Submarine Experience

Another Future Astronaut Training Camp student from the cosmospher asked, "How did your time on a submarine prepare you for space travel?" I usually joke about being in a metal tube, miles from anywhere, enveloped in a hostile (unsurvivable) environment, with limited communication, and people you have to trust with your life. The only differences being the food on a submarine is better and the view in space is better. I have spent years in a highly technical environment where the decisions made on a regular basis affect the lives of all those onboard. The crews are highly trained and highly capable people who have dedicated there lives (and risked them) to the enterprise at hand. Additionally they must trust that the rest of the crew is as well trained and capable as they are. Then I got to NASA and found out that it is basically the same thing.