Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com everything. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Bollette and
Speaker 1: I am an editor here at how stuff works dot Com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me not in the mission Control center
Speaker 1: is senior writer Jonathan Strickland Ground Control to Major Tom,
Speaker 1: that was that was pretty easy. Yeah, we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: today about mission control center with NASA, and specifically the
Speaker 1: mission control center associated with Shuttle missions. Seeing as how
Speaker 1: the final Space Shuttle mission launched, well, we're recording this
Speaker 1: podcast before the launch, but it should publish after that launch.
Speaker 1: We wanted to kind of talk about the the stuff
Speaker 1: that goes on on the ground, not necessarily the stuff
Speaker 1: that's going on inside the orbiter itself. I said, lunch,
Speaker 1: not launch. See if you can if you can identify
Speaker 1: that quote. Um, yeah, we uh. When Jonathan and I
Speaker 1: were talking about doing the episode on the Space Shuttle, Um,
Speaker 1: as we do with some of the complex topics, we decide,
Speaker 1: you know, to at least have an idea where we're
Speaker 1: gonna go with the research and even before we started
Speaker 1: doing the research, we figured that this was going to
Speaker 1: be complex enough that we would have to break it down,
Speaker 1: and we decided to do an episode specifically on mission
Speaker 1: control because, um, it's not just the astronauts inside the
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle who are paying attention to everything that's going
Speaker 1: on in the spacecraft during the mission. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: of course there, they have to sleep. Um, they have
Speaker 1: a lot of things to do. They've got science to do. Um,
Speaker 1: they have they have to prove the cake is a lie,
Speaker 1: extra vehit, extra vehicular activity to perform. Um. They have
Speaker 1: things to deploy in space. Um, so in spots to
Speaker 1: record for sesamester occasionally occasionally they have to sing shout
Speaker 1: out to our parent company. But but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot for them to do, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody has to be keeping an eye on
Speaker 1: the on the shop. Yeah. And we cutter some of
Speaker 1: this material on how stuff works dot Com in an
Speaker 1: article called how NASA Works, but that's really kind of
Speaker 1: an overview of the agency. We wanted to talk specifically
Speaker 1: about mission control, and before we get too far into this,
Speaker 1: we should probably talk about where mission control is because
Speaker 1: if you're watching a launch. You may be seeing shots
Speaker 1: of this, uh group of people all wearing a nice
Speaker 1: suits and they're all sitting at different consoles and they
Speaker 1: all look very busy. And um, the odds are that
Speaker 1: you're actually looking at the Kennedy Space Center and they
Speaker 1: do launch control. They have a launch control center there
Speaker 1: at Kennedy, but that is not mission control. Mission control
Speaker 1: is actually located in Houston, as you know, immortalized in
Speaker 1: the phrase Houston, we have a problem. Uh. That's specifically
Speaker 1: talking about the mission control center at the Johnson's Space
Speaker 1: Center in Houston, Texas. Yes, and no, that is not
Speaker 1: the quote used in the movie. Was not exactly what
Speaker 1: was said. No, no, but right, But just like play
Speaker 1: it against Sam was never actually said in Casablanca. Um,
Speaker 1: it actually was said in CITs and King. So but no, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that's that was the people who who in Apollo thirteen,
Speaker 1: and we actually kind of saw what was going on
Speaker 1: in mission control, even though it was a you know,
Speaker 1: I guess it's safe to say it was fictionalized kind
Speaker 1: of a real event, although not terribly fictionalized compared to
Speaker 1: some others. I would guess right, it was more it
Speaker 1: tried to stay true to the actual unfolding of the
Speaker 1: the emergency, more so than a lot of other movies did.
Speaker 1: But even so, there was some drama zation going on.
Speaker 1: There were because you have to it's but but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you've seen the movie, you probably have
Speaker 1: a somewhat reasonable idea of what the people are doing
Speaker 1: in that center. They are trying to main maintain communications.
Speaker 1: They're trying to figure out what's going on with the telemetry, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, keeping an eye on where the ship is going,
Speaker 1: monitoring the various systems, making sure everything's okay, and in
Speaker 1: the song quoted before, they're just making sure everything's okay
Speaker 1: with the people up in space. So let's Chris and
Speaker 1: I both looked at an illustration of the mission control
Speaker 1: center to kind of break it down and see exactly
Speaker 1: what it looks like and what people are doing there,
Speaker 1: and we thought we would be kind of interesting to
Speaker 1: talk to you and guide you through the mission control room. Now,
Speaker 1: if you were to look at the room, yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're just like taking a tour walking around, you would
Speaker 1: see there all these big desks with consoles at them,
Speaker 1: and at one end of the room are a bunch
Speaker 1: of monitors, big monitors, and those monitors are showing things
Speaker 1: like video feeds from the shuttle as well as just
Speaker 1: lots and lots of data and uh, and so we
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of talk to you about what these uh,
Speaker 1: these consoles were in their purpose and what the officers
Speaker 1: who sit at these consoles do. And we're kind of
Speaker 1: taking you, like, if you imagine this big room with
Speaker 1: monitors at one end of the room, the room has uh,
Speaker 1: five rows of stations. Okay, the first row has three
Speaker 1: stations across, and the other four rows have four stations across.
