The three phases of study generally take 3-5 years, and the "astronauts-to-be" are going through another undergraduate program. In the training, they also have to go to the desert, cold areas, rain forests, sea, with the search and rescue forces to carry out search and rescue exercises. Physical training and special physiological function training will be accompanied by three stages of study.
Astronauts are the core of manned spaceflightThe work of the astronaut system is mainly centered on how to select and train qualified astronauts, as well as safeguarding the safety, health and ergonomics of astronauts. Therefore, giving astronauts a comfortable home in the sky is also an important task.
After entering space, the spacecraft will be in an environment of microgravity, high vacuum and strong space radiation. In order to ensure that astronauts work safely, healthily and efficiently, it is necessary to artificially create a living and working environment that is as close as possible to the surface of the earth. Therefore, it is necessary to put forward the medical and ergonomic requirements for manned spacecraft and to use these as the main basis for spacecraft design and construction.
The spacecraft is also equipped with a complete set of astronaut medical supervision equipment. In manned flight, through these devices, aerospace medical scientists and technicians can monitor and judge the physical condition of astronauts, and carry out medical supervision and medical protection for astronauts. This is also a special remote science between heaven and earth.
Su Shuangning introduced to the reporter, to participate in manned spaceflight mission in addition to the astronauts, there are accompanying engineers and load experts, and in the future there will be space tourists, the latter three categories of people's physical requirements will be relaxed. Therefore, with the development of China's manned space technology, maybe one day, you will also be the same as the Chinese astronauts, to practice not only their own, but also an increasingly powerful nation buried thousands of years of flying dream.
Hundred miles to choose hero
Manned spaceflight is much more complex than aviation, need to overcome weightlessness, overweight, lack of oxygen, loneliness, rocket engine vibration and noise, the impact of cosmic rays and meteoroids impact spacecraft and a series of difficulties and obstacles, and therefore the astronauts of the physiological and psychological quality of the requirements of a higher level. For example, they should have a strong sense of enterprise and dedication because manned spaceflight is very risky, and 22 astronauts have spilled their blood in the blue sky so far; they should have a good physique, and the surface of the body should be free of deformities and other physical obstacles that affect the wearing or use of space suits and instrument operation, and there should be no traumas and their after-effects, and it is not possible to have people with potential chronic diseases, mental and neurological illnesses, and those who like to smoke and drink alcohol should be excluded, because the spacecraft cabin is confined and the space is small. Spacecraft cabin space is narrow, equipment, smoking will pollute the air, and easy to fire, drinking can induce potential diseases in the body, interfere with normal work; to have a good psychological character, bold and careful, do not panic in case of trouble, good at controlling their own emotions, and can get along with others. When the Apollo 13 spacecraft to the moon flight although the service module explosion, but due to the ship's astronauts perseverance and boldness, so finally turned to safety. The future ISS will be even more psychologically demanding for astronauts, as they will have to work together.
In addition, human spaceflight is a highly integrated technology, so astronauts are required to have a high level of scientific and cultural knowledge, and be able to receive training in spaceflight skills so that they can undertake complex spaceflight missions. Generally a bachelor's degree, master's or doctorate is better.
Astronauts should also have extraordinary working ability and rich working experience so that they can handle dangerous situations independently and in real time. One of the reasons space pilots are selected from Air Force pilots is that they have years of hands-on flight experience.
For astronauts to have these qualities, they need to go through a two-step process of selection and training. Of course, according to the space mission and its different requirements for various types of astronauts, the selection and training programs, content and standards of astronauts are also different, for example, the United States of America will be divided into three levels of physical quality of astronauts, their training time and content are different.
Astronaut selection is generally divided into two stages. First of all, a group of volunteers should be recruited, who are physically fit, 1.6 to 1.75 meters tall, generally no more than 40 years old, and highly educated, and after a series of inspections the preparatory astronauts will be selected first; and then the pre-flight qualified selection will be carried out on this basis.
The selection of astronauts usually goes through the basic qualification examination, clinical medical examination, physiological function selection, psychological selection, special environmental factors endurance and adaptability selection, etc., and its implementation stage is generally subdivided into: pre-selection, outpatient examination, inpatient examination, special environmental factors examination, the training process lasts for about 1 year, and its elimination ratio is about 1:100, and higher in the early days.
