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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host

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Speaker 1: job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and love all things tech. And today we are

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Speaker 1: going to try and finally wrap up our look at

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Speaker 1: the International Space Station and this series of episodes about

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Speaker 1: space stations in general. Though you know there's going to

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Speaker 1: be some stuff that obviously I just won't touch on,

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Speaker 1: because I mean, you could do a full mini series

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Speaker 1: that lasts half a year talking about this and only

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Speaker 1: barely scratch the surface. Anyway. In our previous episode in

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Speaker 1: this series, I talked about how the International Space Station

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Speaker 1: or I s S formed out of both the struggling

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Speaker 1: Russian space program and NASA's attempts to create a US

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Speaker 1: led space station along with Europe, Japan and the contributing

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Speaker 1: toward that, and we learned about some of the modules

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Speaker 1: that bake up the space station. We also talked about

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Speaker 1: how the construction on the I S S was put

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Speaker 1: on hold in the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy,

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Speaker 1: and how the station has two main sections. There's one

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Speaker 1: that's the Russian Orbital Segment or R O S and

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Speaker 1: the other is the U s Orbital Segment or U

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Speaker 1: S O S. Alright, so just a few more modules

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Speaker 1: to talk about before we get up to date. So

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Speaker 1: in NASA sent up a module called Leonardo aboard the

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Speaker 1: Space Shuttle Discovery. Leonardo is primarily used as a storage module.

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Speaker 1: And you might say, well, storage for what, And it's

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Speaker 1: pretty much everything from spare parts to rubbish too, you know, waste.

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Speaker 1: Oh and in case you're wondering if this is the

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Speaker 1: only Ninja turtle to be associated with the I S S,

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Speaker 1: it is not. The Italian Space Agency built through multi

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Speaker 1: purpose Logistics modules or mp l ms, and they were

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Speaker 1: named Leonardo, Donna Tello, and Rafaelo. And these were designed

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Speaker 1: to be pressurized containers that would be nestled in the

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Speaker 1: Space Shuttle cargo bay and they would be used to

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Speaker 1: transmit you know, cargo like scientific experiments and supplies to

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Speaker 1: the I S S. But Leonardo got modified to become

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Speaker 1: a permanent storage module attached to the International Space Station

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Speaker 1: and the Donna Tello one never launched at all. Rafaello, however,

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Speaker 1: was used in the final Shuttle mission to the Space station.

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Speaker 1: Leonardo originally docked with Unity you know, the node on

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Speaker 1: the earth facing port, the Nadier Point UH In late

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Speaker 1: February two eleven and the crew of the space station

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Speaker 1: relocated Leonardo and connected it to the forward facing port

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Speaker 1: of Tranquility. Because keep in mind, the space station as modular,

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Speaker 1: so you can do that. You can undock certain modules

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Speaker 1: and redock them elsewhere in order to make room for

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Speaker 1: new stuff. Now, at that point, Leonardo also became a

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Speaker 1: place where astronauts can go to take you know, sponge baths.

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Speaker 1: The main toilet facilities for the U S O S

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Speaker 1: part of the station are in Tranquility, the Tranquility node,

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Speaker 1: and now Leonardo is attached to Tranquility, so it kind

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Speaker 1: of was expanding their area where they could do, you know,

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Speaker 1: personal hygiene. So Leonardo went up in the winter of

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Speaker 1: that summer. In July, NASA retired the space Shuttle program.

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Speaker 1: The final mission was STS one five that was with

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Speaker 1: the Space Shuttle Atlantis. This was the one that carried

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Speaker 1: rafael O to the I S S and delivered supplies

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Speaker 1: and parts up to the space station, and that would

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Speaker 1: be the end of the shuttle bringing major components up.

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Speaker 1: But there's still a couple of things we can mention

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Speaker 1: before we wrap up on modules. So in the spa

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Speaker 1: ACEX unscrewed Dragon space capsule, so in other words, you know,

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Speaker 1: no people aboard this one. This was called by NASA

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Speaker 1: a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services UH spacecraft or a COTS

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Speaker 1: spacecraft c o t S. It docked with the International

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Speaker 1: Space Station. Space X would become an alternative to relying

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Speaker 1: solely on the Russians to get materials up to the

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Speaker 1: I S S. And I've done several episodes either directly

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Speaker 1: about SpaceX or involving SpaceX in the past, so we're

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Speaker 1: not going to go down the entire rabbit hole here.

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Speaker 1: It's it's enough for you know, another series of episodes.

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Speaker 1: But the important part is that NASA now was able

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Speaker 1: to have an alternative because otherwise they had to rely

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Speaker 1: on Russian spacecraft at that point, because NASA no longer

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Speaker 1: had the crew spacecraft or launch vehicles that would be

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Speaker 1: necessary to make trips up to the station. Now that

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Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily according to plan. I should add NASA had

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Speaker 1: a different space flight program that was in plans UH,

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Speaker 1: and it was meant to pick up where the Space

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Speaker 1: Shuttle program would leave off, plus go a bit further.

