Fools dreaming - the story of astronauts who simulated SPACE walking in China...

Author: Chris Yuan

CoFounder Planet Expedition Commander Academy, Explorers Club member, and Space Dreamer...

​Looking up at the stars and yearning to explore the unknown depths of space must have been written by God into human genes.
Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in western China have many inaccessible and barren desert landforms, similar to the Moon and Mars. When arriving in these geographic environments and looking up at the distant stars and gleaming Milky Way in the night sky, many tourists say: "I only know now that we live in the universe, this place is so alien!".
Although China is a country with developed aerospace in the world, the aerospace industry is more like a symbol of pride for the country and the nation. Ordinary people do not have many paths to truly experience space exploration. But the role of the "genes" of human space exploration is powerful.
Since 2019, the abandoned oil base in Delingha City, Qinghai, China, and the Gobi Desert of the Great Highway in Xinjiang, some tourism agencies and private companies have begun to build some buildings that simulate alien habitats to receive and develop some groups of tourists. summer camp students. For self-driving tourists who come here, most of them will stop for a short time and rent a prop spacesuit to take pictures. The price of renting a spacesuit is 75-150 US dollars an hour.

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​仰望星空和向往探索未知的太空应该是上帝写在某些人类基因里的奥秘。
中国西部的新疆，内蒙古，以及青藏高原有着许多人迹罕至，寸草不生的戈壁，沙漠，雅丹地貌，类似月球和火星的地貌。
许多游客到达这些地理环境，在黑夜中看到头顶久违的星空闪烁，熠熠生辉的银河时，他们就会说：“我现在才知道我们是生活在宇宙之中，这个地方太像在外星了！”
中国虽然是世界上航天发达的国家，航天事业更像是国家和民族的骄傲象征，普通人并没有多少路径可以去真实体验太空探索。但是人类太空探索的“基因”的作用是强大的。
自2019年开始，中国青海德令哈市辖区的废弃的石油基地，新疆的大海道的戈壁滩上，一些旅游机构，私人企业开始建造一些模拟外星栖息地的建筑来接待开发一些一些成团的夏令营学生。对于慕名而来的的自驾车游客，他们多半会短暂停留，租一套道具宇航服拍照留念，出租宇航服的价格在75-150美元一小时。

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, also known as Earth’s Third Pole, is at high altitude and has strong ultraviolet rays. Since 2019, we have designed and planned the "Future Astronaut Training Camp", the predecessor of today's PECA (Planet Expedition Command Academy). In this program, the design, construction and wearing of a prop spacesuit to simulate an extraterrestrial walk is the finale of the training camp graduation.

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​青藏高原是地球的第三极，海拔高，紫外线强。自2019年开始，我们设计和策划了“未来宇航员训练营”，就是今天的PECA（Planet Expedition Command Academy） 的前身。在这个计划中，外星栖息地的设计，建造和穿道具宇航服模拟外星行走是训练营毕业的压轴戏。

In July 2019, we chose the desert area of ​​a Tibetan nomad friend's ranch in the east of Qinghai Lake to build a lunar walking site. Our Moon living module is a huge factory-made custom white PVC inflatable model. We believe that in the future, in line with avant-garde scientific concepts, there will be inflatable space stations, and inflatable planetary living and working cabins, which will greatly increase the loading capacity of launch vehicles. Perhaps we can first put the inflatable space station in position, then fill with helium the modules destined for other planets, fly them into the stratosphere, before deflating, folding, and launching them to the Moon or other planets.
After nightfall, we placed an inflatable glowing Earth behind the sand hills to create the scene of our planet rising, as seen from the Moon. The spacesuits were customized by looking through online movie prop studios, and our partner company adapted two sets of prop spacesuits for our use. These expensive suits ($2,500 each) were designed based on the shape of the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuits used at the International Space Station. The prop spacesuit is heavy and difficult to don, especially the helmet, and requires the assistance of another person to help get it on and off, experiencing the process of first putting it on the lower body, and then the upper body. Imagine the scene, with the two astronauts (wearing their EVA suits) walking in a desert that looks just like the surface of the Moon, with the brightly lit inflatable living module in the background becoming more and more distant. It's kind of funny and unscientific, but it really looks like walking on a planet other than Earth, and for a while it all seemed very real. The logistics staff at the scene cheered. 
​Suddenly, the distant blue Earth on the remote hillside was blown by the wind and escaped the rope fixing it to the ground. My God, the Earth floated away, and the wires connecting it to the battery also broke, and the bright blue Earth was suddenly dark and blew away in the night wind.

