Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and love all things tech. And it's Friday.
Speaker 1: That means it's time for another classic episode of tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: This episode published July two thousand eleven, when we were
Speaker 1: also young and bright eyed. This episode features Chris Pallette,
Speaker 1: my co host and editor at the time, and we
Speaker 1: talk about NASA's mission control I thought this was a
Speaker 1: good episode to include here since we did that whole
Speaker 1: suite of space episodes a couple of months ago, and
Speaker 1: this ties into that NASA's mission control absolutely is one
Speaker 1: of the most important elements when it comes to the
Speaker 1: United States space program. So sit back and enjoy this
Speaker 1: classic episode and I'll talk to you again in just
Speaker 1: a moment. We're gonna talk today about mission control center
Speaker 1: with NASA, and specifically the mission control center associated with
Speaker 1: Shuttle missions. Seeing as how the final Space Shuttle mission
Speaker 1: UH launched, well, we're recording this podcast before the launch,
Speaker 1: but it should publish after that launch. We wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of talk about the the stuff that goes on
Speaker 1: on the ground, not necessarily the stuff that's going on
Speaker 1: inside the orbiter itself. I said, launch, not launch. Sorry
Speaker 1: if you can, if you can identify that quote. UM, yeah,
Speaker 1: we Uh. When Jonathan and I were talking about doing
Speaker 1: the episode on the Space Shuttle, UM, as we do
Speaker 1: with some of the complex topics, we decide, you know,
Speaker 1: to at least have an idea where we're gonna go
Speaker 1: with the research. And even before we started doing the research,
Speaker 1: we figured that this was going to be complex enough
Speaker 1: that we would have to break it down, and we
Speaker 1: decided to do an episode specific quicially on mission control because, um,
Speaker 1: it's not just the astronauts inside the Space Shuttle who
Speaker 1: are paying attention to everything that's going on in the
Speaker 1: spacecraft during the mission. I mean, it's of course there
Speaker 1: they have to sleep. Um, they have a lot of
Speaker 1: things to do. They've got science to do. Um. They
Speaker 1: 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 and spots to
Speaker 1: record for sesame street occasionally some of those occasionally they
Speaker 1: have to sing yes, shout out to our parent company.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, I mean there's there's a lot for
Speaker 1: them to do, and uh, you know, somebody has to
Speaker 1: be keeping an eye on the on the shop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we cuver some of this material on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com in an article called how NASA Works,
Speaker 1: But that's really kind of an overview of the agency.
Speaker 1: We wanted to talk specifically about mission control, and before
Speaker 1: we get too far into this, we should probably talk
Speaker 1: about where mission control is because if you're watching a launch,
Speaker 1: you may be seeing shots of this, uh group of
Speaker 1: people all wearing a nice suits and they're all sitting
Speaker 1: at different consoles and they all looked very busy, and um,
Speaker 1: the odds are that you're actually looking at the Kennedy
Speaker 1: Space Center and they do launch control. They have a
Speaker 1: launch control center there at Kennedy, but that is not
Speaker 1: mission control. Mission control is actually located in Houston, as
Speaker 1: you know immortalized in the phrase Houston, we have a problem. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's specifically talking about the mission control center at the
Speaker 1: Johnson's Space Center in Houston, Texas. Yes, and no, that
Speaker 1: is not the quote used in the movie. Was not
Speaker 1: exactly what was said. No, no, but of course right,
Speaker 1: But just like playing against Sam was never actually said
Speaker 1: in Casablanca. Um, it actually was said in sits in
Speaker 1: King so but no, yeah, that's that's those the people
Speaker 1: who who in Apollo thirteen, And we actually kind of
Speaker 1: saw what was going on in mission control, even though
Speaker 1: it was a you know, I guess it's safe to
Speaker 1: say it was fictionalized to kind of a real event,
Speaker 1: although not terribly fictionalized compared to some others. I would
Speaker 1: guess right, it was more it tried to stay true
Speaker 1: to the actual unfolding of the the emergency more so
Speaker 1: than a lot of other movies did. But even so,
Speaker 1: there was some traumatization going on there. Well you have
Speaker 1: to it's but but yeah, I mean, if you've seen
Speaker 1: the movie, you probably have a somewhat reasonable idea of
Speaker 1: what the people are doing in that center. They're trying
