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Home / Newspaper / Issue #42 (934) / 5th strip [archive]
Thorns and stars
Yulia Andreeva
October 19, 2011 0
Thorns and Stars Yulia Andreeva October 19, 2011 Number 42 (935) The past summer for Russian cosmonauts and cosmonaut candidates was full of various trainings.
Our story is about what future conquerors of the Universe need to do before flying to the stars.
UNDER THE DOME OF THE PARACHUTE, for almost a month this summer, not quite ordinary parachutists — future cosmonauts stayed in the sky over Tatarstan.
The aeroclub "Menzelinsk" is used as a training ground by parachutists of the Russian national skydiving teams.
We decided to find out why, before flying to the stars, future conquerors of the Universe need to jump with a parachute.
Most tests and training on Earth are not able to simulate one of the main factors of space flight — a stressful situation that forces an astronaut to be constantly alert and ready for emergency actions.
The latter can be achieved to some extent in the process of performing parachute jumps by an astronaut.
How to prepare for such work and to keep a clear understanding of what is happening, being in the far reaches of space, how not to get lost, not to lose self control?
To solve such problems, and was developed in the late 1970's — early 1980 s.
the method of special parachute training of the astronauts, which is still successfully used to prepare future explorers of the Universe.
"In order for a person to act clearly and coolly under stress, it is necessary to prepare his psyche," says Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Khomenchuk, a candidate for cosmonauts.
— All this is worked out during a free fall, which lasts about 60 seconds, during which the candidate for cosmonauts solves the tasks assigned to him, for example, logical or mathematical, while everything that he thinks and does, he must pronounce into a dictaphone.
This report is then analyzed by psychologists and instructors, determining how resistant a person is to a particular stressful situation."
Alex, perhaps the most experienced skydiver not only in your kit, but among all astronauts — in fact, at the time of joining the cosmonaut corps, his account was 3939 jumps!
"Before enrolling in the squad I was an instructor of parachute training, says Alex, so at this stage it is easier for me than other guys.
I have done all this more than once.
Now only the status has changed. "
Alexey worked in a group of instructors and was an instructor for the cosmonaut candidate Denis Matveev.
Usually parachutists jump in a group, which includes an astronaut and an instructor (he is also in most cases a videographer).
The cosmonaut's equipment consists of a parachute, a protective helmet with an attached altitude indicator, an altimeter and a voice recorder.
The procedure: I received a task, jumped with a parachute, solved a problem in the air it may seem simple only at first glance and only to an ignorant person.
First you need to master the technique of jumping.
And only then do the cosmonaut candidates begin to solve problems in the air.
Before the test, each of them receives his task on a card that is attached to his hand and covered with paper.
He can tear off the leaf and look at it only after he leaves the plane.
During a certain time before the parachute opens, in the free fall mode, and then under the parachute dome, the future cosmonaut must solve the tasks set in the "ticket".
Comments that are recorded on a dictaphone are then analyzed by psychologists.
In addition, an operator flying nearby takes a video camera of the cosmonaut's pose and behavior, and these recordings are also analyzed by specialists on the ground.
By the way, this year special parachute training was preceded by flights in a wind tunnel.
The advantages of such flights are evaluated by the deputy head of the Department for special types of training of cosmonauts and specialists of the Yuri Gagarin Central Research Center, Hero of Russia V. A. Ren: "It is advisable that before special parachute training, the total time spent in the wind tunnel is at least 30 minutes for each cosmonaut.
This is adequate for more than 30 parachute jumps."
The working day at the training camp begins early in the morning with a medical examination and a psychological examination.
After breakfast pre jump instructions and from 9.
00 jumps, jumps, jumps...
In the afternoon lunch, analysis of jumps, setting the task for tomorrow and preparing for the upcoming shift, readiness control.
In the evening dinner.
And so every day.
There is only one day off — Sunday.
During all this time, each cosmonaut makes 45 parachute jumps.
Of course, the tasks that are given to the guys are not directly related to the future space flight.
They help to learn how to make the right decision in a short time under real stress.
While still on the plane, the cosmonaut tells the date, surname, number of the jump, the height of the departure and the task that is given for the jump, describes the state of readiness for the jump on the dictaphone.
The future cosmonaut also comments on his actions in the air in detail aloud, recording on a dictaphone.
At the same time, he also controls the height and conditions of the parachute jump.
But that's not all.
During free fall, you have to solve logical and mathematical problems.
For example, a task called "arranging numbers".
The card shows a table with numbers arranged in random order.