Speaker 1: So what we're going to do is we're going to
Speaker 1: go from the end that has the monitors. That's the
Speaker 1: end that has the three stations in front of it.
Speaker 1: That's the first row, and we're going to go from
Speaker 1: left to right, and then we're gonna go down a
Speaker 1: row left or right, and down a row left or
Speaker 1: right and just explain what each of those stations are
Speaker 1: meant to do. And so Chris, I think you were
Speaker 1: going to take the first one, We're just going to
Speaker 1: kind of alternate all the way down. Yeah, that the
Speaker 1: first person sitting on the front and you know that's
Speaker 1: a terrible place to sit if you're watching a movie,
Speaker 1: but this isn't a movie. Far left in the front row. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the guy with a crick in his neck. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how I saw Lord of the Rings, the felloship of
Speaker 1: the Ring, and that was tough. Well, the person in
Speaker 1: in in that corner of the room is uh, the
Speaker 1: flight dynamics officer. Now I should point out, Um, there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of information on NASA's website about this
Speaker 1: and each person, uh, they have a lot of code.
Speaker 1: You know, we're talking about extra vehicular activity or e
Speaker 1: v A, and everybody else calls it spacewalk. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So every console has a function, and there are three
Speaker 1: they're actually three shifts that work nine hours. Three teams
Speaker 1: work nine hour shifts. So, um, basically, the console has
Speaker 1: a name, and there's a person, an officer, that works
Speaker 1: that console for and we'll talk about the different missions
Speaker 1: because some of them don't use all these officers. But
Speaker 1: and you will see labels on these consoles, and the
Speaker 1: labels are usually an abbreviation or some initials that stand
Speaker 1: for whatever the console actually does up. And when we
Speaker 1: talk talked about three shifts of people, they're typically around
Speaker 1: twenty people working in the flight control center during a
Speaker 1: typical Space Shuttle flight sat on a team of all
Speaker 1: of every you know, everybody who's on there, right right,
Speaker 1: so different shifts. Yeah, exactly. You've got around, on average
Speaker 1: around twenty people working in that room during a spatial
Speaker 1: flight at any particular time during that flight. We should
Speaker 1: also stress that this is specifically space shuttles. There's a
Speaker 1: totally different mission control center for the International Space Station,
Speaker 1: and it has a different group, similar similar stations, like
Speaker 1: similar consoles to the one that's on the Space Shuttle,
Speaker 1: but a different set up as far as the team goes.
Speaker 1: And and uh, fewer people are in the flight control
Speaker 1: room for the International Space Station at any given time
Speaker 1: than on a spatial mission. Yeah. But um, each console
Speaker 1: has a name and so and and a call sign.
Speaker 1: Uh if you've seen I'm sorry, I'm to go to
Speaker 1: the movies again. The most famous example I could think
Speaker 1: of a call sign is top Gun, where everybody has
Speaker 1: essentially a nickname. But this is not not necessarily a nickname,
Speaker 1: but it's what everybody calls. So if Steve is on
Speaker 1: the console, you know, in the morning shift, and Jennifer
Speaker 1: is on the console in the afternoon shift, they still
Speaker 1: have the same call sign because it's actually the station
Speaker 1: that they refer to, not the person, but the station
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Who's there. That person is so like Dynamics
Speaker 1: officer yes and call signed FIDO who and that person
Speaker 1: plans the ship's maneuvers and is watching its trajectory. Um,
Speaker 1: there's another person that keeps track of that to the
Speaker 1: Guidance officer. UM. But but the FIDO is up there
Speaker 1: in the the bottom left hand corner if you're looking
Speaker 1: at the screens. Yeah, so, UM, so you've got that.
Speaker 1: If you move over one station, you have a console
Speaker 1: that actually could have one of two different officers working there,
Speaker 1: depending upon what's going on in that Space Shuttle mission
Speaker 1: at the time. Uh. There's the Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures
Speaker 1: Officer also known just as Rendezvous UM, and that job
Speaker 1: is to support the Shuttle mission whenever they are going
Speaker 1: to have to dock with another vehicle or with the
Speaker 1: space station, or perhaps they're coming up to do repairs
Speaker 1: for example on the Hubble telescope. Anytime the Shuttle is
Speaker 1: coming into close proximity with another vehicle or satellite or
Speaker 1: anything like that. UM, this officer is there to help
Speaker 1: support the shuttle's crew and UH and give information and
Speaker 1: guidance when the shuttle is going through those sort of
Speaker 1: maneuvers UH. Now, in other situations that you might find
Speaker 1: the ascent slash intrigue Guidance and Procedures Officer they're known
Speaker 1: as guidance. Now. This is the person who is helping
Speaker 1: again with navigation issues, specifically during the the the ascent
Speaker 1: and descent UH phases of a shuttle mission. So when
Speaker 1: the shuttle is either entering orbit or is getting ready
Speaker 1: to re enter the Earth's atmosphere yep and UM. Also,
Speaker 1: that person keeps track of any possibility that they need
Speaker 1: to abort, so they're they're UM, you know, keeping a
Speaker 1: close eye on those kinds of situations. UM. The next
Speaker 1: person is the ground controller anything that would affect hardware,
Speaker 1: software or support UM. With regard to the facilities UM.
