News
SPPC 2011.
Psychological training of astronauts
| Preparation
August 17, 2011
We continue the story about those who prepare astronauts for flight.
The profession of an astronaut is complex, but extremely interesting.
Hundreds of people help every cosmonaut to master it.
Specialists of the Cosmonaut Training Center accompany cosmonaut candidates and cosmonauts throughout their professional career.
They are always there: on the ground – in the gyms, training rooms, on a variety of "survival"; in the water - in the hydrolaboratory and in training for actions after landing; in the air - in "zero gravity" flights, during flight and special parachute training (SPPC).
This summer, a group of candidates for cosmonauts of the 2010 set, for whom the space career is still at the very beginning, successfully passed the stage of the SPPC.
More than 30 employees of the CPC and related organizations provided training and supervised the professional development of cosmonaut candidates.
Special attention was paid to psychological training.
Special parachute training of astronauts is a kind of complex simulator for the development of the psychological abilities of astronauts as specialists in a dangerous profession.
SPPK helps to form the psychological qualities necessary for activity in extreme conditions: emotional and neuropsychic stability, the ability to distribute and switch attention in conditions of time shortage, the ability to overcome difficulties, readiness for work.
The main goal of the SPPC is not only to master the technique of performing a parachute jump for future astronauts, but also to prepare them for reliable work in extreme conditions.
Candidates for cosmonauts must not only master the skill of skydiving, not only perform all its elements for "five points", but also cope with an additional task.
Having received the task, the cosmonaut must redistribute his attention between controlling the parachute and solving the task for the jump.
An additional task, according to experienced parachutists, is not very difficult, but it has to be performed in difficult conditions.
All the exercises taken in a complex — both the jump itself and additional tasks allow you to recreate the state of emotional stress, which is an integral element of the psychological modeling of the cosmonaut's activity.
The simulated state and tasks are selected in such a way as to activate the functions that are necessary for the professional activity of an astronaut: attention, memory, spatial orientation, logical thinking.
The issues of psychological training and assessment of the professional and psychological readiness of cosmonaut candidates and cosmonauts to work in extreme conditions at the SPPC 2011 were dealt with by the group of psychological support for parachute training of cosmonauts consisting of employees of the Department of system research of problems of cosmonaut training of the CPC Irina Bayanovna Solovyova and Svetlana Vasilyevna Andreeva.
Irina Bayanovna Solovyova cosmonaut of the first female Cosmonaut Squad, master of parachuting, who performed more than 2,300 jumps, candidate of Psychological Sciences.
Svetlana Vasilyevna Andreeva is a junior researcher of the research department, a psychologist by education.
The day of the psychological group begins, as with all participants of the SPPC, very early.
At 7 o'clock in the morning, psychologists are already starting to work.
Another jump day is ahead.
You need to check all the prepared voice recorders and task cards, communicate with the astronauts, assess their readiness for jumping.
Before the start of the jumps, one of the participants of the psychological support group goes to the landing site to observe the landing of the parachutists, talk with them after completing the task and evaluate their reaction to the next jump.
The second participant remains at the start, where the parachutists will return to prepare for a new ascent into the sky and a new jump.
Immediately after performing the jump, cosmonaut candidates and cosmonauts pass dictaphones with reports to psychologists.
Specialists copy the fresh recording to the computer and return the recorder to the subject.
While he performs the jump, his report is carefully listened to and analyzed.
At the first audition, the task of psychologists is to assess how the candidate for cosmonauts or cosmonaut coped with the task, how he reacted to the jump, how clearly and in detail he conducted the report.
By the time all the participants of the SPPC gather to analyze the jumps, psychologists will prepare a report on the results of the next day and recommendations on the content of the tasks for the next day.
We asked I. B. Solovyova and S. V. Andreeva to tell us more about the work of the psychological support group of the SPPC.
- Irina Bayanovna, how did the special parachute training of cosmonauts begin?
— The SPPC was developed in the 80s, when the Cosmonaut Training Center turned into the Scientific Research Institute of the CPC.
The task of scientific substantiation of special types of training for astronauts was set.
Prior to that, all cosmonaut training was focused on the training of pilots, including the task of developing methodological support for parachute training of astronauts to increase its effectiveness.
At that time, our team included several professionals, masters of sports in skydiving Sergey Alexandrovich Kiselyov, Gennady Mikhailovich Kolesnikov — and at the same time we had good contact with the staff of the Institute of Psychology and the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine.
