Shannon Walker, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia and Doug Wheelock, left to right, currently serving on the space station, are among those regularly isolated in space from family and friends for six to seven months Photo Credit/NASA
Early this week, a small team of experts from NASA’s Johnson Space Center will head for Chile under the sponsorship of the U. S. State Department to assist officials with what’s expected to be a long running effort to rescue 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground since Aug. 5.
The primary mission of the two NASA physicians, a psychologist and an engineer will be the nutritional and mental health of the miners, said Dr. Michael Duncan, the deputy chief medical officer in Johnson’s Space Life Sciences Directorate, who will lead the space agency team.
“NASA has a long experience in dealing with isolated environments, in particular currently on the International Space Station. We plan and train for emergencies,” said Duncan prior to the team’s departure. “The environments may be different, but the human response, both in physiological and behavioral response to emergencies is quite similar. We think some of the things we learned in research or operations can be applied to the miners trapped underground.”
At the San Jose gold and copper mine near Copiapo, Chile, rescuers plan to begin drilling a hole this week from which they can extract the trapped men. However, the operation may require months, and it could be Christmas before the men can be raised from the tight quarters of their underground cavern. Currently, rescuers are lowering supplies to the miners through narrow shaft.
The Chileans sought NASA’s assistance through the U. S. State Department.
“They have done a lot for the miners,” Duncan said of the Chileans. “Our plan is to go down and provide the advice the Chileans have requested, in areas of nutritional support and behavioral health support.”
Currently, NASA astronauts as well as their colleagues from Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan spend up to six to seven months at a time aboard the space station, a sturdy outpost, though dependent on the Earth for food, water and air as well as other critical supplies. Though they are in regular contact with Mission Control and have access to the internet and e-mail, communications with family and friends is not spontaneous.
NASA’s Constellation return-to-the-moon program, which is facing cancellation, envisioned missions of a similar duration to a lunar outpost.
Human explorers will face missions of at least six months when they journey to asteroids. However, missions to Mars will require journeys of two to three years.