October 5, 2018 • 42 mins
Reaching space is difficult, and returning safely is even trickier. Luckily for astronauts, Mission Control follows each shuttle launch in minute detail, and they're on standby to tackle any imaginable problem. Tune in to learn more about exploring space.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
How Stuff Works and love all things tech. And it's Friday.
That means it's time for another classic episode of tech Stuff.
This episode published July two thousand eleven, when we were
(00:28):
also young and bright eyed. This episode features Chris Pallette,
my co host and editor at the time, and we
talk about NASA's mission control I thought this was a
good episode to include here since we did that whole
suite of space episodes a couple of months ago, and
(00:49):
this ties into that NASA's mission control absolutely is one
of the most important elements when it comes to the
United States space program. So sit back and enjoy this
classic episode and I'll talk to you again in just
a moment. We're gonna talk today about mission control center
(01:09):
with NASA, and specifically the mission control center associated with
Shuttle missions. Seeing as how the final Space Shuttle mission
UH launched, well, we're recording this podcast before the launch,
but it should publish after that launch. We wanted to
kind of talk about the the stuff that goes on
on the ground, not necessarily the stuff that's going on
(01:31):
inside the orbiter itself. I said, launch, not launch. Sorry
if you can, if you can identify that quote. UM, yeah,
we Uh. When Jonathan and I were talking about doing
the episode on the Space Shuttle, UM, as we do
with some of the complex topics, we decide, you know,
to at least have an idea where we're gonna go
with the research. And even before we started doing the research,
(01:54):
we figured that this was going to be complex enough
that we would have to break it down, and we
decided to do an episode specific quicially on mission control because, um,
it's not just the astronauts inside the Space Shuttle who
are paying attention to everything that's going on in the
spacecraft during the mission. I mean, it's of course there
they have to sleep. Um, they have a lot of
(02:14):
things to do. They've got science to do. Um. They
have they have to prove the cake is a lie,
extra vehit extra vehicular activity to perform. Um. They have
things to deploy in space um so and spots to
record for sesame street occasionally some of those occasionally they
have to sing yes, shout out to our parent company.
(02:39):
But but yeah, I mean there's there's a lot for
them to do, and uh, you know, somebody has to
be keeping an eye on the on the shop. Yeah,
and we cuver some of this material on how stuff
works dot Com in an article called how NASA Works,
But that's really kind of an overview of the agency.
We wanted to talk specifically about mission control, and before
(02:59):
we get too far into this, we should probably talk
about where mission control is because if you're watching a launch,
you may be seeing shots of this, uh group of
people all wearing a nice suits and they're all sitting
at different consoles and they all looked very busy, and um,
the odds are that you're actually looking at the Kennedy
Space Center and they do launch control. They have a
(03:23):
launch control center there at Kennedy, but that is not
mission control. Mission control is actually located in Houston, as
you know immortalized in the phrase Houston, we have a problem. Uh.
That's specifically talking about the mission control center at the
Johnson's Space Center in Houston, Texas. Yes, and no, that
is not the quote used in the movie. Was not
(03:46):
exactly what was said. No, no, but of course right,
But just like playing against Sam was never actually said
in Casablanca. Um, it actually was said in sits in
King so but no, yeah, that's that's those the people
who who in Apollo thirteen, And we actually kind of
(04:06):
saw what was going on in mission control, even though
it was a you know, I guess it's safe to
say it was fictionalized to kind of a real event,
although not terribly fictionalized compared to some others. I would
guess right, it was more it tried to stay true
to the actual unfolding of the the emergency more so
(04:27):
than a lot of other movies did. But even so,
there was some traumatization going on there. Well you have
to it's but but yeah, I mean, if you've seen
the movie, you probably have a somewhat reasonable idea of
what the people are doing in that center. They're trying
to main maintain communications. They're trying to figure out what's
(04:48):
going on with the telemetry, uh, you know, keeping an
eye on where the ship is going, mooring the various systems,
making sure everything's okay, and in the song quoted before,
their just making sure everything's okay with the people up
in space. So let's Chris and I both looked at
an illustration of the mission Control Center to kind of
(05:10):
break it down and see exactly what it looks like
and what people are doing there. And we thought we
would be kind of interesting to talk to you and
guide you through the mission control room. Now, if you
were to look at the room, yeah, if you're just
like taking a tour walking around, you would see either
all these big desks with consoles at them, and at
(05:31):
one end of the room are a bunch of monitors,
big monitors, and those monitors are showing things like video
feeds from the shuttle as well as just lots and
lots of data and uh. And so we wanted to
kind of talk to you about what these uh, these
consoles were in their purpose and what the officers who
sit at these consoles do. And we're kind of taking you, like,
(05:53):
if you imagine this big room with monitors. At one
end of the room, the room has a five rows
of stations. Okay, the first row has three stations across
and the other four rows have four stations across. So
what we're going to do is we're going to go
from the end that has the monitors. That's the end
that has the three stations in front of it. That's
(06:16):
the first row and we're going to go from left
to right, and then we're gonna go down a row
left or right, and down a row left or right,
and just explain what each of those stations are meant
to do. And so Chris, I think you were going
to take the first one. We're just gonna kind of
alternate all the way down. Yeah. That the first person
and sitting on the front and you know that's a
(06:36):
terrible place to sit if you're watching a movie. Yeah,
but this isn't a movie. Far left in the front row,
I got that cricket, the guy with a cricket his neck. Yeah,
that's how I saw Lord of the Rings, the felloship
of the Ring, and it was tough. Well, the person
in in in that corner of the room is uh,
the flight dynamics officer. Now I should point out there's
(06:58):
there's a lot of information on NASA's website about this
and each person, uh, they have a lot of code.
You know, we're talking about extra vehicular activity or e
v A, and everybody else calls it spacewalk. Um. Yeah,
So every console has a function and there are three
they're actually three shifts that work nine hours. Three teams
(07:21):
work nine hour shifts. So um, basically, the console has
a name, and there's a person an officer that works
at console for and we'll talk about the different missions
because some of them don't use all these officers. But
and you will see labels on these consoles, and the
labels are usually an abbreviation or some initials that stand
(07:43):
for whatever the console actually does up. And when we
talk talking about three shifts of people, they're typically around
twenty people working in the flight control center during a
typical Space Shuttle flight. NASA says about fifty on a
team of all of every you know, every who's on there,
right right, so, so different shifts exactly, you've got around,
(08:04):
on average, around twenty people working in that room during
a spatial flight at any particular time during that flight.
We should also stress that this is specifically space shuttles.
There's a totally different mission control center for the International
Space Station and it has a different group, similar similar stations,
like similar consoles to the one that's on the Space Shuttle,
(08:25):
but a different set up as far as the team goes.
And and uh fewer people are in the flight control
room for the International Space Station at any given time
than on a Space shuttle mission. Yeah, but each console
has a name and so and and a call sign.
Uh if you've seen I'm sorry, I'm to go to
the movies again. The most famous example I could think
(08:47):
of a call sign is top Gun, where everybody has
an essentially a nickname. But this is not not necessarily
a nickname, but it's what everybody calls. So if Steve
is on the console, you know, in the morning shift,
and Jennifers on the console in the afternoon shift, they
still have the same call sign because it's actually the
station that they refer to, right, not the person, But
the station doesn't matter. Who's there. That person is filling
(09:10):
that Yeah, so like dynamics officer yes, and call signed
Fido who and that person plans the ship's maneuvers and
is watching its trajectory. Um, there's another person that keeps
track of that to the guidance officer. Um. But but
the Fido is up there in the the bottom left
(09:32):
hand corner if you're looking at the screens. Yeah. So, um,
so you've got that. If you move over one station,
you have a console that actually could have one of
two different officers working there, depending upon what's going on.
In that spatial mission at the time. UH, there's the
Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer also known just as Rendezvous UM,
(09:53):
and that job is to support the Shuttle mission whenever
they are going to have to dock with an other
vehicle or with the space station, or perhaps they're coming
up to do repairs for example on the Hubble telescope.
