NASA helps Chile tackle miners' well-being

COPIAPO, Chile, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. space officials are sharing tips with Chilean authorities on how to maintain the mental and physical health of 33 miners trapped underground.

The NASA team, which includes two medical doctors, a psychologist and an engineer, said creating a rigid organizational daily structure and healthy eating habits are important to helping miners survive, CNN reported Tuesday.

The 33 miners have been trapped 2,300 feet underground near Copiapo since Aug. 5 and Chilean officials said it would be months before they are rescued.

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

The NASA team is also helping design a system rescuers will use to hoist the miners to the surface, CNN said.

A drill arrived Friday at the rescue site that engineers hope could reach the miners in about two months. Rescuers started using the drill, used typically to bore water holes, but suspended work after encountering a problem Monday, CNN reported.

The Chilean government said three drilling operations were being conducted simultaneously because each operation approaches the mine from a different direction.

Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich told CNN miners have been assigned tasks underground and have been asked to simulate day and night and sleep in shifts.