Sharing some pictures from training events this past week today.
You might remember I had a class on the EVA camera this week. It’s actually a commercial off-the-shelf camera with minor modifications, like the use of a lubricant that is suitable for vacuum operations. There are many such cameras on ISS and crew-members use them to take pictures inside all the time. When a camera needs to go outside, it’s nicely wrapped in a white garment, as you can see in the picture. That’s mostly done for thermal balance purposes.
I also had a class on the 3D camcorder. Now, that really opened a new world to me. Convergence, negative parallax, positive parallax… there’s a whole new complexity compared to shooting 2D video!
As for the dental procedures class, don’t worry: nobody plans to have us do major dental work while on orbit. Main things I have been shown is how to temporarily fill up a hole in the tooth if a filling has come off and how to reattach a crown. Also, I had some instructions in how to give a local anesthesia as a temporary relief in case of a bad tooth ache.
Finally, a picture of our class taking apart the spacewalking suit. Its real name is Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), but everybody calls it simply “the suit”. That was a fun class!
04/08/2013