Life Of An Astronaut On International Space Station ... I S S

[Spartan]

WHAT DO RESIDENT ASTRONAUTS DO, EXACTLY?

We asked Coleman (whom you might remember as the astronaut who advised Sandra Bullock on what it's like to live in space ... straight from space) to run us through her typical day, and she gave us this sample schedule:

• 7 AM -- Wake up
• 7:10 AM -- Conference
• 7:30 - 8 AM -- Breakfast and prep for work
• 8 AM - 12 PM -- Do experiments as assigned (Setting up, performing, tearing down experiments)
• 12 - 12:30 PM -- Lunch
• 12:30 - 6 PM -- More experiment work
• 6 - 6:30 PM -- Conference with ground crew to review that day's activities and discuss the next day
• 6:30 - 7:30 PM -- Dinner while watching the news taped by the ground crew from the day before and beamed up to the station
• 7:30 - midnight -- Clean up and read the procedures for the next day, family time and time to look out the window to see the glorious views outside.
• Sometime within the day, 5-6 days a week -- Two-hour exercise (30 min. on the treadmill and 70 min. of resistance exercise)
• Fridays -- Astronauts work on personal projects and watch movies together as a crew

When a crew member isn't working on an experiment or two, they're doing maintenance work or preparing for extra-vehicular activity (EVA), which you might know better as spacewalking.

[Spartan]

HOW DO AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS FLY TO THE ISS AND BACK?

You might be wondering how American astronauts get to the station without an operational space shuttle program. There's a simple answer to that: They "hitch" rides (to and from Earth) aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the tune of $71 million per person. According to American astronaut Ron Garan, who lived on the ISS in 2011, Soyuz capsules are really small (it's a tight fit in there), so you can feel every bump of the crazy ride. He even likened the re-entry process into our atmosphere to "going over Niagara Falls in a barrel (that's on fire) followed by a high-speed crash." Good thing astronauts now only have to spend six hours per way in its cramped quarters, instead of two days like a few years ago.

 

It's unclear how the recent friction between NASA and the Russian Space Agency will affect future missions. The former's already working with private space companies to develop manned vehicles that can launch from US soil by 2017. Aboard the space station, however, crew members don't let politics bother them. NASA astronaut Cady Coleman told us in an interview that they emphasize the non-political and just look for what they have in common with each other.

[Spartan]

HOW DO ASTRONAUTS MAINTAIN CLEANLINESS AND USE THE TOILET?

 

Bits of hair and nails or blobs of water don't play well with expensive equipment; add microgravity to the mix, and you've got a disaster waiting to happen. That's why crew members are extremely careful when it comes to cleaning their bodies. Canadian expedition commander Chris Hadfield (who became a social media superstar while out there in 2013) said that they even go so far as to swallow their toothpaste after brushing their teeth. Hadfield also made YouTube videos to explain how they wash their hands (using no-rinse soap), shave their stubble (using a special type of shaving gel), cut their hair (with the help of a vacuum) and clip their nails (while catching every clipping that floats) aboard the station. Coleman said they use no-rinse shampoo to wash their hair, but she didn't shower out there -- and she didn't exactly miss it. To wash their bodies, residents take sponge baths instead.

 

 

[TOM_BHAYYA]

WHAT DO RESIDENT ASTRONAUTS DO, EXACTLY?
We asked Coleman (whom you might remember as the astronaut who advised Sandra Bullock on what it's like to live in space ... straight from space) to run us through her typical day, and she gave us this sample schedule:

• 7 AM -- Wake up
• 7:10 AM -- Conference
• 7:30 - 8 AM -- Breakfast and prep for work
• 8 AM - 12 PM -- Do experiments as assigned (Setting up, performing, tearing down experiments)
• 12 - 12:30 PM -- Lunch
• 12:30 - 6 PM -- More experiment work
• 6 - 6:30 PM -- Conference with ground crew to review that day's activities and discuss the next day
• 6:30 - 7:30 PM -- Dinner while watching the news taped by the ground crew from the day before and beamed up to the station
• 7:30 - midnight -- Clean up and read the procedures for the next day, family time and time to look out the window to see the glorious views outside.
• Sometime within the day, 5-6 days a week -- Two-hour exercise (30 min. on the treadmill and 70 min. of resistance exercise)
• Fridays -- Astronauts work on personal projects and watch movies together as a crew

When a crew member isn't working on an experiment or two, they're doing maintenance work or preparing for extra-vehicular activity (EVA), which you might know better as spacewalking.

What time zone they follow?

[Spartan]

What time zone they follow?