Speaker 1: Also UH, this person coordinates the ground space Flight Tracking
Speaker 1: and Data Network and the tracking and data relay satellite
Speaker 1: system along with Goddard Space Flight Center, which is in Maryland.
Speaker 1: By the way, I talked about Houston and Florida, but
Speaker 1: we didn't talk about Maryland. Yeah, US has a number
Speaker 1: of facilities all over the country. UM and and other
Speaker 1: stations that they work with with countries around the world
Speaker 1: to keep track of what's going on with the Shuttle. So. UM,
Speaker 1: even though there may be on a given mission up
Speaker 1: to seven people in the Shuttle, there are a whole
Speaker 1: lot more people on the ground watching out for that. Right.
Speaker 1: So let's go back a row. So we moved back
Speaker 1: toward the the far left. UM, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: the propulsion officer also prop p r O p UM.
Speaker 1: The propulsion officers job is to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: the reaction control and orbital maneuvering system UH. That's on
Speaker 1: the Space Shuttle. Now, this is all the little jets
Speaker 1: and the propellants that are used by the Space Shuttle
Speaker 1: to make maneuvers in orbit or to get into orbit
Speaker 1: or out of orbit. UM. So that's that's that officer's
Speaker 1: job is to keep an eye on all those systems
Speaker 1: and to provide guidance to the Shuttle crew. YEP. And
Speaker 1: speaking of guidance, UM, the next person is Guidance Navigation
Speaker 1: and can Troll Systems also known as g n C.
Speaker 1: Watching the the guidance navigation and control systems. UH. He
Speaker 1: or she would be in contact with the flight director
Speaker 1: and crew any time that something again would require aboarding
Speaker 1: the mission UM. And this I assume could mean any
Speaker 1: time rather than UM. You know the guidance officers watching
Speaker 1: specifically on launch and landing. This would be any time
Speaker 1: you need to uh cut out and go home UM,
Speaker 1: or any time the the guidance hardware might be not
Speaker 1: working correctly. Yeah, So that this would be the eyes
Speaker 1: on the ground to help guide the shuttle. Let's say
Speaker 1: that the guidance systems aboard the shuttle for some reason
Speaker 1: or malfunctioning, perhaps a gyroscope is not is not turning
Speaker 1: properly um. The this officer would be the person who
Speaker 1: would help guide the shuttle crew into maneuvering the shuttle
Speaker 1: so that it was going the right way for whatever
Speaker 1: operation they needed to perform at that point, most like
Speaker 1: the coming home. Next, we have the Maintenance Mechanical arm
Speaker 1: and Crew Systems Officer or max m M a c
Speaker 1: s BET's pronounced max um. The This is a person
Speaker 1: who looks at the shuttles structural mechanical systems to make
Speaker 1: sure that everything is is nominal. So the also monitors
Speaker 1: all the equipment, maintenance and hardware use aboard the shuttle.
Speaker 1: So this is the guy who tells the astronauts to
Speaker 1: put up their toys when they're done playing. It's acually
Speaker 1: a little more obviously much more serious than that. But
Speaker 1: clearly this this is the person who is trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that that all the procedures are followed aboard
Speaker 1: the shuttle, to make sure everything is stowed away properly
Speaker 1: and is used the way it was meant to be
Speaker 1: used and turned off and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: because clearly anything that's out of the ordinary could potentially
Speaker 1: cause a major problem with such a complex mission. UM. Yes,
Speaker 1: and a lot of jokes. I'm sure no, my name's
Speaker 1: not Max, it's Steve Um. Now they're known for a
Speaker 1: lot of joking and that mission control. Maybe when it's
Speaker 1: all over where UM. Next is Eagle, the Electrical Generation
Speaker 1: and Illumination Officer, And this person is keeping an eye
Speaker 1: on the electrical systems, cryogenics, fuel cells, A C and
Speaker 1: D C power circuits. Both Edison and Tesla are represented UM,
Speaker 1: vehicle pyrotechnics and lighting. Actually, that always makes me think
Speaker 1: of rock bands when I read that. Well, you already
Speaker 1: talked about E C, d C two and uh any
Speaker 1: caution and warning systems that might be going on. So yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: time to move move back another row. So moving back
Speaker 1: another road to this is row three. If you're keeping track,
Speaker 1: we're back back over to the far left. We have
Speaker 1: the Data Processing System Officer DPS, who looks monitors the
Speaker 1: stats of the the onboard computer systems on the shuttle. Now,
Speaker 1: if you've listened to our shuttle episode, you know that
Speaker 1: we mentioned briefly that there are five on board computer systems.
