Let it be known! That’s what I say.
I’ve had thousands (okay, three or four) people ask me what Consortium training is like.
“You’re getting ready to go to space! That must be so exciting.”
Well, sometimes yes, and sometimes oh god the boredom.
So I figure I’ll liveblog the whole thing. I’m a bit late, I guess, cause this is day two of the big formal training. But I’ll fill you in.
Day one had a few parts. Dalla Wilson, who’s the head of the near-earth project (and thus employed by twenty companies…bet that’s fun) gave a speech. I’m sure you’ll see it before long. Lots about being pioneers, the century since Yuri Gagarin, the prosperity of humanity, bla.
I suppose it’s true. Fuck, if you know me you know I love space and I’ve always wanted to go. But the two and a half mil a year they’re offering makes you wonder: Who’s in it for love, and who for money? And isn’t it a bit of both for all of us?
So after that was the first part of the biological regimen, or just bio. It was mostly a bunch of scans and nano injections. Our nanites are gonna be running a different spec, since there’s a lot of radiation and some odd chemicals up there.
Then I had my first round of psych prep (not counting our earlier psych evals). There are a bunch of segments that we have to do, and we do them in random order, so we have no idea what’s coming.
Mine, I shit you not, was getting in the training tank in full fake space suit, blacking out my face mask, and waiting an indefinite amount of time until they pulled me out. All without flipping my shit.
I was there for eight hours. That’s the glamor of space.
I get why they do it, though. A year ago in L5 they had a worker snap her tether and it took five hours for them to reach her. She’d freaked, and they had to drag her into the rescue ship kicking and screaming and send her home.
At this point, I can safely say that that won’t be me. They’ll drag me aboard and I’ll be like, “Thank god. I was bored out of my mind.”
Well, I’m off to breakfast. More later.