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Speaker 1: This was called the Constellation program, and the program had

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Speaker 1: a couple of different important goals. One was to complete

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Speaker 1: the construction of the International Space Station, so you know,

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Speaker 1: build launch vehicles capable of bringing payloads up to space

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Speaker 1: that would help complete the I s S. But another

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Speaker 1: was to send a human crew to the Moon by

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Speaker 1: and the third was to eventually send human astronauts to Mars. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, that goal should tell you that things did

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Speaker 1: not go as planned, because obviously we have not gone

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Speaker 1: back to the Moon and um. Anyway, the Constellation program

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Speaker 1: included plans for a few different launch vehicles. Uh These

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Speaker 1: were the Areas one, which was meant to launch payloads

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Speaker 1: mostly into orbit, and then the Arias five, which it

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Speaker 1: was a heavy lift launch vehicle design capable of sending

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Speaker 1: stuff much further out than just you know, low Earth orbit.

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Speaker 1: And the journey to this plan in itself was a

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Speaker 1: bumby one for reasons that I've talked about in this

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Speaker 1: series before. Namely, you know, NASA's big projects are somewhat

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Speaker 1: subjected to the whims of whomever happens to be in

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Speaker 1: charge at the time, and that changes fairly regularly with

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Speaker 1: changes in presidential administrations. And that is not great for stability.

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Speaker 1: NASA is also subject to budgets that are awarded to

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Speaker 1: the agency by Congress, and in fact, just the selection

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Speaker 1: of the aria's design in itself involves the story of

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Speaker 1: different people coming into the picture and tossing out what

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Speaker 1: had come before and saying no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: let's do it this way instead. Now, in addition to

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Speaker 1: to those launch vehicles, NASA planned a new spacecraft that

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Speaker 1: could carry crew members up to the I S S.

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Speaker 1: This would be a capsule style spacecraft, not a shuttle,

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Speaker 1: but a capsule in some ways similar to the old

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Speaker 1: Apollo capsules in the late sixties and early seventies, but

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Speaker 1: this wouldn't be larger. It would be able to hold

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Speaker 1: more crew up to six people in fact, compared to Apollos,

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Speaker 1: you know three. And it was called the Crew Exploration Vehicle,

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Speaker 1: and later on it would evolve into the spacecraft called Oriyan. Now,

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Speaker 1: the Constellation program would end up getting the ACTS under

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Speaker 1: the administration of President Barack Obama. Obama cited lots of

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Speaker 1: issues like the fact that the the program wasn't on

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Speaker 1: schedule and it was over budget. Pretty much always happens

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Speaker 1: in the space industry. You know, there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of political reasons for this, that it was not his

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Speaker 1: administration that proposed the Constellation program, so there were a

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Speaker 1: lot of different factors that led into this, but ultimately

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Speaker 1: admit that Constellation was no more. However, the Orion spacecraft

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Speaker 1: survived that and it still remains part of NASA's Artemus program,

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Speaker 1: you know, the one that is supposed to take astronauts

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Speaker 1: back to the Moon by but probably no earlier than

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Speaker 1: at the point. Three Orion spacecraft have been built so far,

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Speaker 1: with a planned test flight to happen later this year

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Speaker 1: December potentially, though we'll quite possibly see that get pushed

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Speaker 1: to two. Also, part of that test is to test

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Speaker 1: out a new launch vehicle a k a. A new rocket.

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Speaker 1: This one is called the Space Launch System or s

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Speaker 1: L S now. After the cancelation of Constellation, which is

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Speaker 1: a fun thing to say, but not a fun thing

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Speaker 1: in general, NASA went back to the drawing board and

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Speaker 1: began to focus on a super heavy lift launch vehicle.

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Speaker 1: This would become the s L S which replaced not

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Speaker 1: just the Areas one in Areas five rockets, but it

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Speaker 1: also replaced a separate super heavy lift vehicle proposal that

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Speaker 1: was called Jupiter. Uh. That one was not technically part

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Speaker 1: of Constellation, it was part of a separate, parallel program.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, that one got the AX too, So SLS

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Speaker 1: would effectively replace areas in Jubiter and this, you know,

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Speaker 1: all this bit I'm talking about here is a bit

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Speaker 1: of a tangent from the Space Station, I realized, but

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Speaker 1: I figured it was important to talk about how NASA

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Speaker 1: was attempting to close the gap in operations once they

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Speaker 1: got to the end of the Space Shuttle program. The

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Speaker 1: plan was to have a continuous means of accessing the

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Speaker 1: I S S without relying on the Russians, but it

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Speaker 1: just didn't work out. There are some critics, including people

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Speaker 1: who previously worked on the SLS design, who say that

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Speaker 1: NASA is going to have to just accept that the

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Speaker 1: future is one in which the agency depends upon commercial

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Speaker 1: launch vehicles like SpaceX's Falcon heavy rockets and UH and

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Speaker 1: to to do that instead of trying to operate their

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Speaker 1: own because it's going to be less expensive in the

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Speaker 1: long run, and these budget issues are going to continue

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Speaker 1: to be a barrier for NASA, and that perhaps even

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Speaker 1: continuing to develop the sl S is um not wise

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Speaker 1: in other words, like like it's just you just can't

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Speaker 1: fund it so that it doesn't make sense to keep

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Speaker 1: doing it. But so far NASA is still on that track.

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Speaker 1: And also, I should add that's just what those critics say.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying that that's definitively the case. I certainly

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Speaker 1: can't speak with any level of expertise over whether or

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Speaker 1: not it makes sense. In the the there were new

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Speaker 1: materials being sent up to the space station, including an

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Speaker 1: experimental inflatable module called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module or

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Speaker 1: BEAM b E a M. Yeah, this is a space module.

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Speaker 1: On the I S s that it's it's made of fabric,

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Speaker 1: it's got a fabric hull, and it's from the Bigelow

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Speaker 1: Aerospace Company, which was named after its founder, Robert Bigelow.

