ESA astronauts take to helicopters for Moon landing training • The Register

European House Company (ESA) astronauts have accomplished a helicopter coaching course to arrange them for upcoming lunar landings.

The astronauts in query embrace Alexander Gerst, Matthias Maurer, Samantha Cristoforetti, and Thomas Pesquet.

The course consisted of 1 week of simulator instruction adopted by two weeks of sensible flying in Airbus EC135 helicopters. ESA stated: “Helicopter coaching provides a sensible analogue for the dynamics of planetary landings, requiring capabilities comparable to vertical take-off and touchdown, terrain-based decision-making, and excessive ranges of coordination and situational consciousness.”

The Apollo astronauts additionally honed their Moon touchdown abilities utilizing helicopters, though with occasional catastrophic penalties. On January 23, 1971, the Bell 47G helicopter flown by Apollo 14 backup commander Gene Cernan crashed into the Indian River lagoon close to Malabar, Florida. An accident investigation board, headed by Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, pinned a lot of the blame on Cernan. He’d discovered the altitude tough to evaluate when skimming the floor of the water and unintentionally ditched the helicopter. The incident did not cease Cernan from being the final particular person on the Moon on the Apollo 17 mission.

A greater real-world simulator was the Lunar Touchdown Coaching Car (LLTV), which featured a vertically mounted turbofan engine able to lifting the machine – nicknamed “the flying bedstead” – to simulate the decreased lunar gravity. Astronauts spoke extremely of it. Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong referred to as it a “most precious coaching expertise.” He was virtually killed by its predecessor, the Lunar Touchdown Analysis Car (LLRV), in 1968.

Cernan stated: “Though there’s nothing fairly like the actual factor, flying the LLTV had been a step towards realism from ‘flying’ the stationary simulators.

“Within the LLTV you had your butt strapped to a machine that you simply needed to land safely otherwise you did not make it.”

ESA has but to strap its astronauts into one thing as doubtlessly hazardous because the LLTV. Nonetheless, the helicopter raises some attention-grabbing questions – what does ESA anticipate its astronauts to make use of for a lunar touchdown?

Touchdown the towering Starship manually can be a problem, whereas the opposite Human Touchdown System (HLS) contender from Blue Origin won’t be ready until Artemis V.

Andreas Mogensen, ESA’s Human Exploration Group Chief, advised The Register:

The helicopter coaching is an introductory course that may give ESA astronauts the abilities and information to take part in superior helicopter programs, like NASA’s HAATS, which is a requirement for taking part in Artemis lunar touchdown missions.

The aim of HAATS and comparable programs is to coach astronauts in vertical touchdown profiles and to acknowledge the visible and optical illusions that may come up from a visible surroundings characterised by mono-colours and stark shadows. Helicopter pilots are well-aware of those illusions, particularly when flying in snow and mountain environments. The objective is thus to equip astronauts with the abilities to visually monitor the descent and decide obstacles and dangers, whatever the precise car used to land on the moon. ®