Doing the Training Exercises

After lunch, and following my SCUBA training, I was asked if I was willing to do some microgravity training exercises. I would be led through them by Krisstina Wilmoth (who I kept calling "Sue" because of an earlier acquaintance I knew). I don't remember the order of the exercises so I've just recorded my reflections of them and my thoughts and feelings about them in this journal. "Sure," I said. I was anxious to go back into the water.

The purpose of these exercises was to see what differences occurred in performing the exercises in our typical gravity environment and a micro-gravity environment as found below the surface of the water. First, the exercises were done on the ground and then, repeated below the surface of the water.

Two exercises dealt with assembling a sort of plastic tinker-toy praying mantis following written instructions describing special color configurations and a stick figure (human) following a visual pattern. The mantis was quite a bit more complicated than the stick figure. I was a whiz at the stick figure and pretty miserable at the mantis even though I well knew what a mantis was supposed to look like--maybe that was my problem: Pre-conceptions. Anyway, I should have practiced more. (You'll see why momentarily).

Another exercise involved finding an object (we choose a tree), pointing at the object, closing your eyes, making a complete 360 degree rotation, then keeping eyes closed, pointing at the object again. The 360 rotation was to be done in both the horizontal and vertical position (a somersault) in water. Simple orientation exercises! We skipped the somersault on the surface because of the gravel ground. I did well--right on!

A third exercise was placing your hand three feet from an object. I did this a couple of times on land and misjudged both times exactly the same amount. I placed my hand at 27 inches (not 36 inches). Hmmm...no wonder I have trouble judging room sizes. (This last comment is in reference to having recently designed and built a new home.)

Then, into the water Krisstina and I go---with the "tinker-toys" in white mesh zippered bags.

Lance, my SCUBA trainer follows keeping the breathing cables untangled. We do the tinker-toy tasks first. I'm led to a small platform, anchor myself by putting my wrist through a loop and take the first zippered bag from Krisstina. The clock begins. Hmmm...Fortunately, Krisstina had given me the hint that the bag works best turned upside down. The pieces stay in the bag that way--at least theoretically. I start out well. I'm confident this will be fine, I think, and proceed rapidly.

An interesting observation is that the joint pain I experience in my thumbs (from osteoarthritis at the bases of both thumbs) as I snap the pieces together is NOT relieved by the water. I had expected less jolt and consequently no pain in the water.

I make a mistake and begin to back track on the instructors. Lance later told me two pieces came apart, and I grabbed them as they began to float away and reconnected them incorrectly. Upon doing that, I was doomed to fail. Well, fail I did. I don't see my mistake, realize I'm getting no where fast, and signal to Krisstina let's go to the next task. She "gets" it and gives me the next bag.

Confidence shaken, I nevertheless have no difficulties putting the stick person together following visual instructions. Silver head, red arms, blue and silver legs, yellow feet. OK!

Next are the 360 degree rotations.

We swim to a dock post. I point, close my eyes, and do a somersault--well, it isn't really a somersault. I should have tried this with my eyes open first. I turn every-which-way-but-around and have no idea what-so-ever where the post is. I finally manage to stand on the bottom, point, and open my eyes. The post is NO WHERE in sight. I guess this means that if I were on a space walk, I'd lose the ship!

We swim to the SCUSAS--bright yellow. I should be able to judge 3 feet, even with my bad eyesight. Obviously, I don't have my glasses on. Knowing that water magnifies, I adjust for this, and place my hand at what turns out to be 38 inches. Hmmm...not too bad.

I'm DELIGHTED the exercises are over, no one likes to feel stupid, but wish I had more free time to investigate the lagoon some more. Lance seems to know my thoughts and gives me another tour. I see things not seen before, and this makes the microgravity exercises worth every minute of frustration.

Observations: Assembling tasks are time consuming and require careful vigilance in a microgravity environment. Parts don't stay put..they gradually rise (or sink). While keeping the bag turned upside down helped a lot, extra pieces came out and needed to be retrieved before they "got away." I can see this could be a VERY serious problem in space and better understand now all the training astronauts go though in assembling and disassembling apparatus and tools used in space.