In the afternoon our class had a lesson on the Station crew health care system. There are three parts to the Station crew health care system. One is what is termed health maintenance - how you keep the crew healthy; how you deal with minor medical issues. The second part is termed the environmental health system. This part deals with monitoring the atmosphere of the Station in order to keep it in good working order - the right amount of oxygen, ensuring that the carbon dioxide is removed, testing the potable water to make sure it has not been contaminated, etc. And, finally, there is what is called the countermeasures system. This is the code word for exercise. In order to make sure that you do not suffer from undue bone loss while on the Station and to make sure that you work the muscles that you don't use so that you still have them when you get back, the crews have to exercise every day. They will either ride a bicycle, run on a treadmill, or do the equivalent of lifting weights. How much and what they do each day is prescribed by the flight doctors who are monitoring the crew's health from the ground. So, being in the habit of regularly going to the gym and/or running is a good habit to have before you get on the Station.

The last class I had today was a pre-brief for a water survival class. Even though we went through the Navy's water survival course in Pensacola, we periodically have to have a similar class utilizing the Shuttle hardware. This pre-brief reviewed all the stuff that is packed in our parachute kits and went through the activities that we will have to perform tomorrow. The practical part of the class is done in the giant swimming pool that is used for the spacewalk training.

Tuesday morning, I went out to the swimming pool for my water survival practical. I have to say, I had a very hard time with this class. It was all because of those pesky orange pressure suits. I had my standard suit issues - the suit does not fit properly with the arms and legs being too long and the neck leaks. Since the neck leaks, whenever I was in the pool, water would leak into the suit filling up my legs and weighing me down. That would not have been too bad, since I am so "floaty", the extra weight would not have pulled me down too much. However, the built in life preserver is built to float the equivalent of a 300 pound person (literally). This life preserver runs around your body underneath your arms. So, between the extra water weight pulling me down and the huge life preserver, I pretty much had my arms pushed up near my ears - not much mobility there.

As part of our training, we were first hoisted up 15 or 20 feet by a crane and dropped into the water. From there we had to unhook our parachute harness and do a simulated escape from underneath a parachute (in case your chute lands on top of you). After that, we had to get into a partially inflated raft. Needless to say, getting into the raft was next to impossible for me because of the life preserver. You have to basically reach around behind you and grab the raft with both hands and pull the raft underneath you to get in. Try doing that with a tire under your arms. . . I had to spend a lot of time floating in the water trying to deflate my life preserver just so I could move my arms enough to get into life raft. After getting into the raft, we had to inflate it fully, operate the radios to signal the rescue team, and check out the rest of our survival gear.

Once we were done with that, we had to get out of the raft and then get back in - in case we are swept out of the raft while at sea. Once the raft is fully inflated, it is much harder to get inside of it. So, getting back inside was quite the struggle. I tried a number of times without success. It was exhausting. I kept trying to deflate my life preserver and/or deflate the raft enough for me to get in. I tell you what, if I had to do this for real, I think the rescue folks would find me before I could ever get into the raft if the ocean was very choppy. Well, here's to being shark bait. . .

When I finally got done with that exercise, they had to get all the extra water out of my suit, since I could barely walk around - I had water up to my thighs inside my suit. However, since the training session was not over, I couldn't get out of the suit. It would never go back on once it is wet on the inside like that. So, I had to lie on the ground on my back and prop my feet up so all the water would run out of my neck. Crazy, huh? The last exercise for the day was doing a proper bailout, i.e., simulating sliding down the escape pole out of the hatch. If you had to do this, proper body position is very important. You will be whizzing through the atmosphere very fast and if you are not in the right position you can definitely hurt yourself. So, we had to get into a simulated hatch at the side of pool, hook up the parachute to the slide pole, and roll out into the pool. You are supposed to keep your legs tucked underneath you so that you are pretty much a ball going out. That is easier said that done. For this exercise, the trainers videotape you so you can see what your body position is like. Most folks do not get it right the first time, and I was no exception. Luckily, it did not take me too many tries to get it right. Good thing, too, since I was completely wiped out by the time we got to this training. I was definitely ready to eat when it was all over.

