EARTH EXPERIENCE

Spacesuit Operations Training

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ASTRONAUTICAL SCIENCES

Train to operate in a spacesuit and manage contingencies. Course includes post-landing academics, post-landing survival training and spacesuit egress training in water.

QUICK OVERVIEW

LOCATION: Groton, Connecticut, USA
DURATION: 8 Days
AVAILABILITY: Available soon
REQUIRED TRAINING: None

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION

IIAS is the only organization to provide commercial spacesuit training in nominal and contingency environments. The IIAS Professional Development course in a practical, hands-on, and immersive education geared to the professional interested in a broad, operational understanding of IVA spacesuit technologies.

Together with former NASA astronaut trainers and engineers, IIAS has developed a spacesuit training lab as well as an egress and post-landing survivability lab. Students are trained on various spacesuit systems including safety protocols and operations. Additionally, a thorough understanding of abort and post-landing contingency operations are introduced because water egress scenarios will always be a credible risk to all launch scenarios in the event of a launch abort. This is the first professional education course that covers nominal and contingency landing scenarios, post-landing planning, rescue and recovery architecture design, egress systems and operational procedures, deconditioning and post-landing survivability, generalized egress skills, and emergency egress bottle use.

Spacesuit training is critical when preparing for flights over 50,000 ft in high-altitude aircraft or in spacecraft. Throughout 10 days, you will be exposed to a variety of training procedures.

Day 1: Space suit operational training in mission-qualified spacesuit: don / doff, pressurize, perform safety checks, and conduct basic operations

Day 2: Space suit technician training and certification: learn about space suit operations and safety in teams, support hardware, and systems

Days 3-4: Post-landing and egress academics:

- Planning for nominal and contingency landings
- Nominal rescue operations
- Contingency rescue operations for land-landing spacecraft
- International program-specific agreements
- Global SAR response resources supporting contingency landings
- Contingency rescue operations for water-landing spacecraft
- Pad egress failure environments, pad egress design and operations
- Early de-orbit scenarios
- Post-landing contingencies
- Egress systems
- Egress procedures and operations
- Assessing probabilities and effects of injuries and deconditioning
- Assessing the effects of deconditioning on egress operations
- Incapacitation through entrapment
- Egress and post-landing operations in the age of commercial-manned spaceflight
- Emergency post-landing survival kits, medical resources

Days 5-6: Fundamental egress and post-landing survivability skills:

- Safety and survival equipment utilization and deployment
- Coping with physiological and psychological stress
- Introduction of rescue devices and simulated rescues
- Preparation for emergency landing situations in a spacecraft
- Evacuation through an emergency exit from a spacecraft
- Physics and physiology for use of compressed air
- Preflight inspection, egress considerations, and clearing procedures using an EBD
- Conducting an emergency egress on breath hold utilizing the Shallow Water Egress Trainer
- Conducting an emergency egress with an EBD utilizing the Shallow Water Egress Trainer
- Evacuation and escape training utilizing the Modular Egress Training Simulator (METS™) with and without utilizing an EBD

Day 7: Sea survival skills

- Safety and survival equipment utilization and deployment
- Introduction to hypothermia mitigation and sea survival
- Personal rescue techniques and use of life rafts and signaling devices
- Characteristics of personal flotation devices and aviation jackets
- Life raft deployment/entry and simulated emergency scenarios
- Introduction to individual and group sea surface formations
- Introduction to search and rescue resources and equipment

Day 8: Spacesuit egress training in water

IIAS provides instruction on spacesuit use in nominal and off-nominal post-landing environments. Students demonstrate reliable functionality of parachute release, life preserver unit (LPU), and snorkel functionality in varying sea and lighting conditions. Students also learn the effective use of radios, beacons, signal flares, and other signaling devices in water and egress bottle use for egress operations. Classroom instruction includes:

- Suit (pressure suit system description, analog suit differences)
- Parachute components, ejection (sequence, components)
- Post-ejection, post-departure through crew/seat separation
- Descent (post seat separation through canopy open and canopy descent
- Proper position, CVSPSR, landing
- Survival/signaling
- Survival gear descriptions and use
- Signaling ops
- Water operations (psychological, practical)
- Rescue operations and safety

In-pool instruction includes:

- Demonstrate stable floatation for various size test subjects
- Demonstrate reliable functionality of parachute release in varying sea conditions
- Demonstrate reliable functionality of snorkel system in varying sea conditions
- Demonstrate raft ingress in varying sea conditions
- Qualitative assessments of suit functionality and comfort with LPU
- Demonstrate effective use of radios, beacons, signal flares, and other signaling devices in water
- Demonstrate effective use of egress bottle for egress operations
- Demonstrate capsule egress operations through capsule egress (side hatch, top hatch, life raft ops/ingress, raft ops/signaling)
- Demonstrate suited parachute lift and drop (lift, position, canopy check, visor, seat kit, prepare, release)
- Demonstrate in-water operations: canopy extraction, hoist opsNote: IIAS has a 100% safety record in these activities.

OPPORTUNITIES

Sponsorship: Sponsor an individual or group experience.

CONSIDERATIONS

Participants must be at least 18 years old and in good physical condition. Scuba experience recommended. Due to EAR restrictions, IIAS may not accept students from certain countries. Please contact SpaceVIP for more information.