Anytime the Shuttle is coming into close proximity with another
vehicle or satellite or anything like that. UM, this officer
(10:14):
is there to help support the Shuttle's crew and UH
and give information and guidance when the Shuttle is going
through those sort of maneuvers. Now, in other situations that
you might find the ascent slash Intrigue Guidance and Procedures Officer,
they're known as guidance. Now. This is the person who
is helping again with navigation issues specifically during the the
(10:38):
the ascent and descent UH phases of a Shuttle mission.
So when the Shuttle is either entering orbit or is
getting ready to re enter the atmosphere YEP and UM.
Also that person keeps track of any possibility that they
need to abort, so they're they're UM, you know, keeping
(11:00):
a close eye on those kinds of situations. UM. The
next person is the ground controller anything that would affect hardware,
software or support UM. With regard to the facilities UM.
Also UH, this person coordinates the ground space Flight Tracking
and Data Network and the tracking and data relay satellite
(11:22):
system along with Goddard Space Flight Center, which is in
Maryland by the way. So I talked about Houston and Florida,
but we didn't talk about Maryland. Yeah, NASA has a
number of facilities all over the country UM and and
other stations that they work with with countries around the
world to keep track of what's going on with the shuttle.
So UM, even though there may be on a given
(11:44):
mission up to seven people in the shuttle, there are
a whole lot more people on the ground watching out
for them. So let's go back a row. So we
moved back toward the the UH far left. UM, we're
gonna talk about the propulsion officer also prop pr op UM.
The propulsion officer's job is to keep an eye on
(12:05):
the reaction control and orbital maneuvering system UH that's on
the Space Shuttle. Now, this is all the little jets
and the propellants that are used by the Space Shuttle
to make maneuvers in orbit or to get into orbit
or out of orbit. UM. So that's that's that officer's
job is to keep an eye on all those systems
and to provide guidance to the shuttle crew. Yeah. And
(12:27):
speaking of guidance, UM, the next person is guidance Navigation
and Control systems also known as g n C watching
the the guidance navigation and control systems UH. He or
she would be in contact with the flight director and
crew any time that something again would require aboarding the
mission UM. And this I assume could mean any time
(12:50):
rather than UM. You know, the guidance officers watching specifically
on launch and landing. This would be any time you
need to UH cut out and go home. UM. Or
any time the not the guidance hardware might be not
working correctly. Yes, so that this would be the eyes
on the ground to help guide the shuttle. Let's say
(13:10):
that the guidance systems aboard the shuttle for some reason
or malfunctioning, perhaps a gyroscope is not is not turning properly. UM.
The this officer would be the person who would help
guide the shuttle crew into maneuvering the shuttle so that
it was going the right way for whatever operation they
needed to perform at that point, most likely coming home. Next,
(13:33):
we have the Maintenance Mechanical arm and Crew Systems Officer
or Max m M a c. S. Butts pronounced Max um.
The This is a person who looks at the shuttles
structural mechanical systems to make sure that everything is is nominal.
So the also monitors all the equipment, maintenance, and hardware
(13:54):
use aboard the shuttle. So this is the guy who
tells the astronauts to put up their toys when they're
done playing sexual a little more obviously much more serious
than that, but clearly this this is the person who
is trying to make sure that that all the procedures
are followed aboard the shuttle to make sure everything is
stowed away properly and is used the way it was
meant to be used and turned off and all that
kind of stuff, because clearly anything that's out of the
(14:17):
ordinary could potentially cause a major problem with such a
complex mission. Um. Yes, and a lot of jokes. I'm
sure like, no, my name is not Max, it's Steve. Yeah. Um.
Now they're known for a lot of joking in the
Mission Control center. Maybe when it's all over with Hey, guys,
we have more to talk about with NASA's mission control system,
(14:38):
but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor.
Next is Eagle, the Electrical Generation and Illumination Officer, and
this person is keeping an eye on the electrical systems, cryogenics,
(15:00):
fuel cells, A C and d C power circuits. Both
Edison and Tesla are represented um vehicle pyrotechnics and lighting.
Actually that always makes me think of rock bands. Yeah
when I read that, well, you already talked about e C,
d C two and uh any caution and warning systems
that might be going on. So yeah, alright, time to
(15:22):
move move back another row. So moving back another road
to this is row three. If you're keeping track, we're
back back over to the far left. We have the
Data Processing System Officer DPS, who looks monitors the status
of the the onboard computer systems on the shuttle. Now,
if you've listened to our Shuttle episode, you know that
(15:42):
we mentioned briefly that there are five on board computer systems.
It's this officer's job to monitor those systems make sure
that they are working properly that there is not any
sort of malfunction in those systems. UM. They also look
at other computer systems that are related to the mission,
including the function display system. So that's his job or
(16:03):
her tob Yeah. The payload's officer is next, UM, which
is just called payload. Yeah. They drop an S. That's
that's how they abbreviate that that console as they dropped
the S to payload. I see they don't. They don't
get cool U nicknami call signs, at least not most
of them, UM like they do in the in the movies. UM. Anyway,
(16:24):
that that person coordinates the both the ground system and
the onboard shuttle UH system interfaces, so the flight control
team and payload user are in contact with another with
one another and UM. Payload also keeps an eye on
the in cabin and cargo based system experiments and satellites. UM.
(16:46):
So yeah, I mean you've got those great big bay
doors and stuff comes out of them. That's who knows
what's going on with that. It's the main purpose for
the Space Shuttle is to be able to deliver payloads
to space. So like a giant cargo up. UH. Next,
we have a console where again, two different officers could
be operating this console depending upon what is going on
(17:06):
in the Space Shuttle mission at that time. You have
the Flight Activities Officer or f AO. I like to
call him Schwartz. Uh, the Flight Activities officers so nice.
I'm a big, big fan of f AO. So the
Flight Activities Officer is their job is to to kind
(17:27):
of be a support for the the shuttle crew. Uh.
They maintain checklists and procedures and schedules. So whenever you
you see a launch or you over here like the
the recordings from um missions and you hear the Shuttle
crew going down a checklist, this is the person who
on the ground is also going through that same checklist
(17:49):
to make sure that everything is checked off whenever they're
doing any sort of procedure. UM. They also manage the
shuttle orientation, so how it is oriented, uh in relation
to the Earth or to really anything else, you know,
it's some other point of reference. And then the other
officer who works at that console, depending upon what's going on,
(18:10):
is the Visiting Vehicles Officer or vv O. And uh,
sometimes the Shuttle has to interact with other vehicles like
Russian vehicles or perhaps the Internet, National Space, slower moving
ones or slower moving ones UM, and so the the
Visiting Vehicles officer is the person who monitors that connection
(18:30):
whenever the shuttle is is docked with another vehicle or
the I S S UM the that's that's that officer's job.
So a little bit different from the navigation officer. They're
they're not necessarily helping the shuttle maneuver next to those
They're just monitoring whenever that connection is made because clearly,
(18:51):
you know you're sharing an UM airlock connection. You want
to make sure that everything is UH is still stable
during that whole process. Yes, So next we have the
Emergency Environmental and Consumables Yes, Operations Manager EE calm, Yes
(19:12):
that would Yeah, UM is UH and that person UH
is responsible for the active and passive thermal control of
the vehicle according to NASA UM and the cabin atmosphere control,
so like, hey, you know, can you turn down the
thermostat could you get a little some of this carbon
dioxide out of our atmosphere? Really avionics, cooling supply and
(19:33):
wastewater systems and fire detection and suppression systems, so really
you can think of this, this officer is being in
UH in charge of monitoring life support systems basic shut Yeah,
but see that would be too easy to say and
would sound too much like TV, so they had to
call it something obscure. But yeah, whenever we talk about
life support systems, this is the officer in charge of
(19:54):
making sure everything is is running in the right parameters.
So now it's time to move of another row back
and back over to the far left. We've got the
Instrumentation and Communications Officer inco I n c OH. This
person monitors the communications systems and instrumentation systems systems configuration
(20:15):
aboard the shuttle. Um. They're also the one who controls
the shuttle television systems from the ground. So the shuttle
crew wants to watch Phineas and Ferb and this guy's like, no, no, no,
you're going to be watching. Actually, I don't think that's
exactly how that works, but I thought it was funny.