After lunch our class had a lesson on malfunctions in the electrical system during the on-orbit phase of flight. Considering how stymied we were during our first class on electrical failures, this class was much more understandable. The time I spent last week preparing for the first class's simulation session definitely paid off. Tracking the convoluted trail through the procedures was much easier to do now.

Following that class I went flying. I had this great flight planned - I was going to fly to Shreveport, LA to surprise my mother on a stop of the air race she was doing with her friend Patty. Unfortunately, that did not work out. First, I evidently did not have the start date of the race right. I thought they were going to start the race on Monday, but it actually started today. And then, when they actually did start the race, Mom and Patty ended up not stopping in Shreveport overnight. So we were not able to hook up, but it was a nice thought. The pilot and I went over to Lake Charles and had a Shrimp Po-Boy instead.

Wednesday was a full day of classes. We started off with a few hours of delving into the nitty gritty of how to determine what engine burns are needed during the launch phase of flight. This class was a companion to the aborts classes we had last week. Last week we covered what scenarios would get us into an abort situation and what the procedures were like. This class looked at how, when, and in what direction you burn your engines to make the abort happen.

In the afternoon a group of us performed what is called a paper sim. For this exercise we were in a conference room with about half a dozen trainers. All the main Shuttle systems were represented by the training. Four of us from our class played the part of a Shuttle crew. The trainers took us through a launch and a landing. They would tell us things such as you just lifted off and are doing the roll away from the launch pad. Then they would ask us questions - what should the pilot be monitoring? What should the mission specialists be doing? etc. Then, the launch would progress and the trainers would tell us that we see such-and-such failure signature and we, the crew, would have to go through what we thought it was and why and what we would do about it. It was a really interesting exercise - a good way to think through things without the pressure of a "real-time" launch in a simulator.

My last item of the day was an evaluated single systems trainer session on the electrical failures that we covered in class yesterday. The class went well, but, holy shmoley was I sore from the water survival class. By the end of the class I could barely bend my neck to look down at my checklist or up at the switches over head. And, forget about reaching up to move the switches. Imagine the worst crick in your next that you have ever had, double it by two and then add sore muscles on top of it. That is how I felt.

We started our Thursday with a couple of Station classes on medical topics. The first was an overview of the medical equipment on board. It is very similar to what is on the Shuttle, but there is more of a focus on the long duration aspects, such as protecting for hearing loss and bone and muscle loss. The Station can be a noisy place with its fans and pumps running, so there is a variety of equipment in use to try and combat the sound - different types of ear plugs and noise canceling headsets. For the bone and muscle loss issues, the doctors prescribe various exercise regimes on the exercise equipment.

Our second class covered the medical computer and its programs where all the crew health data is stored. Of course, the doctors are going to want to keep track of how you are doing, how much you are exercising, how your hearing is doing, etc., so there is a special laptop where all this information is stored. The ground downlinks this information periodically so the doctors can do whatever it is they do with the information.

My last class of the day was a Station class on how to react to failures on the ISS. It was interesting because the philosophy for a response to a problem is different on the Station than on the Shuttle. On the Station there is much more ground participation. In fact, the ground is the primary responder to most issues. This is because the Station is very reconfigurable due to the way the computer systems work. So, the ground can send commands very easily and quickly to remedy a situation. The crew is trained to deal with the very serious issues, such as a fire or a loss of atmosphere, as well as to deal with the moderately serious issues such as major electrical problems. Many of the failure cases can lead to a loss of communication with the ground, and in those situations the crew has to take care of the problem at least as long as it takes to get the communications systems back. That is not to say that the crew can just sit back and not worry about anything. They have to recognize what they have to deal with and what they don't. That is what this class taught.

That was not only my last class of the day, it was my last class of the week. The schedulers managed to work some magic and give me a clear schedule on Friday. They did this so that Andy and I could have some time together before his upcoming flight. The launch is scheduled for July 13th, which is about two and a half weeks away. Next weekend, which is a three day weekend for the fourth of July, is likely to have some last minute training scheduled. Nothing is currently scheduled, but things quite often pop up. After that, he goes into quarantine and our contact is limited. So, we took advantage of the free time that they gave us and went out of town for the weekend.