Astronaut selection and training experts said that in the above selection, medical selection is the most critical level, physiological function selection is the most basic level, special environmental factors endurance selection is the most difficult level, psychological selection is the most important level. For example, special environmental factors endurance selection to carry out low-pressure and hypoxia endurance check, maximum physical load check vibration force check.
In addition to the United States and Soviet Russia, France, Japan, ESA and China and other countries have carried out the selection of astronauts, its steps and procedures are similar.
According to a publicly available book, China conducted a trial selection of its first astronauts as early as the early 1970s, with the same selection criteria as the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and with air force pilots as the test subjects. China had also developed selection criteria for Chinese payload specialists based on national conditions.
Those who go to heaven need to be trained
After the astronauts are selected, they will have to undergo strict and special training, and will be selected again during the training. The purpose is to improve the physical strength, intelligence, physiological functions and engineering and scientific knowledge of the selected personnel through training; to adapt to and tolerate the special stress environment encountered in spaceflight, and to accomplish specific flight tasks. Without training, it would be extremely difficult for people to live in space.
The training of astronauts includes physical training, theoretical knowledge education, psychological training, endurance and adaptability training for special environmental factors, spaceflight skills training, survival training and comprehensive training. Among them, professional astronauts generally need to train for three to four years, load experts need 2.5 years, and space tourists less than half a year. One wonders how weightlessness training can be conducted on the ground. Currently it is mostly done with modified weightless airplanes. The cabin of such an airplane has a wide space within which the trainee travels. When it flies to a certain height and speed, with a certain maneuvering procedures into the specially designed weightless parabolic flight, the phenomenon of weightlessness can occur. Through this training, the human body can eliminate the fear of weightlessness and so on.
In addition to basic aerospace training, aerospace vocational skills training is also quite important, only to master in order to participate in the real space flight mission, for this reason, the United States and the Soviet Union and Russia also developed a number of various functional trainers and flight simulators. Including space suits wear off and use, space food and tableware use, etc. also have to be trained, otherwise it is easy to put food into the nose when eating, when going to the toilet will make feces drift everywhere.
In addition, mission training is also essential, such as out of the capsule activity training, rendezvous and docking training. The U.S. did a lot of this training on Russia's Mir space station and on its own space shuttles to build the International Space Station.
At present, the United States and Russia have their own astronaut training centers. The U.S. astronaut training centers are Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center, they are named after the U.S. President, which is mainly Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center just before the launch of a short period of time to carry out the necessary training. In the United States, the average space tourist can go to heaven after only six months of training.
The U.S. Department of Space and Astronautics in July 2003, a new round of astronaut selection process. U.S. citizens wishing to participate in the selection can get the application form in two ways, either by mail through the post office or by downloading it from the special website of the Astronaut Selection Office. According to the regulations, any person with advanced skills in science and engineering can apply for selection. However, in order to become an astronaut to fly the space shuttle, the applicant must also have rich experience in flying large jet airplanes. Starting in July 2003, NASA spent six months testing, interviewing, and medically examining all applicants, and announced the results of the selection process in early 2004. Beginning in the summer of 2004, selected astronauts will be trained in Houston for future spaceflight.
Additionally, under the Astronaut Educator Program, NASA will also conduct a concurrent selection process for astronaut teachers. According to statistics, from January to April 2003, more than 1,100 people have logged on to the space agency's Web site to apply, but NASA will only select 3-4 people from the program.
