlock, medical station, work area, flight deck, four bunks, kitchen and a bathroom. It is a generic design, not meant to replicate any particular spacecraft.
The HERA X crew is made up of four males selected from JSC’s Test Subject Screening (TSS) pool. The four would-be astronauts are Chris Matty of Houston; Ron Franco of Lockport, New York; Casey Stedman of Olympia, Washington; and Oscar Mathews of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Each crew begins training for their mission two weeks before liftoff.
Lisa Spence, the Human Research Program’s Flight Analogs project manager, explained that ideally they would like the four-person crews to be comprised of two males and two females. Due to the applicant pool, HERA IX was an all-female crew, and HERA X is all male.
“Our intent is to keep the gender split at 50/50, at least within a campaign,” Spence said. A campaign is a connected series (four missions) of operations designed to investigate particular research protocols.
The crew will test hardware prototypes to get “the bugs worked out” before they are used in off-Earth missions. They will conduct experiments involving plants, brine shrimp, and create a piece of equipment with a 3-D printer. After their visit to the asteroid, the crew will simulate the processing of soil and rocks they have collected virtually. Researchers outside of the spacecraft will collect data regarding team dynamics, conflict resolution and the effects of extended isolation and confinement.
“This campaign is different than the others in at least two ways,” said Andy Self, Flight Analog Project operations lead. “First of all, it is longer in duration. Campaign One was seven days; Campaign Two was 14 days. The current campaign is 30 days.”
The increased timespan gives the crew time to conduct more extensive experiments and for researchers to conduct more analogous investigations.
“The other change is the mission scenario,” Self said. “In Campaign Two, two crew members boarded a space exploration vehicle that detached from the spacecraft and hovered above the surface of the asteroid. For Campaign Three, using the same simulation software and virtual reality goggles, two additional EVA [Extravehicular Activity] crew members will exit the vehicle and then float above the surface of the asteroid collecting samples.”
How real is a HERA mission?
“When we set up an analog research investigation, we try to mimic as many of the spaceflight conditions as we can,” Self said. “Obviously, we are not in microgravity, so none of the effects of microgravity on the human or on the vehicle can be tested. You can mimic isolation to some degree–although the crew knows they are not really isolated from humanity, the communications delays and ban from social media help them to suspend reality. We mimic confinement and the stress that goes along with it.”
Like real missions, every HERA mission gets its own patch. HERA X will take place during the anniversaries of Gemini X and Apollo X, each of which used a prominent Roman numeral “X” on their patches. The HERA X patch uses a similar “X” in kind, along with the names of the crew and symbols of the mission.
Scientists and researchers use analogs like HERA to gather more data for comparison to data collected aboard the space station and from other analogs so they can draw conclusions needed for a real mission to deep space—and one day for a journey to Mars.
For more information on NASA’s Human Research Program, visit: www.nasa.gov/hrp
HERA—the Human Exploration Research Analog—is one of several analogs used by the Human Research Program to research ways to help NASA move from lower-Earth orbit to deep space explorations. Image Credit: NASA
Monica Edwards
Laurie Abadie
Human Research Program Engagement & Communications
NASA Johnson Space Center
The HERA Crew 10 patch designed by Oscar Mathews. Image Credit: NASA
A cut-away view of the HERA habitat. Image Credit: NASA