Translator: Nawwar Alshroof Reviewer: Cristina Bufi-Pöcksteiner
How do you test a new idea,
especially one that is expensive, or will require a lot of effort?
To explore and plan we can use an analog.
Analogs are less expensive,
they're easier to create,
and they provide a realistic testing environment for our ideas.
Have you been thinking about launching a new business?
Or maybe you have a project that you would like to try,
but you have never done it before?
You may want to consider an analog.
So, analogs you're probably more familiar with,
with terms that we use such as "Flight Simulators."
You know, if you wanted to be a pilot and fly a high-performance aircraft,
you wouldn't just jump behind the controls and take off.
Instead, a new pilot will sit in a high-fidelity simulator
with an instructor, and perhaps even a full crew,
learning how the systems of this airplane work,
recognizing failures,
and then being able do it themselves.
And, of course, the agenda, the curriculum, has been planned.
But they'll have individual learning that they'll take away
on areas where they need to improve to succeed.
This is similar in our medical community,
where we use medical manikins to teach our doctors, nurses -
maybe a few of you have even taken a CPR class.
Then in science we use pilot studies before we go and launch a big project.
So, why do we use analogs?
Well, because analogs are more than a model.
They're able for us to test our predictions.
And because analogs bring together a lot of smart people,
they widen our perspectives
because all those people are giving their input.
And, because we go through the actions, we actually do something,
then we're able to lead to learning and discovering.
So, I would like to tell you about an analog
that I participated in with NASA.
You know, NASA is planning
to go to the surface of a body somewhere in our solar system soon.
Whether we go back to the Moon,
or to an asteroid that is closer to the Earth,
or even to the surface of Mars,
we will have done a lot of testing and preparation before we get there.
And analogs are one of the ways we do this.
So, for example, if we want to go to a near-Earth asteroid,
we'd want to know how we could sample it,
so we would know if there are useful resources,
and how did our solar system actually form.
There are thoughts that maybe we could use translation lines,
a lot like the ropes we set up here on Earth to do a rock climb.
Or maybe jet packs, or vehicles.
And, of course, we would be living closer to these bodies, to the asteroids,
and then going to visit them.
So, the analog I participated in 2012
was called NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operation,
or NEEMO, because it is underwater.
And, of course, we were looking at how to actually sample an asteroid.
So, it is more than a model.
We went to an actual vehicle that is 62 feet below the ocean surface,
five miles off the coast of Florida.
It is called the Aquarius Habitat.
It is about the size of a bus.
Six of us were crew members,
actual astronauts living underwater together
in a high-risk environment that is isolated.
Starting to sound like a space station?
We had a smaller mission control team back on that coast.
And in that control team, of course,
we had those flight controllers that do work at Houston.
We had the same people that teach us as astronauts.
We had the engineers that build the tools,
so they could see what we were breaking,
or what we found useful or what we didn't.
We even had flight doctors there
to see if the communication delay impacted any of the things that we were doing.
Another important person that we had was the safety diver.
For the obvious reason of providing the safety,
but because they also helped make this less expensive,
because they're helping neutrally weigh out
any of the equipment we didn't have time to make neutrally buoyant,
as well as they provided the omniscient point of view
because they were around us at all times.
So, we went out to test these hypotheses
about how to actually work at the asteroid.
Everyday, we'd suit up in our wetsuit and get our helmet on,
and we'd go out in the morning, and in the afternoon,
to do our space walks.
We started out on those translation lines.
It was quickly apparent
that this was not the most useful way to sample an asteroid
because we imagined
that most asteroids are going to have loose rubble at the surface.
A translation line does not allow you to stabilize yourself well enough
unless you're really only scooping loose material.
If you want to get something more,
it just won't work,
and you'll kick up a bunch of sediment which will be hazardous to you.
So, then we tried the jet packs.
Jet packs right! How cool is that?
Except we found out it might not actually be that cool.
Remember those safety divers?
They were able to point out that in this environment of water,
the water was providing drag,
and so it was holding us close to the surface we were sampling.
But if you were really at an asteroid,
you would have to put a pulse into your jet pack
for every sample that you wanted to take,
and that would quickly waste your propellant,
and put you in a precarious position.
So, however cool they were,
we realized that maybe jet packs are only good for a safety measure.
Finally, we brought in the vehicles.
In this case, they were submersibles.
This led to our big discovery.
The vehicle was able to hold us in position.
Now we could sample both loose material and firm material,
and even use bigger tools,
because it was a lot like working off a robotic arm.
It provided a level of safety
because we had that astronaut sitting in the vehicle
and able to look out for us.
If we were working with another crew member,
they could look out for both of us at the same time.
And because of the mass of the vehicle,
our inputs on the asteroid would not be wasted propellant:
that mass of that vehicle would hold us in place.
So now the question becomes:
if we go to an asteroid, or another body,
no matter what, we still learn,
and how many vehicles do you start pooling together
to do this learning.
That's left for another analog.
Now, let's bring it back to your ideas.
Perhaps you're considering opening a new restaurant.
What would be the analog?
Well, try having four catering parties back to back
with the team that you plan to use.
It will help you flush out
any of the things that you need to overcome before doing this.
Or maybe you are in charge of your family's safety,
or the safety of your co-workers.
Well, is your plan really going to work?
Have you put it into place,
or is it just written up in a document?
Consider running an authentic drill
to see if your ten-year-old is really ready to help you
if you are incapacitated.
Or if your co-workers know how to use the AD or other equipment you have.
Finally, maybe there are some of you in this room that want to go to Mars.
Perhaps you want to consider signing up
for one of the analogs that NASA takes volunteers for,
or go the private route with The Mars Society,
or things like biospheres.
To test new ideas in big projects,
especially the ones that are expensive,
take a lot of effort and require a lot of time,
we can use an analog
because it leads to discovery and learning.
Thank you.
(Applause)