With their help, all the provisions and methodological issues of the SPPC were developed and tested.
— Please tell us about the special parachute training of cosmonauts in 2011.
— We consider the SPPC as a section of psychological preparation for activities in extreme conditions, during which not only moral and volitional properties and independence of actions are developed, but also professionally important qualities of astronauts necessary for working under real stress.
These include operational stability, distribution and switching of attention, working in conditions of time shortage, readiness to act in a stressful situation.
The main methodological approach of conducting special parachute training is the introduction of an additional task at all stages of a parachute jump.
During the initial training, as an additional task, it is proposed to conduct a report on board, when separating from the aircraft and under the canopy of the parachute until landing.
The cosmonaut reports on the surrounding situation, his actions, what he sees and where he is going to land.
Then a report on a given topic is introduced.
We give various professional topics, for example, "I am a test cosmonaut", "I am a flight engineer".
This task reveals the ideas of cosmonaut candidates about their future profession.
The next stage of complication is the reportage in free fall.
As astronauts learn to fall steadily, to control their actions in free fall, they also conduct a report.
Next, a task is given for free fall — in the form of solving "cards".
These are simplified psychological tests or logical tasks.
Adapted psychological techniques are used for the work, for example, a "black and red table" (that is, a set of numbers that need to be arranged in ascending (red) and descending (black) order) and the "scale" technique is a task in which the parachutist needs to determine the price of division on the depicted dials or scales and find the sum of 3 readings.
When we were developing this stage of preparation, we encountered a problem: how to present the parachutist with the initial, initial information for solving the problem and how to get the result of his work.
As a result, a method was developed for presenting data on "cards" that are opened at the department.
In free fall, the cosmonaut must solve the problem and "talk" the solution to the dictaphone, while it is necessary to track the current height of the fall and ensure the opening of the parachute at a safe height.
After the disclosure, he analyzes his actions in free fall.
Then — as they taught: to report on the surrounding situation, build a calculation of the approach to the target and ensure a safe landing.
The next stage — the transition of cosmonaut candidates to a new dome system of the "wing" type - "Crossbow" - was successful.
The entire program is carried out by them professionally, competently.
They mastered jumping from a height of four thousand meters with long delays in opening the parachute, learned to solve the problems of information search in free fall and to report on all stages of a parachute jump.
And most importantly, they believed in themselves, in the ability to work purposefully in stressful conditions.
Complex tasks have been mastered successfully.
The 2011 SPPC program is being fully implemented.
The weather in Menzelinsk is favorable, the conditions are also favorable.
The main thing is that the work under the SPPC program is organized professionally competently.
Instructors very carefully, very carefully and kindly conduct the training of astronauts.
The result, of course, will be.
- Svetlana Vasilyevna, please tell us about the work of the psychological support group at the SPPC.
— The following work was carried out: dynamic observation and purposeful communication; analysis of the report at all stages of the jump in order to assess the condition and performance; providing feedback for trainees based on the results of jumps at the analysis of each day.
The aim of the work was to develop the abilities and functional capabilities of astronauts in the interests of increasing their readiness for stress.
In our work, we used the methodology of psychological modeling of complicated activities, which includes the reaction of emotional stress in combination with the activation of the necessary intellectual processes and perception processes.
The used psychological model of complex combined activity allows you to manage the condition of students by increasing the complexity of the additional task, to assess their mental state and the quality of the task
— This is your first parachute training camp.
What are your impressions of the SPPC?
— I really liked the venue of the SPPC, the warm welcome and the warm attitude of the employees of the Menzelinsk Aero Club.
I admired the work of the instructors, both local and ours, their approach to working with astronauts and highly professional skills.
There was a real team spirit, unity and a sense of a big friendly family at the SPPC.
I was very pleased with the attitude of the cosmonauts to work on parachute training — serious, but enthusiastic.
It was noticeable that everyone was focused on working with excellent results.
There were the kindest and most sincere feelings both for the trainees and for the instructors, so that they would safely work out the program defined for a specific jump and land safely.
I wanted the young cosmonauts to believe in themselves, learn how to work in difficult conditions and, of course, despite the unstable weather, cope with difficulties and successfully complete the program.
Source: Press Service of the CPC, photo by Andrey Shubin
