WEBVTT 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,200 Coming up next on " Jonathan Bird's Blue World ", 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:12,250 Jonathan goes to inner space at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where astronauts are trained. 3 00:00:12,250 --> 00:00:19,750 Hi, I'm Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world! 4 00:00:50,550 --> 00:00:54,930 "Blue World" takes me on adventures all over the planet. 5 00:00:54,930 --> 00:01:02,610 Today's adventure takes me to the Johnson Space Center at NASA, in Houston, Texas! 6 00:01:02,610 --> 00:01:08,899 And, I'm standing on the International Space Station! 7 00:01:08,899 --> 00:01:10,899 Well, not exactly. 8 00:01:10,899 --> 00:01:20,249 I'm standing on an underwater full size replica of the International Space Station in a gigantic indoor swimming pool. 9 00:01:20,249 --> 00:01:27,759 Here they train astronauts to work in zero gravity by simulating these conditions underwater. 10 00:01:27,759 --> 00:01:37,069 Outside, it just looks like a huge warehouse, but inside is the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory: The NBL. 11 00:01:37,069 --> 00:01:48,299 I arrive early in the morning and meet Daniel Sedej, the facility manager, who has arranged our visit. 12 00:01:51,299 --> 00:01:56,529 We drag all our gear inside and get our first glimpse of the NBL. 13 00:01:56,529 --> 00:02:02,660 This thing is huge - a swimming pool nearly the size of a football field! 14 00:02:02,660 --> 00:02:06,869 As we arrive, the morning mission briefing is just starting. 15 00:02:06,869 --> 00:02:15,870 The entire team, from astronauts to support divers to technicians, are all given a thorough run-through on the training exercises for the day. 16 00:02:15,870 --> 00:02:20,050 And Cameraman Tim and I are part of this meeting, 17 00:02:20,050 --> 00:02:26,400 because they are going to let us dive in the NBL today with the astronauts! 18 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,189 Our morning starts with a quick checkup. 19 00:02:29,189 --> 00:02:35,289 All divers in the NBL must pass a rigorous physical, and a checkup before the dive. 20 00:02:35,289 --> 00:02:38,540 Cameraman Tim and I are no exception. 21 00:02:38,540 --> 00:02:48,720 We pass our checkup, and next we meet up with Sara Williams, the Dive Training Officer who gives us a dive safety briefing. 22 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:56,220 What to do and what not to do in the NBL. 23 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:12,000 Just as we finish our briefing, the team is gathering on the deck to begin preparations for putting the astronauts in the water. 24 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,090 Getting into a space suit is no easy feat. 25 00:03:15,090 --> 00:03:19,390 In fact, it might be easier in the zero gravity of orbit. 26 00:03:19,390 --> 00:03:24,569 But here on land, it takes assistance. 27 00:03:24,569 --> 00:03:29,949 The astronauts wear liquid-cooled underwear to keep them from overheating. 28 00:03:29,949 --> 00:03:32,359 That's what these tubes are for. 29 00:03:32,359 --> 00:03:37,010 The torso of the suit is clamped to a cage because its too heavy to lift. 30 00:03:37,010 --> 00:03:46,030 That's because this space suit is specially modified for underwater use, and has a lot of lead weight in it. 31 00:03:46,030 --> 00:03:49,010 Climbing into the torso is a little tricky. 32 00:03:49,010 --> 00:03:54,239 It takes nearly an hour to suit up. 33 00:03:54,239 --> 00:04:02,739 The last thing to go on is the helmet. 34 00:04:02,989 --> 00:04:11,469 Underwater, a high-oxygen blend of air will be fed to the astronauts through their umbilicals. 35 00:04:11,469 --> 00:04:15,549 Meanwhile, the safety divers are in the water getting ready. 36 00:04:15,549 --> 000:04:23,590 They wear double scuba tanks so they have enough air to stay down as long as necessary to complete the mission. 37 00:04:23,590 --> 00:04:25,790 Tim and I are getting ready too. 38 00:04:25,790 --> 00:04:32,690 I can't wait to see this enormous underwater facility! 