How to train for space when you already live underwater
Neutral buoyancy comes naturally to some of us.
Sardine Aerospace
·
·
1 min read
NASA trains astronauts in swimming pools.
We were born in the pool. Advantage: Sardine Aerospace.
The programme
Our syllabus is short, because evolution did most of it:
- Neutral buoyancy: pre-installed.
- Life support drills: gills, redundant, twice.
- Confined quarters: we sleep four hundred to a tin, voluntarily.
The hard part is the opposite of the usual: our crew must train for dryness. Phase one is a damp towel. Phase two is a photograph of a beach. Phase three, which only the Commander has passed, is standing near a radiator.
Graduation is a lap of the harbour in formation, followed by absolutely no fish jokes at dinner, by order.