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| Astronaut Training Facility (ATF) | |
 | Outline
of the Astronaut Training Facility | Astronauts of those countries
involved in the Space Station Program will stay in the ISS for three to six months,
where they will carry out various experiments and observations as well as operation
of the ISS. In the ATF, the home ground for the Japanese astronauts, the selection,
training, health care of astronauts, and the space medical research for a long-term
stay in space will be carried out.
 Astronaut Training
Mission
About the three Shuttle Transfer (STS) missions that deliver Kibo's elements to the ISS
| Training
of Japanese Astronauts |
Up to the present, JAXA has selected and trained five astronauts: payload
specialists (PS), whose activities focus on scientific missions on the
space shuttle by using their specialized skills in scientific fields and
mission specialists (MS), who perform highly specialized tasks such as
operating of the space shuttle and constructing of the ISS. Astronauts
in the ISS era will stay in the ISS for long periods, and will conduct
various experiments and operations. JAXA built the ATF as its base for
astronaut training so that there will be a team of Japanese astronauts
with various kinds of specialized skills, which are necessary to promote
manned space activities. The basic training for the Japanese astronauts
who fly the ISS as well as training related to Kibo will be conducted
in this building.
JAXA's Astronauts
The Isolation Chamber |
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Isolation
Chamber | The lsolation Chamber is a simulator which simulates
the isolated and multi-cultural environment of the ISS.
It is used to study
mental and phycological stresses which astronauts would experience in such an
environment and to study how to relieve them.
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Hypobaric
Chamber | 
The Hypobaric Chamber | The Hypobaric Chamber
is a simulator which simulates a low atmospheric pressure environment.Such an
environment might occur during an aircraft or ISS pressurization system fault.
It is used for astronauts to experience the body effect caused by a low pressure
environment and to learn how to survive.
Eye Examination Room | 
ENT Examination Room |
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Health Care
Facility | A Physical Examination room, X-Ray room, ENT Examination
room, Eye Examination room, EEG room, Dental Examination room, Emergency room
and Fitness Test room etc. have been prepared for astronauts selection, training
and health care.
| Space
Medicine Research | Because human beings evolved on Earth,
our minds and bodies undergo various changes when exposed to the unique environment
of space. The ATF is equipped with facilities for space medicine research to study
these changes so that astronauts will be able to carry out their tasks in space
under healthy conditions during the era of the ISS when they will stay in space
for long periods of time.
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Vestibular Function
Research Facilities | 
Pendulum Rotating Chair | Conflict of information
between vision and other gravity sencing organs in the microgravity of space often
causes spatial disorientation (motion sickness or illusions-recognition error).
The ATF has three acceleration load systems. The study of mechanism and countermeasures
of spatial disorientation is conducted with the these equipments.
Head Down Tilt Bed | 
Lower Body Negative Pressure |
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Bed Rest
Study Facilities | Bed Rest Study Facilities are used for
researches on the deconditioning in cardiovascular function, reduction of bone
mass and atrophy of muscle in microgravity. Bed Rest Study with six degrees head
down tilt is a useful method to simulate microgravity to study its effects and
countermeasures, because it causes a headword fluid shift and unloading of bone
and muscle.
Outline
of building
Steel
frame structure, three stories /
Total floor area 4,340m2 /
Completed
May 1995
Last Updated : March 23, 2008
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