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Category Archives: Space Station

Breathe deep: How the ISS keeps astronauts alive

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Astronaut Andr Kuipers experimenting with a bubble of air inside a blob of water aboard the ISS. European Space Agency

Of all the issues with making space habitable for humans, the most important is something you can't even see -- something you rarely even think about: breathing. A constant supply of fresh, breathable air is absolutely vital. For the International Space Station, in orbit since 1998, this is especially important since shipping oxygen into space is an expensive and cumbersome option.

Here on Earth, the air we breathe contains a mixture of 78.09 percent nitrogen, 20.95 percent oxygen, 0.93 percent argon, 0.039 percent carbon dioxide, and traces of other gases. Each breath we take into our lungs takes the oxygen from the air, distributing it through the lungs' spongy material into capillaries, where it's diffused into the bloodstream.

Meanwhile, blood on its way back towards the lungs releases its waste carbon dioxide, which we exhale with each breath; and exhalation contains, on average, 16 percent oxygen and 5 percent carbon dioxide. On Earth, this works because plant life require carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, releasing oxygen as its own waste. It's a perfect symbiotic relationship.

Rice (left) and arabidopsis (right), grown in both gravity and microgravity conditions. Professor Takayuki Hoson/Osaka City University

There are plants on the International Space Station, but they're not for the production of oxygen and the eradication of carbon dioxide. There simply isn't enough room on the station for a viable floral air recycling plant, for one. The plants are on the space station so that researchers can figure out how well plants grow in zero-G. For example, lack of gravity means that water doesn't wick well into the soil -- meaning, in turn, that root systems can suffocate.

So relying on plants to produce air in space aboard the International Space Station is clearly not a viable solution.

Luckily, we have had a perfect technology for the development of air production and recycling. It's not always practical for submarines to surface in order to ventilate; which means that technologies for the generation of breathable air have been around for decades -- and in an airtight, sealed container to boot. The system used by the ISS is very similar to the system used aboard submarines.

European Space Agency

It consists of two components: the Water Reclamation System and the Oxygen Generation System; the latter can't operate without the former. The WRS reclaims water aboard the ISS -- the astronauts' urine, humidity condensation on the walls and windows, and Extra Vehicular Activity waste. All this fluid is then purified to very stringent standards so that it can be reused aboard the ISS. To be clear, this recycled water can't make up the entire amount of water the ISS requires, but it does reduce the amount of water that needs to be shipped from Earth.

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Breathe deep: How the ISS keeps astronauts alive

ISS International Space Station transit on Sun (March 13, 2015) – Video

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ISS International Space Station transit on Sun (March 13, 2015)
ISS International Space Station transit over the Sun. March 13th, 2015 - Hour 11:29:44 (italian time). Location: Castelnuovo Berardenga (Siena), Italy. Transit duration 0.89 seconds. Video...

By: Osservatorio Astronomico Universit di Siena

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ISS International Space Station transit on Sun (March 13, 2015) - Video

One-Year Crew Set for Launch to Space Station; NASA TV to Air Live Coverage

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The first one-year crew for the International Space Station is set to launch Friday, March 27. NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of the launch and the crews arrival to the orbital laboratory.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend a year living and working aboard the space station and will launch with cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. The trio will become part of the stations Expedition 43 crew.

NASA TV coverage will begin at 2:30 p.m. EDT March 27, with launch scheduled for 3:42 p.m. (1:42 a.m. Saturday, March 28 in Baikonur) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio will ride to space in a Soyuz spacecraft, which will rendezvous with the space station and dock after four orbits of Earth. Docking to the space station's Poisk module will take place at 9:36 p.m. Friday. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 8:45 p.m.

Hatches between the Soyuz and the station will be opened at approximately 11:15 p.m., at which time Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA and his crewmates, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), will greet Kelly, Kornienko and Padalka. Hatch opening coverage begins on NASA TV at 10:45 p.m.

Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the space station to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space. Data from the expedition will be used to determine whether there are ways to further reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

The crew will support several hundred experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science -- research that impacts life on Earth. Data and samples will be collected throughout the year from a series of studies involving Scott and his twin brother, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. The studies will compare data from the genetically-identical Kelly brothers to identify any subtle changes caused by spaceflight.

Padalka will spend six months aboard the outpost, during which he will become the first four-time station commander and record holder for most cumulative time spent in space.