Speaker 1: It's this officer's job to monitor those systems, make sure
Speaker 1: that they are working properly, that there's not any sort
Speaker 1: of malfunction in those systems. Um. They also look at
Speaker 1: other computer systems that are related to the mission, including
Speaker 1: the multifunction display system. So that's his job or her job. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The payload's officer is next, UM, which is just called payload. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They drop an S that's that's how they abbreviate that
Speaker 1: that console as they dropped the S two payload. I
Speaker 1: see they don't. They don't get cool U Nicknami call signs,
Speaker 1: at least not most of them, UM like they do
Speaker 1: in the in the movies. UM. Anyway that that person
Speaker 1: coordinates the both the ground system and the onboard shuttle
Speaker 1: UH system interfaces, so the flight control team and payload
Speaker 1: user are in contact with another with one another, and
Speaker 1: UM Payload also keeps an eye on the in cabin
Speaker 1: and cargo based system, experiments and satellites. UM. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you've got those great big bay doors and
Speaker 1: stuff comes out of them. Yeah, that's who knows what's
Speaker 1: going on with that. It's the main purpose for the
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle is to be able to deliver payloads to space,
Speaker 1: so like a giant cargo ship. Next, we have a
Speaker 1: console where again two different officers could be operating this
Speaker 1: console depending upon what is going on in the Space
Speaker 1: Shuttle mission at that time. You have the Flight Activities
Speaker 1: Officer or f AO. I like to call him Swartz. Uh,
Speaker 1: the Flight Activities officers so nice. I'm a big, big
Speaker 1: fan of f AO. So the Flight Activities Officer is
Speaker 1: their job is to to kind of be a support
Speaker 1: for the Shuttle crew. UH. They maintain checklists and procedures
Speaker 1: and schedules. So whenever you you see a launch or
Speaker 1: you over hear like the the recordings from UM missions
Speaker 1: and you hear the Shuttle crew going down a checklist.
Speaker 1: This is the person who on the ground is also
Speaker 1: going through that same checklist to make sure that everything
Speaker 1: is checked off whenever they're doing any sort of procedure. UM.
Speaker 1: They also manage the shuttle orientation, so how it is
Speaker 1: oriented UH in relation to the Earth or to really
Speaker 1: anything else, you know, it's some other point of reference.
Speaker 1: And then the other officer who works at that console,
Speaker 1: depending upon what's going on, is the Visiting Vehicles Officer
Speaker 1: or vv O and UH. Sometimes the shuttle has to
Speaker 1: interact with other vehicles like Russian vehicles or perhaps the
Speaker 1: Internet National Space Station slower moving ones or slower moving
Speaker 1: ones UM, and so the the Visiting Vehicles Officer is
Speaker 1: the person who monitors that connection whenever the shuttle is
Speaker 1: is docked with another vehicle or the I S s
Speaker 1: UM that that's that's that officer's job. So a little
Speaker 1: bit different from the navigation officer. They're they're not necessarily
Speaker 1: helping the shuttle maneuver next to those They're just monitoring
Speaker 1: whenever that connection is made because clearly, you know you're
Speaker 1: sharing an UM airlock connection. You want to make sure
Speaker 1: that everything is UH is still stable during that whole process. Yes,
Speaker 1: So next we have the Emergency Environmental and Consumables Yes,
Speaker 1: Operations Manager E calm, Yes, that would Yeah, UM is
Speaker 1: UH and that person UH is responsible for the active
Speaker 1: and passive thermal control of the vehicle according to NASA UM,
Speaker 1: and the cabin atmosphere control. So like, you know, can
Speaker 1: you turn down the thermostat? Could you get some of
Speaker 1: this carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere? Avionics, cooling supply
Speaker 1: and waste water systems and fire detection and suppression systems.
Speaker 1: So really you can think of this. This officer is
Speaker 1: being in UH in charge of monitoring life support systems basic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but see that would be too easy to say and
Speaker 1: would sound too much like TV, so they had to
Speaker 1: call it something. But yeah, whenever we talk about life
Speaker 1: support systems, this is the officer in charge of making
Speaker 1: sure everything is is running in the right parameters. So
Speaker 1: now it's time to move another row back and back
Speaker 1: over to the far left. We've got the Instrumentation and
Speaker 1: Communications Officer inco I n c OH. This person monitors
Speaker 1: the communications systems and instrumentation systems systems configuration aboard the shuttle.
Speaker 1: They're also the one who controls the shuttle television systems
Speaker 1: from the ground. So the shuttle crew wants to watch
Speaker 1: Phineas and Ferb and this guy's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're going to be watching. Actually, I don't think that's
Speaker 1: exactly how that works, but I thought it was funny.
Speaker 1: But no. Yeah, they controlled the television systems aboard the
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle from the ground, so there they work very
Speaker 1: closely with the public relations officer as well as other
Speaker 1: members of the flight control old team. Yeah, I bet,
Speaker 1: although I didn't read this, I bet that this person
Speaker 1: is also the one who's responsible for playing the wake
Speaker 1: up song, which is now sort of a semi famous
Speaker 1: part of a Shuttle miss kind of a tradition, right,
Speaker 1: so where you've got this? Uh you know, each each
Speaker 1: member of a shuttle crew gets to choose a song
Speaker 1: that will be played at a particular time to to
Speaker 1: signal it's time to wake up and do science. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I guess I got lucky because I got the
Speaker 1: head of all of this and then on this row.
Speaker 1: So this person see again, it's sort of the middle
Speaker 1: of the theater, you can see everything. It's a good seat.