Speaker 1: to main maintain communications. They're trying to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on with the telemetry, uh, you know, keeping an
Speaker 1: eye on where the ship is going, mooring the various systems,
Speaker 1: making sure everything's okay, and in the song quoted before,
Speaker 1: their just making sure everything's okay with the people up
Speaker 1: in space. So let's Chris and I both looked at
Speaker 1: an illustration of the mission Control Center to kind of
Speaker 1: break it down and see exactly what it looks like
Speaker 1: and what people are doing there. And we thought we
Speaker 1: would be kind of interesting to talk to you and
Speaker 1: guide you through the mission control room. Now, if you
Speaker 1: were to look at the room, yeah, if you're just
Speaker 1: like taking a tour walking around, you would see either
Speaker 1: all these big desks with consoles at them, and at
Speaker 1: one end of the room are a bunch of monitors,
Speaker 1: big monitors, and those monitors are showing things like video
Speaker 1: feeds from the shuttle as well as just lots and
Speaker 1: lots of data and uh. And so we wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of talk to you about what these uh, these
Speaker 1: consoles were in their purpose and what the officers who
Speaker 1: sit at these consoles do. And we're kind of taking you, like,
Speaker 1: if you imagine this big room with monitors. At one
Speaker 1: end of the room, the room has a five rows
Speaker 1: of stations. Okay, the first row has three stations across
Speaker 1: and the other four rows have four stations across. So
Speaker 1: what we're going to do is we're going to go
Speaker 1: from the end that has the monitors. That's the end
Speaker 1: that has the three stations in front of it. That's
Speaker 1: the first row and we're going to go from left
Speaker 1: to right, and then we're gonna go down a row
Speaker 1: left or right, and down a row left or right,
Speaker 1: and just explain what each of those stations are meant
Speaker 1: to do. And so Chris, I think you were going
Speaker 1: to take the first one. We're just gonna kind of
Speaker 1: alternate all the way down. Yeah. That the first person
Speaker 1: and sitting on the front and you know that's a
Speaker 1: terrible place to sit if you're watching a movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but this isn't a movie. Far left in the front row,
Speaker 1: I got that cricket, the guy with a cricket his neck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how I saw Lord of the Rings, the felloship
Speaker 1: of the Ring, and it was tough. Well, the person
Speaker 1: in in in that corner of the room is uh,
Speaker 1: the flight dynamics officer. Now I should point out 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: at 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 talking 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. NASA says about fifty on a
Speaker 1: team of all of every you know, every who's on there,
Speaker 1: right right, so, so different shifts exactly, you've got around,
Speaker 1: on average, around twenty people working in that room during
Speaker 1: a spatial flight at any particular time during that flight.
Speaker 1: We should also stress that this is specifically space shuttles.
Speaker 1: There's a totally different mission control center for the International
Speaker 1: Space Station and it has a different group, similar similar stations,
Speaker 1: like 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 Space shuttle mission. Yeah, but 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: an essentially a nickname. But this is not not necessarily
Speaker 1: a nickname, but it's what everybody calls. So if Steve
Speaker 1: is on the console, you know, in the morning shift,
Speaker 1: and Jennifers on the console in the afternoon shift, they
Speaker 1: still have the same call sign because it's actually the
Speaker 1: station that they refer to, right, not the person, But
Speaker 1: the station doesn't matter. Who's there. That person is filling
Speaker 1: that Yeah, so like dynamics officer yes, and call signed
Speaker 1: Fido who and that person plans the ship's maneuvers and
Speaker 1: is watching its trajectory. Um, there's another person that keeps
Speaker 1: track of that to the guidance officer. Um. But but
Speaker 1: the Fido is up there in the the bottom left
Speaker 1: hand corner if you're looking at the screens. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: so you've got that. If you move over one station,
Speaker 1: you have a console that actually could have one of
Speaker 1: two different officers working there, depending upon what's going on.
Speaker 1: In that spatial mission at the time. UH, there's the
Speaker 1: Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer also known just as Rendezvous UM,
Speaker 1: and that job is to support the Shuttle mission whenever
Speaker 1: they are going to have to dock with an other
Speaker 1: vehicle or with the space station, or perhaps they're coming
Speaker 1: up to do repairs for example on the Hubble telescope.