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Speaker 1: He as a multimillionaire sometimes billionaire depending on you know,

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Speaker 1: the time, and he made most of his money in

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Speaker 1: commercial real estate, but he really wanted to create an

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Speaker 1: aerospace company. He has this, you know, big interest in

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Speaker 1: space travel. He also has a big interest in things

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Speaker 1: like UFOs. Anyway, the BEAM module is part of Bigelow's

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Speaker 1: bigger plan to create an inflatable habitats for various space missions,

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Speaker 1: including habitats that could be used on the Moon or

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Speaker 1: on Mars. Now, the beam module hitched a ride on

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Speaker 1: a SpaceX capsule or SpaceX launch vehicle, i should say,

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Speaker 1: and it made it into orbit and crews connected it

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Speaker 1: to the I S S on a port on the

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Speaker 1: Tranquility module. Then they tried to inflate it, but they

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Speaker 1: found the first time that was taking more pressure to

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Speaker 1: do so than they were expecting. Uh, and the module

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Speaker 1: was not expanding at the right rate, and they figured

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Speaker 1: that maybe the problem was that it had been folded

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Speaker 1: up in its compact shape a little longer than was expected.

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Speaker 1: There were delays in launch, which meant that this this

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Speaker 1: uh inflatable habitat was compressed longer than it was intended

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Speaker 1: to be. And uh so they tried a second time

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Speaker 1: and they got it working, and they later were able

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Speaker 1: to pressurize it and reach equilibrium with the internal space

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Speaker 1: station pressure, which is right around one atmosphere. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: astronauts have actually gone into this inflated module and they've

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Speaker 1: done work there which blows my mind. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: a fabric module, but clearly it's an air tight fabric module,

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Speaker 1: and lots of tests were done before anyone set foot

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Speaker 1: figuratively speaking, inside of it. Now. The company has also

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Speaker 1: made a mock up of an inflatable space station called

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Speaker 1: B three three zero. That's a reference to the fact

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Speaker 1: that it expands out to allow for an internal volume

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Speaker 1: of three cubic meters um, and it starts off with

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Speaker 1: a volume of fifty cubic meters so it has quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of expansion. Now. Obviously, an inflatable space station

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Speaker 1: would have some really incredible advantages because you could design

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Speaker 1: much larger modules and not worry about it not fitting

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Speaker 1: on a launch vehicle because you know, on Earth you

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Speaker 1: could have this as a deflated module, so it's really

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Speaker 1: compact and ready to go up in space. Once in space,

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Speaker 1: you inflate it just like the beam did and expand

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Speaker 1: it out to its full volume in space, and using

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Speaker 1: special materials like kevlar, you can create a fabric hull

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Speaker 1: that is resistant to stuff like micro meteoroids. You know,

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Speaker 1: those impacts can be disastrous if you don't have, you know,

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Speaker 1: armor against them. They also can be effective to shield

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Speaker 1: against stuff like cosmic radiation. The B three three zero

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Speaker 1: mock up does have a disadvantage. There are no windows

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Speaker 1: in it, because creating a transparent material with the right

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Speaker 1: structural integrity that can also be compressed along with this

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Speaker 1: fabric habitat is really tricky, and so the mock up

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Speaker 1: instead has curved displays mounted on the inside walls of

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Speaker 1: the space station. So presumably, if you were to have

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Speaker 1: a real deployment of one of these in orbit, you

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Speaker 1: would mount cameras on the exterior of your space station

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Speaker 1: and then feed that camera view into displays that are

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Speaker 1: mounted on the interior walls. So you don't have a window,

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Speaker 1: you would have a view screen kind of like you know,

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Speaker 1: the bridge of the Enterprise. Now, while we do not

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Speaker 1: yet have inflatable moon habitats or space stations, the beam

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Speaker 1: module showed that the concept works. Astronauts have tested the

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Speaker 1: air quality in the module. They've installed various components inside it.

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Speaker 1: Uh NASA says it's monitored a few likely micro meteoroid

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Speaker 1: collisions with the whole of the beam module. The whole

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Speaker 1: has weathered those admirably simil early. It appears to be

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Speaker 1: at least as effective as the rest of the station

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Speaker 1: with regard to protecting against cosmic radiation, So that's good.

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Speaker 1: It was intended to be a relatively short term experiment,

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Speaker 1: but it's still up there today and it might remain

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Speaker 1: there for the foreseeable future. The I s S crew

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Speaker 1: actually accessed Beam as recently as September one. The crew

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Speaker 1: had a few things to do with Beam, including prepping

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Speaker 1: cargo for a return trip to Earth aboard a future

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Speaker 1: cargo Dragon mission from SpaceX, and they also tried but

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Speaker 1: failed to fix some malfunctioning wireless temperature sensors that were

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Speaker 1: part of Beam, but they couldn't get them working now. Sadly,

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Speaker 1: Bigelow Aerospace may have already seen its last days before

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Speaker 1: we could ever get an inflatable space station, at least

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Speaker 1: from that company. In the company shut down its production

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Speaker 1: facilities due to COVID, and Robert Bigelow has subsequently said

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Speaker 1: that it is unlikely to reopen. So Beam might be

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Speaker 1: the first and only Bigelow inflatable space module, But the

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Speaker 1: concept has been proven to be at least viable, so

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Speaker 1: whether Bigelow comes back and continues that work or someone

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Speaker 1: else does, um that might be a future space station mainstay.