Soviet Russia is called "Star City" in the Gagarin training center training astronauts, where there is a 1:1 model spacecraft devices, large training pools, planetarium training building, etc., the world's first space tourists Tito in the training of more than three weeks after the lift-off. In order to further study the physiology and psychology of human spaceflight and to improve the life-support system in manned spacecraft, a new type of experimental facility that can highly simulate the internal environment of a spacecraft was opened for the first time in Russia in 2001. The Institute of Medicine and Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences used this new human spaceflight simulation facility to conduct, for the first time, experiments on weightlessness and loneliness adaptation in one place. The facility is a completely closed structure with temperature and humidity indicators comparable to those in a manned spacecraft, and 16 hours of illumination and 8 hours of light shutdown simulate the alternating day and night changes felt on board the spacecraft. Simulation studies of human spaceflight carried out therein help to improve the physical endurance of astronauts and are also of great value in improving the internal facilities of manned spacecraft. Russian experts say that in a weightless environment, the body's blood is redistributed. Blood volume increases in the head, decreases in the lower extremities, and arterial and venous blood pressure and atrial pressure rise. This state leads to an increase in water consumption and a decrease in plasma volume. If left unchecked, it will cause a person's muscles to atrophy, bones to become brittle, and immunity to decline. In addition, long-term space flight is easy to make people produce loneliness, impatience, discouragement and other emotions, if they can not be removed in time, it will inevitably affect the astronauts' research work. At present, astronauts mainly overcome these negative effects through space simulation training, physical exercise and scientific diet and rest.
Since December 2002, Russia's Institute of Medical and Biological Sciences has been testing three types of astronaut training and protection devices -- weightlessness training films, air-cushioned shoes and multifunctional fitness machines. According to ITAR-TASS, the weightlessness training film is a special waterproof membrane, which researchers will lay on the water surface of the reservoir, after which two volunteers will lie on the film. Weightlessness training film has good elasticity, can make volunteers into the level below, but into the degree does not hinder the human activities. In this state, muscles and bones are supported in a manner very similar to weightlessness. To test the performance of the training film in depth, eight volunteers will be divided into four batches and live on the training film for a cumulative period of one month.
In the second test, volunteers will try on a special leather shoe in artificial weightlessness. The bottom of the shoe is equipped with multiple flexible catheters and a pumping device. The gas-filled conduits will form a cushion of air that moderately squeezes the human foot. According to experts, under weightlessness, the human foot cannot feel the usual support force, so some astronauts often feel uncomfortable. Under the pressure of the air cushion of the above-mentioned leather shoes, astronauts will feel that their feet have been stepping on a solid surface. If the test is successful, the air-cushioned shoes will be shipped to the manned space station.
In the last test, researchers will test a multifunctional fitness machine. Using the gym, astronauts can engage in simulated rowing, shot put, weight lifting, cycling, jogging and other sports inside the spacecraft. According to experts, long-term space flight is prone to a decline in physical fitness. In order to eliminate this adverse effect, astronauts inside the ISS have been exercising on time with fitness equipment. When the astronauts are about to carry out a space walk or receive an order to postpone the return flight, they will also increase the intensity of exercise.
Selection and training of China's astronauts
What kind of people can become China's astronauts? According to Su Shuangning, chief of China's astronaut system, who spoke to the media, fighter pilots prove to be the best candidates for astronauts.
The first batch of Chinese astronauts who have already taken to the skies not only have a good ideological style, high political quality, a stable heart, and "soft" conditions such as no panic in a crisis, but also have superb flight skills, rich flight experience and a strong body.
The United States, Russia and other aerospace powers are selected from the air force pilots in the astronauts. Because the working environment of fighter pilots and the quality of astronauts is the closest. The takeoff and landing speed of fighter jets is fast, complex operation, and can easily cause life-threatening. Its supersonic flight, high-altitude flight and a variety of difficult aerobatic maneuvers, requiring pilots to be able to get used to the discomfort brought about by rapid changes in high and low barometric pressure, in the case of loads exceeding several times the body weight can still be correctly operated on the aircraft on the complex instrumentation, which is quite "similar" to the astronauts' work. In addition, fighter pilots are generally dealt with airborne emergencies, such as many fighter pilots have had emergency parachute jumps in the air, malfunctions and other emergency "special" experience, these are the future of the space work of the valuable wealth of experience.
To become an astronaut, you have to pass multiple physical and psychological tests, and those who can break through all the hurdles must be physical and psychological "double" excellence.
The physical examination for astronauts is very different from that of ordinary people. The "prospective astronauts" have to stay in the hospital for nearly a month for checkups, and all kinds of modernized medical tests will "keep an eye" on the astronauts. To see if he has any potential diseases, there is no hereditary disease. Even his spouse, who is closest to him, will be scrutinized carefully.
