Virgin Galactic's aerial launcher, WhiteKnightTwo, with a passenger rocket launching from its the midsection. Scroll down for a video of the flight simulation.
Credit: Virgin Galactic
Countering the force
Considering the other anxieties one might feel blasting off into space in a small carbon-composite rocket, the NASTAR training aims to introduce passengers to high G-force, teach them how to counteract its physiological effects, and increase their tolerance. This helps them prepare for possibly the strongest forces they’ll feel in their lives.
Da Silva trained under NASTAR’s Space Flight Training Program, specifically designed to simulate the flight pattern of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.
Space flight trainees spend the first part of the two-day course in academic instruction, where they are lectured on G forces and how they affect body, and shown techniques to counteract the forces and minimise their physiological effects.
The forces in the Gx and Gz directions affect the body differently. In the x direction, a large amount of pressure is put directly on the chest, which can make it difficult to breathe. The natural instinct here is to breathe fast to get more air into the lungs.
But, perhaps counter-intuitively, the best way to keep positive pressure in the lungs is to actually compress the lips - like a trumpeter - and breathe slowly through the mouth, a technique taught in NASTAR’s course.
Doing the “funky chicken”
While having trouble breathing may seem a little dicey, the Gz force is actually the more dangerous of the two: high forces pressing down from the top of the head can cause complications with the hydrostatic column, which sends oxygenated blood from the heart to the brain. In other words, the brain could be deprived of oxygen, which it can’t survive without for longer than five seconds.
NASTAR’s technique for countering this problem is to direct blood away from the arms and legs and towards the heart, to give it a better chance of reaching the brain. Passengers brace their arms and legs against hand and foot rails in the STS-400 cockpit, a technique called the Anti-G Straining Manoeuvre (AGSM), which helps prevent blood from travelling to these appendages and forces it up to the brain.
If the technique fails, the brain is starved for oxygen, which could result in G-induced loss of consciousness (GLOC), causing a dangerous black out for several seconds. During GLOC, the body goes completely limp, risking head or neck injuries because the passenger is unable to control their motions.
During GLOC recovery, the body flails in a chaotic fit that insiders call the ‘funky chicken’, as the neurons in the brain – replenished with extra oxygenated blood pumped harder from the heart – begin firing once again. This causes arms and legs to thrash uncontrollably. Victims of GLOC also typically experience severe disorientation and discomfort. Not a fun thing to happen when you’re on a trip to space.
