NASA To The Rescue

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NASA to share tips to maintain trapped miners' mental and physical health

By the CNN Wire Staff
September 7, 2010 7:16 a.m. EDT


Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- NASA teams usually use their knowledge to help astronauts many miles above the earth's surface. But on Tuesday, a group of experts from the U.S. space agency will share their advice for the 33 miners who have been trapped 2,300 feet underground in Chile since August 5.

"It's an opportunity for us to bring the space flight experience back down to the ground," Dr. Michael Duncan, the deputy chief medical officer at Johnson Space Center, said before NASA's four-person team left for Chile last month.

The team includes two medical doctors, a psychologist and an engineer.

Interactive: Explore the mine and learn more about the miners

In a briefing after its arrival last week, the team said creating a strict organizational structure for the miners' daily lives would be important. Duncan also noted that healthy eating would be key to helping the miners survive.

That means increasing the amount of calories the men are taking in, he said, and giving them food that tastes good.

"Part of nutrition also is making it a certain variety so it maintains their interest. All of us in this room can appreciate the value of good food," he said.

When rescuers first found them, the miners told officials they had survived for more than 17 days by sharing a jar of peaches and small amounts of tuna and mackerel that were in their shelter below.

By last Thursday, their meals included bread with ham and turkey, wine cookies, stroganoff with pasta primavera, peaches in juice, nutritional supplements, bread with caramel spread, chicken in sauce and plantains.

The NASA team members are also helping design the system rescuers will eventually use to hoist the miners to the surface.

On Friday, a new drill arrived at the rescue scene that engineers hope could reach the miners in about two months.

Rescuers have started using that drill, normally used to bore water holes, but temporarily stopped after encountering a problem Monday.

The Chilean government has said another drilling operation, which started a week ago and had reached a depth of around 295 feet (90 meters) by Monday, could take up to four months to reach the miners.

Officials also announced a third plan on Sunday -- using an oil drill. Although that option could turn out to be the fastest, officials said, it may not be ready until late September.

All three plans can proceed simultaneously as they approach the mine from different directions.

In the meantime, Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich told CNN the miners have been assigned tasks underground.

The men have been divided into teams to manage the tubes that carry the supplies that are their lifeblood. One miner is in charge of setting the schedule of when they eat and sleep, another of nutritional matters and another of medical needs, he said.

Officials have asked them to simulate night and day on their own and to sleep in shifts -- half the men will sleep while the other half work and make sure their sleeping coworkers are okay, Manalich said.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.