‘TAKE ME HOME BUTTON’ could guide astronauts to reach safely to their desired location
What we do when we forgot the path? We use the navigation to get back on the right path. But have you ever thought what will be the solution for the astronauts if they forgot the way! Getting helpless during a spacewalk is a terrifying situation for any space explorer to imagine but what if space station team members could just press a button during such an event and be instantly transported back to safety? The horror of being lost in space might look like the stuff of fiction, but its hard to believe any spaceman without concerns about falling loosely on outside journey and becoming mislaid in space.
A “Take Me Home” button newly registered by engineers to be combined into astronauts’ space costumes will allow anyone who becomes isolated from their Space Station to propel themselves back to safety automatically.
The latest technology, reportedly being developed at Draper Labs, has to be capable of pinpointing a “specific location” in unusually challenging conditions in outer space, there is no GPS. On top of that, the system has to be able to determine the best route to send a spaceman back to the station, taking into account the time the way takes and how much oxygen needed in that period.
Kevin Duda, an engineer at Draper, said that giving astronauts a function of direction and orientation in space is a hurdle because there is no gravity and no simple way to determine which way is up and down. According to The Verge, there are now many systems in place on the International Space Station to keep astronauts from floating out into the void during spacewalks. Astronauts are equipped with mini jetpacks that help drive them back to their stations if they become unconnected while out in the open. And those jetpacks are only used if they become separated from the space station, to which they are tied by cords connected to their space suits. The patent was just lately listed for this system, so it will take a little longer before this idea becomes an actuality.
Even if most events like this are the stuff of fiction, it makes a lot of natural sense to be safe rather than sorry for the future’s advantage. The firm has explained how the technology might work in simulations. But to entirely build a functioning system, the company says that they need a long-term funding from NASA.