Speaker 1: Anytime the Shuttle is coming into close proximity with another
Speaker 1: vehicle or satellite or anything like that. UM, this officer
Speaker 1: is there to help support the Shuttle's crew and UH
Speaker 1: and give information and guidance when the Shuttle is going
Speaker 1: through those sort of maneuvers. Now, in other situations that
Speaker 1: you might find the ascent slash Intrigue Guidance and Procedures Officer,
Speaker 1: they're known as guidance. Now. This is the person who
Speaker 1: is helping again with navigation issues specifically during the the
Speaker 1: the ascent and descent UH phases of a Shuttle mission.
Speaker 1: So when the Shuttle is either entering orbit or is
Speaker 1: getting ready to re enter the atmosphere YEP and UM.
Speaker 1: Also that person keeps track of any possibility that they
Speaker 1: need to abort, so they're they're UM, you know, keeping
Speaker 1: a close eye on those kinds of situations. UM. The
Speaker 1: next 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
Speaker 1: Maryland by the way. So I talked about Houston and Florida,
Speaker 1: but we didn't talk about Maryland. Yeah, NASA has a
Speaker 1: number of facilities all over the country UM and and
Speaker 1: other stations that they work with with countries around the
Speaker 1: world to keep track of what's going on with the shuttle.
Speaker 1: So UM, even though there may be on a given
Speaker 1: mission up to seven people in the shuttle, there are
Speaker 1: a whole lot more people on the ground watching out
Speaker 1: for them. So let's go back a row. So we
Speaker 1: moved back toward the the UH far left. UM, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the propulsion officer also prop pr op UM.
Speaker 1: The propulsion officer's 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. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: speaking of guidance, UM, the next person is guidance Navigation
Speaker 1: and Control systems also known as g n C watching
Speaker 1: the the guidance navigation and control systems UH. He or
Speaker 1: she would be in contact with the flight director and
Speaker 1: crew any time that something again would require aboarding the
Speaker 1: mission UM. And this I assume could mean any time
Speaker 1: rather than UM. You know, the guidance officers watching specifically
Speaker 1: on launch and landing. This would be any time you
Speaker 1: need to UH cut out and go home. UM. Or
Speaker 1: any time the not the guidance hardware might be not
Speaker 1: working correctly. Yes, 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 properly. UM.
Speaker 1: The this officer would be the person who would help
Speaker 1: guide the shuttle crew into maneuvering the shuttle so that
Speaker 1: it was going the right way for whatever operation they
Speaker 1: needed to perform at that point, most likely coming home. Next,
Speaker 1: we have the Maintenance Mechanical arm and Crew Systems Officer
Speaker 1: or Max m M a c. S. Butts pronounced Max um.
Speaker 1: The This is a person who looks at the shuttles
Speaker 1: structural mechanical systems to make sure that everything is is nominal.
Speaker 1: So the also monitors all the equipment, maintenance, and hardware
Speaker 1: use aboard the shuttle. So this is the guy who
Speaker 1: tells the astronauts to put up their toys when they're
Speaker 1: done playing sexual a little more obviously much more serious
Speaker 1: than that, but clearly this this is the person who
Speaker 1: is trying to make sure that that all the procedures
Speaker 1: are followed aboard the shuttle to make sure everything is
Speaker 1: stowed away properly and is used the way it was
Speaker 1: meant to be used and turned off and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, because clearly anything that's out of the
Speaker 1: ordinary could potentially cause a major problem with such a
Speaker 1: complex mission. Um. Yes, and a lot of jokes. I'm
Speaker 1: sure like, no, my name is not Max, it's Steve. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: Now they're known for a lot of joking in the
Speaker 1: Mission Control center. Maybe when it's all over with Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: we have more to talk about with NASA's mission control system,
Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor.
Speaker 1: Next is Eagle, the Electrical Generation and Illumination Officer, and
Speaker 1: this person is keeping an eye on the electrical systems, cryogenics,
Speaker 1: fuel cells, A C and d C power circuits. Both
Speaker 1: Edison and Tesla are represented um vehicle pyrotechnics and lighting.