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Speaker 1: In late twenty SpaceX brought an airlock called Bishop up

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Speaker 1: to the I S S. It is now attached to

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Speaker 1: tranquility and rather than provide astronauts a way to conduct

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Speaker 1: extra vehicular activities you know spacewalks like other airlocks, this

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Speaker 1: one is really meant to allow the crew to deploy

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Speaker 1: stuff like small satellites like CubeSats and stuff, and maybe

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Speaker 1: even rubbish to jettison rubbish in the future. The airlock

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Speaker 1: received commercial funding, and you know, it really was a

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Speaker 1: necessity because the company that funded it, called nano Rax,

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Speaker 1: had this agreement with NASA to use the I S

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Speaker 1: S to deploy satellites. But the I S S is

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Speaker 1: a pretty busy place and there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: different countries using the I S S as a test

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Speaker 1: bed for numerous experiments, and so the busy schedule meant

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Speaker 1: that the limited airlocks were already busy with all these experiments.

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Speaker 1: So if nano Rex wanted to deploy these satellites, that

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Speaker 1: really needed another airlock. So they made one and then

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Speaker 1: send it up to the I S S. And finally,

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Speaker 1: for now, at least we have Naka in a u

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Speaker 1: k that's a Russian word that means science. This long

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Speaker 1: delayed module was supposed to go up before, like way

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Speaker 1: back in two thousand seven, but various delays forced that

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Speaker 1: date to slip all the way up to this year.

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Speaker 1: Those delays included some serious technical issues, such as the

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Speaker 1: discovery in that the fuel system aboard Knaka had contamination

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Speaker 1: in it in the form of metallic dust, and also

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Speaker 1: they found leaks in the fuel system, which necess citated

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Speaker 1: lengthy repairs. And later still they found more fuel system

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Speaker 1: leaks in and that meant more delays. Plus there are

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Speaker 1: all those delays due to budgetary and political issues in Russia.

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Speaker 1: But Russia finally launched it on July one. It would

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Speaker 1: take the place of the old Piers docking module, the

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Speaker 1: p I R S Russian docking module, the one that

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Speaker 1: was originally opposite the Poisk module so birthed to the

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Speaker 1: Vezda module, and that means that components on Naka were

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Speaker 1: already pretty old before it ever saw service as part

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Speaker 1: of the I S S, which might have contributed to

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Speaker 1: a scary situation which we will talk about after this

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Speaker 1: quick break. So the I S S crew undocked the

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Speaker 1: Piers module from the Vesta after a few delays, and

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Speaker 1: then the old module would enter it's the orbiting path

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Speaker 1: and would eventually re enter the atmosphere and break apart

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Speaker 1: over the Pacific Ocean. The NAKA module docked in the

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Speaker 1: place that Pierce had been, and it did so on

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Speaker 1: July using an automatic docking procedure, and all that went,

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Speaker 1: you know, fairly well, despite some delays and a couple

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Speaker 1: of technical glitches, but nothing critical. But then a few

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Speaker 1: hours later NAKA had a software glitch, and that glitch

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Speaker 1: gave a direct command to the modules thrusters to fire,

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Speaker 1: which caused the I S S to rotate like a lot.

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Speaker 1: It flipped one and a half times, and effectively it

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Speaker 1: ended up upside down over Earth in the process. I

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Speaker 1: guess you could say the I S S developed a

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Speaker 1: bit of an attitude problem, kind of like a surly teenager.

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Speaker 1: According to Zebulin Scoville, who apart from having an amazing name,

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Speaker 1: is also a NASA engineer. He was present when this happened.

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Speaker 1: Naka is apparently trying to pull away from the station

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Speaker 1: that it had just docked with. He didn't know that immediately.

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Speaker 1: In fact, when he first saw an alert come in,

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Speaker 1: it was just a couple of lines, and he thought

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Speaker 1: it was perhaps just a sensor error, But then he

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Speaker 1: checked the video monitors and saw that the thrusters were

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Speaker 1: active and that this was the real deal now. Initially,

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Speaker 1: as NASA was getting a handle on what was going on,

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Speaker 1: the agency reported that the attitude of the I S

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Speaker 1: shifted only by about forty five degrees, which is already

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Speaker 1: a lot, but it was incorrect. It was more like

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Speaker 1: five hundred forty degrees. Kind of crazy. NASA engineers had

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Speaker 1: no control over knockas thrusters. Only Russian ground control had

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Speaker 1: the ability to send a direct command to the knock

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Speaker 1: A module, and unfortunately, the space station was not in

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Speaker 1: line of sight with Russia. It would take another hour

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Speaker 1: before the I S S could potentially be in communication

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Speaker 1: range with Russian ground control. So NASA engineers responded by

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Speaker 1: working with the I S S crew and using other

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Speaker 1: thrusters on the International Space Station, specifically on this Vezda

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Speaker 1: module and on a progress cargo ship that was docked

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Speaker 1: with the I S S. In order to counteract naka's error.

