Thursday, October 14, 2010

NASA Engineer Helps Chilean Miners

Clint Cragg is a hero, and he never thought he would be. Nor did he plan to be. But his name is on many lips in light of the rescue of the Chilean miners.

Clint Cragg is principal engineer with the NASA Engineering and Safety Center at Langley Research Center. When the cave-in occurred, two doctors and a psychologist from NASA traveled to Chile to offer advice and assistance because of their knowledge and experience of survival in harsh environments. Cragg went along to see if there was anything else that NASA could offer.

While in Chile, Cragg talked with engineers from the Chilean navy who were discussing and planning a design for a rescue vehicle. He offered assistance in determining the requirements for the vehicle. Cragg was only in Chile for three days. However, the engineers there contacted him by email to accept his offer of assistance.

Cragg relates, “I put together a team of engineers from almost every center around the agency. Over the course of three days we hammered out a 12 to 13 page list of requirements for the capsule and sent that to the Chilean Minister of Health.”

The team suggested about 75 design features. A sampling of the suggested requirements: an oxygen supply, including technology that would reduce friction as the vehicle was traveling up and down the drilled shaft, also that the vehicle be constructed such that a single miner could simply enter and secure himself.

“After we had sent the requirements, I got some communication from one of the Chilean navy commanders intimately involved in the design process of the capsule,” Cragg reported. “He told me that they had incorporated most of the suggestions we had provided to them.

“There are a couple of things I’ll remember most about this whole experience. One is the openness and graciousness of the Chilean people. I thought they were very supportive of our visit and very supportive of the things we recommended they ought to do.

“The other thing I’m taking away from this is our agency really has a lot of exceptional people. The 20 or so engineers who offered to drop everything and work with me for three days to put this requirements list together really exemplify the things that NASA stands for.”

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