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​2019年7月，我们选择了青海湖东部的一位藏族牧民朋友牧场的沙漠区建设月球行走场地。我们在月球上的生活舱，是在厂家定制的一个巨大的白色的PVC充气模型。按照前卫的科学理念，我们相信未来会有充气的空间站，充气的外星生活舱，工作舱，这样会大大增加运载火箭的装载量。甚至，我们可以先把充气空间站，外星生活舱充满氦气放飞到平流层在折叠后发射到月球或者其他星球。
 
在夜幕降临之后，我们在沙山后面安置了一个充气的发光的地球，营造月球上地球升起的场景。一开始使用的宇航服，只能在网店上寻找电影道具工作室定做。我们的的合作公司定制了两套道具宇航服提供我们使用。这两套电影道具宇航服，价格不菲，每一套在2500美元，而且完全是按照国际空间站EVA宇航服的外形定制的。道具宇航服厚重，不容易穿脱，特别是头盔，特别重，需要在一人帮助下穿脱。这倒是真的能体验到宇航服穿脱的流程：先从下半身穿进去，然后再穿上半身。
当两名宇航员，穿着国际空间站的舱外服，行走在如同月球表面的沙漠，背后灯火通明的充气生活舱越来越遥远。虽然有点滑稽，不科学，但看起来真的很像在地球以外的一个星球行走，一时间没有人把这些当成是假的。现场后勤的工作人员都欢呼起来了。
突然，远处山坡上遥远的蓝色的地球突然被风吹断了固定在地钉上的绳子。天呐，地球飘走了，而且充气地球和蓄电池连接的电线也断了，明亮的蓝色地球顿时一片黑暗，在黑夜的狂风中向远处飞走了。

The two astronauts walking on the surface of the Moon were stunned (yes, two, we strictly follow the PADI diver system, you can't go underwater alone, you always follow the buddy system). They turned on their helmet lights, but the light was immediately drowned in the endless darkness.
"We must get the Earth back. We just bought it for $500, so we can't lose it" a company executive said in the dark. So the two astronauts walked downwind, bouncing along as if on the Moon. However, the Earth was not found for a long time. The camp leader took out his mobile phone and called the local shepherd's number, who appeared in the distance after some time, on a motorcycle wearing a Tibetan sheepskin robe. He greeted them before riding off into the depths of the desert. The headlight of the first motorcycle on the Moon slowly disappeared behind a crater.
The spacesuit was thick and warm, but the mask often fogged up, and the two astronauts couldn't see the road under their feet as they walked. You can't take off the helmet on the Moon, you will die, so we took their hands and returned to the lunar module.
As soon as we entered the bright lunar module, we found several local herdsmen sitting inside, with mountains of beer and boiled cold lamb on the table. They cheered the two astronauts on their first moonwalk and presented them with white Hada. Then everyone invited the two astronauts, the person in charge of the company, and me (who had been following the astronauts to take pictures on the Moon and was by then half-frozen), to drink and eat lamb with them.

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​​两名在月球表面行走的宇航员一下子愣住了（是的，两名，我们严格按照PADI潜水员制度，进入水下不能独自一人，必须遵守buddy制度）。她们打开头盔上的灯，可是光线立刻淹没在无边的黑暗中。
“大家必须把地球找回来，这是我们500美元刚买的，不能浪费”。黑暗中的一位公司负责人说到。于是两名宇航员按照月球上蹦蹦跳跳的走法，向下风处走去。但很长时间找不到地球。营地负责人不得不掏出手机，拨通了牧羊人的电话。过了一会，一位穿着羊皮藏族袍子的牧羊人远远地骑着摩托过来打了个招呼，就往沙漠深处开去了。这月球上第一辆摩托车的射灯，慢慢地消失在一个环形山之后了。
 
宇航服很厚，很暖和，但面罩经常起雾，她俩走着走着就看不见脚下的路了。月球上不能摘下头盔，会死的，于是我们拉着宇航员的手返回月球舱。
 
一进入明亮的月球舱，我们发现里面坐了好几位当地牧民男子，桌上放着堆成山的啤酒和煮熟的冷羊肉。他们为两位首次月球行走的宇航员欢呼起来，为他们献上洁白的哈达。然后大家邀请两位宇航员，包括一直跟着宇航员在月球上拍照，冻得半死的我，公司负责人都被邀请做下和他们一起喝酒，吃羊肉。