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Speaker 1: The station needed to flip a hundred eighty degrees to

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Speaker 1: get back into the correct attitude, and it took a

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Speaker 1: lot of work to get it all done. At The

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Speaker 1: final orbital correction took place on August twenty one. Remember,

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Speaker 1: the initial uh thrust R misfire was at the end

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Speaker 1: of July, and fortunately no disaster occurred, but it must

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Speaker 1: have been pretty darn tense. Now that being said, Scoville

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Speaker 1: asserted that the crew were never really in danger, that

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Speaker 1: the situation, while unusual, was not catastrophic, and that the

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Speaker 1: process of turning the station back to its normal attitude

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Speaker 1: was so gradual that the crew aboard the I S

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Speaker 1: S couldn't even detect that the station was was turning,

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Speaker 1: that it was moving like that. Naka's main purpose is

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Speaker 1: to serve as a science lab for the Russians, and

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Speaker 1: this is interesting because it's the first Russian module that's

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Speaker 1: actually really dedicated to scientific experiments beyond stuff like E

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Speaker 1: V A S and it just became part of the

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Speaker 1: I S S. So, after more than twenty years of

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Speaker 1: being an orbit, the r OS finally has its primary

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Speaker 1: laboratory in place. Uh NACA is also going to serve

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Speaker 1: as the docking port for another module in the near future,

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Speaker 1: assuming everything goes as planned. This is the us Lavoy

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Speaker 1: Module or Pretty Shell Module. It's scheduled to launch in

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Speaker 1: November of this year, and dockwood. Naka's other port you know,

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Speaker 1: the port that's not connected to the Selvezda and the

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Speaker 1: uh OS. Lavoy is also another docking module. This one

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Speaker 1: has the ability to dock with up to five other spacecraft,

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Speaker 1: so it increases the station's docking capacity. One important component

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Speaker 1: of NAKA came not from Russia but from the European

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Speaker 1: Space Agency or e s A. This is the European

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Speaker 1: Robotic Arm or e r A. This will be used

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Speaker 1: to help the docking procedures with Oslavoy once that connects

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Speaker 1: to NACO later this year. Again, assuming everything goes well,

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Speaker 1: potentially NAKA and Oslavoy might see some continued use beyond

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Speaker 1: the lifespan of the I S S, but I'll talk

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Speaker 1: about that more towards the end of this episode. Then

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Speaker 1: we have some other proposed modules that are supposed to

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Speaker 1: join the I S S in the near future. These

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Speaker 1: modules come not from NASA but from a commercial space

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Speaker 1: company called Axiom Space. So you've no doubt heard many

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Speaker 1: times in this series. Budget issues are a constant challenge

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Speaker 1: with NASA. It's also a big challenge in Russia. The

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Speaker 1: agency has thus chosen to partner with commercial space companies,

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Speaker 1: not just to provide transportation to and from the I

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Speaker 1: S S, but also to build onto the existing space

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Speaker 1: station itself. The plan is for Axiom to build and

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Speaker 1: deploy several modules that will connect to the Harmony node

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Speaker 1: aboard the I S S. These include a node module

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Speaker 1: so very similar to Harmony and Unity and Tranquility. This

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Speaker 1: will act as kind of an adapter between the U

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Speaker 1: S O S part of the space station and the

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Speaker 1: Axiom Space part of it. Other modules will include one

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Speaker 1: with large windows to allow for spectacular views of Earth,

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Speaker 1: a crew habitat module, and a module dedicated to researching

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Speaker 1: manufacturing processes in space. And like Nauka and us LaVoi,

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Speaker 1: these Axiom modules could potentially have a life beyond that

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Speaker 1: of the I S S. Also, Axiom is planning on

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Speaker 1: sending non astronauts or commercial astronauts up into space, including

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Speaker 1: a reality TV series winner. I guess because Discovery has

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Speaker 1: planned a reality series called Who Wants to Be an Astronaut,

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Speaker 1: and the winner of that series will go up in

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Speaker 1: a future space X Dragon Cruel crew vessel up to

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Speaker 1: the Axiom section of the I S S. UH. They're

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Speaker 1: already taking applications for that, so you can check that

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Speaker 1: out if you're interested. I Uh, I did not apply. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is not the first time that non astronauts will

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Speaker 1: have visited the space station. In fact, that has happened

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Speaker 1: in the past already, only a handful of times, but

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Speaker 1: it has happened. So to talk about this we have

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Speaker 1: to dial the clock back quite a bit. Now. It's

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Speaker 1: the late nineteen nineties and the Soviet Union had collapsed,

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Speaker 1: the Russia was having trouble funding its space agency, and

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Speaker 1: it was having a lot of trouble maintaining the Mere

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Speaker 1: space station. A private company called Mere Core took shape

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Speaker 1: and took charge of the space station. So this one

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Speaker 1: had private funding and was trying to turn Mere into

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Speaker 1: a commercial space station instead of a state backed one.

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Speaker 1: It even flew a mission up there after. Mir had

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Speaker 1: already been left unoccupied for several months, and the idea

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Speaker 1: was that Mere Corps would sell trips to the space

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Speaker 1: station to wealthy people who wanted to go to space,

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Speaker 1: and then use some of that money to offset the

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Speaker 1: maintenance and operation costs of Mirror uh be. But that

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Speaker 1: didn't really work out because those costs of operation proved

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Speaker 1: to be considerable and there just weren't enough investors jumping

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Speaker 1: on board to make this a viable business, so the

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Speaker 1: company really had no choice but to allow mir to

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Speaker 1: de orbit. However, the company had sold a ticket to

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Speaker 1: a guy named Dennis Tito to go up to Mirror,

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Speaker 1: and rather than you know, refund that money, Miracorps was

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Speaker 1: able to partner with a company in the United States

431
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: called Space Adventures Limited to secure permission for Tito to

432
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 1: instead visit the International Space Station if he went up

433
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,440
Speaker 1: on a Soyo's Russian space capsule. Now, Tito himself was

434
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: no stranger to the space industry. He had worked for

435
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:56,159
Speaker 1: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that's a NASA field center, but

436
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: he also was not a trained astronaut. However, the deal

437
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: meant he could board a Soyo's spacecraft, and in late

438
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: April of two thousand one, he traveled to the I

439
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: S S and became the first person to pay for

440
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 1: a ticket to visit the I S S. And as such,

441
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 1: he is sometimes referred to as a space tourist. I

442
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,479
Speaker 1: am told that they hate this title. They don't like

443
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:22,199
Speaker 1: space tourists because a lot of them had to go

444
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: through training and had to actually be participants in various

445
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 1: experiments and stuff, so they were working up there too.

