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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Jerry Miller
Aired March 09, 2002 - 07:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go back now to Johnson Space Center in Houston to my partner in crime and award-winning space journalist, Miles O'Brien -- has more on the Hubble Telescope repair mission. I guess we have all named you the Hubble Hunk, Miles. It's going around.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: The Hubble Hunk, yes. The partner in crime though, I think I am an unindicted co- conspirator.
PHILLIPS: Oh.
O'BRIEN: Let's leave at that, shall we?
PHILLIPS: I'm going to ask Jerry about that.
O'BRIEN: Anyway, let me -- I like that Hubble Hunk stuff. I am with Jerry Miller, who is head of the Astronaut Training Office specifically geared for its spacewalks -- good to have you with us, Jerry.
JERRY MILLER, SPACEWALK TRAINER: Nice to be here. Thanks.
O'BRIEN: He is with the United Space Alliance, the prime contractor on the Shuttle here and works very closely with NASA obviously. There are a lot of contractors that work here.
And let's just set the scene for folks as to where are here. This is a very good, as they say in the space business, high fidelity mockup.
MILLER: Very high fidelity.
O'BRIEN: The airlock, which is on the International Space Station, while the Shuttle has been busy doing its thing with Hubble, there are still astronauts living on the Space Station. They have been up there for quite some time, and they are doing their work, getting that Space Station up and running, trying to accomplish some science, although with three people, it's hard to do that, because it's a big job just keeping that thing running. But nevertheless, one of the things that they have, which came up last summer, is this airlock, so that they can do a spacewalk unilaterally without the Space Shuttle being there. It gives them that capability.
So set the scene for us, Jerry. What is this room all about?
MILLER: Well, we are inside the Quest Airlock, which is actually quite different from the Shuttle airlock that we have all been accustomed to over the years. This one is divided into two separate chambers, and we are standing inside the equipment lock portion, which is, as you can see, quite a bit larger than the standard Shuttle airlock. It provides support for the suits, as well as storage for our equipment.
And one thing that is very interesting about the new International Space Station airlock is it can support both the American suit, known as the EMU or Extravehicular Mobility Unit, and the Russian Orlan suit.
O'BRIEN: And that's obviously important, because all of the crews are joint crews, Russian and U.S.
MILLER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Now, just to give you some perspective, that area back there, that portion of the airlock is probably even bigger than the Shuttle airlock. So what you have here is a fair amount of space, even though it is tight quarters.
MILLER: Quite a bit of room, and this area, the crew lock is the area that's actually taking down the vacuum, and we egress to go outside through that hatch. This large hatch closes in between when we do that.
O'BRIEN: So set up in here, suit up, all that kind of stuff.
MILLER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: The crew goes in here. They do what's called a pre- breathe. If you are a diver, you are familiar with the bends. They get the nitrogen out of their system. They go in there, seal the hatch and depressurize, right?
MILLER: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Out they go. All right. Well, let's -- I'll tell you what. Let's talk a little bit about the suit. The suit is of great interest to people. I mean, basically I think a good way to look at this, this is the world's smallest spacecraft.
MILLER: It actually is. They are known as a single person space vehicle, because they really do have all of the components of a regular full-size space vehicle. They have their own closed-loop life support system, their own communication system, their on-board computer, caution and warning. They even nowadays, of course, with the SAFER, have their own propulsion system.
O'BRIEN: Now, SAFER, that's an acronym -- well, I don't know...
MILLER: Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. O'BRIEN: It's supposed to give a little jet-propelled device in case an astronaut -- now, they are always tethered when they are outside. That's an important thing, but in case they break free, they have the capability of zooming themselves back to the Station. That would be an important thing, because you don't want to become a human satellite.
MILLER: That' right. The Shuttle has a lot more maneuverability than the Station does.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MILLER: And of course, you can always go with the Shuttle and pick someone up. The Station is a little bigger, not as maneuverable. The EVA astronauts now, with the SAFER, have their own ability to fly back if they need to.
O'BRIEN: All right. Let's look at the gloves. The gloves are of great interest to me, because watching this past week on the Hubble spacewalks, you know, you saw these inflated gloves, and them trying to work on these connectors...
MILLER: Right.
O'BRIEN: ... that were really not designed to be operated with these gloves.
MILLER: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: It's got to be challenging.
MILLER: The gloves are a real feat of engineering in and of themselves. You can see inside. The green pressure bladder, that's what is holding the oxygen inside the suit. And between that pressure bladder on the outside on the overall suit, there are about seven layers of a combination of insulation, micrometeoroid protection and that sort of thing.
