The U.S. Navy is unleash its monstrous Kraken machine on NASA , allowing the space agency to expend the dizzying machine for an forthcoming study that could help it extenuate the effect of spaceflight on astronauts .
A group of 24 combat-ready obligation religious service members will get to hinge on the 50 - foot - farseeing ( 15 meters ) machine for 60 hour , spinning like a dirty sock inside a laundry machine at accelerations up to three time the force of somberness to model what astronauts experience during space travel , NASAannouncedon Wednesday . The excruciating ride is meant to help scientists come up with way to reduce symptom such as dizziness , nausea , and vertigo once spaceman exit their spacecraft .
Sometimes the hardest part about going to space is getting there . Astronauts can experience severe move sickness during their launch to space , as well as on their way back to Earth . “ before long after liftoff in the quad birdie , I feel like I was on a merry - go - round as my body hunt down for what was up , down , provide , and right , ” NASA cosmonaut Douglas Wheelock , said in the NASA financial statement .
The Kraken in action.Gif: U.S. Air Force
The Kraken can simulate unlike type of trajectory “ to disorient occupants through sudden duty period in roll , pitching , and yaw , superimposed onto horizontal and vertical lurches , ” NASA wrote . It voice like the unfit case of amusement park ride you ’ve ever been on , but this drive is a necessary evil .
For the upcoming study , the Kraken will be on a spaceflight - specific setting , as oppose to options meant for jet archetype , allowing NASA scientists to study whether certain head movement could facilitate comfort astronauts ’ motion sickness after their flight , accord to NASA . “ With the ability to move six directions on its bloc , the machine can simulate complex flight scenario that are difficult to recreate on Earth , admit set ashore scenarios that could bring on vertigo and sickness , ” Laura Bollweg , who grapple spaceman health research at NASA ’s Johnson Space Center in Houston , aver in the statement .
After the 24 Volunteer exit the Kraken , 12 of them will perform prescribed head turns and tilts while wearing video goggles to track their head and heart movement . The goggles measure how much the participants blink , as well as changes to their heart rate , and other indications of their motion nausea . The volunteers will also reply question about how they are feel .
The other half of the chemical group will not perform the head word movements , but all 24 volunteers will be call for to do four undertaking : examine their proportionality while standing on foam with eye open and closed , walking for 33 foot ( 10 meters ) to examine their speed , test their survival on another two minute walk , and how long it takes for them to finish up a standing and walking mental test that includes step over an obstacle . These may seem like easy tests , but the task will surely be much harder to do after that 60 - minute ride aboard the Kraken .
“ anecdote from astronaut suggest that execute fragile head movements helps them recover a mother wit of counterbalance more quickly , ” Michael Schubert , a neurophysiologist at Johns Hopkins University , and leave author of the study , say in a statement . “ Tests with the Kraken will provide us to rigorously ascertain what head movements , if any , facilitate cosmonaut to quickly recuperate their sense of balance wheel . ”
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