Grand Canyon Times

The University of Arizona is training its first class of astronauts in its spaceflight training programs at Biosphere 2, located at UA's Center for Human Space Exploration (CHaSE).

Led by founding director Trent Tresch, CHaSE is focused on "furthering the sustainable presence of humans in the solar system and beyond," according to a release by UArizona. CHaSE also fosters the global space community with "accessible and experiential spaceflight training," for students and others who are interested. Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM) is also housed at Biosphere 2, a sealed habitat being built to replicate the lunar or Mars surface. One idea led to another, Tresch said.

"Throughout the process of exploring the different potentials (of SAM), we developed the idea for CHaSE," he said in the release, adding that he and UA colleague Kaie Staats' work on SAM led to the idea of developing technologies for living sustainably off-planet, but more work needs to be done at home for that, he said.

"We have to be at or near 100% sustainable to be able to do that long term," Tresch said. Not only that, he said, but "the technology that we develop should be directly applicable to making life better here on Earth."

The first class of astronauts received training from the private aerospace company Uplift Aerospace. Tresch, Sian "Leo" Proctor, who piloted SpaceX's Inspiration4 all-civilian orbital mission, and Mira Milas, executive director of the University's APEX aerospace medicine program, led the classes, the release stated. The class was chosen from Space+, which is an initiative launched by Uplift Aerospace earlier this year. Both CHaSE and Uplift are creating accessible civilian space programs, so the two worked together, using Blockchain to facilitate the selection process to find the "Space+5" team.

"Blockchain is built around the philosophy of decentralization, open access and transparency," Uplift Aerospace CEO Josh Hanes said. "As part of our inclusive vision, we sponsored AstroAccess to join our astronaut class for this training. It will allow us to get their feedback on how astronaut training can be curated in the future to be more accessible. Our mission as a company is based around the philosophy that if you can give access to advanced technologies and opportunities to communities that don't have that access, it gives us the opportunity to change our future for the better."

As part of this accessibility, the class practiced donning spacesuits and pressurizing them, as well as water landing emergency egress, or emergency evacuation of a spacecraft. Some activities have been done in the UA Recreation Pool, including one exercise in which two deaf students practiced communicating using American Sign Language (ASL) underwater.

"The power of accessibility is that it makes our systems safer for everyone, not just those who have historically been excluded," Anna Voelker, co-founder and executive director of AstroAccess, said in the release. "ASL is an excellent example of these benefits for all. If comms systems malfunctioned in space, imagine how valuable it would be if all astronauts could communicate through sign language. This value was seen in action not only while the AstroAccess team was scuba diving, but also when Eric and Sheila were in their pressurized spaceflight suits and able to communicate fluently while others had difficulty hearing one another. Accessibility and universal design enhance safety for all."

Rubin Salinas, Aerospace's first community astronaut and Space+5 team leader, said it's important to train for the unexpected.

"Human spaceflight, like any other pioneering endeavor, pioneering, is full of potential dangers. So it's important to try to envision scenarios that may occur that are so-called off-nominal, or not normal," Salinas said. "In these types of scenarios, preparation is key. Every one of the steps we're practicing, as far as fire suppression or emergency egress, requires certain steps to be followed in the proper sequence, and this is where we're using AI and evaluating how AI can support us in that type of off-nominal event."

Part of the Space+5 team was a helper called BINA48, an A.I. humanoid robot built by Terasem Movement Foundation. BINA48 is being deployed to test machine intelligence on future human-crewed space missions, officials said.

"BINA48's presence allows a regular person access to specialized information without special training," said Bruce Duncan, managing director of the Terasem Movement Foundation Inc. "BINA48 also acts as a calm expert to turn to in times of stress, in the heat of the moment, calmly bringing you back to your center."

From there, the possibilities are endless. Tresch and others would like to see spaceflight become universal, not just for the sake of science.

"I'm hoping to activate that creative side and think about not only the science and engineering, technology and the math, but also the arts and the humanity side of going to space," said Proctor, a pilot for SpaceX.

"The University of Arizona is really uniquely situated for a program like this," Tresch added. "Not only are we one of the highest space-and science-funded universities in the nation, but we also have the Biosphere 2 – this incredible habitat that has this rich history. And with that history, we're able to build the future."