The two astronauts took off their spacesuits, when everyone around found out that they were two girls. So the men embarrassedly put out their cigarette butts on the workbench of our lunar living module, picked up their guitars and sang Tibetan songs. Taking an open can of beer, I thought to myself, we should set up a separate smoking area in the lunar living module in the future, and alcohol should be prohibited.
After a while, the Moon motorcyclist returned, pulling the disconnected Earth behind him, and at the same time, he had been pleasantly surprised to find his lost yak near the Earth! This was the story of our first simulated moonwalk.
One year later in the summer, one of the PECA cadet astronauts, a young Chinese lady called Hanyun was studying at Barnard College of Columbia University, USA, where she directed and filmed a 9-minute space-themed short movie, called "Going Home." The film tells the story of a father, who is wearing an EVA suit like those on the ISS - he is all alone on the Moon and cannot return to Earth. In the end he dug out a Morse code telegraph in the lunar soil to contact his son. The telegram also told that he was about to die, and he was finally able to say goodbye to his son before he died

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​我们两位宇航员脱下宇航服，大家才发现是两名女生。于是男人们尴尬地在我们月球生活舱的工作台按灭了烟头，抱起吉他唱起了藏族歌曲。接过一罐打开的啤酒，我心里想，以后月球生活舱我们应该设立单独的吸烟区，酒精应该是被禁止的。
过了一会，月球上的摩托车手把断线的地球拖回来了，同时他还惊喜在地球边上找到了他走失的牦牛。
这是我们第一次模拟月球行走的故事。
 
一年后的夏天，宇航员之一，PECA的一位女学员，就读于哥伦比亚大学巴纳德学院的Hanyun，在这个地方导演和拍摄了一部9分钟的太空主题的短片《回家》。这部片子讲一位穿着国际空间站舱外服的父亲在月球上独自一人不能回地球了，结果他在月球土里面挖出了一个莫尔斯码电报机，还和儿子联系上了，发完电报他也差不多要死了，总算死前和儿子告别了。

Later, I met a dentist whose hobby was handcrafting highly realistic Apollo moonsuits. There was a VR studio interested in working with us, but their budget only allowed them to buy one Apollo moonsuit. I told them many times that astronauts cannot walk alone on alien lands, and that two suits are needed and look good when photographed. The boss asked - why can't you use the previous two suits? But it's an extravehicular suit for the ISS was the response, you could wear it and film on the Moon, but you wouldn't win any awards, nonetheless, the studio insisted on buying only one moonsuit! In China from 2020 to 2021, spacesuit orders from movie props studios became big business and it would take several months after ordering to receive the finished products. By the time we got that Apollo lunar suit, the company had gone out of business!

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​后来，我认识了一位牙医，他的业余爱好是手工制作高度仿真的阿波罗登月服。有一家VR拍摄公司想和我们合作拍片，但是预算只允许他们买一套阿波罗登月服。我请求了很多次，告诉他们宇航员不可以单独在外星大地出舱行走，能不能买两套，拍出来也好看。老板说，你们为什么不能用以前的两套呢？我说那是国际空间站的舱外服，在月球行走拍片，会穿帮，你就不能获奖了。但他坚持只买一套。2020年-2021年的中国，电影道具工作室的宇航服订单火爆，下单后也要等几个月才能拿到成品。等我们拿到那一套阿波罗登月服，那家公司倒闭了。

PECA has a tradition that when every student graduates, we let them put on a spacesuit and take a photo, imitating a NASA astronaut as a souvenir. The idea is to encourage them to remember that the journey ahead is far into space.
Our philosophy on spacesuits changed at the end of 2021. The original suits were highly complex and accurate in detail, making them very expensive. The customisation cycle was lengthy, and the additions were often damaged, lost parts and were difficult to repair. Also, it was just a simulated appearance of the real thing, with the spacesuit actually full of styrofoam, hollow cotton and other unexciting things. We currently don't have the funds or the ability to build highly realistic spacesuits with life support systems for training.
We are also aware that, due to the lack of money and technology, our extraterrestrial walking simulation training may seem ridiculous in comparison to the very advanced projects of NASA and ESA - perhaps it looks like a fool's dream?! 
However, it is because many fools had the courage to dream that humans slowly stepped out of the Earth's cradle to fly to distant interstellar space. We are not trying to deliberately violate scientific principles. Nonetheless, it would be ridiculous to just wait and do nothing until we had all the needed money and scientific conditions. 

