NASTAR stands for National Aerospace Training and Research. Located in Southampton, PA, NASTAR center trains aviators of all kinds, and their program now includes a 2-day program geared specifically to space tourists. This link takes you directly to the webpage that describes the space training in detail:
www.nastarcenter.com/nastar_spacetraining.php
There are four broad training activities:
Space Flight Training
Space Flight Disorientation Training
Space Flight Altitude Training
Space Crew Ejection Seat & Egress Training
Gyrolab2000 disorientation training machine
The training seems to be dedicated to one thing: helping tourists avoid motion sickness.
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Long-duration flights, such as a Mir residency, impose very serious psychological demands on astronauts for which significant pre-flight mental training is required. While this kind of training presently lies outside the purview of the space tourism industry, with its focus on short-duration flights, it is reasonable to project a not-so-distant future in which the "common man" may have to prepare for longer residencies in orbit and beyond. Sensory deprivation, isolation and loss of sense of time present the space resident with very formidable mental obstacles. Space ports currently under development may well house the sorts of facilities & activities designed to train tourists and professionals alike for the rigors of long-duration space habitation.
Adrien Brody in a sensory deprivation chamber-from the film The Jacket
The effects of mental strains induced by long-duration flight can be very detrimental to normal brain activity, as evidenced in this comparison of CT scans of the brains of two different 3 year-old boys. The image on the left is of a normal child, while the image on the right is an image of a child who suffered from sensory deprivation at an early stage of development.
CT scans comparison of 3 year-old boys...notice the difference in brain size!
Clip from the 1958 Bell Science Series documentary film Gateways to the Mind
And of course, who can forget former astronaut Lisa Nowak. Was her temporary psychosis a result of long durations in orbit? Most likely not, but prove to me it wasn't.
Former astronaut Lisa Nowak, before and after the diaper
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The Gyroscope is a training device used by those preparing for an extended stay in space, but contrary to conventional wisdom, it does not attempt to simulate the feeling of weightlessness. Instead, the gyroscope large enough to hold a human being is really not much more than an elaborate piece of gym equipment. In fact, a German entrepeneur introduced the Aerotrim in the 1960's as a form of alternative exercise. It was adopted by several space agencies soon afterwards.
According to Wikipedia:
Contrary to the initial appearance, the Aerotrim is not a close-your-eyes-and-hold-on machine and does not cause dizziness or nausea if it is controlled by the rider himself. Like a dumbbell or bicycle, human strength is required to direct the motions by balancing the body weight. During a forward or backward spin to be in command of the machine becomes limited, but it is still possible to flip out of a spinning loop and translate the momentum from forward motion to a sideways, backwards, horizontal or vertical spin. It is the only stationary exercise machine known to have the ability to move into any direction by counterbalance alone.
It is this control, or ‘wheeling’, that requires every muscle in the body to be used evenly, even those not usually targeted by weight training or general cardiovascular exercise. A half-hour session in the Aerotrim equals a two-hour cardio session in an entire gym, including pool. The spinning motion gives a feel of weightlessness and it is this feeling that can cause a healthy addiction.
Because this "machine" doesn't rely on counterweight to provide resistance to human movement, it's an ideal machine for exercising in space. Naturally, trainees get accustomed to the machine while still earthbound, as the video footage demonstrates. I don't know...just watching the video makes me want to gag a bit.
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Zero-Gravity Flights comprise the most widely accessibly method for the layman to experience zero gravity. In fact, companies such as Zero-G treat this form of "training" as a form of recreation.
Conventional aircraft like the Boeing 727-200 take paying customers on a parabolic flight path (known as the Kepler Curve) that starts at 20,000 feet and ascends to a maximum elevation of 30,000 before beginning the descent. Weightlessness lasts for approximately 30 seconds at a time & can be attained up to 15 times in a single flight.
Beyond recreation, zero-g flights are employed to perform "technological tests and studies of different space-related systems, devices, assemblies, biomedical studies of organisms and their behavior under weightless conditions and in reduced weightlessness ("Lunar", "Martian" other types of gravity), and also for commercial flights and advertising projects."
Stephen Hawking in 0g
Marth Stewart in 0g
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The Centrifuge is a piece of equipment that employs the semi-natural simulation of linear accelerations to simulate the various changes in G-forces on the body during ascension (insertion into orbital flight), orbital flight & descension (re-introduction into earth's atmosphere.
During ascension, G-forces up to 4g are encountered. During descension, G-forces up to 6.5g are experienced. The centrifuge can also simulate the effects of transitioning to 0g, or orbital flight.
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