But no. Yeah, they controlled the television systems aboard the
(20:38):
Space Shuttle from the ground, so there they work very
closely with the public relations officer as well as other
members of the flight control team. Yeah. I bet, although
I didn't read this, I bet that this person is
also the one who's responsible for playing the wake up song,
which is now sort of semi famous part of a
shuttle be kind of a tradition right where you've got this. Uh,
(21:00):
each each member of a shuttle crew gets to choose
a song that will be played at a particular time
to to signal it's time to wake up and do science. Yes. Yeah,
so I guess I got lucky because I got the
head of all of this and then on this row.
So this person see again, it's sort of the middle
(21:21):
of the theater, you can see everything. It's a good seat.
It's a flag director, and uh, that person leads the
flight control team. This person is responsible for basically all
of this, uh, the overall mission and payload operations, any
decisions that would impact the safe and successful conduct of
the mission. Um so, actually the flight director has another
(21:45):
responsibility you know you might expect with all this sophisticated
computer equipment, that has to do with the seven people
in space living are dying and you know, on a
more sad but real note, the expensive space shuttle. Uh,
you know in space that you want to protect. Uh,
they are allowed to bring food and drink inside mission control. Um, well,
(22:08):
I mean they only get five to ten minute breaks
every ninety minutes, so with you know, shift between eight
and twelve hours, Yes, they would need to do this.
So an Assa says that the flight controller um takes
a day and UH is responsible for choosing a cuisine
to buy for everybody in there, so um, he actually
(22:29):
has to do that as well. So I guess if
you're in charge, you get to pick what everyone else
will eat on their celebratory kind of makes you wonder
if if he's like, okay, so who here likes pepperoni
and there piece? Fine? Fine, all right, no, no, Johnson,
I told you we're not putting ham and pineapple on
all the pizza exactly. It's like, well, it is my
(22:51):
space center. Um, so do you make me turn this
mission around? Yeah? I mean serious as they are, they
do get to have a little fun in the fly
director does have that does get to UH to buy
when it's time for dinner once. Apparently it just happens once.
That's good. Still, that's pretty cool. Yeah. So so next
next to the flight director on the other side is
(23:13):
the spacecraft communicator or capcom. And you might think, why
is it called capcom when it's the actual name of
the consoles, the Spacecraft Communicator. Well, it's because they really
love playing Resident Evil. And you know, Resident Evil was
made by Capcom, so real those big screens. It's true
(23:34):
that it's true that Capcom makes Resident Evil. That's the
only true part of that statement though, So why is
it called Capcom. Well, it's because back in the day
when when the earliest space flights were manned, space flights
were being tested, the first capsule they were using was
the Mercury Capsule, so it was Capsule Communication. Well, the
(23:57):
shuttle is not a capsule, it's a spacecraft. So they
changed the name of the console to Spacecraft Communicator, but
they did not change the call sign, which it still
remains Capcom. By the way, you're wondering if there is
any other connection with Capcom the video game company, I
am sad to inform you there is not. The Capcom
(24:18):
video game Company takes its name from a predecessor of
that company, the Japan Capsule Computer Company Limited, which you know,
you just take Capsule computer and you squish that to Capcom.
It's not the same thing as the one that's in
um uh NASA's mission control. Now what are they doing? Well,
(24:38):
there there may They serve as the primary communication point
between flight control and the shuttle itself. That's their job.
Yeah yeah, and uh, spot Colm just doesn't sound as
coolm No, spake calm No, that's what you do with
your pets. So next we have the PDRs, the Payload,
Deployment and Retrievals STEMS officer who is watching the operation
(25:03):
of the remote manipulator system. Yeah, the robotic arm NASA.
You know, they've got to have a fancy name for everything,
and I think that's kind of cool. But at the
same time, it's just easier to say a robotic arm. Yeah,
this is the guy who can take over control and
make the robotic arm give a big thumbs up to
the earth. Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you
hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? This is all
(25:24):
lies too, but no, it is true that that is
that is the officer's job is to monitor the operation
of the robotic arm. Now, clearly you might say, well,
you know you've got the shuttle crew up there that's
actively operating the robotic arm. Why do you need someone
else keeping their eyes on this? Well, remember that this
robotic arm is manipulating equipment that costs billions with a
(25:46):
B dollars. So you're using this arm to help position satellites,
to maybe retrieve a satellite that needs to be brought
back down because it's going to either require repairs or
even just needs to be taken down because otherwise it's
going to crash into the Earth and and you might
want to try and salvage some parts first. Um, it
(26:06):
may be helping install new pieces of the International Space Station.
So you know that's it's an important, important job, which
is why you have to have an extra set of
eyes on any kind of operation that's going to involve that.
So now we finally gutten to the last row of
the the mission control center. On the blast row on
(26:30):
the far left, you have the Public Affairs Officer p
a O. These days to the Moon you go. That's
where it comes from. And uh, the Public Affairs officers
job is to provide mission commentary and also to explain
any sort of transmissions that are going between the shuttle
and ground control. UM. Primarily this person interfaces with either
(26:56):
the general public or more commonly, the the press. So
this is someone who is able to break these things
down and explain in normal person speak what the transmissions mean,
because you know, we might overhear some transmissions and you
can kind of piece together what's going on, but this
is the person who can really give it context and
explain why it's important. Yeah, if you watch a NASA
(27:19):
launch there, I'm I'm interpolating from all of this, there's
a public affairs officer or someone who fills that role.
Let's let's say that on on the launch control team
as well, because you'll hear, you know, you'll hear the
person the people in the control center, you know, with
a very somber, very serious you know, you know, so
(27:39):
and so this and then the other thing like that
he minus five minutes and waiting and like we're holding
the launch at five minutes in order to blah blah
blah blah blah, so and and so this. This person
will do this for the mission overall. But yeah, that
I'm pretty sure I would launch control centers the officer
as well. Yes, I I agree. That's again based upon
(28:01):
what I've inferred from the information I've received as well.
The next person, um is a holdover from the sixties,
the modes. Uh No, I'm kidding. The Mission Operations Directorate
groovy dude, that's the person who uh serves as an
intermediary between the flight control room and the top NASA
(28:24):
and mission managers. Um so yeah, basically a public affairs
officers specifically to the top brass at NASA. Yeah, so
you know you it's this way you've maintained a line
of communication that does not interfere with anyone else's specific duties.
Because clearly, if you are in a big team and
you have a boss who is overseeing the overall operations
(28:49):
but is not directly involved in the day to day operations,
it would be very distracting to have that person walk
from desk to desk and say, hey, what you doing.
So this is this is sort of their way of
controlling that line of communication. What are you doing? What
are you doing? What are you doing? And then next
we have another one of those consoles where we have
a rotating cast of characters that use it, Hey, could
(29:10):
you get your elbow out of my coffee? They don't
all use it at the same time. It all depends
upon what the mission is. So one of the potential
officers at that position is the Russian interface operator. This
is clearly whenever NASA is going to have a mission
that will also involve Russian cosmonauts or the Russian space centers. Uh.
(29:33):
This is a person who can say no and dah
dah and and then direction is limited. Yeah, yeah, I
have Novia Da, Borsh, Pravda and does Vidnia. Alright, that's
about all I've got, um, but yeah, presumably the Russian
(29:55):
Interface officer speaks more than that. I would hope, yes,
I would as well. Houston, we have a sponsor read
that's just my way of saying, we're gonna take a
quick break for another sponsor break. The Booster Systems Officer
(30:18):
also just known as booster uh. This is a person
who monitors the launch systems during pre launching all the
way through the ascent of the Shuttle. So this is
again someone who has a counterpart at the Kennedy Space Center.
I would imagine if I had probably several counterparts, because
that is their primary function is to oversee the launches.
So this is the person of mission control who who
(30:38):
keeps an eye on that as well. That's back at Houston.
And then finally you have the Extra vehicular Systems Officer
or e v A, and this is the person who
monitors the astronauts during any sort of extra vehicular activity,
including spacewalks. Yes, um, I would also have been whomever
would monitor the astronauts who are on the moon during
(31:01):
the Apollo missions. But of course Shuttle missions could not
go to the moon. The Shuttle was not designed to
go to the moon. So in this case, extra vehicular
does really mean spacewalks. It also wasn't designed to land
on asteroids, that's right. Um. Yeah. That that person also,
I find this kind of interesting. This person also keeps
an eye on the how the space suits are functioning, um,
(31:23):
which is kind of interesting too, because it's not just
you know, hey, okay out there, you know, don't forget
your hat. It's also you know, is your hat working?