Speaker 1: It's the flight director and uh, that person leads the
Speaker 1: flight control team. This person is responsible for basically all
Speaker 1: of this, uh, the overall mission and payload operations, any
Speaker 1: decisions that would impact the safe and successful conduct of
Speaker 1: the mission. Um. So actually the flight director has another
Speaker 1: responsibility you know you might expect with all this sophisticated
Speaker 1: computer equipment, that has to do with the seven people
Speaker 1: in space living are dying and you know, on a
Speaker 1: more sad but real note, the expensive space shuttle. UH,
Speaker 1: you know in space that you want to protect. Uh,
Speaker 1: they are allowed to bring food and drink inside mission control. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean they only get five to ten minute breaks
Speaker 1: every ninety minutes, so with you know, shift between eight
Speaker 1: and twelve hours, yes, they would need to do this.
Speaker 1: So an Assa says that the flight controller um takes
Speaker 1: a day and uh is responsible for choosing a cuisine
Speaker 1: to buy for everybody in there. So, um, he actually
Speaker 1: has to do that as well. So I guess if
Speaker 1: you're in charge, you get to pick what everyone else
Speaker 1: will eat on their celebratory kind of makes you wonder
Speaker 1: if if he's like, okay, so who here likes pepperoni
Speaker 1: in their piece? Fine? Fine, all right, no, no, Johnson,
Speaker 1: I told you we're not putting ham and pineapple on
Speaker 1: all the pizza exactly. It's like, well it is my
Speaker 1: space center, um, so don't make me turn this mission around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean serious as they are, they do get to
Speaker 1: have a little fun, and the flight director does have
Speaker 1: that does get to uh to buy when it's time
Speaker 1: for dinner once. Apparently it just happens once. That's good. Still,
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. Yeah. So so next next to the
Speaker 1: flight director on the other side is the spacecraft Communicator
Speaker 1: or CAPCOM. And you might think, why is it called
Speaker 1: Capcom when it's the actual name of the consoles, the
Speaker 1: spacecraft Communicator. Well, it's because they really love playing Resident Evil.
Speaker 1: And you know, Reside Evil was made by Capcom, so
Speaker 1: those big screens. It's true that it's true that Capcom
Speaker 1: makes Resident Evil. That's the only true part of that
Speaker 1: statement though, So why is it called Capcom. Well, it's
Speaker 1: because back in the day when when the earliest space
Speaker 1: flights were man on, spacelights were being tested, the first
Speaker 1: capsule they were using was the Mercury Capsule, so it
Speaker 1: was capsule Communication. Well, the Shuttle is not a capsule,
Speaker 1: it's a spacecraft. So they changed the name of the
Speaker 1: consule to spacecraft communicator, but they did not change the
Speaker 1: call sign, which it still remains Capcom. By the way,
Speaker 1: you're wondering if there is any other connection with Capcom
Speaker 1: the video game company, I am sad to inform you
Speaker 1: there is not. The Capcom video game company takes its
Speaker 1: name from a predecessor of that company, the japan Capsule
Speaker 1: Computer Company Limited, which you know, you just take Capsule
Speaker 1: Computer and you squish that to Capcom. It's not the
Speaker 1: same thing as the one that's in um uh NASA's
Speaker 1: mission control. Now what are they doing? Well there there
Speaker 1: may they serve as the primary communication point between flight
Speaker 1: control and the shuttle itself. That's their job. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, spot calm just doesn't sound as cool. Stay calm, no,
Speaker 1: spake calm. No, that's what you do with your pets.
Speaker 1: So next we have the PDRs, the Payload Deployment and
Speaker 1: Retrieval Systems officer who is watching the operation of the
Speaker 1: remote manipulator system. Yeah, the robotic arm NASA. You know,
Speaker 1: they've got to have a fancy name for everything, and
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of cool, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's just easier to say a robotic arm. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is the guy who can take over control and make
Speaker 1: the robotic arm give a big thumbs up to the earth.
Speaker 1: Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?
Speaker 1: Why are you hitting yourself? This is all lies to
Speaker 1: but no, it is true that that is that is
Speaker 1: the officer's job is to monitor the operation of the
Speaker 1: robotic arm. Now, clearly you might say, well, you know
Speaker 1: you've got the Shuttle crew up there that's actively operating
Speaker 1: the robotic arm. Why do you need someone else keeping
Speaker 1: their eyes on this? Well, remember that this robotic arm
Speaker 1: is manipulating equipment that costs billions with a B dollars.
Speaker 1: So you're using this arm to help position satellites, to
Speaker 1: maybe retrieve a satellite that needs to be brought back
Speaker 1: down because it's going to either require repairs or even
Speaker 1: just needs to be taken down because otherwise it's going
Speaker 1: to crash into the Earth and and you might want
Speaker 1: to try and salvage some parts first. Um, it may
Speaker 1: be helping install new pieces of the International Space Station,
Speaker 1: So you know that's it's an important, important job, which
Speaker 1: is why you have to have an extra set of
Speaker 1: eyes on any kind of operation that's going to involve that.