This is just the beginning. The special physiological tests that follow are another tough hurdle. Candidates will be subjected to an 8g overweight in a centrifuge to check their tolerance and reaction ability; they will be subjected to an anoxic endurance check in a low-pressure chamber; and they will also have to spend 15 minutes in a spinning chair, which is rotating at a fast speed and changing directions, to check the ability of the vestibular function to adapt to the spaceflight. China has long had its own astronaut training center, which includes a human centrifuge, a human vacuum chamber, a planetarium, and a low-pressure variable-temperature chamber.
In addition to having a healthy body and special physiological functions, astronauts have to have different general psychological qualities. Candidates have to pass a series of psychological examinations in different scenarios simulating situations. In this process, the examination of the candidate's ability to face difficulties and the ability to coordinate and communicate with others.
The space inside a manned spacecraft is equivalent to the size of an ordinary bathroom, and the area inside the ISS is also smaller than an ordinary two-room apartment. In such a small space in the face of a variety of unpredictable factors from space, must have a crisis, calmly, beyond the ordinary people's boldness and unusual state of mind.
According to the requirements of the "Astronaut Training Program" of China's manned spaceflight project, various training programs have been actively carried out. Some programs do not require astronauts to score full marks. But they had all trained very seriously and hard.
Chief Master Su Shuangning told reporters that the standard height of Chinese astronauts is about 1.70 meters and their weight is about 65 kilograms. This is the standard stature of Chinese people. However, in the world, such external conditions are not absolute. Today, on the new generation of Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA, this criterion is relaxed. The reason is that if a person is a little shorter, the spine will be shorter, which is more favorable for the tolerance of landing impacts.
The training of Chinese astronauts is also divided into three phases: Phase 1 is basic theoretical training. In this phase, astronauts learn rocket and spacecraft design principles, flight dynamics, meteorology, astronomy, communications, equipment testing, aerospace medicine and so on. Stage 2 is specialized skills training. Astronauts have to familiarize themselves with the structure and composition of the spacecraft, the working principles and modes of each system of the spacecraft, and even master important parts and components and individual machines. Stage 3 is flight program and mission training. The astronauts have to master and know what they should pay attention to observe and when to contact the ground through real-life simulation on the same training simulator as the real spacecraft. At this stage, the astronauts also have to learn to detect and eliminate emergency situations in order to examine and exercise their judgment and ability to react quickly to things.
The three phases of study generally take 3-5 years, and the "astronauts-to-be" are going through another undergraduate program. In the training, they also have to go to the desert, cold areas, rain forests, sea, with the search and rescue forces to carry out search and rescue exercises. Physical training and special physiological function training will always be accompanied by the three learning stages.
Astronauts are the core of manned spaceflightThe work of the astronaut system is mainly centered on how to select and train qualified astronauts, as well as safeguarding the safety, health and ergonomics of astronauts. Therefore, giving astronauts a comfortable home in the sky is also an important task.
After entering space, the spacecraft will be in an environment of microgravity, high vacuum and strong space radiation. In order to ensure that astronauts work safely, healthily and efficiently, it is necessary to artificially create a living and working environment that is as close as possible to the surface of the earth. Therefore, it is necessary to put forward the medical and ergonomic requirements for manned spacecraft and to use these as the main basis for spacecraft design and construction.
The spacecraft is also equipped with a full set of astronaut medical supervision equipment. In manned flight, through these devices, aerospace medical scientists and technicians can monitor and judge the physical condition of astronauts, and carry out medical supervision and medical protection for astronauts. This is also a special remote science between heaven and earth.
Su Shuangning introduced to the reporter, to participate in manned spaceflight mission in addition to the astronauts, there are accompanying engineers and load experts, and in the future there will be space tourists, the latter three categories of people's physical requirements will be relaxed. Therefore, with the development of China's manned spaceflight technology, maybe one day, you will also be the same as the Chinese astronauts, to practice not only their own, but also an increasingly powerful nation buried thousands of years of flying dream.