Part 2 – the NASA NBL

After a 17 hour flight that crossed the North Pole, Valeria picked me up from the airport and we headed into the Sony Carter Training Facility - or better known as the NASA NBL. AND IT WAS MIND-BLOWING. I felt I was living every child’s dream - to see this most amazing playground, and one of the world’s largest indoor pools (of dimensions ~60 x 30 x 12m, and a volume of over 6 million gallons of water). It was such a privilege to be inside! One can feel the gravitas of this building, and its importance to humanity. To walk the same path of all the astronauts who have trained here; to think they have flown in shuttles, worked in the ISS and bounced on the moon - one cannot really put that feeling into words. Humility, pride, extreme imposter syndrome? No seriously; I felt as if I had my “one small step” lunar moment - and I hope one day that it will be for real :P

Ok, now let’s give some context. The NBL’s aim: to provide astronauts with a mock-up of the International Space Station (ISS). Here, they can feel what it would be like to conduct real Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA’s), and also learn where different modules are on the ISS itself (ie how to traverse across the space station, so it is easier in out-of-world situations). Microgravity is what astronauts experience in space when they float inside the ISS as if they were weightless. On Earth, we cannot mimic the microgravity environment for a long time (the closest comparisons are 30s parabolic flights); thus the NBL is currently the best way to train astronauts, although neutral buoyancy does not equate to microgravity. This is because gravity will still act upon the astronauts underwater, and training in the pool is much harder than on the ISS! Even moving tools underwater are harder due to the drag / weight that each instrument provides in the pool. Indeed, when astronauts come to do actual EVAs, they report how much easier it is to move around in space after conducting NBL training, and how delicate they must now be when carrying heavier objects!

An astronaut training dive is a massive operation which takes 2 dive teams on twinsets; the first group will be in-water for hours 1, 2, 5, and 6, and the second team will jump in for hours 3 and 4. All divers and astronauts are breathing nitrox at EAN46. This is most important for the astronauts themselves, to stop them from going into deco after their long stint in the pool – especially as their spacesuit is pressurised to ~4psi at the surface already (thus exacerbating things at depth!). When the astronauts are craned into the pool, safety divers must make the 300lb spacesuits neutrally buoyant in the water – which will leave the astronaut in a head-up position at a 45-degree angle (the working position on an EVA in the ISS). This requires putting weights and foam on different parts of the body to achieve neutral buoyancy – but the body is still able to hover in the water column at this desired position. This procedure is called the weigh-out - and is individual to each astronaut, or the same astronaut over time!

However, the NBL is also now useful for simulating environments for NASA’s Artemis program – the return to the moon. Putting boots on the lunar surface is part of the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2025/2026, and so they need to practise! By putting rocks and sand at the bottom of the NBL; and changing the weigh-out to make the astronaut a bit heavier but also “bouncier” – divers can recreate 1/6th gravity environment akin to the moon’s surface. Now with the simulated environment of the moon – astronauts can practise geological sample collection protocols here on Earth, along with the new spacesuits designed for the moon as well. You can now see the rocks and sand in one of the bottom images - which replicates the lunar surface now! So, enjoy the inordinate amount of images of the pool from different angles :D Thanks Val for showing me around!