Speaker 1: So now we've finally got into the last row of
Speaker 1: the the mission control center. On the last row on
Speaker 1: the far left, you have the Public Affairs Officer p
Speaker 1: a OO to the moon, you go, that's where it
Speaker 1: comes from. And uh, the public affairs officers job is
Speaker 1: to provide mission commentary and also to explain any sort
Speaker 1: of transmissions that are going between the shuttle and ground control. Um. Primarily,
Speaker 1: this person interfaces with either the general public or more commonly,
Speaker 1: the press. So this is someone who is able to
Speaker 1: break these things down and explain in normal person speak
Speaker 1: what the transmissions mean. Because you know, we might overhear
Speaker 1: some transmissions and you can kind of piece together what's
Speaker 1: going on, but this is the person who can really
Speaker 1: give it context and explain why it's important. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you watch a NASA launch there I'm I'm interpolating from
Speaker 1: all of this. There's a public affairs officer or someone
Speaker 1: who fills that role. Let's let's say that on on
Speaker 1: the launch control team as well, because you'll hear, you know,
Speaker 1: you'll hear the person the people in the control center,
Speaker 1: you know, with a very somber, very serious you know,
Speaker 1: you know, so and so this and that and the
Speaker 1: other thing like team minus five minutes and waiting and
Speaker 1: like we're holding the launch at I've minutes in order
Speaker 1: to blah blah blah blah blah, so and and so
Speaker 1: this this person will do this for the mission overall.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that I'm pretty sure I would launch officer
Speaker 1: as well. Yes, I I agree. That's again based upon
Speaker 1: what I've inferred from the information I've received as well.
Speaker 1: The next person, um is a holdover from the sixties,
Speaker 1: the mod No, I'm kidding, the Mission Operations Directorate, groovy dude.
Speaker 1: That's the person who uh serves as an intermediary between
Speaker 1: the flight Control room and the top NASA and mission managers.
Speaker 1: Um so Yeah, basically a public affairs officers specifically to
Speaker 1: the top brass at NASA. Yeah, so you know you
Speaker 1: it's this way you've maintained a line of communication that
Speaker 1: does not interfere with anyone else's specific duties. Because clearly,
Speaker 1: if you are in a big team and you have
Speaker 1: a boss who is overseeing the overall operations, but it's
Speaker 1: not directly involved in the day to day operations, it
Speaker 1: would be very distracting to have that person walk from
Speaker 1: desk to desk and say Hey, what do you doing?
Speaker 1: So this is this is sort of their way of
Speaker 1: controlling that line of communication. What are you doing? What
Speaker 1: are you doing? What are you doing? And then next
Speaker 1: we have another one of those consoles where we have
Speaker 1: a rotating cast of characters that use it, Hey, could
Speaker 1: you get your elbow out of my coffee? They don't
Speaker 1: all use it at the same time. It all depends
Speaker 1: upon what the mission is. So one of the potential
Speaker 1: officers at that position is the Russian interface operator. This
Speaker 1: is clearly whenever NASA is going to have a mission
Speaker 1: that will also involve Russian cosmonauts or the Russian space centers. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is a person who can say and da dah
Speaker 1: and and then direction is limited. Yeah, yeah, I have
Speaker 1: no borsh pravda and does a dounia Alight? That's about
Speaker 1: all I've got, um, But yeah, presumably the Russian interface
Speaker 1: officer speaks more than that. I would hope, yes, I
Speaker 1: would as well. Next we have the booster saying yes,
Speaker 1: the the yet I also known yet um. The booster
Speaker 1: systems officer also just known as booster uh. This is
Speaker 1: a person who monitors the launch systems during pre launching
Speaker 1: all the way through the ascent of the Shuttle. So
Speaker 1: this is again someone who has a counterpart at the
Speaker 1: Kennedy Space Center. I would imagine if I'd probably several counterparts,
Speaker 1: because that is their primary function is to oversee the launches.
Speaker 1: So this is the person of mission control who who
Speaker 1: keeps an eye on that as well, that's back at Houston.
Speaker 1: And then finally you have the extra Vehicular Systems Officer
Speaker 1: or e v A, and this is the person who
Speaker 1: monitors the astronauts during any sort of extra vehicular activity spacewalks. Yes,
Speaker 1: um would also have been whomever would monitor the astronauts
Speaker 1: who are on the Moon during the Apollo missions. But
Speaker 1: of course Shuttle missions could not go to the moon.
Speaker 1: The Shuttle was not designed to go to the moon,
Speaker 1: so in this case, extra vehicular does really mean spacewalks.
Speaker 1: It also wasn't designed to land on asteroids. That's right, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that person Also I find this kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: This person also keeps an eye on the how the
Speaker 1: space suits are functioning, um, which is kind of interesting
Speaker 1: too because it's not just you know, hey, okay out there,
Speaker 1: you know, don't forget your hat, it's also you know,
Speaker 1: is your hat working are are the environmental controls within
Speaker 1: your space suit functioning properly? Yeah? And yeah, this is serious,
Speaker 1: serious stuff here. It's no clearly you want to have
Speaker 1: extra eyes on that as well. Yeah, and you also
Speaker 1: that person also keeps track of what you're what the
Speaker 1: astronauts are doing on their space walk, because they've trained
Speaker 1: extensively for this mission and they're saying, Okay, are you
Speaker 1: doing everything that you need to do? Are having trouble
Speaker 1: with your space suit? On a side note, I cannot
Speaker 1: comprehend the level of courage and confidence that would require
Speaker 1: to do a spacewalk. It is. It is so far
Speaker 1: beyond my my ability to even imagine. It's just it's phenomenal. Well,
Speaker 1: they put their lives at risk for science, and I
Speaker 1: find that admirable. Yeah, certainly. Um. Lastly, we had the
Speaker 1: doc bones in the back of the room. The surgeon
Speaker 1: is watching crew health and surgeons call sign surgeon. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, it's just more fun to say, um, this person. Uh.