39 00:04:38,229 --> 00:04:48,529 I descend into the clearest water I have ever seen, and it looks like an underwater movie set! 40 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,680 The pool is a staggering 40 feet deep, 41 00:04:55,680 --> 00:05:01,669 and everywhere I look are full-size replica sections of the International Space Station. 42 00:05:01,669 --> 00:05:04,570 I take a few minutes to explore the pool. 43 00:05:04,570 --> 00:05:07,970 I can see from one end to the other very clearly, 44 00:05:07,970 --> 00:05:11,810 meaning that the underwater visibility is over 200 feet! 45 00:05:11,810 --> 00:05:15,510 I could spend a few hours just swimming around down here. 46 00:05:15,510 --> 00:05:21,880 It's like a playground for divers, with all sorts of great structures to swim through! 47 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:25,169 For the astronauts-- now, the moment of truth. 48 00:05:25,169 --> 00:05:33,490 A crane lifts them into the pool, wearing 300 pounds of space suit apiece. 49 00:05:34,490 --> 00:05:41,090 Underwater, the safety divers meet them and carefully remove them from the platform. 50 00:05:42,090 --> 00:05:48,660 Each astronaut is carefully weighted to be precisely neutrally buoyant. 51 00:05:48,660 --> 00:05:52,490 Hey, they don't call it the Neutral Buoyancy Lab for nothing! 52 00:05:52,490 --> 00:05:59,410 Once weighted properly, the astronauts hover in the water as if floating in the weightlessness of space. 53 00:05:59,410 --> 00:06:04,500 Since fins don't work in space, the astronauts don't get to wear them here. 54 00:06:04,500 --> 00:06:13,800 They must be moved from task to task by the divers. 55 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:22,610 The divers are also responsible for keeping a careful eye on everything happening. 56 00:06:22,610 --> 00:06:27,210 Each astronaut has 4 divers assigned to him or her. 57 00:06:27,210 --> 00:06:33,639 Two are safety divers. Another has a camera with a cable going to the control room. 58 00:06:33,639 --> 00:06:39,389 And there are more cameras mounted all over the inside of the pool too. 59 00:06:39,389 --> 00:06:47,949 In the Test Director room overlooking the pool, 21 monitors keep the staff informed of everything that happens below. 60 00:06:47,949 --> 00:06:51,819 They oversee the safety of the operation. 61 00:06:51,819 --> 00:07:00,240 If anything were to go wrong, the divers can get the astronaut to the surface in only seconds. 62 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,329 In the Test Conductor room, another team is conducting the training run. 63 00:07:04,329 --> 00:07:11,389 The test conductor and team speak directly to the astronauts through communication gear in their helmets. 64 00:07:11,389 --> 00:07:16,349 But powerful underwater speakers allow the divers to hear everything that is being said, 65 00:07:16,349 --> 00:07:21,849 even if they can't talk back. 66 00:07:24,569 --> 00:07:29,080 The point of all this effort is to provide a learning environment for astronauts 67 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:33,899 where they can practice tasks over and over in simulated zero gravity, 68 00:07:33,899 --> 00:07:38,760 before they are required to do it by themselves in space. 69 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:42,769 Tasks that are easy on land become much harder in zero gravity. 70 00:07:42,769 --> 00:07:51,030 And harder still while wearing a space suit that has to be able to protect an astronaut from the vacuum of space. 71 00:07:51,030 --> 00:07:55,999 A space suit is designed to have more pressure on the inside than on the outside, 72 00:07:55,999 --> 00:08:00,759 since it's effectively inflated like a balloon in space. 73 00:08:00,759 --> 00:08:05,830 Here in the NBL, that pressure is backwards. 74 00:08:05,830 --> 00:08:08,599 Water is definitely not a vacuum. 75 00:08:08,599 --> 00:08:12,099 In order to keep the water pressure from squishing the astronauts 76 00:08:12,099 --> 00:08:19,709 as they go deeper, the suits are inflated to a pressure just a few PSI higher than the surrounding water. 77 00:08:19,709 --> 00:08:26,350 When an astronaut goes deeper into the pool, the water pressure pushes in on the suit and tries to compress it, 78 00:08:26,350 --> 00:08:30,710 so the suit is given more internal pressure to keep it inflated correctly. 