NASA Human Space Exploration Research Training Week One

One week of training down for NASA's HERA XV mission. This earth analog mission is the third to be done in the HERA habitat this year. As a part of the 4th campaign for the Human Research Program since they inherited the habitat, the 45 day mission is the culmination of everything the research team has learned over the years. 

Analog missions are often used for a variety of purposes such as psychological research, testing protocols and equipment for use in future space missions, and medical research. Part of the reason for this is that the earth bound experiments are much cheaper and can be done by more individuals. There is also the fact that when in the dangerous environment of space you do not want to be trying something experimental, since you don't know what will happen. NASA's job is to keep the astronauts safe and healthy. Ground based testing can be used to work the kinks out of an experiment's design, certify a piece of hardware, or test out a software application. Other analogs on the ground include parabolic flights, NEEMO, Antarctica, High Seas, MDRS, and Desert Rats to name a few.

So far in training we have learned a great deal about the habitat itself, protocols, and experiments. A fun part was learning about what experiments are the same as the ones done on the International Space Station. Although I cannot share any details, I can at least share the list of experiments which can be found here. You will also be able read all about them when the research is published; which will probably happen in a couple of years. So how about I focus on what I can share?

In my last post I mentioned that we had agreed upon a logo that I drew. We'll be wearing that with some nice navy jump suits for our crew picture. You can see the pictures for the other crews on the HERA website right now. Here's me in mine - It's great!

If you'd like to show your support of the mission with a t-shirt, coffee mug or such, here's the place to do that. If you want a mission patch we need to do a bulk order so just use the comment form to ask for one and we'll add you to the list. Probably won't get them until after we get out of isolation though.