Enlightened Astronaut, Part 1: No Guarantees

The title of the book intrigued me: “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth”. Apparently, it isn’t enough to be the guy who gets to “experience yee-haw personal thrills in space”; Chris Hadfield is also wise. And a great writer.

 

Hadfield points out the “ yee-haw personal thrills in space” can happen only if you go to space. And no, not all astronauts go to space:

“Getting to space depends on many variables and circumstances that are entirely beyond an individual astronaut’s control, so it it always makes sense to me to view space flight as a bonus, not an entitlement.”

Sure, you’re super fit and able to withstand all those G-forces, but a Challenger or Columbia-like disaster can put all programs on hold. Or the only vehicle that can dock with the ISS (International Space Station) is a Russian one whose restrictions on height that you, sadly, don’t meet.

 

Therefore, do any training without expectation of reward, he advises:

“You can’t view training solely as a stepping stone to something loftier. It’s got to be an end in itself.”

Don’t whine about the apparent irrelevance of what you’re being taught:

“You have to accept that you’ll need to master a lot of skills that seem arcane, or that you might never even get to use, or both.”

And never underestimate the power of negative thinking:

“Truly being ready means understanding what could go wrong – and having a plan to deal with it.”

 

Space agencies have simulators, or sims for short:

“A sim is an opportunity to practice but frequently it’s also a wake-up call: we really don’t know what exactly what we’re doing and we’d better figure it out before we’re facing this situation in space.”

Remember that saying that the map is not the reality? Well, neither is a sim:

“Part of preparing for the worst is keeping in mind that your sim itself may be based on the wrong assumptions, in which case you’ll draw the wrong, perfectly polished conclusions.”

 

Hadfield, of course, did go to space. Here’s how he describes it:

“Launch is overwhelming on a sensory level.”

How so?

“It feels as though we’re being shaken in a huge dog’s jaws, then seized by its giant, unseen master and hurled straight up into the sky… Two minutes after liftoff we’re hurtling along at six times the speed of sound… And then suddenly, calm: we reach Mach 25, orbital speed.”

At which point he comments wryly:

“I am in space, weightless, and getting here only took 8 minutes and 42 seconds. Give or take a few thousand hours of training.”

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