Work inside NASA's top-secret control room

Control room of the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) monitors all astronauts' activities and studies the influence of the outer space environment on the body and human psychology.

What does NASA's top secret control room do?

A dark room is located far from the security fence of the Redstone Arsenal military base, Huntsville, Alabama, USA. Here, 8 people including men and women sit in front of a row of concave screen computers. The data stream reflected on their faces.

Occasionally, a woman turns to whisper to the person next to her ear. Computer monitors display images of the earth, graphs, time charts and images of an astronaut moving on the International Space Station (ISS) - about 400 km away from the earth's surface.

Inside the room controls all activities on NASA ISS.(Photo: NASA)

Center for integrating and operating tonnage - the place to control all scientific experiments on ISS - always has staff working around the clock. Here, every working minute of astronauts on orbit are accounted, monitored and adjusted if necessary. This secret control room is part of the Marshall Space Flight Research Center.

Hard

' We are intermediaries who help connect underground scientists and crew on ISS,' said Sam Shine, director of the center.

Shine is one of the few people on the ground who can talk directly to astronauts at the ISS station and observe them working daily.

' The exchange of information with astronauts is difficult. We have barriers due to language differences, time zone differences. I felt it was easier to work with an Italian astronaut, but it would be difficult if he was German ' , Shine said.

International Space Station is a space research project jointly built by the US, Russia, Japan and Europe and completed in 2011. The project is worth 100 billion USD.

' All activities on ISS must comply with strict scientific rules. Astronauts perform experiments in micro-environments, from studying plant growth to understanding the properties of liquid metals , 'Ms. Shien said.

NASA control room monitors all astronauts' activities on the International Space Station.(Photo: NASA)

Research

Much of the work in the control room in Alabama involves studying the effects of the cosmic environment on the crew , especially the impact on bones and muscles.

Scientists also studied the psychological changes of people when living far away from the earth, isolated in a metal machine, eating dry food, drinking recycled water from the urine and around them only colleagues.

According to food and nutrition researchers at the University of Minnesota, they are finding foods that reduce astronauts' stress.

'We try to help astronauts feel comfortable living in space for a long time. Each member on ISS must record their entire life including emotions, thoughts, stresses or homesickness, " Ms. Shine said.

Most trips to ISS last from 6 months to a year. Based on the results of the research, the scientists found that, in the 4th month of the mission, astronauts are tired and want to return home. They want to meet the family.

Search for lost objects

In addition, the control center in Alabama is in charge of finding lost things in space for astronauts. The Department staff will take care of this. This is one of the most difficult tasks in the space program.

' Sometimes astronauts don't put everything in place in a way that is in a serious environment. They have to search when they need it. The task of the staff at the control center is to review the previous scenes and locate the objects. In outer space, when you put things down in one place, it can easily drift to another location. Many times we found objects in the vents'.

According to Shine, this is because the center has thousands of employees to support astronauts on ISS.