A harrowing journey to the ISS
The Starliner crew, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, returned to Earth last month after spending over nine months in space at the International Space Station.
But Wilmore and Williams splashed down back on Earth using another spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, after issues with Starliner’s thrusters led NASA to make the decision to send the spacecraft back to Earth without a crew.
Although the pair made it to the ISS and returned safely, it wasn’t an easy journey. In an interview with Ars Technica’s Senior Space Editor Eric Berger, Wilmore shared that the thruster issue quickly became critical and was far more precarious than was first publicly known.
Berger said NASA mission controllers asked Wilmore to give up control of Starliner so they could reset the thrusters after they started to fail. After the reset, two of the thrusters on the spacecraft came back online, but the issues for Wilmore continued.
“He starts flying it again, two of the four that were out, and then almost immediately after, another one failed,” Berger said. “[Wilmore] was basically telling me that if that fifth one had failed before the other two came back, they would have been dead in the water in space.”
In their interview, Wilmore told Berger his mind was racing when Starliner’s technical issues started. Because of Wilmore’s extensive training and his experience as a former shuttle pilot in the astronaut corps, Berger said Wilmore was “running through all these physics and orbital mechanics and all the pilot training he's had over the years, trying to sort of keep up with the failures and make sure he can continue to fly Starliner despite these limitations.”
By publishing this new perspective of Wilmore’s harrowing journey, Berger said this shines more light on the mission.
“We just didn't have any idea of what it was really like inside Starliner and how harrowing it actually got,” Berger said. “There was no real sense that they really were at risk of losing control of the vehicle. I don't think we can beat up the NASA engineers too badly, because I think they wanted to understand the problem. I don't think they were lying to us, but they certainly weren't telling us all the stuff that happened.”
Boeing did not respond to an interview or a request for comment on Ars Technica’s reporting.
Making mission control comfortable
The next two decades are full of moon missions as NASA and commercial partners explore the moon and send astronauts to the lunar surface.
One of those missions, called IPEx, is sending a robot bulldozer and dump truck to the moon to transport soil across the lunar surface. But while this bulldozer-dump truck hybrid roams the lunar surface, it’s the people on Earth making sure the mission goes smoothly.
Debbie Carstens, a Florida Institute of Technology’s College of Aeronautics Aviation Human Factors professor, conducted research on the control room of the IPEx mission—where operators will work shifts up to 13 hours. Carstens is also the director of the Human Factors: Aeronautics, Safety, Sociability, Interfaces, Stress & Training (HF ASSIST) Lab at Florida Institute of Technology.
Her research and interviews led to over 50 recommendations for NASA on improvements needed so people are working safely, efficiently and comfortably. While IPEx is roaming the lunar surface, and the control room monitors the robot. Carsten’s goal was to help ensure the control room will run smoothly so the mission can be a success.
One of the things Carstens studied during her research was the displays in the control room, including the font size of the displays.
“A lot of times they just needed to do quick zooming in and out or adjusting of the camera views that are on this IPEx,” Carstens said. “For instance, if it gets stuck on some type of rock type feature, then they need to be able to see it from different angles so that they can problem solve and fix it. Sometimes that's what was needed to be displayed on these screens.”
Because some of the operators will work long shifts, Carstens said exercise is key to helping not only productivity, but comfortability as well.
“Some of the different ideas that came forward were even things like treadmills at desks…balance boards, things like a sit and stand workstation, so that people can have that movement and not feel stiff,” Carstens said.