Speaker 1: Actually that always makes me think of rock bands. Yeah
Speaker 1: when I read that, well, you already talked about e C,
Speaker 1: d C two and uh any caution and warning systems
Speaker 1: that might be going on. So yeah, alright, time to
Speaker 1: move move back another row. So moving back another road
Speaker 1: to this is row three. If you're keeping track, we're
Speaker 1: back back over to the far left. We have the
Speaker 1: Data Processing System Officer DPS, who looks monitors the status
Speaker 1: 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 is not any
Speaker 1: sort of malfunction in those systems. UM. They also look
Speaker 1: at other computer systems that are related to the mission,
Speaker 1: including the function display system. So that's his job or
Speaker 1: her tob Yeah. The payload's officer is next, UM, which
Speaker 1: is just called payload. Yeah. They drop an S. That's
Speaker 1: that's how they abbreviate that that console as they dropped
Speaker 1: the S to payload. I see they don't. They don't
Speaker 1: get cool U nicknami call signs, at least not most
Speaker 1: of them, UM like they do in the in the movies. UM. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that that person coordinates the both the ground system and
Speaker 1: the onboard shuttle UH system interfaces, so the flight control
Speaker 1: team and payload user are in contact with another with
Speaker 1: one another and UM. Payload also keeps an eye on
Speaker 1: the in cabin and cargo based system experiments and satellites. UM.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean you've got those great big bay
Speaker 1: doors and stuff comes out of them. That's who knows
Speaker 1: what's going on with that. It's the main purpose for
Speaker 1: the Space Shuttle is to be able to deliver payloads
Speaker 1: to space. So like a giant cargo up. UH. Next,
Speaker 1: we have a console where again, two different officers could
Speaker 1: be operating this console depending upon what is going on
Speaker 1: in the Space Shuttle mission at that time. You have
Speaker 1: the Flight Activities Officer or f AO. I like to
Speaker 1: call him Schwartz. Uh, the Flight Activities officers so nice.
Speaker 1: I'm a big, big fan of f AO. So the
Speaker 1: Flight Activities Officer is their job is to to kind
Speaker 1: of be a support for the the shuttle crew. Uh.
Speaker 1: They maintain checklists and procedures and schedules. So whenever you
Speaker 1: you see a launch or you over here like the
Speaker 1: the recordings from um missions and you hear the Shuttle
Speaker 1: crew going down a checklist, this is the person who
Speaker 1: on the ground is also going through that same checklist
Speaker 1: to make sure that everything is checked off whenever they're
Speaker 1: doing any sort of procedure. UM. They also manage the
Speaker 1: shuttle orientation, so how it is oriented, uh in relation
Speaker 1: to the Earth or to really anything else, you know,
Speaker 1: it's some other point of reference. And then the other
Speaker 1: officer who works at that console, depending upon what's going on,
Speaker 1: is the Visiting Vehicles Officer or vv O. And uh,
Speaker 1: sometimes the Shuttle has to interact with other vehicles like
Speaker 1: Russian vehicles or perhaps the Internet, National Space, slower moving
Speaker 1: ones or slower moving ones UM, and so the the
Speaker 1: Visiting Vehicles officer is the person who monitors that connection
Speaker 1: whenever the shuttle is is docked with another vehicle or
Speaker 1: the I S S UM the that's that's that officer's job.
Speaker 1: So a little bit different from the navigation officer. They're
Speaker 1: they're not necessarily helping the shuttle maneuver next to those
Speaker 1: They're just monitoring whenever that connection is made because clearly,
Speaker 1: you know you're sharing an UM airlock connection. You want
Speaker 1: to make sure that everything is UH is still stable
Speaker 1: during that whole process. Yes, So next we have the
Speaker 1: Emergency Environmental and Consumables Yes, Operations Manager EE calm, Yes
Speaker 1: that would Yeah, UM is UH and that person UH
Speaker 1: is responsible for the active and passive thermal control of
Speaker 1: the vehicle according to NASA UM and the cabin atmosphere control,
Speaker 1: so like, hey, you know, can you turn down the
Speaker 1: thermostat could you get a little some of this carbon
Speaker 1: dioxide out of our atmosphere? Really avionics, cooling supply and
Speaker 1: wastewater systems and fire detection and suppression systems, so really
Speaker 1: you can think of this, this officer is being in
Speaker 1: UH in charge of monitoring life support systems basic shut 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 obscure. But yeah, whenever we talk about
Speaker 1: life support systems, this is the officer in charge of
Speaker 1: making sure everything is is running in the right parameters.