 

 

Virtually all spacecraft use one of two time conventions, or more likely, both of these

1. Universal Time Coordination (UTC)
2. GPS Time

The difference between these two is slight, but changes periodically. The difference is currently 16 seconds, as can be seen on this clock. The reason for the difference is the failure for GPS time to keep track of leap seconds (This is deliberate, to not have to worry about missing seconds). The reason for this is that it is an international standard, established for things where a common time metric is needed across the world. Satellites move through 24 time zones in a very short period of time, the ISS less than 100 minutes, so it makes sense to have a common anchor point. Typically, navigation systems use GPS time, while other systems use UTC time, and that is exactly what is used on the spacecraft.

 

Typically, the spacecraft time is set to UTC even for non-Earth orbiting systems, where the speed of light delay is significant.

 

Reason:

 

The answer is that is it GMT +0 (Greenwich Mean Time) or UTC +0 (Universal Time) which would be the same time that it is in Iceland. Why is it that this was the selected time for the ISS? The time was originally set to be GMT -5 to match the time zone in Houston, Texas since this is where the main command center for the ISS is located. But the controllers in Moscow also need to be at the console while the astronauts and cosmonauts are working from about 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. The two countries agreed to GMT +0 as a way to accommodate the controllers in both parts of the world. Once again, international cooperation at it’s best.

 

[timmy]

GP  (.L@

[Spartan]

WHAT ABOUT FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT AND INTERNET CONNECTION?

 

Food aboard the ISS is typically packaged in pouches for easy consumption. The crew gets different types of meals, from main course to desserts -- some are packaged and ready to be eaten, while others (say, powdered spinach or ice cream) need rehydration to be edible. Crew members need to throw these disposable packages away and prevent them and any food crumbs from getting into the equipment. Also, some commanders ban particularly pungent (gumbo) or crumbly (coffeecake?) food onboard.

 

The crew has access to different kinds of media for entertainment: movies, TV shows, books and music to name a few. But for Garan and many others who lived on the ISS at one point, nothing compared to looking out the windows to watch and take pictures of our planet from afar. That's why you'll see tons of results when you Google search "pictures from the ISS." (You should seriously do that right now.)

 

What with all these crew members uploading space snapshots to social media, it's obvious that they do have internet access on the station. According to Clayton Anderson, the ISS gained internet access in 2010, though Coleman told us it was still painfully slow when she got there in 2011. They could communicate with the ground crew and their families via video and voice chats sent through S Band channels, but the internet itself was "slower than was worth using on [her] expedition." These days, though, internet on the ISS (which takes advantage of one of NASA's communication satellites) has a max downlink speed of 300 Mbps.

[Spartan]

HOW DO ASTRONAUTS TAKE CARE OF THEIR PHYSICAL HEALTH?

 

Crew members are prone to "space sickness" during their first few days out there, exhibiting symptoms such as nausea and dizziness. They're typically given a special (barf) bag, with built-in tissue to wipe their mouths with and seals to prevent globules of vomit from floating around. With time, their bodies grow accustomed to it, though they experience some physical changes. These include growing an inch taller while in space due to the spine elongating, as well as having a swollen face as the body's fluids move upward. Unfortunately, some also experience eye problems, defined mainly by seeing flashes and streaks of light. NASA's still looking to pinpoint the exact cause, so it has asked crew members to monitor each others' eyes and send data to the ground regularly. Some researchers, however, believe the issue comes from the increase in pressure within the skull (remember those body fluids moving upward?).

 

And then there's the fact that the longer you spend in space, the more you lose bone mass and muscle definition due to the absence of gravity. Hey, floating around is fun, but you'll literally waste away if that's all you do on the ISS. Luckily, crew members can combat those issues by exercising for two hours every day using special exercise equipment: a cycle ergometer (like the space version of a stationary bike), a treadmill (with lots of straps to weigh you down), and the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED), which uses vacuums to simulate deadlifts and squats (among other things). Williams even used it once to simulate swimming, so she could complete a triathlon in space!

[Spartan]

HOW ABOUT THEIR MENTAL HEALTH?

 

Okay, so ISS residents take care of their muscles and bones, but what about their mental well-being? Coleman told us she talked to shrinks every two weeks during her expedition, though she was given the option to do so more often if she wished. It also helps that crew members get in touch with their families regularly and that they (usually) get along well with each other. "The importance of the mission becomes really clear when you are up on the ISS, and it is easy to get along with folks," she said. "Easier than down here on the ground, when your common purpose is not always so easy to feel or see."

[Spartan]

DO ASTRONAUTS EVER SLEEP?

 

With all the experiments, maintenance and exercise they need to do, you'd think these people never sleep. But they do -- they can even choose to sleep while floating around. They do have sleeping compartments for privacy, though they're really just tiny closets, which conceal vertical sleeping bags that hold you in place while you snooze. Crew members can sleep for as long as eight and a half hours every 24 hours, though most are ready to go after a bit more than six, as the body's not as fatigued in microgravity.

[MeetFriendz]

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