An engineer at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory discusses how environmental effects help make spacewalk training more realistic in the 40-foot-deep pool. HWHAP Episode 340.
Houston, we have a podcast.
Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space center, episode 340, NBL Environments.
I'm Dane Turner, and I'll be your host today on this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts, all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.
The neutral buoyancy lab, or NBL, at the sunny Carter training facility is the premier place to train for spacewalks.
Probably the most impressive feature here is the giant pool that measures 102ft wide, 202ft long, and 40 foot deep, and is filled with 6.2 million gallons of water.
Inside the pool is a mock up of the exterior of the International Space Station, as well as an area with simulated lunar regolith to allow for moonwalk training.
The NBL is also very useful for training at the surface of the water.
They can simulate operations like water landing, recovery and egress.
At NASA, it's train like you fly.
So when it comes to training for different operations, there's a need to simulate various environmental factors as well.
Things like waves, wind, rain, and even lighting conditions create challenges that astronauts, engineers and recovery teams must overcome and need to be prepared for.
And when it comes to making sure the NBL can simulate these environments in as close to flight like conditions as possible, that's where today's guest comes in.
James Shaw is an engineer and project manager at the NBL and oversees the environmental effects there.
He's here to tell us all about what they can do and how it helps make training more realistic.
With that, let's dive in.
T -5 seconds at County Mark.
Mission start.
We have a podcast.
James, thank you so much for coming on.
Houston, we have a podcast.