Are are the environmental controls within your space suit functioning properly? Yeah?
And yeah, this is serious, serious stuff here. It's no
clearly you want to have extra eyes on that as well. Yeah,
(31:44):
and you also that person also keeps track of what
you're what the astronauts are doing on their spacewalk because
they've trained extensively for this mission, and the saying okay,
are you doing everything that you need to do? Are
having trouble with your space suit. On a side note,
I cannot comprehend the level of courage and confidence that
would require to do a spacewalk. It is it is
(32:08):
so far beyond my my ability to even imagine. It's
just it's phenomenal. Well, they put their lives at risk
for science, and I find that admirable. Yeah, certainly. Um. Lastly,
we had the doc Bones in the back of the room.
The surgeon is watching crew health and surgeons call sign
(32:28):
surgeon yeah, yeah, not bones. Yeah. I know, it's just
more fun to say, Um, this person. Uh. The surgeon
is consulting with the crew, making sure the flight director
knows if there's any health issue that might affect the mission. Um,
and uh the person Basically, they have to have a
(32:49):
medical doctor in who is specializing in aerospace medicine. UM.
Talk about a specialization in the field. Um. And any
time that their weight not likely to do house calls. UM.
There are other people, biomedical engineers or bams who know
what they you know, know the necessary bits and pieces
(33:12):
from medical kits and systems on board the shuttle that
keep an eye on the mission around the clock when
the astronauts are asleep. But a surgeon has to be
on duty while they are awake. UM. There's a team
actually a crewisurgeon, deputy crew surgeon, and a bame mission
manager according to NASA. UM, and they handle the the
(33:32):
aspects of the flight. UM. And there are extra people
who are there while the main team is away from
mission control during the launch and landing of the Shuttle. Now, UM,
it is important to note that this really is accounts
for only ten percent of these people's jobs. Really. UM.
They spend about training UM and you know on the
(33:53):
Shuttle simulators at Johnson Space Center. UM. And the other
of the time, uh, the mission control team works on
planning and organizing the missions. UH. So they're they're really
it's not like mission control walks into the room when
it's time to take over from the launch control team
(34:13):
and runs the mission and then they go home and
spend the rest of their time on vacation until six
months later when they're needed for another mission. They they
are very involved with all aspects of the Shuttle mission. Training.
They know with the the specific science projects they're working
on or or deployments they need to make into space.
(34:34):
There on all of that part UM, different parts, so
they know everything. They need to know because they're also
intimately involved with the particular mission on which they are working. UM.
If you were interested in joining a crew like this,
you would need some kind of technical degree or engineering
degree UM generally you had based on your educational background
(34:58):
and your interest and your raining, they would assign you
to a specific UH specific role based on those factors.
So if you're if this sounds like something you would
like to do. UM. Obviously, the Space Shuttle program is
now ending with UM the assumed at this point, since
the Shuttle hasn't launched UH safe Return of STS one
(35:20):
in July, UM there will probably be something in the future,
although the media plans have been put on hold, so
I think, you know, it's it's worth investigating if that's
something that but it's very specialized, and it may very
well be that the future, the future of this center
will be working in uh UH in partnership with private
(35:45):
companies that are are creating space missions. Because of course,
it's clear through this discussion that that any source of
space mission is an incredibly complex affair and it's not
something that can be accomplished just by the crew aboard
whatever the spacecraft is. Clearly, I mean they play a
critical role obviously in a mission, but that you need
(36:07):
those extra people on the ground who are dedicated to
very specific tasks to make certain that if anything does
happen out of the ordinary, that they can handle it.
You know, it's it's such a delicate and and frankly
dangerous procedure to do any sort of space mission, manned
space mission, you have to have that kind of intense
(36:29):
scrutiny on the ground as well as in the sky
or in space as it were. So it may very
well be that that NASA works in partnership with private
companies in the future. It's a little early for us
to talk about that, because frankly, we are just in
the very very first stages of private space flight. We've
(36:49):
got some people who are taking uh space spacecraft way
up into the atmosphere and even all the way up
to low orbit. But it's early days yet, so we
will see how that that progresses over time. But I
would imagine that that would be something that NASA would
be interested in, and because private flight could very well
(37:10):
be the next era of space exploration as far as
the United States is concerned. We may also see at
some point a refunding of NASA, where um, they are
refocused on a new space program. And again it won't
necessarily be the Shuttle or anything that resembles the Shuttle,
but it would use a lot of the same sort
(37:32):
of offices and consoles that they're using now in mission control. Actually,
that's a good point. You're probably wondering at this point, Well,
it's pretty late in the podcast. You guys haven't really
talked about the tech that they use. Um, there's it's
kind of difficult to find a lot out about that technology.
For one thing, you're talking about all these different consoles.
(37:53):
Not all of them are using exactly the same thing.
Some of these are using some consoles are using systems
that were specifically designed for that particular task, which means
they are so well, I can't say they're so unique.
That's ridiculous, right, their unique period and therefore there is
nothing to compare them to other than saying this is
a very specialized computer. Yeah, from what from what I've
(38:13):
been able to find out, Um, when they were putting
these systems together in the nineteen seventies for use in
the Shuttle missions of the early nineteen eighties, UM, there
wasn't anything available for them to use that did what
they wanted it to do. So it wasn't like there
were IBM PCs or max or even Amiga's or anything
(38:34):
that they could buy off the shelf Commodore sixty four,
you know. But the thing is, they didn't have the
same types of systems where they could just go buy
a series of machines or or even you know, put
together a Linux box that would do what they wanted
it to do. So they ended up basically creating these
these UH consoles on their own that would handle the
(38:57):
specific tasks necessary to complete of these missions. So UM.
I imagine that part of the reason it's difficult to
find information on it is because they are unique. And
I imagine that that for to some degree, it's probably
classified um because you know, the Space Race was for
the longest time a competition between the United States and
the Soviet Union, UM, and you know, we were sort
(39:20):
of in competition with them, so they didn't want people
to know, UH in other countries what kinds of technology
was used in these machines. So UM, but it is
fascinating stuff. I would assume that basically it is computer
hardware used specifically to track or to communicate or whatever
it is that that person happens to need. It may
(39:41):
actually be somewhat unsophisticated, and that it has a specialized
purpose and doesn't need to do a multitude of tasks. Yeah.
Why would you need to be able to calculate telemetry
when you are looking specifically at an unrelated system aboard
the shuttle. Yeah, yeah, it totally makes sense from that perspective.
And again it's that whole specialized focus. You know, you
(40:01):
have specialized equipment to monitor a very particular system aboard
the Shuttle, and you have a specialized officer that is uh,
that is at that console. So yeah, it's again it's
one of those things where you want that kind of
specialization because again the stakes are really high and uh,
you know, in multiple arenas. So that was an interesting
(40:25):
overview of mission control. I mean, if if you ever
get a chance, you listeners out there, if you ever
get a chance to take a tour of any of
the flight centers and NASA, if you go to the
Kennedy Space Center, for example, I highly recommend taking these
tours and and getting a look. You can actually see, uh,
the equipment that was used in the Apollo missions at
(40:46):
the Kennedy Space Center. You can see the launch control
facility and uh, it's fascinating. You're looking at these machines
that that are almost impenetrable as far as you know.
You just glance at them and you're like, I have
no idea what that does. It looks amazing, right, And
you think that beeps and it blinks, and then you
think there was a person sitting at that console who
(41:08):
not only had that console, but a slide rule to
make calculations on the fly, and it's just phenomenal. You
think about the amount of human ingenuity it takes to
get people into space and back home safely, and again,
it's one of those those accomplishments that a lot of
us take for granted, but I think truly speak to
(41:29):
the most amazing things humans are capable of doing. Alright, guys,
I hope you enjoyed that classic episode of tech Stuff.
Remember if you have any suggestions for episodes that I
should cover in the future. Maybe there's some tech topic
or a company or personality I should really talk about.
