Arizona Daily Sun, October 27, 2008
By Bonnie Stevens
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| Tennyson Anderson and Bud Anaya, eighth-graders from San Francisco de Asis Catholic School, check out a spacesuit during a field trip to Babbitt Ranches, where astronauts and scientists are testing new moon rovers. (Courtesy photo) |
For students from Mount Elden Middle School and San Francisco de Asis Catholic School, it must have seemed like the stars had aligned over northern Arizona.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said San Francisco de Asis principal Michael Evans. "Space shuttle astronauts are training at the premier place on the planet for experiencing lunar-like conditions, and it's a bus drive away." That premier place is on the Babbitt Ranches' CO Bar Ranch some 40 miles north of Flagstaff, where space shuttle astronauts Dr. Mike Gernhardt and Rex Walheim and a team of NASA and Johnson Space Center scientists are testing the latest small pressurized rovers and spacesuits. With a front row seat to witness this history in the making are Flagstaff schoolchildren.
The astronauts are test driving the rovers and traversing miles of the ranches' open range land this month. One of the Flagstaff missions calls for spending three days completely inside the rover. They are hoping to have two such rovers on the moon in 2019 with crews spending two weeks in them, and eventually a permanent site on the moon.
In the 1960s, NASA geologist Fred Horz helped the Apollo astronauts train in the Flagstaff area and is back helping a new generation of astronauts. "The Flagstaff site is an absolute treasure with these kinds of lunar-like geological features. And Meteor Crater, just down the road, is the best preserved impact crater on the entire Earth. We know we'll run into craters on the moon."
Gernhardt, who has flown four space shuttle missions, came up with the idea for the latest rover design. It has a helicopter-like bubble in the cab so astronauts can get a good look at the surface of the moon. It also has a suit port -- two spacesuits dangling off the back -- which astronauts can step into and deploy from the rover when they are ready to get out, walk and pick up rock samples.
"I've always said spacewalking is an honor, but not a pleasure," Gernhardt said about the cumbersome spacesuits. "Astronauts will be able to be in a very comfortable environment while viewing geological targets through the rover bubble and limit the time spent in the spacesuit, which is hard to maneuver. For example, pulling in the fingers of the gloves is like squeezing a tennis ball."
"We think the rover is a fabulous design and we want to find out if that's true before we build the flight system. It's cheaper to find out here on Earth than on the moon," said Doug Craig, NASA Strategic Analysis Manager for Explorative Systems.
For curious students who visited the site Wednesday, the astronauts described the cannon-like sound that occurs when the rocket boosters disengage from the rocket ship; what three Gs (three-times Earth's gravitational force) feels like; how they brush their teeth in space; and who decides how many vegetables they have to eat on the mission.
"Everything has a sauce on it to keep it from floating away, like broccoli and cheese or macaroni and cheese," Walheim said. "If you don't mix the water and the scrambled eggs well enough, the egg pieces can get away from you."
Some of the students were very interested in the bathroom facilities in space. Thirteen-year-old Tennyson Anderson, an eighth-grader at San Francisco de Asis, had other concerns: "What happens if you sneeze inside your spacesuit?"
The answer came from NASA electrical engineer Craig Bernard: "If astronauts sneeze in their helmets, they'll just have to live with it."
Despite all the challenges, the astronauts emphasized the thrill of being in space and going into the unknown. "It's very exciting to be pushing the limits of human performance and building steps into the future," Gernhardt said. "Looking back and seeing the Earth is breathtaking."
For the next few weeks, it may look like an alien invasion on the usually quiet range land north of the San Francisco Peaks.
"Babbitt Ranches has been fantastic to work with. We really appreciate their willingness to use their property. This is a great area to test the equipment," Craig said.
The NASA and Johnson Space Center team also expressed enthusiasm in sharing the mission with schoolchildren.
"This is the generation that's going to go to the moon and on to Mars, and we've got a heck of a team out here to figure out how to do it," said Mission Manager Joe Kosmo.
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