No training scheduled on the weekend, although I will certainly take some time to review my notes of the week and to start preparing for next week’s training in the NBL, the big pool where we practice spacewalks. Terry and I will train for a contingency replacement of a pump module. Sounds familiar? That’s because it has already happened on orbit!
I’ve attached some pictures from yesterday at the NBL. I showed up early in the morning for a brief on the peculiarities of the pool’s robotic arm. The software interface and the hand controllers are the same, but the arm itself is of course quite different and the pool has its own special constraints. If you ever hear me say on orbit: “I can’t go any further nadir, we’re getting close to the floor”… something is badly wrong!
Flying the arm in the pool is mainly focused on the GCA moments. That’s an acronym we borrowed front the aviation world and it stands for Ground Controlled Approach. A GCA controller has the approaching aircraft on the radar and gives instructions to the pilot to keep the plane on the glide-path until the pilot has the runway in sight. In the EVA world, a GCA is when the spacewalking crew-member gives instructions to the robotic arm operator in order to move the arm to a particular position. Instructions can be for example “1 meter station zenith” or “15° body pitch up”. Since GCAs usually occur close to structure, good situational awareness on the part of everybody involved is very important and effective communication is vital.
I also got to practice suiting up crew-mate Butch. That’s not an easy task. We usually have very skilled suit technicians who help us, but on orbit we’ll be on our own, so it’s important to be able to help each other getting into the suit.
02/08/2013