Let me know. Send me an email the addresses tech
Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or drop me
(41:49):
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Dot com
Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
How Stuff Works and love all things tech. And it's Friday.
That means it's time for another classic episode of tech Stuff.
This episode published July two thousand eleven, when we were
(00:28):
also young and bright eyed. This episode features Chris Pallette,
my co host and editor at the time, and we
talk about NASA's mission control I thought this was a
good episode to include here since we did that whole
suite of space episodes a couple of months ago, and
(00:49):
this ties into that NASA's mission control absolutely is one
of the most important elements when it comes to the
United States space program. So sit back and enjoy this
classic episode and I'll talk to you again in just
a moment. We're gonna talk today about mission control center
(01:09):
with NASA, and specifically the mission control center associated with
Shuttle missions. Seeing as how the final Space Shuttle mission
UH launched, well, we're recording this podcast before the launch,
but it should publish after that launch. We wanted to
kind of talk about the the stuff that goes on
on the ground, not necessarily the stuff that's going on
(01:31):
inside the orbiter itself. I said, launch, not launch. Sorry
if you can, if you can identify that quote. UM, yeah,
we Uh. When Jonathan and I were talking about doing
the episode on the Space Shuttle, UM, as we do
with some of the complex topics, we decide, you know,
to at least have an idea where we're gonna go
with the research. And even before we started doing the research,
(01:54):
we figured that this was going to be complex enough
that we would have to break it down, and we
decided to do an episode specific quicially on mission control because, um,
it's not just the astronauts inside the Space Shuttle who
are paying attention to everything that's going on in the
spacecraft during the mission. I mean, it's of course there
they have to sleep. Um, they have a lot of
(02:14):
things to do. They've got science to do. Um. They
have they have to prove the cake is a lie,
extra vehit extra vehicular activity to perform. Um. They have
things to deploy in space um so and spots to
record for sesame street occasionally some of those occasionally they
have to sing yes, shout out to our parent company.
(02:39):
But but yeah, I mean there's there's a lot for
them to do, and uh, you know, somebody has to
be keeping an eye on the on the shop. Yeah,
and we cuver some of this material on how stuff
works dot Com in an article called how NASA Works,
But that's really kind of an overview of the agency.
We wanted to talk specifically about mission control, and before
(02:59):
we get too far into this, we should probably talk
about where mission control is because if you're watching a launch,
you may be seeing shots of this, uh group of
people all wearing a nice suits and they're all sitting
at different consoles and they all looked very busy, and um,
the odds are that you're actually looking at the Kennedy
Space Center and they do launch control. They have a
(03:23):
launch control center there at Kennedy, but that is not
mission control. Mission control is actually located in Houston, as
you know immortalized in the phrase Houston, we have a problem. Uh.
That's specifically talking about the mission control center at the
Johnson's Space Center in Houston, Texas. Yes, and no, that
is not the quote used in the movie. Was not
(03:46):
exactly what was said. No, no, but of course right,
But just like playing against Sam was never actually said
in Casablanca. Um, it actually was said in sits in
King so but no, yeah, that's that's those the people
who who in Apollo thirteen, And we actually kind of
(04:06):
saw what was going on in mission control, even though
it was a you know, I guess it's safe to
say it was fictionalized to kind of a real event,
although not terribly fictionalized compared to some others. I would
guess right, it was more it tried to stay true
to the actual unfolding of the the emergency more so
(04:27):
than a lot of other movies did. But even so,
there was some traumatization going on there. Well you have
to it's but but yeah, I mean, if you've seen
the movie, you probably have a somewhat reasonable idea of
what the people are doing in that center. They're trying
to main maintain communications. They're trying to figure out what's
(04:48):
going on with the telemetry, uh, you know, keeping an
eye on where the ship is going, mooring the various systems,
making sure everything's okay, and in the song quoted before,
their just making sure everything's okay with the people up
in space. So let's Chris and I both looked at
an illustration of the mission Control Center to kind of
(05:10):
break it down and see exactly what it looks like
and what people are doing there. And we thought we
would be kind of interesting to talk to you and
guide you through the mission control room. Now, if you
were to look at the room, yeah, if you're just
like taking a tour walking around, you would see either
all these big desks with consoles at them, and at
(05:31):
one end of the room are a bunch of monitors,
big monitors, and those monitors are showing things like video
feeds from the shuttle as well as just lots and
lots of data and uh. And so we wanted to
kind of talk to you about what these uh, these
consoles were in their purpose and what the officers who
sit at these consoles do. And we're kind of taking you, like,
(05:53):
if you imagine this big room with monitors. At one
end of the room, the room has a five rows
of stations. Okay, the first row has three stations across
and the other four rows have four stations across. So
what we're going to do is we're going to go
from the end that has the monitors. That's the end
that has the three stations in front of it. That's
(06:16):
the first row and we're going to go from left
to right, and then we're gonna go down a row
left or right, and down a row left or right,
and just explain what each of those stations are meant
to do. And so Chris, I think you were going
to take the first one. We're just gonna kind of
alternate all the way down. Yeah. That the first person
and sitting on the front and you know that's a
(06:36):
terrible place to sit if you're watching a movie. Yeah,
but this isn't a movie. Far left in the front row,
I got that cricket, the guy with a cricket his neck. Yeah,
that's how I saw Lord of the Rings, the felloship
of the Ring, and it was tough. Well, the person
in in in that corner of the room is uh,
the flight dynamics officer. Now I should point out there's
(06:58):
there's a lot of information on NASA's website about this
and each person, uh, they have a lot of code.
You know, we're talking about extra vehicular activity or e
v A, and everybody else calls it spacewalk. Um. Yeah,
So every console has a function and there are three
they're actually three shifts that work nine hours. Three teams
(07:21):
work nine hour shifts. So um, basically, the console has
a name, and there's a person an officer that works
at console for and we'll talk about the different missions
because some of them don't use all these officers. But
and you will see labels on these consoles, and the
labels are usually an abbreviation or some initials that stand
(07:43):
for whatever the console actually does up. And when we
talk talking about three shifts of people, they're typically around
twenty people working in the flight control center during a
typical Space Shuttle flight. NASA says about fifty on a
team of all of every you know, every who's on there,
right right, so, so different shifts exactly, you've got around,
(08:04):
on average, around twenty people working in that room during
a spatial flight at any particular time during that flight.
We should also stress that this is specifically space shuttles.
There's a totally different mission control center for the International
Space Station and it has a different group, similar similar stations,
like similar consoles to the one that's on the Space Shuttle,
(08:25):
but a different set up as far as the team goes.
And and uh fewer people are in the flight control
room for the International Space Station at any given time
than on a Space shuttle mission. Yeah, but each console
has a name and so and and a call sign.
Uh if you've seen I'm sorry, I'm to go to
the movies again. The most famous example I could think
(08:47):
of a call sign is top Gun, where everybody has
an essentially a nickname. But this is not not necessarily
a nickname, but it's what everybody calls. So if Steve
is on the console, you know, in the morning shift,
and Jennifers on the console in the afternoon shift, they
still have the same call sign because it's actually the
station that they refer to, right, not the person, But
the station doesn't matter. Who's there. That person is filling
(09:10):
that Yeah, so like dynamics officer yes, and call signed
Fido who and that person plans the ship's maneuvers and
is watching its trajectory. Um, there's another person that keeps
track of that to the guidance officer. Um. But but
the Fido is up there in the the bottom left
(09:32):
hand corner if you're looking at the screens. Yeah. So, um,
so you've got that. If you move over one station,
you have a console that actually could have one of
two different officers working there, depending upon what's going on.
In that spatial mission at the time. UH, there's the
Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer also known just as Rendezvous UM,
(09:53):
and that job is to support the Shuttle mission whenever
they are going to have to dock with an other
vehicle or with the space station, or perhaps they're coming
up to do repairs for example on the Hubble telescope.
Anytime the Shuttle is coming into close proximity with another
vehicle or satellite or anything like that. UM, this officer
(10:14):
is there to help support the Shuttle's crew and UH
and give information and guidance when the Shuttle is going
through those sort of maneuvers. Now, in other situations that
you might find the ascent slash Intrigue Guidance and Procedures Officer,
they're known as guidance. Now. This is the person who
is helping again with navigation issues specifically during the the
(10:38):
the ascent and descent UH phases of a Shuttle mission.
