Astronaut training

Proficiency maintenance aims to help the crew members to maintain a minimum level of performance, including topics such as extravehicular activity, robotics, language, diving, and flight training.

Post-flight, following exposure to microgravity, the vestibular system, located in the inner ear is disrupted because of the microgravity-induced unresponsiveness of the otoliths which are small calcareous concretions that sense body postures and are responsible for ensuring proper balance.

Using virtual reality, astronauts can be trained and evaluated on performing an EVA (extravehicular activity) with all the necessary equipment and environmental features simulated.

[12] When the goal is to act as a practice tool, virtual reality is commonly explored in conjunction with robotics and additional hardware to increase the effect of immersion or the engagement of the trainee.

Furthermore, because modern space exploration is done by a consortium of different countries and is a very publicly visible area, astronauts received professional and cultural training, as well as language courses (specifically in Russian).

In particular, vacuum chambers, parabolic flights, and neutral buoyancy facilities (NBF) allow candidates to get acclimated to the micro gravity environment, particularly for EVA.

This includes full-size cockpit replicas mounted on hydraulic rams and controlled by state of the art computer technology; elaborate watertanks for simulation of weightlessness; and devices used by scientists to study the physics and environment of outer space.

and scientific (including human physiology, biology, earth observation, and astronomy) basics are introduced, to ensure that all new astronauts have the required base level of knowledge.

The Tsukuba Space Center also includes medical facilities for assessing suitability of candidates, an isolation chamber for simulating some of the mental and emotional stressors of long duration spaceflight, and a hypobaric chamber for training in hull breach or Life Support System failure scenarios resulting in a reduction or loss of air pressure.

As well as time spent in the Neutral Buoyancy Facility (NBF), training for EVA takes place in a high vacuum, low temperature chamber that simulates the environmental conditions of space.

At all stages of training, astronauts undergo physical conditioning, including time in a human centrifuge located at the ACC, and a program of micro gravity flights, carried out in Russia.

India plans to build an astronaut training facility and biomedical engineering centre 8 to 10 kilometres from Kempegowda International Airport.

A powerful tool for astronaut training will be the continuing use of analog environments, including NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NOAA NEEMO), NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS), Envihab (planned), Flight Analog Research Unit, Haughton-Mars Project (HMP), or even the ISS (in-flight).

[30] The use of virtual reality will also continue to be used as a means of training astronauts in a cost-effective manner, particularly for operations such as extra-vehicular activity (EVA).

[34] Researchers are looking into how current mental health tools can be adjusted to help the crew face stressors that will arise in an isolated, confined environment (ICE) during extended missions.

[36] The program has modules that focus on relationship management, stress and depression that guide astronaut's through a virtual therapy session in space.

Virtual reality enhances an astronaut's senses during training modules like fluid quick disconnect operations, spacewalks, and the orbiter's Space Shuttle thermal protection system (TPS) repairs.

The VR training offers a graphical 3-dimensional simulation of the International Space Station (ISS) with a headset, haptic feedback gloves, and motion tracker.

[42] In 2018, two Expedition 55 astronauts Richard R. Arnold and Andrew J. Feustel, received virtual reality training and performed the 210th spacewalk.

The training process combines a graphical rendering program that replicates the ISS and a device called the Charlotte Robot that allows astronauts to visually explore their surroundings while interacting with an object.

The training method is achieved by constructing a low gravity environment through Maintaining the Natural buoyancy in one of the largest pools in the world.

[47] Underwater head-mounted display virtual reality headset is used to provide visual information during the training with a frame rate of 60 fps and screen resolution of 1280 by 1440.

The VR training system can simulate high-speed situations and emergency scenarios, for instance, launching, entering the space, and landing at an unexpected location.

While it prepares astronauts for the tasks they are performing in space, it does not necessarily give them a full spatial understanding of the station's layout.

When a user enters space, they see pure black until their pupil's dilate and the sky fills with stars in an occurrence called the ‘blooming effect’.

Unlike commercialized virtual reality, the equipment that NASA uses cannot be produced at a large scale because the systems require supplemental technology.

[54] NASA's Charlotte robot is restricted by cables that simulate the microgravity environment and the Virtual Reality Lab only has two machines in their possession.

[55] Using sensors embedded in the fabric, the gloves can sense when the wearer decides to grasp an object or release it, but the technology needs to be further developed to integrate precise user movements into virtual programs.

[53] Full-body motion sensors have also been incorporated into training and tend to be expensive but necessary in order to have effective tactile feedback in response to the astronauts' movements.

[53] The primary focus of future research on virtual reality technologies in space exploration is to develop a method of simulating a microgravity environment.