446
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,719
Speaker 1: But they're widely referred to as space tourists, and he

447
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: was the first. The reported cost of the trip was

448
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 1: a whopping twenty million dollars. But you know, the only

449
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: other way to get up there would be to be

450
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 1: an official astronaut or cosmonaut or maybe be selected as

451
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,400
Speaker 1: a payload specialist, which required a you know, less intense

452
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 1: training period. So it's a pretty small and elite group

453
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: that he joined. Mark Shuttleworth a South African businessman who

454
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 1: also has connections to tech and that his company, Canonical,

455
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 1: is responsible for developing the Ubuntu operating system. Uh he

456
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 1: followed suit. He also visited the I S S in

457
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 1: two thousand two, also aboard a Soyo's capsule. But then

458
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,520
Speaker 1: in two thousand three we had the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

459
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,439
Speaker 1: The United States put the entire space Shuttle program on

460
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: hold for more than two years, and at that point,

461
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,640
Speaker 1: the Soyo's capsules became the only way up and back

462
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,879
Speaker 1: from the I S S. So Russia thus put a

463
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: hold on space tourism for that time. Since the capsule space,

464
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 1: you know, the space inside the capsule was critical for

465
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 1: servicing the I S S. The tourism program came back

466
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: on track in two thousand five with Gregory Olsen, and

467
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: then in two thousand six, uh A Neuche and sorry

468
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 1: went up to become a space tourist. Next up was

469
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: Charles Simoni, who actually went up twice. He went up

470
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 1: once in two thousand seven, and he did it again

471
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,959
Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, so you must have loved it.

472
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 1: In between those visits was guy. I actually know someone

473
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: I've talked to several times, Richard Garriott. Now, if you've

474
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,239
Speaker 1: been listening to this series from the beginning, you know

475
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: that Richard's father, Owen Garriott, was an astronaut who was

476
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 1: part of the sky Lab missions. So Owen Garriott had

477
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: been aboard Space Station's back in the seventies. Richard Garriott,

478
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: known to a lot of gamers as Lord British, spent

479
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 1: a good deal of his personal fortune to visit the

480
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: space station, um, you know, without going through the entire

481
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: astronaut process. The seventh and last of the space tourists

482
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: of that era was Guy Lalleberte, who visited the I

483
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: S S in two thousand nine, And this was towards

484
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: the end of the Space Shuttle program, and that meant

485
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 1: that once again the Saya's capsule would become the only

486
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:52,480
Speaker 1: way that astronauts and cosmonauts could go to and from

487
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: the I S S. And because of that, Russia once

488
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 1: again put an end to its space tourism business. So

489
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 1: for many years that is the end of that. In

490
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, NASA announced it would entertain the idea of

491
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: tourism to the I S S, using you know, commercial

492
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 1: UH space companies to take people to and from the

493
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,719
Speaker 1: space station. UH And, as I mentioned, the axiom section

494
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 1: of the I S S once it becomes reality, will

495
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: include tourism as part of the commercial activities aboard that

496
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: part of the space station. But the vast majority of

497
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 1: visitors the I S S have either been trained astronauts, cosmonauts,

498
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: or what NASA calls payload specialists. Now, as that name implies,

499
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 1: the people who fit the category of payload specialists are

500
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 1: those who have expertise with a specific experiment or a

501
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: piece of equipment that is sent up to the I

502
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: S S. They might be employees of some of the

503
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 1: private companies that NASA contracts with, or they might be

504
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: leading scientists in a specific field. They typically have a

505
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: much shorter stay aboard the I S S than you know,

506
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 1: other crew members, and they don't have to train quite

507
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: as much before they joined the International Space Station. In total,

508
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,719
Speaker 1: more than two d forty people have been to the

509
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: I S S since it came online. More than a

510
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: hundred fifty of those came from the United States, so

511
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: the US is in the lead by far. Hack Only

512
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: nine other people from the America continents have been to

513
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: the I S S. Eight of them were from Canada

514
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: and one of them was from Brazil. Every other person

515
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: from this part of the world, from the America's both

516
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: north and south, came from the United States. Russia is

517
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 1: in second place, with fifty people from Russia and going

518
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: to the I S S, and then fewer than twenty

519
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 1: came from Europe. Some of those folks have actually been

520
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 1: multiple times. In fact, a lot of them have visited

521
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: the I S S at least twice, not quite as

522
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 1: many have been three times. A few like Mark Kelly,

523
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 1: have been there four times, and there are two cause

524
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: minots who have been to the International Space Station five times.

525
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 1: Those two are Yuri Malenchinko and Fyodor your Chicken. So

526
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 1: Malanchinko's career was truly astronomical pun intended He visited mir

527
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: as part of the MERE sixteen crew in nine. He

528
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,560
Speaker 1: was part of the STS one oh six Space Shuttle

529
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 1: Atlantis crew in two thousand, which marked his first visit

530
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: to the I S. S. In two thousand three, he

531
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: went back to the I S. S. And while he

532
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: was there he got married to his fiancee at Katarina Dimitrieva.