So when the Shuttle is either entering orbit or is
getting ready to re enter the atmosphere YEP and UM.
Also that person keeps track of any possibility that they
need to abort, so they're they're UM, you know, keeping
(11:00):
a close eye on those kinds of situations. UM. The
next person is the ground controller anything that would affect hardware,
software or support UM. With regard to the facilities UM.
Also UH, this person coordinates the ground space Flight Tracking
and Data Network and the tracking and data relay satellite
(11:22):
system along with Goddard Space Flight Center, which is in
Maryland by the way. So I talked about Houston and Florida,
but we didn't talk about Maryland. Yeah, NASA has a
number of facilities all over the country UM and and
other stations that they work with with countries around the
world to keep track of what's going on with the shuttle.
So UM, even though there may be on a given
(11:44):
mission up to seven people in the shuttle, there are
a whole lot more people on the ground watching out
for them. So let's go back a row. So we
moved back toward the the UH far left. UM, we're
gonna talk about the propulsion officer also prop pr op UM.
The propulsion officer's job is to keep an eye on
(12:05):
the reaction control and orbital maneuvering system UH that's on
the Space Shuttle. Now, this is all the little jets
and the propellants that are used by the Space Shuttle
to make maneuvers in orbit or to get into orbit
or out of orbit. UM. So that's that's that officer's
job is to keep an eye on all those systems
and to provide guidance to the shuttle crew. Yeah. And
(12:27):
speaking of guidance, UM, the next person is guidance Navigation
and Control systems also known as g n C watching
the the guidance navigation and control systems UH. He or
she would be in contact with the flight director and
crew any time that something again would require aboarding the
mission UM. And this I assume could mean any time
(12:50):
rather than UM. You know, the guidance officers watching specifically
on launch and landing. This would be any time you
need to UH cut out and go home. UM. Or
any time the not the guidance hardware might be not
working correctly. Yes, so that this would be the eyes
on the ground to help guide the shuttle. Let's say
(13:10):
that the guidance systems aboard the shuttle for some reason
or malfunctioning, perhaps a gyroscope is not is not turning properly. UM.
The this officer would be the person who would help
guide the shuttle crew into maneuvering the shuttle so that
it was going the right way for whatever operation they
needed to perform at that point, most likely coming home. Next,
(13:33):
we have the Maintenance Mechanical arm and Crew Systems Officer
or Max m M a c. S. Butts pronounced Max um.
The This is a person who looks at the shuttles
structural mechanical systems to make sure that everything is is nominal.
So the also monitors all the equipment, maintenance, and hardware
(13:54):
use aboard the shuttle. So this is the guy who
tells the astronauts to put up their toys when they're
done playing sexual a little more obviously much more serious
than that, but clearly this this is the person who
is trying to make sure that that all the procedures
are followed aboard the shuttle to make sure everything is
stowed away properly and is used the way it was
meant to be used and turned off and all that
kind of stuff, because clearly anything that's out of the
(14:17):
ordinary could potentially cause a major problem with such a
complex mission. Um. Yes, and a lot of jokes. I'm
sure like, no, my name is not Max, it's Steve. Yeah. Um.
Now they're known for a lot of joking in the
Mission Control center. Maybe when it's all over with Hey, guys,
we have more to talk about with NASA's mission control system,
(14:38):
but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor.
Next is Eagle, the Electrical Generation and Illumination Officer, and
this person is keeping an eye on the electrical systems, cryogenics,
(15:00):
fuel cells, A C and d C power circuits. Both
Edison and Tesla are represented um vehicle pyrotechnics and lighting.
Actually that always makes me think of rock bands. Yeah
when I read that, well, you already talked about e C,
d C two and uh any caution and warning systems
that might be going on. So yeah, alright, time to
(15:22):
move move back another row. So moving back another road
to this is row three. If you're keeping track, we're
back back over to the far left. We have the
Data Processing System Officer DPS, who looks monitors the status
of the the onboard computer systems on the shuttle. Now,
if you've listened to our Shuttle episode, you know that
(15:42):
we mentioned briefly that there are five on board computer systems.
It's this officer's job to monitor those systems make sure
that they are working properly that there is not any
sort of malfunction in those systems. UM. They also look
at other computer systems that are related to the mission,
including the function display system. So that's his job or
(16:03):
her tob Yeah. The payload's officer is next, UM, which
is just called payload. Yeah. They drop an S. That's
that's how they abbreviate that that console as they dropped
the S to payload. I see they don't. They don't
get cool U nicknami call signs, at least not most
of them, UM like they do in the in the movies. UM. Anyway,
(16:24):
that that person coordinates the both the ground system and
the onboard shuttle UH system interfaces, so the flight control
team and payload user are in contact with another with
one another and UM. Payload also keeps an eye on
the in cabin and cargo based system experiments and satellites. UM.
(16:46):
So yeah, I mean you've got those great big bay
doors and stuff comes out of them. That's who knows
what's going on with that. It's the main purpose for
the Space Shuttle is to be able to deliver payloads
to space. So like a giant cargo up. UH. Next,
we have a console where again, two different officers could
be operating this console depending upon what is going on
(17:06):
in the Space Shuttle mission at that time. You have
the Flight Activities Officer or f AO. I like to
call him Schwartz. Uh, the Flight Activities officers so nice.
I'm a big, big fan of f AO. So the
Flight Activities Officer is their job is to to kind
(17:27):
of be a support for the the shuttle crew. Uh.
They maintain checklists and procedures and schedules. So whenever you
you see a launch or you over here like the
the recordings from um missions and you hear the Shuttle
crew going down a checklist, this is the person who
on the ground is also going through that same checklist
(17:49):
to make sure that everything is checked off whenever they're
doing any sort of procedure. UM. They also manage the
shuttle orientation, so how it is oriented, uh in relation
to the Earth or to really anything else, you know,
it's some other point of reference. And then the other
officer who works at that console, depending upon what's going on,
(18:10):
is the Visiting Vehicles Officer or vv O. And uh,
sometimes the Shuttle has to interact with other vehicles like
Russian vehicles or perhaps the Internet, National Space, slower moving
ones or slower moving ones UM, and so the the
Visiting Vehicles officer is the person who monitors that connection
(18:30):
whenever the shuttle is is docked with another vehicle or
the I S S UM the that's that's that officer's job.
So a little bit different from the navigation officer. They're
they're not necessarily helping the shuttle maneuver next to those
They're just monitoring whenever that connection is made because clearly,
(18:51):
you know you're sharing an UM airlock connection. You want
to make sure that everything is UH is still stable
during that whole process. Yes, So next we have the
Emergency Environmental and Consumables Yes, Operations Manager EE calm, Yes
(19:12):
that would Yeah, UM is UH and that person UH
is responsible for the active and passive thermal control of
the vehicle according to NASA UM and the cabin atmosphere control,
so like, hey, you know, can you turn down the
thermostat could you get a little some of this carbon
dioxide out of our atmosphere? Really avionics, cooling supply and
(19:33):
wastewater systems and fire detection and suppression systems, so really
you can think of this, this officer is being in
UH in charge of monitoring life support systems basic shut Yeah,
but see that would be too easy to say and
would sound too much like TV, so they had to
call it something obscure. But yeah, whenever we talk about
life support systems, this is the officer in charge of
(19:54):
making sure everything is is running in the right parameters.
So now it's time to move of another row back
and back over to the far left. We've got the
Instrumentation and Communications Officer inco I n c OH. This
person monitors the communications systems and instrumentation systems systems configuration
(20:15):
aboard the shuttle. Um. They're also the one who controls
the shuttle television systems from the ground. So the shuttle
crew wants to watch Phineas and Ferb and this guy's like, no, no, no,
you're going to be watching. Actually, I don't think that's
exactly how that works, but I thought it was funny.