And the future cosmonaut will have to list them in ascending order.
According to how accurately and quickly the candidate solves the proposed tasks, the degree of his psychological training is determined.
If he famously copes with them, as they say, clicks tasks like nuts, then he is offered other tests.
For example, those in which you need to describe in detail your emotions during a free fall.
And the psychological group then evaluates the vocabulary, sentence construction, verbosity and other parameters and draws conclusions.
Special exercises developed by domestic specialists for the training of astronauts allow you to train types of complex combined activities.
They say that after a month of such training, cosmonaut candidates not only have a reaction accelerated by one and a half times, but the body also copes with stress three times faster.
"About 30% of human psychology is occupied by conscious active activity, and the remaining 70% is stress and fear," says V. A. Ren.
— So, after special parachute training, they change places.
And the probability of preventing an emergency or eliminating it significantly increases."
SURVIVE AT SEA It is known that it is always more dangerous to return from space than to go into orbit.
After all, if an accident happens on the International Space Station, the crew will have to leave the station immediately.
And in this case, the landing site of the lander may well be a water surface.
But if the flood occurs in the waters of the World Ocean, the rescue forces will not immediately detect the astronauts.
For some time, it is quite possible that two or three days, the crew will have to act independently.
And astronauts should be fully prepared for this.
Therefore, they have to master the method of survival in an emergency situation when an aircraft falls into the water.
However, it must be said that for the entire time of conducting manned flights, this happened only once.
In 1976, our cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky landed on a lake in Kazakhstan.
They had to spend 11 hours in the descent capsule before rescuers reached them.
Test cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin believes that " sea survival is rightly considered one of the most difficult types of training for future astronauts, requiring both huge moral stress and large physical and psychological costs.
This is a super complex exam for all cosmonauts without exception.
But it is necessary to pass such a serious test — it is impossible to fly into space without it."
When an astronaut, after flying in space for five to six months, returns to Earth, his musculoskeletal mass relaxes.
And in case of a splashdown, he must perform very serious physical actions.
This is extremely difficult.
This year, the geography of marine survival has changed: instead of Sevastopol and Abrau Durso, the training center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations near Noginsk is located on the Black Sea.
The future conquerors of the Universe did not have to fight with the sea waves, but the rest — instructors, equipment and tasks remained the same.
Sea training consists of several stages.
The so called " dry " training, which is carried out on the deck.
In this case, the capsule is not lowered into the water.
Anything can happen during the flooding.
For example, the lander will get a hole.
In this case, the crew must urgently leave the capsule directly in spacesuits, without changing clothes.
And finally, the longest is the most difficult and difficult training.
Before starting the tests, astronauts undergo medical control.
Every morning, doctors conduct a medical examination of the subjects, and psychologists conduct the necessary testing, which reveals the readiness for training and the general mood for work.
The tasks set for future space explorers may seem simple only at first glance.
In fact, astronauts have a hard time: flight suits restrict movement in a tight and hot descent vehicle, the volume of which is only 2-2.5 cubic meters.
The recommended time for which the crew performs changing is one and a half to two hours.
Inside the lander there are three inclined troughs lodgments — on which the astronauts are either half lying or half sitting.
In addition, equipment and equipment are located around…
"In this limited space," says Alexander Misurkin, " we need to change clothes, take off our spacesuits and put on a special set of clothes: a wool flight suit, a heat protective suit that can withstand frost up to minus 60 degrees (astronauts survive in it in the winter in the forest near Moscow. - Yu. A.) and a waterproof "Trout" jumpsuit.
And if you consider that at an air temperature of plus 35 degrees, and water plus 25, the temperature inside the "orange" ball reaches 60 degrees above zero, then it is clear how difficult it is to withstand this.
During such training, astronauts ' blood pressure rises, their pulse rate increases (up to 170 beats per minute!), and their body temperature reaches 40 degrees.
For one such training, the subjects lose up to 5 kg in weight!
But now the astronauts left the lander.
Once they are in the water, they need to contact the halyards so that the wave does not scatter the crew members far from each other, establish radio communication, eat and drink (for this they have a portable emergency reserve), and also use special detection tools.
In addition, you need to learn how to swim in a bundle towards the shore, if it is located at a distance of up to several kilometers.
Alexander Misurkin is sure that " this training helps to develop self confidence and gives real skills to work in an extreme situation.
Clear and well coordinated work of the crew, interaction, a good psychological climate, the absence of panic — that's what our instructors teach us — and everything will turn out great."
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