Speaker 1: So now it's time to move of another row back
Speaker 1: and back over to the far left. We've got the
Speaker 1: Instrumentation and Communications Officer inco I n c OH. This
Speaker 1: person monitors the communications systems and instrumentation systems systems configuration
Speaker 1: aboard the shuttle. Um. They're also the one who controls
Speaker 1: the shuttle television systems from the ground. So the shuttle
Speaker 1: crew wants to watch 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 team. Yeah. I bet, although
Speaker 1: I didn't read this, I bet that this person is
Speaker 1: also the one who's responsible for playing the wake up song,
Speaker 1: which is now sort of semi famous part of a
Speaker 1: shuttle be kind of a tradition right where you've got this. Uh,
Speaker 1: each each member of a shuttle crew gets to choose
Speaker 1: a song that will be played at a particular time
Speaker 1: to to 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 a flag 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: and there 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 do you make me turn this
Speaker 1: mission around? Yeah? I mean serious as they are, they
Speaker 1: do get to have a little fun in the fly
Speaker 1: director does have that does get to UH to buy
Speaker 1: when it's time for dinner once. Apparently it just happens once.
Speaker 1: That's good. Still, that's pretty cool. Yeah. So so next
Speaker 1: next to the flight director on the other side is
Speaker 1: the spacecraft communicator or capcom. And you might think, why
Speaker 1: is it called capcom when it's the actual name of
Speaker 1: the consoles, the Spacecraft Communicator. Well, it's because they really
Speaker 1: love playing Resident Evil. And you know, Resident Evil was
Speaker 1: made by Capcom, so real those big screens. It's true
Speaker 1: that it's true that Capcom makes Resident Evil. That's the
Speaker 1: only true part of that statement though, So why is
Speaker 1: it called Capcom. Well, it's because back in the day
Speaker 1: when when the earliest space flights were manned, space flights
Speaker 1: were being tested, the first capsule they were using was
Speaker 1: the Mercury Capsule, so it was Capsule Communication. Well, the
Speaker 1: shuttle is not a capsule, it's a spacecraft. So they
Speaker 1: changed the name of the console to Spacecraft Communicator, but
Speaker 1: they did not change the call sign, which it still
Speaker 1: remains Capcom. By the way, you're wondering if there is
Speaker 1: any other connection with Capcom the video game company, I
Speaker 1: am sad to inform you there is not. The Capcom
Speaker 1: video game Company takes its name from a predecessor of
Speaker 1: that company, the Japan Capsule Computer Company Limited, which you know,
Speaker 1: you just take Capsule computer and you squish that to Capcom.
Speaker 1: It's not the same thing as the one that's in
Speaker 1: um uh NASA's mission control. Now what are they doing? Well,
Speaker 1: there there may They serve as the primary communication point
Speaker 1: between flight control and the shuttle itself. That's their job.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and uh, spot Colm just doesn't sound as
Speaker 1: coolm No, spake calm No, that's what you do with
Speaker 1: your pets. So next we have the PDRs, the Payload,
Speaker 1: Deployment and Retrievals STEMS officer who is watching the operation
Speaker 1: of the remote manipulator system. Yeah, the robotic arm NASA.
