NASA Helps Chileans in Mine Rescue

A former submarine commander, Clint Cragg knows a thing or two about tight spaces.

It's for that reason and more that Cragg, an engineer at NASA Langley Research Center, is helping Chile recover 33 miners trapped about 2,300 feet underground.

Chilean health officials called on NASA because mine conditions — limited supplies, isolation — are similar to those faced by astronauts.

Cragg and three NASA doctors spent part of last week in the South American country offering tips on everything from combating depression to boring an escape hole.

The rescue effort, which has been unfolding for weeks in front of anxious Chileans, is unprecedented, Cragg said.

"From what I know, the Chileans are writing the book," he told reporters Tuesday in Hampton. "If this is not the deepest mine rescue, it's certainly the longest."

Following the Aug. 5 cave in, the miners spent 17 days underground before establishing contact with the outside world. They survived by digging a well, limiting themselves to a tablespoon of tuna a day, and drinking milk every other day, Cragg said.

Nearly half the miners were starving when rescuers located them, said James Polk, one of the NASA doctors. He spoke via satellite from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Rescue workers drilled three, six-inch wide tubes, which they use to lower food, medicine and other supplies to the miners.

Space is tight, but not unbearable. The tunnel is wide and tall enough to accommodate trucks that deliver bulldozers. It also runs nearly a mile long, Cragg said.

Still, the uncertainty of survival and bleak conditions can lead to depression and hysteria. That's why rescue officials are providing entertainment, such as an iPod, books and, when possible, a fiber optic camera that miners use to communicate with family members.

The amenities, plus a strong chain of command, will help keep the miners sane as they wait what could be another three months until they're rescued, said Michael Duncan, another NASA doctor on the trip.

Initially, Cragg's role was to support the doctors. That changed. He is now working on designs for a 26-inch round enclosure that may be used to lift the miners to safety. Among the issues he hopes to solve is how to communicate with the miners as they extracted one at a time.

The NASA team has no immediate plans to return to Chile, but they would consider it if the Chileans ask, Cragg said.

A former commander of the Bangor, Wash.-based USS Ohio, Craig works for NASA's Engineering and Safety Center, which is based at Langley. While NASA may glean knowledge from the miners that will help with long term space travel, such as a Mars mission, the objective remains to free the miners.

"We may learn something from it," he said. "But that isn't the primary reason we went there. We went there to help."

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