NASA helps the Chilean miners

 

The Aquarius living environment off the coast of Florida, where NASA astronauts come to prepare for isolation before long-duration flights. Credit: NASA

On 5 August, an accident in the copper mine in San José, close to Copiapo at the gateway to the Atacama desert, trapped a team of miners. The miners were able to retreat to a refuge where provisions were stored and communicate with the surface via a shaft 4cm in diameter. A new shaft will need to be drilled in order to free them. This operation could take three to four months, during which the 33 men, aged 19 to 63, must survive in an area of barely 50m2. 

At the request of the Chilean health minister, NASA will dispatch a team comprised of two doctors, a psychologist and an engineer to assist the efforts of the Chilean rescue workers. The team must be ready to get down to work next week, but how can the expertise of NASA or the space industry in general help these men who are stuck 700 metres underground to survive?

Since the 1960s, NASA has explored the problems related to the long-term confinement of a team in an enclosed space.  Isolation experiments ranging from a few weeks to over two months were carried out in preparation for the Skylab program. The Russian’s were doing the same and in 1967 they attempted a flight simulation lasting one year. These experiments, supported by operational missions aboard the space stations, from Skylab to the ISS, including Salyut and Mir, still continue today, whether in simulators here on Earth, such as the Mars500 experiment which started on 3 June in Moscow with Russian, European and Chinese volunteers and must last until November 2011, or in underwater environments, such as Aquarius, situated off Key Largo in southern Florida. Since 2001, Aquarius has regularly been used by NASA as part of its NEEMO program (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) for expeditions lasting between one and two weeks and used by the astronauts in their preparations for six-month missions aboard the ISS. In addition, NASA astronauts train for emergencies, the procedures for which have been developed and validated over the years. This experience may be vital in helping the trapped miners to manage the stress generated by their imprisonment and the lack of privacy.

“The environments may be different but the physiological and psychological response of a human being to isolation, a lack of privacy and emergency situations remain quite similar,” explains Dr Michael Duncan, deputy chief medial officer at Johnson Space Center in Houston and a member of the support mission. “What we’ve learnt during our research and during operational missions may be applicable to the situation. This is a good opportunity to take advantage of our experiences in space to help people here on Earth."

Since 3 June 2010, six volunteers have been enclosed in this environment simulating a Martian spacecraft at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. They have no direct contact with the outside world in order to complete their isolation, it also simulates the delay in communications related to their simulated distance from Earth.  They will reach Mars in February 2001 and return the following November. Credit: ESA

Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, who completed a six month stay in the ISS and today teaches the basics of long-duration space flights at Johnson Space Center, recently explained to the Canadian press his own recipe for surviving in a good condition, and most importantly preventing boredom, which can lead to depression, irritability, anxiety and sleeplessness. They need good teamwork, a variety of music, games, reading, the opportunity to communicate with family and friends, physical exercise and useful tasks such as measuring the air temperature and pressure in their refuge and neighbouring tunnels to keep rescuers informed.

Furthermore, the surface teams must keep the miners constantly informed of the situation and the progress of rescue operations, without misleading them, even when there are difficulties, in order to create a feeling of consistency and trust and not one of opposition and suspicion.

“To maintain a good mental state, you need to remember to look after yourself in terms of hygiene, mood and personal space, so you’re not a burden on the other members of the team and on the leader” says Bob Thirsk.

The European astronaut is optimistic about the Chilean miners' ability to survive the ordeal, but nevertheless he remarks on one major difference between the underground causalities and the astronauts who experience confinement on earth, underwater or in space:   “astronauts are volunteers”.