Speaker 1: You know, they've got to have a fancy name for everything,
Speaker 1: and I think that's kind of cool. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, it's just easier to say a robotic arm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the guy who can take over control and
Speaker 1: make the robotic arm give a big thumbs up to
Speaker 1: the earth. Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you
Speaker 1: hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? This is all
Speaker 1: lies too, but no, it is true that that is
Speaker 1: that is the officer's job is to monitor the operation
Speaker 1: of the robotic arm. Now, clearly you might say, well,
Speaker 1: you know you've got the shuttle crew up there that's
Speaker 1: actively operating the robotic arm. Why do you need someone
Speaker 1: else keeping their eyes on this? Well, remember that this
Speaker 1: robotic arm is manipulating equipment that costs billions with a
Speaker 1: B dollars. So you're using this arm to help position satellites,
Speaker 1: to maybe retrieve a satellite that needs to be brought
Speaker 1: back down because it's going to either require repairs or
Speaker 1: even just needs to be taken down because otherwise it's
Speaker 1: going to crash into the Earth and and you might
Speaker 1: want to try and salvage some parts first. Um, it
Speaker 1: may 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 finally gutten to the last row of
Speaker 1: the the mission control center. On the blast row on
Speaker 1: the far left, you have the Public Affairs Officer p
Speaker 1: a O. These days to the Moon you go. That's
Speaker 1: where it comes from. And uh, the Public Affairs officers
Speaker 1: job is to provide mission commentary and also to explain
Speaker 1: any sort of transmissions that are going between the shuttle
Speaker 1: and ground control. UM. Primarily this person interfaces with either
Speaker 1: the general public or more commonly, the the press. So
Speaker 1: this is someone who is able to break these things
Speaker 1: down and explain in normal person speak what the transmissions mean,
Speaker 1: because you know, we might overhear some transmissions and you
Speaker 1: can kind of piece together what's going on, but this
Speaker 1: is the person who can really give it context and
Speaker 1: explain why it's important. Yeah, if you watch a NASA
Speaker 1: launch there, I'm I'm interpolating from all of this, there's
Speaker 1: a public affairs officer or someone who fills that role.
Speaker 1: Let's let's say that on on the launch control team
Speaker 1: as well, because you'll hear, you know, you'll hear the
Speaker 1: person the people in the control center, you know, with
Speaker 1: a very somber, very serious you know, you know, so
Speaker 1: and so this and then the other thing like that
Speaker 1: he minus five minutes and waiting and like we're holding
Speaker 1: the launch at five minutes in order to blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, so and and so this. This person
Speaker 1: will do this for the mission overall. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I would launch control centers the 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 modes. Uh No, I'm kidding. The Mission Operations Directorate
Speaker 1: groovy dude, that's the person who uh serves as an
Speaker 1: intermediary between the flight control room and the top NASA
Speaker 1: and mission managers. Um so yeah, basically a public affairs
Speaker 1: officers specifically to the top brass at NASA. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you know you it's this way you've maintained a line
Speaker 1: of communication that does not interfere with anyone else's specific duties.
Speaker 1: Because clearly, if you are in a big team and
Speaker 1: you have a boss who is overseeing the overall operations
Speaker 1: but is not directly involved in the day to day operations,
Speaker 1: it would be very distracting to have that person walk
Speaker 1: from desk to desk and say, hey, what 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 no and dah
Speaker 1: dah and and then direction is limited. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: have Novia Da, Borsh, Pravda and does Vidnia. Alright, that's
Speaker 1: about all I've got, um, but yeah, presumably the Russian
Speaker 1: Interface officer speaks more than that. I would hope, yes,
Speaker 1: I would as well. Houston, we have a sponsor read
Speaker 1: that's just my way of saying, we're gonna take a
Speaker 1: quick break for another sponsor break. The Booster Systems Officer
Speaker 1: also just known as booster uh. This is a person
Speaker 1: who monitors the launch systems during pre launching all the
Speaker 1: way through the ascent of the Shuttle. So this is
Speaker 1: again someone who has a counterpart at the Kennedy Space Center.
Speaker 1: I would imagine if I had probably several counterparts, because
Speaker 1: 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,
Speaker 1: including spacewalks. Yes, um, I would also have been whomever
Speaker 1: would monitor the astronauts who are on the moon during
Speaker 1: the Apollo missions. But of course Shuttle missions could not
Speaker 1: go to the moon. The Shuttle was not designed to
Speaker 1: go to the moon. So in this case, extra vehicular
Speaker 1: does really mean spacewalks. It also wasn't designed to land
Speaker 1: on asteroids, that's right. Um. Yeah. That that person also,
Speaker 1: I find this kind of interesting. This person also keeps
Speaker 1: an eye on the how the space suits are functioning, um,
Speaker 1: which is kind of interesting too, because it's not just
Speaker 1: you know, hey, okay out there, you know, don't forget
Speaker 1: your hat. It's also you know, is your hat working?