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PECA有个传统，就是每一位全科毕业生毕业的时候，我们都会让学员穿上一套宇航服拍一张模仿NASA宇航员的照片留念。这个寓意是鼓励他们记得未来的征程是遥远的太空了。

到了2021年末，我们对宇航服的理念改变了。原来高度仿真的宇航服，昂贵，定制周期长，而且细节很粗糙，经常损坏，丢失零件，也很难维修。而且，这也只是外表仿真，宇航服里充满了泡沫塑料，空心棉之类的无聊的东西。我们暂时没有资金和能力制造带有生命支持系统的高度仿真宇航服来训练。

​我们也知道，因为没有钱，没有技术，我们的外星模拟行走训练和NASA，ESA那些很高级的科学项目比起来很可笑，像个傻瓜在做梦一样。
可是，人类就是因为有许多傻瓜有勇气做梦才慢慢跨出地球摇篮，飞向那遥远的星际的。
我们不是要故意违反科学原理。但我们不能等到达到所有金钱，科学的条件了才去尝试，可笑就可笑吧。

One of PECA's missions is to promote the idea of ​​future civilian space travel among as many young people as possible. If the cost of this project is too expensive and too serious, it is equivalent to telling everyone that we cannot do anything, these are for the government, capitalists, scientists, and let them do it well. The result is that everyone does nothing. So we changed our minds and bought some white one-piece ski suits on second-hand websites and converted them into space suits. Of course, the helmets and life support backpacks had to be customized separately. I once spent $300 and ended up getting a bunch of junk made of Nike shoe boxes. I was very sad. There were too many sad things in between.
In January 2022, the place where our astronauts simulated walking began to try on the frozen lake in winter, and the photos taken were very impactful, very like Nolan's movie, "Interstellar".
But according to space science, this slim-fitting spacesuit should be an in-cabin suit, right? Walking on alien land like this, will you die? I was breathing with my frozen fingers in my mouth while filming with my iPhone, and suddenly I thought so.

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PECA的使命之一是在尽可能多的年轻人中推广未来平民太空旅行的观念。如果这个项目的成本过于昂贵，过于严肃，那就等于告诉大家我们什么也不用做，这些都是政府，资本家，科学家的事，让他们来做好了。结果就会是大家什么也不做。于是我们改变了想法，在二手网站买一些白色连体滑雪服，改装成宇航服，当然头盔和生命支持背包还是要另外定制的。我曾经花了300美金，结果收到一堆Nike鞋盒做的破玩意儿，很伤心的，这中间伤心的事情太多了。

2022年的1月，我们宇航员模拟行走的场所开始尝试在冬季冰封的湖面，结果拍出来的照片很有冲击力，很有诺兰的电影，《星际穿越》的感觉。
但是根据太空科学，这种修身的宇航服应该是舱内服吧？这样在外星大地行走，会不会死呀？一边用iPhone拍摄，一边把冻僵的手指放在嘴里哈气的我，突然这么想。

Going back to my room at night, looking at these real dreams and fake photos one by one on the computer, I remembered a conversation with a friend, who once said to me,
"But I don't believe I can travel to space".
I said, "Don't forget that we are in space right now, aren't we standing on a solitary blue planet, flying over thousands of shining stars in a dark and boundless universe??!"

​About the Author: Chris Yuan. Born in China.
Founder of the PECA System (Planet Expedition Command Academy).
International staff of TEC (Explorers Club).
Plateau Perspectives field staff.

© All images courtesy of Chris Yuan

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晚上回到房间，在电脑上一张张看着这些真实的梦想和虚假的照片，我想起和朋友一段对话。
曾经有位朋友对我说：“可我不相信我能去太空旅行啊”。
我说：“别忘记我们此时就在太空之中啊，我们现在不就站在一颗孤零零的蓝色星球之上，在黑暗无边的宇宙之中飞行着越过万千颗闪亮的星星嘛？”
 
作者简介：
生于中国
PECA 体系（Planet Expedition Command Academy）创始人
TEC（Explorers Club）国际成员
Plateau Perspectives field staff