I'm at space meetings in this city this weekend.
Fitting as it's the @startrek home of Starfleet!
The @openlunarfoundation is discussing lunar technology and policy - a pivotal time in history as we transition from exploration to settlement.
The freedom of a single-seat, bubble canopy Sabre.
It flies like a natural extension of your body, turning you into an effortless, soaring bird. Beautiful engineering, one of the very first jet fighters. Extra-sweet that every flight is solo.
Each sortie in this Golden Hawks F-86 was a privilege, celebrating over a century of flight in Canada.
@rcaf_arc
Testing the fit of spacewalking gloves.
My hands are in a low-pressure chamber, to see if the gloves will bulge too much during a spacewalk.
I was lucky - when @nasa was making the new gloves, my hands were used as 3D models for one of the sizes, so I always had a perfect fit.
Remember to trim your nails short so they don't catch, and wear a thin cotton liner glove for sweat and comfort.
Weightless fingernail trimming - bits go everywhere!
So we cut them over a fan filter intake and vacuum them up when done (keeps someone from inadvertently breathing them, floating around).
Note the velcro on the clippers, for 0G storage. And the loud ambient sound of living inside a spaceship.
Climbing into a spacewalking suit for a training session.
I'm wearing padded long underwear full of cooling tubes. To get into the Orlan, you open the back like a fridge, perch in the door, hook up all connections, and slither inside.
The life support equipment (air scrubbers, temp control) is in the backpack.
We call it a spacesuit, but it's really a 1-person spaceship.
Do you gain weight in space? How would you know?
Obviously a weigh scale won't work when we're weightless. So we climb on an oscillating spring, and time the change in speed. From that, we can calculate our weight (or 'mass').
After 6 months I stayed the same mass, but lost fat & gained muscle with the healthy diet (no beer or pizza) and daily exercise.
The most exclusive of all health spas :)
image: @astro_cady@nasa
Spitfire and Hornet.
Amazing feeling to pilot the classic Spitfire with an F-18 on my wing. They both fly so beautifully; it's as if you've just sprouted wings and now have the freedom of a powerful bird.
Lots to think about safely operating single-seaters like these in formation, but mostly it's pure joy.
Spitfire Mk IX @vintagewingscan
CF-18A @rcaf_arc
photos: Eric Dumigan RIP
Flying the world's largest centrifuge.
When manually piloting a space capsule back into Earth's atmosphere, it's easy to get to 8 times the force of gravity.
In this 18m behemoth trainer, you feel the real forces as you maneuver. A well-flown reentry is about 4G, ballistic backup mode is 8 or 9G.
The all-time worst was 21.3G during the Soyuz 18a launch abort - but they survived.
If the spaceship leaks air, our pressure suits protect us.
It is intensely uncomfortable, and could last 2 hours until we safely reenter Earth's atmosphere. Imagine having to run all systems and manually fly the ship wearing this taut balloon.
The suits are custom-sewn, and we do pressurised fit checks. The crash seat helps absorb Earth impact, and our knees are bent to keep the reentry capsule as small as possible.
