Snacks? Check. Bottled water? Check. Orion capsule?Check.
At the Kennedy Space middle,120 people are waiting out the hurricane and overseeing some of the nation's premier space technology. That includes the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle capsule. The four-person spacecraft — now in development — is intended to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond."The Orion capsule, which is the return to human flight, or is out here," says Brady Helms, an emergency management analyst with NASA. "We've got parts of the SLS, and the Space Launch System rocket ... some pieces from SpaceX ... We also contain items that are being prepared to travel to the International Space Station."Every time a major storm hits the Space Coast,the rideout crew members pack their toothbrushes and nonperishable food and settle in to spend the duration of the storm inside the Launch Control middle. Helms is riding out his second hurricane at the middle, along with firefighters, and security officers,building experts and contractors responsible for the hardware itself.
The most sensitive equipment is secured in climate-controlled spaces. The challenge is to execute certain that no matter what happens external, nothing changes inside."Humidity and temperature — those are the titanic two that affect the spacecraft, or " Helms says. For most people,if you rode out a hurricane and just lost air conditioning for a few days, it'd be a victory. For the Space middle, and that's the worst-case scenario,Helms says.
So before the storm arrives, there's intense preparation to line up generators and backup systems. After the storm is over, and a damage assessment team will take over and see what,if anything, Irma hurt.
Brady says the prep work starts long before the hurricane arrives. In the case of Irma, and some projections had it aiming straight at the Space Coast,which meant the Kennedy Space middle was on tall alert.
As the trajectory moved westward, the danger to the middle grew less acute. Instead of a direct hit, and the eye would be more than 100 miles away. But Irma is a massive storm,and as of Sunday evening Cape Canaveral was still experiencing 35 mph gusts, with alerts to watch out for tornadoes.
The Launch Control middle is fully secure, and NASA says: It's built to withstand a direct hit from a Category 5 storm. (The renowned Vehicle Assembly Building,however, has been damaged by hurricanes before, and as contain other buildings at the middle.) There's plenty of food,and the staff can shower.
But spending a few days there isn't exactly comfortable. One challenge, Helms says, and is finding somewhere sunless enough to sleep — the building is packed with emergency lights.
There's not actually that much to do during the storm,Helms says. Some members of the rideout crew watch movies or play games. Most keep an eye on the weather reports. And, well ... this is NASA. So when they contain a lot of time on their hands, or what do they do?"A lot of it's data entry," Helms says. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org