Speaker 1: The surgeon is consulting with the crew, making sure the
Speaker 1: flight director knows if there's any health issue that might
Speaker 1: affect the mission. Um, and uh, the person. Basically they
Speaker 1: have to have a medical doctor in who is specializing
Speaker 1: in aerospace medicine. UM. Talk about a spec realization field
Speaker 1: UM and any time that they're awake not likely to do. UM.
Speaker 1: There are other people biomedical engineers or bams who know
Speaker 1: what they you know, know the necessary bits and pieces
Speaker 1: from medical kits and systems on board the Shuttle that
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the mission around the clock when
Speaker 1: the astronauts are asleep. But a surgeon has to be
Speaker 1: on duty while they are awake. UM. There's a team
Speaker 1: actually of a crew surgeon, deputy crew surgeon, and a
Speaker 1: BAME mission manager according to NASA. UM, and they handle
Speaker 1: the aspects of the flight UM. And there are extra
Speaker 1: people who are there while the main team is away
Speaker 1: from mission control during the launch and landing in the Shuttle. Now. UM,
Speaker 1: it is important to note that this really is accounts
Speaker 1: for only ten percent of these people's jobs. Really. UM.
Speaker 1: They spend about training UM and you know on the
Speaker 1: Shuttle simulators at Johnson Space or UM and the other
Speaker 1: of the time. UH, the mission control team works on
Speaker 1: planning and organizing the missions. UH. So they're they're really
Speaker 1: It's not like mission control walks into the room when
Speaker 1: it's time to take over from the launch control team
Speaker 1: and runs the mission, and then they go home and
Speaker 1: spend the rest of their time on vacation until six
Speaker 1: months later when they're needed for another mission. They they
Speaker 1: are very involved with all aspects of the Shuttle mission. Training,
Speaker 1: they know with the the specific science projects they're working
Speaker 1: on or or deployments they need to make into space.
Speaker 1: There on all of that part UM different parts, so
Speaker 1: they know everything they need to know because they're also
Speaker 1: intimately involved with the particular mission on which they are working. UM.
Speaker 1: If you were interested in joining a crew like this,
Speaker 1: you would need some kind of technical degree or engineering degree. UM.
Speaker 1: Generally you would based on your educational background and your
Speaker 1: interest and your training, they would assign you to a
Speaker 1: specific UH specific role based on those factors. So if
Speaker 1: you're if this sounds like something you would like to do. UM. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the Space Shuttle program is now ending with UM the
Speaker 1: assumed at this point since the Shuttle hasn't launched UH
Speaker 1: safe Return of STS one in July, UM there will
Speaker 1: probably be something in the future, although the media plans
Speaker 1: have been put on hold. So I think you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's worth investigating if that's something that but it's
Speaker 1: very specialized, and it may very well be that the future,
Speaker 1: the future of this center will be working in uh
Speaker 1: UH in partnership with private companies that are are creating
Speaker 1: space missions, because, of course, it's clear through this discussion
Speaker 1: that that any source of space mission is an incredibly
Speaker 1: complex affair and it's not something that can be accomplished
Speaker 1: just by the crew aboard whatever the spacecraft is. Clearly,
Speaker 1: I mean, they play a critical role obviously in a mission,
Speaker 1: but that you need those extra people on the ground
Speaker 1: who are dedicated to very specific tasks to make certain
Speaker 1: that if anything does happen out of the ordinary, that
Speaker 1: they can handle it. You know, it's it's such a
Speaker 1: delicate and and frankly dangerous procedure to do any sort
Speaker 1: of space mission, manned space mission, you have to have
Speaker 1: that kind of intense scrutiny on the ground as well
Speaker 1: as in the sky or in space as it were.
Speaker 1: So it may very well be that that NASA works
Speaker 1: in partnership with private companies in the future. It's a
Speaker 1: little early for us to talk about that, because frankly,
Speaker 1: we are just in the very very first stages of
Speaker 1: private space flight. We've got some people who are taking
Speaker 1: uh space spacecraft way up into the atmosphere and even
Speaker 1: all the way to low orbit. But it's early days yet,
Speaker 1: so we will see how that that progresses over time.
Speaker 1: But I would imagine that that would be something that
Speaker 1: NASA would be interested in, and because private flight could
Speaker 1: very well be the next era of space exploration as
Speaker 1: far as the United States is concerned. We may also
Speaker 1: see at some point a refunding of NASA where um,
Speaker 1: they are refocused on a new space program. And again
Speaker 1: it won't necessarily be the Shuttle or anything that resembles
Speaker 1: the Shuttle, but it would use a lot of the
Speaker 1: same sort of offices and consoles that they're using now
Speaker 1: in mission control. Actually, that's a good point, you're probably
Speaker 1: wondering at this point, Well, it's pretty late in the podcast.