533
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 1: It was a long distance ceremony because she happened to

534
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: be in Texas while he was in orbit. Malanchinko's time

535
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: in space collectively amounts to an astonishing eight hundred twenty

536
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: seven days, with nearly thirty five hours of that time

537
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: being spent in extra vehicular activities or space walks. Now,

538
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,200
Speaker 1: that is incredible, but it's still more than fifty days

539
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 1: shy of the career wreck that's held by UH Gennedy Padalka,

540
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,239
Speaker 1: And I apologize. I know I'm butchering these names and

541
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,080
Speaker 1: that's on me. But anyway, Padalka has more than eight

542
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 1: d seventy eight days logged in space in total. UH

543
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: and he's also been to the International Space Station, but

544
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,240
Speaker 1: only four times. Right, he hasn't been the five times

545
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 1: UH as for Fyodor. He's also had a stellar career also,

546
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,360
Speaker 1: pun intended. His time in space amounts to nearly six

547
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 1: seventy three days total across multiple missions, including some aboard

548
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:37,600
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle missions, and he racked up more spacewalk hours

549
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 1: than Malinchiko. He had fifty nine hours of spacewalks. That's incredible. Now,

550
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: when we come back, we'll talk a bit about life

551
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: aboard the I S S and what the future holds

552
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: for the station, and maybe a couple of other bits

553
00:33:49,800 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: of information. But first let's take this quick break. So

554
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: let's talk about what a typical day would be like

555
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 1: aboard the International Space Station. First of all, the space

556
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 1: station climate control keeps the station at about seventy two

557
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit, which is twenty two point to celsius, and

558
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 1: that's all year round, winter, summer, spring, and fall. The

559
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 1: atmosphere aboard the I S S is very much like

560
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:24,399
Speaker 1: that on Earth, and that it's mostly nitrogen around and

561
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 1: then oxygen at around. A mineral called zeolite acts as

562
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 1: a carbon dioxide scrubber uh c O two gets trapped

563
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: in poores that are in the zero lite mineral, and

564
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:39,319
Speaker 1: then you just expose the zeolite to outer space and

565
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 1: all the carbon dioxide gets vented out into space, and

566
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: then you can use the zeolite again, so that keeps

567
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: the station habitable. You also have a water reclamation system

568
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: that can reclaim water from pretty much any waste source

569
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 1: and then filter it to the point where it becomes

570
00:34:56,280 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: drinkable water. Again, that includes everything from you know, the

571
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:04,760
Speaker 1: water vapor you breathe out when you are breathing too,

572
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 1: the water you pee out when you're peeing, to the

573
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: water that is you know, used for a shower. All

574
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 1: of the sources of water get reclaimed, filtered, and reused. Okay,

575
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:22,319
Speaker 1: so let's say that you are on the I S S.

576
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 1: You're in the U s OS segment the United States

577
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 1: run section for this example. You wake up. We'll talk

578
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 1: more about sleeping quarters in a second, and it's time

579
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 1: to tend to hygiene. Maybe the first thing you want

580
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: to do is visit the little Astronauts room. In other words,

581
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,160
Speaker 1: you know you want to go to the toilet. Well,

582
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 1: space toilets are a little bit weird. For one thing,

583
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 1: they have restraints built into them so that you can

584
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:51,080
Speaker 1: remain you know, attached to what is effectively the toilet seat.

585
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:53,880
Speaker 1: After all, your in microgravity, so you need something to

586
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:55,479
Speaker 1: keep you in place so that you know, you don't

587
00:35:55,480 --> 00:36:01,120
Speaker 1: have stuff floating around you. So the toilet has leg

588
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 1: restraints and it also has a fan system that creates

589
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,320
Speaker 1: suction to pull waste away. As you go to the bathroom,

590
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 1: you position your posterior over a hole in the toilet seat.

591
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: Some of the astronauts actually prefer to lift the toilet

592
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 1: seat and position themselves directly over the hole that leads

593
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:22,440
Speaker 1: down into a bag. So there is a bag set

594
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,760
Speaker 1: down in the waist system. The fan draws the waist

595
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 1: into the bag, and after you're done, you seal the

596
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,760
Speaker 1: bag shut and then you push the sealed bag into

597
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 1: the waist container that is below the toilet. And then,

598
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 1: you know, to be nice, you should put a brand

599
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: new bag in place uh in the toilet so that

600
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 1: the next person to use it doesn't have to, you know,

601
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,880
Speaker 1: prepare it first. And then if for urine, you actually

602
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: have a hose and each astronaut has their own personal

603
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: little urine funnel that they attached to the hose and

604
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:59,399
Speaker 1: the funnel goes, you know, over the relevant equipment and

605
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: of the astronaut that is, and then you get your

606
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 1: own little urine funnel. You know, it's a collector's item. Anyway,

607
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 1: this helps you get the p to go the right

608
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:12,799
Speaker 1: way into the hose. And again you've got a fan

609
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: system that is sucking that you're in down the hose

610
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,879
Speaker 1: into a wastewater tank where then it can go through

611
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: the reclamation system and get filtered and turned back into water. Now,

612
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 1: let's say that after you do this, you might want

613
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 1: to take a shower. Well, the Skylab space station had

614
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: an experimental shower in it, but using it was a

615
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:33,800
Speaker 1: real hassle and it could take more than an hour

616
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,600
Speaker 1: to do it, and so a lot of astronauts aboard

617
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 1: the Skylab space station chose not to use it. So

618
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: the crew aboard the I s S instead of a shower,

619
00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: they use a rentless shampoo for their hair, and they

620
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: use a little bit of liquid soap and some water

621
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 1: to do a simple sort of sponge bath and use

622
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: towels to wipe off the larger globules of water, and

623
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:02,439
Speaker 1: and air flow system evaporate rates excess water. That also

624
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:04,400
Speaker 1: makes it really cold when you're done with your shower.