Speaker 1: Are are the environmental controls within your space suit functioning properly? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And yeah, this is serious, serious stuff here. It's no
Speaker 1: clearly you want to have extra eyes on that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you also that person also keeps track of what
Speaker 1: you're what the astronauts are doing on their spacewalk because
Speaker 1: they've trained extensively for this mission, and the saying okay,
Speaker 1: are you doing everything that you need to do? Are
Speaker 1: having trouble with your space suit. On a side note,
Speaker 1: I cannot comprehend the level of courage and confidence that
Speaker 1: would require to do a spacewalk. It is it is
Speaker 1: so far beyond my my ability to even imagine. It's
Speaker 1: just it's phenomenal. Well, they put their lives at risk
Speaker 1: for science, and I find that admirable. Yeah, certainly. Um. Lastly,
Speaker 1: we had the doc Bones in the back of the room.
Speaker 1: The surgeon is watching crew health and surgeons call sign
Speaker 1: surgeon yeah, yeah, not bones. Yeah. I know, it's just
Speaker 1: more fun to say, Um, this person. Uh. The surgeon
Speaker 1: is consulting with the crew, making sure the flight director
Speaker 1: knows if there's any health issue that might affect the mission. Um,
Speaker 1: and uh the person Basically, they have to have a
Speaker 1: medical doctor in who is specializing in aerospace medicine. UM.
Speaker 1: Talk about a specialization in the field. Um. And any
Speaker 1: time that their weight not likely to do house calls. 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 a crewisurgeon, deputy crew surgeon, and a bame mission
Speaker 1: manager according to NASA. UM, and they handle the the
Speaker 1: aspects of the flight. UM. And there are extra people
Speaker 1: who are there while the main team is away from
Speaker 1: mission control during the launch and landing of 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 Center. 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
Speaker 1: degree UM generally you had based on your educational background
Speaker 1: and your interest and your raining, they would assign you
Speaker 1: to a specific UH specific role based on those factors.
Speaker 1: So if you're if this sounds like something you would
Speaker 1: like to do. UM. Obviously, the Space Shuttle program is
Speaker 1: now ending with UM the assumed at this point, since
Speaker 1: the Shuttle hasn't launched UH safe Return of STS one
Speaker 1: in July, UM there will probably be something in the future,
Speaker 1: although the media plans have been put on hold, so
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it's it's worth investigating if that's
Speaker 1: something that but it's very specialized, and it may very
Speaker 1: well be that the future, the future of this center
Speaker 1: will be working in uh UH in partnership with private
Speaker 1: companies that are are creating space missions. Because of course,
Speaker 1: it's clear through this discussion that that any source of
Speaker 1: space mission is an incredibly complex affair and it's not
Speaker 1: something that can be accomplished just by the crew aboard
Speaker 1: whatever the spacecraft is. Clearly, I mean they play a
Speaker 1: critical role obviously in a mission, but that you need
Speaker 1: those extra people on the ground who are dedicated to
Speaker 1: very specific tasks to make certain that if anything does
Speaker 1: happen out of the ordinary, that they can handle it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's such a delicate and and frankly
Speaker 1: dangerous procedure to do any sort of space mission, manned
Speaker 1: space mission, you have to have that kind of intense
Speaker 1: scrutiny on the ground as well as in the sky
Speaker 1: or in space as it were. So it may very
Speaker 1: well be that that NASA works in partnership with private
Speaker 1: companies in the future. It's a little early for us
Speaker 1: to talk about that, because frankly, we are just in
Speaker 1: the very very first stages of private space flight. We've
Speaker 1: got some people who are taking uh space spacecraft way
Speaker 1: up into the atmosphere and even all the way up
Speaker 1: to low orbit. But it's early days yet, so we
Speaker 1: will see how that that progresses over time. But I
Speaker 1: would imagine that that would be something that NASA would
Speaker 1: be interested in, and because private flight could very well
Speaker 1: be the next era of space exploration as far as
Speaker 1: the United States is concerned. We may also see at
Speaker 1: some point a refunding of NASA, where um, they are
Speaker 1: refocused on a new space program. And again it won't
Speaker 1: necessarily be the Shuttle or anything that resembles the Shuttle,
Speaker 1: but it would use a lot of the same sort
Speaker 1: of offices and consoles that they're using now in mission control. Actually,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. You're probably wondering at this point, Well,
Speaker 1: it's pretty late in the podcast. You guys haven't really
Speaker 1: talked about the tech that they use. Um, there's it's
Speaker 1: kind of difficult to find a lot out about that technology.