But no. Yeah, they controlled the television systems aboard the
(20:38):
Space Shuttle from the ground, so there they work very
closely with the public relations officer as well as other
members of the flight control team. Yeah. I bet, although
I didn't read this, I bet that this person is
also the one who's responsible for playing the wake up song,
which is now sort of semi famous part of a
shuttle be kind of a tradition right where you've got this. Uh,
(21:00):
each each member of a shuttle crew gets to choose
a song that will be played at a particular time
to to signal it's time to wake up and do science. Yes. Yeah,
so I guess I got lucky because I got the
head of all of this and then on this row.
So this person see again, it's sort of the middle
(21:21):
of the theater, you can see everything. It's a good seat.
It's a flag director, and uh, that person leads the
flight control team. This person is responsible for basically all
of this, uh, the overall mission and payload operations, any
decisions that would impact the safe and successful conduct of
the mission. Um so, actually the flight director has another
(21:45):
responsibility you know you might expect with all this sophisticated
computer equipment, that has to do with the seven people
in space living are dying and you know, on a
more sad but real note, the expensive space shuttle. Uh,
you know in space that you want to protect. Uh,
they are allowed to bring food and drink inside mission control. Um, well,
(22:08):
I mean they only get five to ten minute breaks
every ninety minutes, so with you know, shift between eight
and twelve hours, Yes, they would need to do this.
So an Assa says that the flight controller um takes
a day and UH is responsible for choosing a cuisine
to buy for everybody in there, so um, he actually
(22:29):
has to do that as well. So I guess if
you're in charge, you get to pick what everyone else
will eat on their celebratory kind of makes you wonder
if if he's like, okay, so who here likes pepperoni
and there piece? Fine? Fine, all right, no, no, Johnson,
I told you we're not putting ham and pineapple on
all the pizza exactly. It's like, well, it is my
(22:51):
space center. Um, so do you make me turn this
mission around? Yeah? I mean serious as they are, they
do get to have a little fun in the fly
director does have that does get to UH to buy
when it's time for dinner once. Apparently it just happens once.
That's good. Still, that's pretty cool. Yeah. So so next
next to the flight director on the other side is
(23:13):
the spacecraft communicator or capcom. And you might think, why
is it called capcom when it's the actual name of
the consoles, the Spacecraft Communicator. Well, it's because they really
love playing Resident Evil. And you know, Resident Evil was
made by Capcom, so real those big screens. It's true
(23:34):
that it's true that Capcom makes Resident Evil. That's the
only true part of that statement though, So why is
it called Capcom. Well, it's because back in the day
when when the earliest space flights were manned, space flights
were being tested, the first capsule they were using was
the Mercury Capsule, so it was Capsule Communication. Well, the
(23:57):
shuttle is not a capsule, it's a spacecraft. So they
changed the name of the console to Spacecraft Communicator, but
they did not change the call sign, which it still
remains Capcom. By the way, you're wondering if there is
any other connection with Capcom the video game company, I
am sad to inform you there is not. The Capcom
(24:18):
video game Company takes its name from a predecessor of
that company, the Japan Capsule Computer Company Limited, which you know,
you just take Capsule computer and you squish that to Capcom.
It's not the same thing as the one that's in
um uh NASA's mission control. Now what are they doing? Well,
(24:38):
there there may They serve as the primary communication point
between flight control and the shuttle itself. That's their job.
Yeah yeah, and uh, spot Colm just doesn't sound as
coolm No, spake calm No, that's what you do with
your pets. So next we have the PDRs, the Payload,
Deployment and Retrievals STEMS officer who is watching the operation
(25:03):
of the remote manipulator system. Yeah, the robotic arm NASA.
You know, they've got to have a fancy name for everything,
and I think that's kind of cool. But at the
same time, it's just easier to say a robotic arm. Yeah,
this is the guy who can take over control and
make the robotic arm give a big thumbs up to
the earth. Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you
hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? This is all
(25:24):
lies too, but no, it is true that that is
that is the officer's job is to monitor the operation
of the robotic arm. Now, clearly you might say, well,
you know you've got the shuttle crew up there that's
actively operating the robotic arm. Why do you need someone
else keeping their eyes on this? Well, remember that this
robotic arm is manipulating equipment that costs billions with a
(25:46):
B dollars. So you're using this arm to help position satellites,
to maybe retrieve a satellite that needs to be brought
back down because it's going to either require repairs or
even just needs to be taken down because otherwise it's
going to crash into the Earth and and you might
want to try and salvage some parts first. Um, it
(26:06):
may be helping install new pieces of the International Space Station.
So you know that's it's an important, important job, which
is why you have to have an extra set of
eyes on any kind of operation that's going to involve that.
So now we finally gutten to the last row of
the the mission control center. On the blast row on
(26:30):
the far left, you have the Public Affairs Officer p
a O. These days to the Moon you go. That's
where it comes from. And uh, the Public Affairs officers
job is to provide mission commentary and also to explain
any sort of transmissions that are going between the shuttle
and ground control. UM. Primarily this person interfaces with either
(26:56):
the general public or more commonly, the the press. So
this is someone who is able to break these things
down and explain in normal person speak what the transmissions mean,
because you know, we might overhear some transmissions and you
can kind of piece together what's going on, but this
is the person who can really give it context and
explain why it's important. Yeah, if you watch a NASA
(27:19):
launch there, I'm I'm interpolating from all of this, there's
a public affairs officer or someone who fills that role.
Let's let's say that on on the launch control team
as well, because you'll hear, you know, you'll hear the
person the people in the control center, you know, with
a very somber, very serious you know, you know, so
(27:39):
and so this and then the other thing like that
he minus five minutes and waiting and like we're holding
the launch at five minutes in order to blah blah
blah blah blah, so and and so this. This person
will do this for the mission overall. But yeah, that
I'm pretty sure I would launch control centers the officer
as well. Yes, I I agree. That's again based upon
(28:01):
what I've inferred from the information I've received as well.
The next person, um is a holdover from the sixties,
the modes. Uh No, I'm kidding. The Mission Operations Directorate
groovy dude, that's the person who uh serves as an
intermediary between the flight control room and the top NASA
(28:24):
and mission managers. Um so yeah, basically a public affairs
officers specifically to the top brass at NASA. Yeah, so
you know you it's this way you've maintained a line
of communication that does not interfere with anyone else's specific duties.
Because clearly, if you are in a big team and
you have a boss who is overseeing the overall operations
(28:49):
but is not directly involved in the day to day operations,
it would be very distracting to have that person walk
from desk to desk and say, hey, what you doing.
So this is this is sort of their way of
controlling that line of communication. What are you doing? What
are you doing? What are you doing? And then next
we have another one of those consoles where we have
a rotating cast of characters that use it, Hey, could
(29:10):
you get your elbow out of my coffee? They don't
all use it at the same time. It all depends
upon what the mission is. So one of the potential
officers at that position is the Russian interface operator. This
is clearly whenever NASA is going to have a mission
that will also involve Russian cosmonauts or the Russian space centers. Uh.
(29:33):
This is a person who can say no and dah
dah and and then direction is limited. Yeah, yeah, I
have Novia Da, Borsh, Pravda and does Vidnia. Alright, that's
about all I've got, um, but yeah, presumably the Russian
(29:55):
Interface officer speaks more than that. I would hope, yes,
I would as well. Houston, we have a sponsor read
that's just my way of saying, we're gonna take a
quick break for another sponsor break. The Booster Systems Officer
(30:18):
also just known as booster uh. This is a person
who monitors the launch systems during pre launching all the
way through the ascent of the Shuttle. So this is
again someone who has a counterpart at the Kennedy Space Center.
I would imagine if I had probably several counterparts, because
that is their primary function is to oversee the launches.
So this is the person of mission control who who
(30:38):
keeps an eye on that as well. That's back at Houston.
And then finally you have the Extra vehicular Systems Officer
or e v A, and this is the person who
monitors the astronauts during any sort of extra vehicular activity,
including spacewalks. Yes, um, I would also have been whomever
would monitor the astronauts who are on the moon during
(31:01):
the Apollo missions. But of course Shuttle missions could not
go to the moon. The Shuttle was not designed to
go to the moon. So in this case, extra vehicular
does really mean spacewalks. It also wasn't designed to land
on asteroids, that's right. Um. Yeah. That that person also,
I find this kind of interesting. This person also keeps
an eye on the how the space suits are functioning, um,
(31:23):
which is kind of interesting too, because it's not just
you know, hey, okay out there, you know, don't forget
your hat. It's also you know, is your hat working?
