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SPACE ADVENTURES:
An
Incredible Air and Space Adventure
Written by A. Forrer. (Edited by Jane Reifert)
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on photos to enlarge
Chapter Three
- Centrifuge
Wednesday,
May 29th - Centrifuge
Wednesday
should be a bit less stressful, only tough part is the centrifuge ride.
So off we go in the morning. My breakfast time is an hour earlier than
Karen so I miss out on her adventure: She met with Lance Bass, singer
from NSYNC who is undergoing his medical tests at Star City for his
Soyuz flight. She spotted him in the breakfast room and 'stalked' him
for an autograph, which he was happy to give. Not that I particularly
care about a singer, but if he makes it into space, well, then to me
that signature is good as any other astronauts' (with the exception
of John Young of course).
 Anyway,
back to the bus and heading out for Star City. By now the streets look
familiar, so does the routine medical test. Blood pressure, pulse, bones,
the usual. All ok. Cute how everybody leaves the room once the doctor
tells me to take off the shirt, as if I'd care about being 'naked' while
my thoughts are concerning the preservation of limb and life...They
tell me I got upgraded to the big centrifuge (12m vs. 8m). They think
that should make me happy, but I just got more nervous. However that
is really unfounded as on the big centrifuge one 'only' feels the Gs,
but not the motion sickness from going in circles. So I guess it is
an upgrade. Then they show me that monster and my heart sinks to my
knees, but no time for that: Immediately I'm shoved into a room with
nurses who install all the biosensors on my chest. Once complete I climb
into the chair, which is as comfy as can be. No wonder, they push cosmonauts
in this thing to 12 Gs for emergency reentry sims. My plan is more civilized:
Perform an entire flight into space with staging of all three engines
and the increased G loads until booster cut out. While I'm being strapped
in, an additional pulse meter around my index and the kill switch to
abort in my hand, they hand me a pen to sign the waiver. For some reason,
that always comes up at the very last second. Not that I wouldn't sign
it before, but what is one supposed to do in that position anyway? They
all are trying to relax me and one of the guys tells me to smile while
under the G loads, that would relax the facial muscles. I'll keep that
in mind. Then they move the chair on wheels into the cabin, close the
hatch and remove the bridge between the wall and the centrifuge.
I'm looking now
at an overhead ring of LEDs, which will come on randomly and I have
to press buttons in response to that. A camera above my head watches
every facial expression and sure enough they soon ask me over a speaker,
whether I was chewing gum. I wasn't, only grinding my teeth. Must still
have been nervous, but it is nice to be able to talk to 'them'. Them
is a bunch of doctors, centrifuge technicians and my 'mother hen' Marina,
my translator. Just before 'liftoff' the cabin moves around 90 degrees
into launch position and the arm starts to accelerate to simulate the
build up of the launch Gs. After a couple of minutes the first stage
is spent and I'm pressed with 3.5 Gs back into my comfy seat. There
is no discernible lateral G force, the simulation is fairly accurate.
It only gets very odd as the first stage is dropped and the centrifuge
comes down to a standstill within no time. I'm pressed against my belts
and I think they also tilted the cabin. You can't see that from the
outside, but that's at least the motion I feel and it feels very odd.
I let out a little cry and on we go with the second stage. After the
final stage is spent I'm back on earth, get unstrapped etc. The doctors
are all smiles and present me with a tape of in and outboard cameras
as well as endless feet of EKG printouts from all sensors. The basic
result is, that I'm fine and would have made it. They are stunned at
my blood pressure, which was "like a baby". True, after an
initial fear I kinda eased into it. They also tell me, that a real cosmonaut
candidate before me had a really hard time. He got so nervous, that
he didn't pass the test. That's the beauty of being an amateur/tourist:
Other than your personal safety, there is nothing at stake. Once you
feel good about the experience, there is no more reason to be nervous
about and then you actually 'succeed'.
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