How two astronauts came close to realizing their ultimate dream
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Wu Jie [File Photo] |
Sleepless days in closed cell
Looking into the space from the Earth, it is so beautiful with the blinking stars and the amazing Milky Way. But when people stay in the space they lose the perception of time and space, and face great solitude.
The feeling of far away from human civilization could lead an individual to fall apart.
In order to conquer the problem, Wu and Li stayed in a closed 10 square meter cell for three days as part of the course. They could not sleep and worked 24 hours.
"The most difficult period was around 4 am and 5 am when people are very sleepy and want to close their eyes for a while. But as soon as you closed your eyes, the alarm would go up and wake you up. And if you could not stay awake for three days, you failed in the training," Wu said.
Wu said when he was too sleepy he would sing the Peking Opera loudly. The training was aimed to evaluate people's psychology and the work efficiency under extreme environmental conditions in a long term. Potential astronauts cannot pass the training if they are short tempered and have low psychological tolerance.