Are are the environmental controls within your space suit functioning properly? Yeah?
And yeah, this is serious, serious stuff here. It's no
clearly you want to have extra eyes on that as well. Yeah,
(31:44):
and you also that person also keeps track of what
you're what the astronauts are doing on their spacewalk because
they've trained extensively for this mission, and the saying okay,
are you doing everything that you need to do? Are
having trouble with your space suit. On a side note,
I cannot comprehend the level of courage and confidence that
would require to do a spacewalk. It is it is
(32:08):
so far beyond my my ability to even imagine. It's
just it's phenomenal. Well, they put their lives at risk
for science, and I find that admirable. Yeah, certainly. Um. Lastly,
we had the doc Bones in the back of the room.
The surgeon is watching crew health and surgeons call sign
(32:28):
surgeon yeah, yeah, not bones. Yeah. I know, it's just
more fun to say, Um, this person. Uh. The surgeon
is consulting with the crew, making sure the flight director
knows if there's any health issue that might affect the mission. Um,
and uh the person Basically, they have to have a
(32:49):
medical doctor in who is specializing in aerospace medicine. UM.
Talk about a specialization in the field. Um. And any
time that their weight not likely to do house calls. UM.
There are other people, biomedical engineers or bams who know
what they you know, know the necessary bits and pieces
(33:12):
from medical kits and systems on board the shuttle that
keep an eye on the mission around the clock when
the astronauts are asleep. But a surgeon has to be
on duty while they are awake. UM. There's a team
actually a crewisurgeon, deputy crew surgeon, and a bame mission
manager according to NASA. UM, and they handle the the
(33:32):
aspects of the flight. UM. And there are extra people
who are there while the main team is away from
mission control during the launch and landing of the Shuttle. Now, UM,
it is important to note that this really is accounts
for only ten percent of these people's jobs. Really. UM.
They spend about training UM and you know on the
(33:53):
Shuttle simulators at Johnson Space Center. UM. And the other
of the time, uh, the mission control team works on
planning and organizing the missions. UH. So they're they're really
it's not like mission control walks into the room when
it's time to take over from the launch control team
(34:13):
and runs the mission and then they go home and
spend the rest of their time on vacation until six
months later when they're needed for another mission. They they
are very involved with all aspects of the Shuttle mission. Training.
They know with the the specific science projects they're working
on or or deployments they need to make into space.
(34:34):
There on all of that part UM, different parts, so
they know everything. They need to know because they're also
intimately involved with the particular mission on which they are working. UM.
If you were interested in joining a crew like this,
you would need some kind of technical degree or engineering
degree UM generally you had based on your educational background
(34:58):
and your interest and your raining, they would assign you
to a specific UH specific role based on those factors.
So if you're if this sounds like something you would
like to do. UM. Obviously, the Space Shuttle program is
now ending with UM the assumed at this point, since
the Shuttle hasn't launched UH safe Return of STS one
(35:20):
in July, UM there will probably be something in the future,
although the media plans have been put on hold, so
I think, you know, it's it's worth investigating if that's
something that but it's very specialized, and it may very
well be that the future, the future of this center
will be working in uh UH in partnership with private
(35:45):
companies that are are creating space missions. Because of course,
it's clear through this discussion that that any source of
space mission is an incredibly complex affair and it's not
something that can be accomplished just by the crew aboard
whatever the spacecraft is. Clearly, I mean they play a
critical role obviously in a mission, but that you need
(36:07):
those extra people on the ground who are dedicated to
very specific tasks to make certain that if anything does
happen out of the ordinary, that they can handle it.
You know, it's it's such a delicate and and frankly
dangerous procedure to do any sort of space mission, manned
space mission, you have to have that kind of intense
(36:29):
scrutiny on the ground as well as in the sky
or in space as it were. So it may very
well be that that NASA works in partnership with private
companies in the future. It's a little early for us
to talk about that, because frankly, we are just in
the very very first stages of private space flight. We've
(36:49):
got some people who are taking uh space spacecraft way
up into the atmosphere and even all the way up
to low orbit. But it's early days yet, so we
will see how that that progresses over time. But I
would imagine that that would be something that NASA would
be interested in, and because private flight could very well
(37:10):
be the next era of space exploration as far as
the United States is concerned. We may also see at
some point a refunding of NASA, where um, they are
refocused on a new space program. And again it won't
necessarily be the Shuttle or anything that resembles the Shuttle,
but it would use a lot of the same sort
(37:32):
of offices and consoles that they're using now in mission control. Actually,
that's a good point. You're probably wondering at this point, Well,
it's pretty late in the podcast. You guys haven't really
talked about the tech that they use. Um, there's it's
kind of difficult to find a lot out about that technology.
For one thing, you're talking about all these different consoles.
(37:53):
Not all of them are using exactly the same thing.
Some of these are using some consoles are using systems
that were specifically designed for that particular task, which means
they are so well, I can't say they're so unique.
That's ridiculous, right, their unique period and therefore there is
nothing to compare them to other than saying this is
a very specialized computer. Yeah, from what from what I've
(38:13):
been able to find out, Um, when they were putting
these systems together in the nineteen seventies for use in
the Shuttle missions of the early nineteen eighties, UM, there
wasn't anything available for them to use that did what
they wanted it to do. So it wasn't like there
were IBM PCs or max or even Amiga's or anything
(38:34):
that they could buy off the shelf Commodore sixty four,
you know. But the thing is, they didn't have the
same types of systems where they could just go buy
a series of machines or or even you know, put
together a Linux box that would do what they wanted
it to do. So they ended up basically creating these
these UH consoles on their own that would handle the
(38:57):
specific tasks necessary to complete of these missions. So UM.
I imagine that part of the reason it's difficult to
find information on it is because they are unique. And
I imagine that that for to some degree, it's probably
classified um because you know, the Space Race was for
the longest time a competition between the United States and
the Soviet Union, UM, and you know, we were sort
(39:20):
of in competition with them, so they didn't want people
to know, UH in other countries what kinds of technology
was used in these machines. So UM, but it is
fascinating stuff. I would assume that basically it is computer
hardware used specifically to track or to communicate or whatever
it is that that person happens to need. It may
(39:41):
actually be somewhat unsophisticated, and that it has a specialized
purpose and doesn't need to do a multitude of tasks. Yeah.
Why would you need to be able to calculate telemetry
when you are looking specifically at an unrelated system aboard
the shuttle. Yeah, yeah, it totally makes sense from that perspective.
And again it's that whole specialized focus. You know, you
(40:01):
have specialized equipment to monitor a very particular system aboard
the Shuttle, and you have a specialized officer that is uh,
that is at that console. So yeah, it's again it's
one of those things where you want that kind of
specialization because again the stakes are really high and uh,
you know, in multiple arenas. So that was an interesting
(40:25):
overview of mission control. I mean, if if you ever
get a chance, you listeners out there, if you ever
get a chance to take a tour of any of
the flight centers and NASA, if you go to the
Kennedy Space Center, for example, I highly recommend taking these
tours and and getting a look. You can actually see, uh,
the equipment that was used in the Apollo missions at
(40:46):
the Kennedy Space Center. You can see the launch control
facility and uh, it's fascinating. You're looking at these machines
that that are almost impenetrable as far as you know.
You just glance at them and you're like, I have
no idea what that does. It looks amazing, right, And
you think that beeps and it blinks, and then you
think there was a person sitting at that console who
(41:08):
not only had that console, but a slide rule to
make calculations on the fly, and it's just phenomenal. You
think about the amount of human ingenuity it takes to
get people into space and back home safely, and again,
it's one of those those accomplishments that a lot of
us take for granted, but I think truly speak to
(41:29):
the most amazing things humans are capable of doing. Alright, guys,
I hope you enjoyed that classic episode of tech Stuff.
Remember if you have any suggestions for episodes that I
should cover in the future. Maybe there's some tech topic
or a company or personality I should really talk about.
Let me know. Send me an email the addresses tech
Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or drop me
(41:49):
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