Long Island Engineer Heading To Space...Sort Of

Gregory Sachs is spending 45 days soaring through the stars aboard a spaceship designed by NASA. The only catch is that the ship is parked in Florida.

Sachs is part of HERA XVI, also known as Human Exploration Research Analog. He and three others are spending 45 days locked in the simulated spaceship so NASA can study what prolonged isolation and living in close quarters can affect people. Sachs and his crewmates began their journey on Feb. 3 and won't return until March 19.

“A major driving force throughout my life has been to increase the 'net well being' of humanity through the application of my strengths and talents, ” Sachs said in a press release. “I am humbled and honored to have been selected amongst a sea of qualified candidates to contribute so directly to this great mission of our time — the race to safely send humans to Mars and back, while learning about our universe. This mission has inspired me, along with millions of others, to dream fearlessly and support the advancement of science and technology.”

Sachs and his crewmates were selected for the mission from the Johnson Space Center Test Subject Screening pool. The crew member selection process is based on a number of criteria, including factors similar to what is used for astronaut selection. When he's not working for NASA, Sachs is the Chief Operations Officer for Sunpower by EmPower, an Island Park-based solar power company. Sachs, who lives in Brooklyn, has been with the company since shortly after it was founded in 2003.

Luckily for Sachs, he's no stranger to living in confined spaces. After he graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy, he immediately began a career in the Navy, and served four years aboard nuclear submarines. After starting his career working on nuclear power, Sachs decided to focus on renewable energy. He founded the Alternative Power Program at the Merchant Marine Academy and became a tenured teacher there, later going on to earn a Masters of Science in engineering and management from MIT.

As part of the experiment, Sachs and his crewmates are spending 45 days in isolation. They will only be able to talk to each other and mission control, which will be on a delay as the mission gets "farther from Earth." Even worse — they have no internet access.

The mission is a simulation of a trip to an asteroid: a 715-day journey compressed into 45. When they "arrive" at the asteroid, the crew will conduct several site surveys, and two of them will go on simulated spacewalks.

Along the way, they will eat the same food that astronauts on the International Space Station eat and follow their schedules: 19-hour days Monday through Friday, with only 5 and a half hours of sleep each night. And NASA is going to throw a few emergency situations at the crew, as well.

And once he returns to terra firma, Sachs will begin an even bigger journey: his fiance is pregnant with twins, and they're expected to arrive just a few weeks after Sachs returns.

Photo: Gregory Sachs, far right, with his crewmates Kent Kalogera, left, Jennifer Yen and Erin Hayward. Courtesy NASA.