We have an experiment called “Pilot” here. It is meant to test spacecraft piloting skills. It is quite a long process, lasting about three hours.

First, you put on a special hat, or so I call it. Actually it is more a helmet with sensors, which must be in contact with the scalp of the head. Then you pass several tests – cognitive, attention and so on – while the sensors read brain reactions, respiration, and neural activity.

When you put on the hat, you have to apply a gel on the sensors, which helps them remain in tight contact with the head. The gel, as you may have guessed, dries out with time, and getting it off your hair is very difficult.

But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Romka came up with the idea to use a salt shaker instead of the gel. Again, it’s not your usual salt shaker you have on Earth. There is no crystallized salt here at all, and using it would be impossible anyway, because the crystals would just fly around. So our American colleagues have a tube with very salty water, which can be used to salt food.

So Romka suggested spraying the sensors from this “salt shaker” instead of using the sticky gel. Guess what, it works better. With gel the signal is sometimes lost, and you have to run the test again. The salty water makes ideal contact.

Via Russian space agency Roscosmos

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