Speaker 1: You guys haven't really talked about the tech that they use. Um,
Speaker 1: there's it's kind of difficult to find a lot out
Speaker 1: about that technology. For one thing, you're talking about all
Speaker 1: these different consoles. Not all of them are using exactly
Speaker 1: the same thing. Some of these are using some consoles
Speaker 1: are using systems that were specifically designed for that particular task,
Speaker 1: which means they are so well, I can't say they're
Speaker 1: so unique. That's ridiculous, right, their unique period and therefore
Speaker 1: there is nothing to compare them to other than saying
Speaker 1: this is a very specialized computer. Yeah, from what from
Speaker 1: what I've been able to find out, Um, when they
Speaker 1: were putting these systems together in the nineteen seventies for
Speaker 1: use in the Shuttle missions of the early nineteen eighties, UM,
Speaker 1: there wasn't anything available for them to use that did
Speaker 1: what they wanted it to do. So it wasn't like
Speaker 1: there were IBM PCs or max or even Amiga's or
Speaker 1: anything that they could buy off the shelf commodore, you know.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, they didn't have the same types
Speaker 1: of systems where they could just go buy a series
Speaker 1: of machines or or even you know, put together a
Speaker 1: Linux box that would do what they wanted it to do.
Speaker 1: So they ended up basically creating these these UH consoles
Speaker 1: on their own that would handle the specific tasks necessary
Speaker 1: to complete these missions. So UM, I imagine that part
Speaker 1: of the reason it's difficult to find information on it
Speaker 1: is because they are unique. And I imagine that that
Speaker 1: for to some degree it's probably classified. UM because you know,
Speaker 1: the Space race was for the longest time a competition
Speaker 1: between the United States and the Soviet Union. Um, and
Speaker 1: you know, we were sort of in competition with them,
Speaker 1: so they didn't want people to know, uh, in other
Speaker 1: countries what kinds of technology was used in these machines. So, um,
Speaker 1: but it is fascinating stuff. I would assume that basically
Speaker 1: it is computer hardware used specifically to track or to
Speaker 1: communicate or whatever it is, that that person happens to
Speaker 1: need it may actually be somewhat unsophisticated, and that it
Speaker 1: has a specialized purpose and doesn't need to do a
Speaker 1: multitude of tasks. Yeah. Why would you need to be
Speaker 1: able to calculate telemetry when you are looking specifically at
Speaker 1: an unrelated system aboard the show. Yeah, totally makes sense
Speaker 1: from that perspective. And again it's that whole specialized focus.
Speaker 1: You know, you have specialized equipment to monitor a very
Speaker 1: particular system aboard the shuttle, and you have a specialized
Speaker 1: officer that is uh that is at that console. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's again it's one of those things where you want
Speaker 1: that kind of specialization because again the stakes are really
Speaker 1: high and uh, you know, and multiple arenas. So that
Speaker 1: was an interesting overview of mission control. I mean, if
Speaker 1: if you ever get a chance, in you listeners out there,
Speaker 1: if you ever get a chance to take a tour
Speaker 1: of any of the flight centers and NASA, if you
Speaker 1: go to the Kennedy Space Center, for example, I highly
Speaker 1: recommend taking these tours and and getting a look. You
Speaker 1: can actually see, uh, the equipment that was used in
Speaker 1: the Apollo missions at the Kennedy Space Center. You can
Speaker 1: see the launch control facility, and uh, it's fascinating. You're
Speaker 1: looking at these machines that that are almost imp in
Speaker 1: trouble as far as you know. You just glance at
Speaker 1: them and you're like, I have no idea what that does,
Speaker 1: but it looks amazing, right, And you think that beeps
Speaker 1: and it blinks right, and then you think there was
Speaker 1: a person sitting at that console who not only had
Speaker 1: that console, but a slide rule yes to make calculations
Speaker 1: on the fly, And it's just phenomenal. You think about
Speaker 1: the amount of human ingenuity it takes to get people
Speaker 1: into space and back home safely, and again, it's one
Speaker 1: of those those accomplishments that a lot of us take
Speaker 1: for granted. But I think truly speak to the most
Speaker 1: amazing things humans are capable of doing. There's something to
Speaker 1: be said that they were up there doing that with
Speaker 1: a slide rule, when you can go to your local
Speaker 1: discount store and buy a five dollar solar powered calculator
Speaker 1: that will do far more complex calculations and more precisely.
Speaker 1: And the fact that we are able to to get
Speaker 1: people into space and back again safely. I mean again
Speaker 1: that just human ingenuity is a phenomenal thing. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what kind of technology we talk about. Ultimately, keep
Speaker 1: in mind it's people who are doing this and that
Speaker 1: is I think the best story to tell, right So anyway,
Speaker 1: we're gonna wrap this up. There was a fun discussion
Speaker 1: about the Mission Control Center. You guys, if you have
Speaker 1: any questions or you have a suggestion for another topic
Speaker 1: you would like us to tackle, let us know. You
Speaker 1: can contact us on Facebook and Twitter are handled. There
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Speaker 1: us an email on that address is text stuff at
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com. Chris and I will talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Be sure to check out
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