And you can well imagine that when the suit is pressurized, and by the way, in case folks are interested, they are pressurized to 4.3 PSI, pounds per square inch. That's absolute pressure, and it's pure oxygen. Once you do that, of course you are pressurizing the gloves as well, and so essentially you are having to work your hand against sort of an inflated tire...
O'BRIEN: Wow!
MILLER: ... which is very difficult in and of itself.
O'BRIEN: It's got to be fatiguing.
MILLER: It really is.
O'BRIEN: Kyra, do you have an e-mail for us?
PHILLIPS: I sure do. As a matter of fact on this subject matter. This one comes from John, and here is the question: "I understand the EVU" -- EVA he said, but it's EVU, right? EVU spacesuit?
MILLER: EMU is the suit, right.
O'BRIEN: EMU, EVA, whatever.
PHILLIPS: OK.
O'BRIEN: These acronyms will drive you crazy.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I am getting all confused. All right.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.
PHILLIPS: The "spacesuit pressure is 4 to 5 PSI," but I guess Jerry just said 4.3. "What is the lowest atmospheric pressure the crew can go under in controlled circumstances? And what situation would it take for an explosive decompression like in the movies?"
O'BRIEN: A good question by the way.
MILLER: A very good question.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MILLER: The suit has a lot of automatic systems on board, and the secondary oxygen supply will allow the suit to maintain a pressure all the way down to 3.3 PSI. Now, that would still sustain life. The astronaut would be safe. And explosive decompression is not really quite like in the movies. The suit is designed to be able to sustain a hole as large as half an inch in diameter. That is potentially possible with a micrometeoroid hit or something like that.
O'BRIEN: All right. Another question for us, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Yes. We've got another one. This one comes from John also in Peabody, Mass. "While the astronaut..."
O'BRIEN: That Peabody. Peabody.
PHILLIPS: Peabody. Are you serious?
O'BRIEN: Peabody. Yes, it's Peabody.
PHILLIPS: Well, I'm a journalist. I...
O'BRIEN: That's all right. I wanted to correct that right way.
PHILLIPS: But I think of the Peabody Award, you know what I mean? So here we go. I'm thinking like a...
O'BRIEN: It's New England.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: In New England.
O'BRIEN: It's land of Worcester and Peabody.
PHILLIPS: There we go. Oh, I new Worcester. OK.
O'BRIEN: All right, go ahead.
PHILLIPS: Here we go. "While the astronauts are engaged in these long spacewalks, is there any concern about being struck? What are the odds of this happening?"
MILLER: The odds are very low, but of course, there is concern. As I mentioned, the suit is even designed with protection from micrometeoroid debris.
O'BRIEN: All right. But, I mean, there is a lot of junk up there.
MILLER: There is.
O'BRIEN: I think at Space Command, the folks (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and track about 8,000 pieces bigger than our hand, I guess, just thereabouts.
MILLER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: That's a lot of stuff up there. Of course, the good news is it's a big space.
MILLER: It's a very big place.
O'BRIEN: It's a big place.
MILLER: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Now, I do know there have been occasions where the Shuttle and the Station have actually had to make course corrections.
(CROSSTALK)
MILLER: That's true.
O'BRIEN: So the fact is that Space Command, NORAD, whatever you want to call them, they are watching for the bigger pieces. You know, little pieces, fortunately, has that eight layer capability, and if it was struck -- you know, struck by a little piece or anything less than that half inch, I think it would be OK.
MILLER: That's right.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jerry Miller, thanks for giving us a little tour of the $14 million EMU.
MILLER: It was a lot of fun.
O'BRIEN: It's not quite one size fits all. It's kind of a modular thing. And next time, I insist, I have to try one on.
MILLER: We'll work on it. And anybody that gets an award like that, maybe we'll have to work something out.
O'BRIEN: All right.
MILLER: We really appreciate it, Miles.
O'BRIEN: I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
MILLER: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Jerry Miller, the man who teaches astronauts how to do spacewalks. And really, if you look at what happened this past week at the Hubble Space Telescope, proof that this training must be -- they must be doing something right here in Houston, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: I think they are. Coming up, you've got Steve Hawley in the next hour, right, Miles?
O'BRIEN: Yes. Steve Hawley is a veteran astronaut, and he was on the mission in April of 1990 where the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed. He actually operated the robot arm to do that. He is also an astronomer, and he's got a lot of experience on the Shuttle.
So any questions you have about the Hubble or just life on the Space Shuttle, life in space, send them along, and we'll fire away to Steve.
PHILLIPS: Sounds good. All right. Thanks to Jerry, and thanks to you.
O'BRIEN: All right.
PHILLIPS: We'll see you in a little bit.
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