For the full schedule of prelaunch, launch and docking coverage, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about the one-year crew, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/oneyear

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/station

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One-Year Crew Set for Launch to Space Station; NASA TV to Air Live Coverage

What happens in the future with the International Space Station? | Tomorrow Today – Interview – Video

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What happens in the future with the International Space Station? | Tomorrow Today - Interview
Jrgen Herholz speaks about Russia #39;s plan to remain on board until 2024 and what that means for the future of the ISS. The complete Interview at: http://www.dw.de/program/tomorrow-today.

By: DW (English)

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What happens in the future with the International Space Station? | Tomorrow Today - Interview - Video

Russian-American team returns from half-year Space Station duty – Video

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Russian-American team returns from half-year Space Station duty
Russian-American team returns from half-year Space Station duty Next crew to arrive scheduled to spend 1 year at ISS. A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely in a snow-covered ...

By: Mubashir Naeem

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Russian-American team returns from half-year Space Station duty - Video

50 Years of Walking in Space: Spacewalkings Greatest Hits

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Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the worlds first spacewalk, by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Since then, astronauts have accomplished many milestones beyond the confines of a spacecraft

Credit: NASA

Today marks 50 years since Alexei Leonov of the former Soviet Union floated beyond the bounds of his Voskhod 2 space capsule in the worlds first spacewalk. During his 10-minute extravehicular activity (EVA), Leonov changed the way humans exist in the universe. No longer were we bound to the ground of our home planet, or even the manmade grounds of our space vehicleswe could be in the universe on our own, with only the thin protection of a spacesuit between our skin and the raw expanse of the cosmos. The ability to fly outside a spacecraft was also critical for many of humankinds greatest achievements in space, such as walking on the moon, repairing the Hubble Space Telescope and other satellites in orbit, and assembling the International Space Station.

These days NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency and even the China National Space Administration, are old pros at managing spacewalkssometimes complicated maneuvers that last hours and feature multiple astronauts. But back on March 18, 1965, Leonov was flying, literally, into unknown territory. As he told The Smithsonians Air and Space Magazine in 2005, even his family did not know he would be making the spacewalk until it happened, prompting his four-year-old daughter, watching him on TV, to wail, Please tell Daddy to get back inside. w. And the lack of atmospheric pressure out in space caused Leonovs suit to deform in unexpected ways, making it difficult for him to reenter his spacecraft and putting his life at risk. He managed, however, and racked up an important success in the space race, beating the Americans by less than three months (Ed White made the first U.S. spacewalk on June 3, 1965, from Gemini 4).

We have come a long way since then, and still have a long way to go, in our quest to live and work seamlessly in space. Below are the greatest hits of spacewalking historyyou can see a slideshow of these feats here: 50 Years of Walking Through Space [Slideshow]

The Greatest Spacewalking Feats of All Time

The First Spacewalk March 18, 1965 Soviet cosmonaut Alexi Leonov became the first person to float outside a spacecraft during a 10-minute excursion on the Voskhod 2 mission. His spacesuit deformed in the vacuum of space, forcing Leonov to vent oxygen out of his suit to squeeze himself back inside.

The First American Spacewalk June 3, 1965 NASA astronaut Edward H. White, II, doubled Leonovs time when he made the U.S.s first spacewalk less than three months later. White floated outside his Gemini 4 capsule for 21 minutes, using a zip gun that ejected pressurized oxygen to maneuver himself around in space. White enjoyed using the gun, but subsequent spacewalkers reported that it was difficult to operate, so it was rarely used after the Gemini program.

The First Untethered Spacewalk February 7, 1984 Until the space shuttle Challengers STS-41B mission, spacewalkers were tethered to their spaceships by a long cord. These tethers also limited their movements, however, and sometimes made maneuvering difficult. Astronaut Bruce McCandless II was the first to test out the Manned Maneuvering Unita type of jetpack that he wore on his back to steer himself around. Unchecked by a tether, McCandless flew 100 meters out from the shuttles cargo baythe farthest a spacewalker had ever been before.

Hubble Repair Spacewalks December 5-9, 1993 The Hubble Space Telescope was launched to much fanfare in April 1990, but soon after it became apparent that the observatorys optics were flawed. To save the $2.5 billion telescope, NASA sent seven astronauts on a rescue mission onboard the shuttle Endeavour. Four of the STS-61 crew F. Story Musgrave, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Kathryn C. Thornton and Thomas D. Akerscompleted five spacewalks in five days to install a new primary camera and corrective optics package for the telescope. Their efforts paid offthe telescope delivered on its promise to reveal the cosmos in brand new waysand four more servicing missions followed in the coming years to upgrade the observatory, which could operate through 2020.

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50 Years of Walking in Space: Spacewalkings Greatest Hits


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