SPACE FLIGHT CONDITIONS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28702, 27 September 1958, Page 10

SPACE FLIGHT CONDITIONS

United States Navy Tests PHILADELPHIA. The United States Navy has exposed human beings to intense water pressure in simulated space flights as part of a series of experiments designed to prove that major distortions of the body under high pressure can be counteracted. The experiments have been conducted at the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory of the Naval Air Development Centre at Johnsonville. Pennsylvania. At the heart of the experiments is a strange contrivance whic£ has all the appearance of a mechanical man or an image from a horror film. The device is known scientifically as a G-cap-sule and popularly as the “Iron Maiden.” It has the form of a gigantic human being in sitting position with a porthole-type mask for the face. In the experiments, the . subject sits in the capsule during a period of acceleration at the rate of 5000 miles an hour. The capsule is filled entirely with water and all valves are closed so that air pressure cannot act against the water within the device. Respiration Respiration during periods of acceleration is provided by varying pressures of the air supplied to the subject. Between tests, the person in the capsule breathes normally, moving water up and down in a standpipe at the back of the capsule. Special glasses allow water pressure to act on the subject’s eyes but permit him to see well from under the water.

In the experiments, the capsule is mounted on an arm.of a huge centrifuge which rotates at a rate simulating flight into space with the same stresses and strains which a human pilot would encounter above the atmosphere. During the period that the subject is enclosed in the “Iron Maiden” totally covered by water, he has the sensation of floating. Therefore, he can readily move his arms and legs to operate controls of aircraft at all levels of acceleration. Limb Movement Out of water, at pressures of 6 G (increasing a person’s weight by six times), the human being experiences great difficulty in moving his limbs because of the increased weight. Navy scientists say that the problem of helping man to operate controls when he is subject to the pressures of outer space is one of helping him to overcome that increased weight. In water, they say, the problem is the reverse. When a submerged man attempts to push on a control, his body moves in the opposite direction because of lack of weight. He has to be fastened into position so that he can operate his controls properly. The Navy programme at Johnsonville is aimed at developing methods of body support and counter-pressurisation to reduce distortion and at the same time to provide means of support so that flyers can operate controls at high levels of acceleration when they are trying to achieve flight into space.—(Reuter.)

Hitch-Hiking By Rail

BELGRADE. Vojislav Radovanovic wanted to get to Belgrade in a hurry to see a football match, so he stood on the railway track, stopped a train and asked the driver for a lift. The train he chose was the Bucharest-Belgrade international express. He got to Belgrade in time to see the game, but it cost him a 6200 dinar fine (nearly £8 sterling).—Reuter.