QinetiQ carried out the essential centrifuge training and a medical assessment that has enabled Dr Greg Olsen, a multi millionaire US scientist and businessman, to become only the third 'space tourist' when he hopefully blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Russian Soyuz craft and visits the international space station on 01 October.
NASA astronaut Bill McArthur, who will take command of the space station and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev complete the three man team and they are due to relieve the station's current long-term occupants, Russia's Sergei Krikalev and NASA's John Phillips - beginning a six month tour of duty. Greg Olsen will come back down to Earth with Krikalev and Phillips after a week on the orbital outpost.
Olsen, who is expected to help out with general cleaning and preparing meals just like any crew member, is following in the footsteps of California millionaire Dennis Tito and South African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth - paying the Russians an eight-figure sum for months of cosmonaut training and the round trip to the space station. The Russians make such private-passenger seats available to raise money for their space programme.
As part of the preparation for his mission Dr Olsen undertook acceleration training at QinetiQ's man-carrying centrifuge in Farnborough in June 2004 as part of the preparation programme developed for him by Space Adventures Ltd.
QinetiQ experts evaluated Greg Olsen's fitness to withstand the G-forces associated with spacecraft launch / re-entry and familiarised him with the high-G environment. After an initial examination by Dr Henry Lupa, QinetiQ's leading aerospace medical consultant, Olsen carried out four separate 'runs' on the centrifuge.
During the training, Greg Olsen was exposed to Gx ('front to back' acceleration) forces of +3Gx, +5Gx and +7Gx, each held for 15 seconds at peak G. A final run to simulate typical Soyuz launch and re-entry forces was then carried out, reaching a maximum of +8Gx and lasting approximately a minute. During all of the Gx exposures, Dr Lupa studied Greg Olsen's ECG (heart electrical activity) traces and monitored his general well being.
Based on evidence gained during the rigorous centrifuge training, Dr Lupa declared Greg Olsen as fit to withstand the G-forces that he will face during his spaceflight mission, thereby enabling him to progress to further astronaut training in Russia.
Olsen began training more than a year ago, but Russian doctors disqualified him shortly after he started because 'something turned up*' but after follow-up tests he persuaded the Russian medical team to let him resume training in May 2005. He has trained for only six months at Star City but when asked why he was taking such a big risk on spaceflight with such limited training at a recent press conference and reported by MSNBC-online, Olsen replied, "I don't view it as a risk at all. It's a very exciting experience. I've got one of the best crews there ever were. It's been a privilege for me to train with them."
* Included in the MSNBC-online report of the recent press conference.
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