Speaker 1: For one thing, you're talking about all these different consoles.
Speaker 1: Not all of them are using exactly the same thing.
Speaker 1: Some of these are using some consoles are using systems
Speaker 1: that were specifically designed for that particular task, which means
Speaker 1: they are so well, I can't say they're so unique.
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous, right, their unique period and therefore there is
Speaker 1: nothing to compare them to other than saying this is
Speaker 1: a very specialized computer. Yeah, from what from what I've
Speaker 1: been able to find out, Um, when they were putting
Speaker 1: these systems together in the nineteen seventies for use in
Speaker 1: the Shuttle missions of the early nineteen eighties, UM, there
Speaker 1: wasn't anything available for them to use that did what
Speaker 1: they wanted it to do. So it wasn't like there
Speaker 1: were IBM PCs or max or even Amiga's or anything
Speaker 1: that they could buy off the shelf Commodore sixty four,
Speaker 1: you know. But the thing is, they didn't have the
Speaker 1: same types of systems where they could just go buy
Speaker 1: a series of machines or or even you know, put
Speaker 1: together a Linux box that would do what they wanted
Speaker 1: it to do. So they ended up basically creating these
Speaker 1: these UH consoles on their own that would handle the
Speaker 1: specific tasks necessary to complete of these missions. So UM.
Speaker 1: I imagine that part of the reason it's difficult to
Speaker 1: find information on it is because they are unique. And
Speaker 1: I imagine that that for to some degree, it's probably
Speaker 1: classified um because you know, the Space Race was for
Speaker 1: the longest time a competition between the United States and
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, UM, and you know, we were sort
Speaker 1: of in competition with them, so they didn't want people
Speaker 1: to know, UH in other countries what kinds of technology
Speaker 1: was used in these machines. So UM, but it is
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff. I would assume that basically it is computer
Speaker 1: hardware used specifically to track or to communicate or whatever
Speaker 1: it is that that person happens to need. It may
Speaker 1: actually be somewhat unsophisticated, and that it has a specialized
Speaker 1: purpose and doesn't need to do a multitude of tasks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Why would you need to be able to calculate telemetry
Speaker 1: when you are looking specifically at an unrelated system aboard
Speaker 1: the shuttle. Yeah, yeah, it totally makes sense from that perspective.
Speaker 1: And again it's that whole specialized focus. You know, you
Speaker 1: have specialized equipment to monitor a very particular system aboard
Speaker 1: the Shuttle, and you have a specialized officer that is uh,
Speaker 1: that is at that console. So yeah, it's again it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where you want that kind of
Speaker 1: specialization because again the stakes are really high and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in multiple arenas. So that was an interesting
Speaker 1: overview of mission control. I mean, if if you ever
Speaker 1: get a chance, you listeners out there, if you ever
Speaker 1: get a chance to take a tour of any of
Speaker 1: the flight centers and NASA, if you go to the
Speaker 1: Kennedy Space Center, for example, I highly recommend taking these
Speaker 1: tours and and getting a look. You can actually see, uh,
Speaker 1: the equipment that was used in the Apollo missions at
Speaker 1: the Kennedy Space Center. You can see the launch control
Speaker 1: facility and uh, it's fascinating. You're looking at these machines
Speaker 1: that that are almost impenetrable as far as you know.
Speaker 1: You just glance at them and you're like, I have
Speaker 1: no idea what that does. It looks amazing, right, And
Speaker 1: you think that beeps and it blinks, and then you
Speaker 1: think there was a person sitting at that console who
Speaker 1: not only had that console, but a slide rule to
Speaker 1: make calculations on the fly, and it's just phenomenal. You
Speaker 1: think about the amount of human ingenuity it takes to
Speaker 1: get people into space and back home safely, and again,
Speaker 1: it's one of those those accomplishments that a lot of
Speaker 1: us take for granted, but I think truly speak to
Speaker 1: the most amazing things humans are capable of doing. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed that classic episode of tech Stuff.
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