79 00:08:30,710 --> 00:08:35,529 As the astronaut ascends towards the surface, the air inside the suit expands 80 00:08:35,529 --> 00:08:39,549 and tries to overinflate the suit, so some of the air is released. 81 00:08:39,549 --> 00:08:48,000 In this way, the suit always stays inflated just as it would be in space. 82 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:54,970 After a couple hours of training, the divers move one of the astronauts over to the platform and remove her glove. 83 00:08:54,970 --> 00:09:03,547 This training exercise simulates a suit failure, and it's one of the things that astronauts practice underwater. 84 00:09:05,547 --> 00:09:14,470 The continuous flow of bubbles from the sleeve shows the regulator in the suit attempting to maintain positive pressure. 85 00:09:14,470 --> 00:09:22,570 Soon, the astronaut is lifted from the water after a successful training mission. 86 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:40,380 Tim and I head back to the surface too. 87 00:09:45,380 --> 00:09:48,880 That is the coolest swimming pool ever! 88 00:09:49,810 --> 00:09:54,750 Later, I have the opportunity to meet Ron Garan, a real astronaut. 89 00:09:54,750 --> 00:10:02,920 He has spent nearly half a year in space, and more than 27 hours spacewalking. 90 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,130 So you know what I had to ask him. 91 00:10:06,130 --> 00:10:07,880 You gotta tell me what it's like to be in space. 92 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:09,470 What's it like to be in space? 93 00:10:09,470 --> 00:10:11,560 Well, it's a lot like being in the pool here... 94 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:15,860 the only difference is, when you turn upside down in the pool, you feel upside down. 95 00:10:15,860 --> 00:10:21,779 When you turn upside down in space, there is no upside down, so you don't have that sensation of blood rushing to your head. 96 00:10:21,779 --> 00:10:23,290 And you can't beat the view. 97 00:10:23,290 --> 00:10:25,459 Yeah, I guess that's true, huh? 98 00:10:25,459 --> 00:10:29,660 What did you do here, that helped you as an astronaut? 99 00:10:29,660 --> 00:10:37,700 Well, what we do here is we train for our space walks. There's two ways to look at it. 100 00:10:37,700 --> 00:10:43,860 When we were flying the shuttle, we had very specific, very choreographed space walks. 101 00:10:43,860 --> 00:10:47,320 And so for every hour that we spent outside in the vacuum of space, 102 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:52,910 we spent about 7 hours underwater, making sure that we knew exactly how things were going to be. 103 00:10:52,910 --> 00:10:56,720 There's a full scale mockup as you guys saw of the space station down there. 104 00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:02,599 So just to know how to get around, know the lay of the land, know how the equipment works. 105 00:11:02,599 --> 00:11:07,950 But nowadays, since we don't have the space shuttles, what we're really training for is if something breaks. 106 00:11:07,950 --> 00:11:15,530 If we have a piece of equipment that breaks, then we have to go out, sometimes in a fairly expeditious manner, to fix the equipment. 107 00:11:15,530 --> 00:11:20,340 And we never know what's going to break beforehand, so we have to kind of train a skill set 108 00:11:20,340 --> 00:11:24,820 to learn the basic skills on how to fix anything that can go wrong outside. 109 00:11:24,820 --> 00:11:31,250 I spend an hour chatting with Ron about being an astronaut, and training underwater in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. 110 00:11:31,250 --> 00:11:35,910 I explain that I'm a perfect choice to join the space program, 111 00:11:35,910 --> 00:11:39,529 I mean after all, I'm already good at working in zero gravity. 112 00:11:39,529 --> 00:11:42,129 But I don't think he was convinced. 113 00:11:42,129 --> 00:11:50,410 So, instead of joining the space program, the Blue World team ended our exciting day by getting our picture taken with Ron. 114 00:11:50,410 --> 00:12:01,119 Sometimes my adventures in "the Blue World" take me to fascinating places I'll never forget.