625
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 1: By the way, it's like when you're sweating and your

626
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,839
Speaker 1: sweat evaporates and it cools you down. Well, the air

627
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 1: flow system cools you down pretty quickly because the water

628
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: is evaporating off your skin and pulling heat from your body. Well,

629
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: that water then gets collected by the water reclamation system

630
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 1: to Some crew might also use disposable tallet's as part

631
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 1: of their hygiene to help, you know, clean themselves, and

632
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:29,440
Speaker 1: that also means that you have to attend to brushing

633
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:33,719
Speaker 1: your teeth. Astronauts typically get to take whatever brand of

634
00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 1: toothpaste they prefer, although depending on the time, sometimes they

635
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 1: just end up sharing a communal toothpaste. So you're kind

636
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 1: of stuck with whatever happens to be up there. But

637
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: there are no faucets or taps or running water aboard

638
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: the I s S. So two brush your teeth, you

639
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 1: would get a pouch that would you could fill with water.

640
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,280
Speaker 1: The pouch has a straw extending out from the pouch,

641
00:38:57,320 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 1: and the straw has a clamp on it, so you

642
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: would open up the clamp and squeeze out a little

643
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 1: ball of water. Because again you're in microgravity, so the

644
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 1: water forms a little ball. You could wet your toothbrush.

645
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 1: Toothbrush just sucks that water right into the bristles, put

646
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:13,799
Speaker 1: a little toothpaste on your toothbrush, and then you would

647
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:16,160
Speaker 1: brush your teeth as normal. But where do you spit

648
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: the toothpaste when you're done, Well, you don't you swallow it?

649
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:24,359
Speaker 1: Maybe then you want some breakfast, and you would go

650
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 1: over to the kitchen area of the galley area UH

651
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: in one of the crew habitats, and you would grab

652
00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 1: your food and heat it up. You might do this

653
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 1: with a pouch of food that you then insert into

654
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 1: a system that injects hot water into the pouch and

655
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 1: thus rehydrates otherwise dehydrated food. There's other types of food

656
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 1: where you don't need to do the rehydration. Instead, you

657
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 1: use a warmer, a food warmer, a little oven essentially

658
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 1: that heats the food up. And there's a decent variety

659
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 1: of food up there, from eggs to waffles to oatmeal.

660
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 1: Food tends to stick to the utensils you use, and

661
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:01,879
Speaker 1: because you're in microgravity, you don't have to worry about

662
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 1: the food falling off of them, so even if you

663
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 1: turn your spoon upside down, the oatmeal typically stays in

664
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:11,880
Speaker 1: the spoon. UH. There's also no actual bread because bread

665
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,560
Speaker 1: has a tendency to form crumbs, which would float around

666
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:16,880
Speaker 1: and potentially gum stuff up aboard the I s s.

667
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 1: So generally speaking, rather than bread, the crew typically uses tortillas. Uh.

668
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:24,759
Speaker 1: Some foods like fruits can be eaten just as they

669
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 1: are on Earth, and others, like I said, have to

670
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 1: have the special preparation. If you need salt or pepper,

671
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,279
Speaker 1: you apply that in liquid form because again you have

672
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:37,240
Speaker 1: no gravity, so you can't sprinkle a little particles anywhere

673
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:39,960
Speaker 1: that would just float around and get into stuff. So

674
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: salt and pepper come in liquid condiment form, kind of

675
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 1: like ketchup and mustard, And after eating you would need

676
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 1: to toss your rubbish away so that doesn't just float around.

677
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 1: Now you would likely start your work day, so you

678
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:55,360
Speaker 1: would likely work on one of several active experiments aboard

679
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:58,840
Speaker 1: the station. Some of these might be controlled from the ground,

680
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 1: but you might need to endure them to see how

681
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,920
Speaker 1: they're doing. Others might need your active involvement. You might

682
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:08,279
Speaker 1: also spend some time taking part in medical experiments, all

683
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 1: of which are meant to gather more information about the

684
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 1: effects of space on the human body, obviously stuff we

685
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 1: need to know for the future of space travel. You

686
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:20,120
Speaker 1: might also perform some maintenance tasks aboard the station in

687
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,240
Speaker 1: order to keep it operational and clean. That can include

688
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,800
Speaker 1: stuff like replacing filters or loading up a cargo ship

689
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,480
Speaker 1: with rubbish to offload it from the station, that kind

690
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 1: of thing. In that work day, you would also have

691
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 1: two and a half hours of exercise scheduled. UH. This

692
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 1: is needed to counteract the effects of space that can

693
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,720
Speaker 1: lead to stuff like muscle and bone loss. Your body

694
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: would actually reabsorb those tissues in a way. Your body

695
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:48,160
Speaker 1: is eating your muscle and bone, so you have to

696
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,439
Speaker 1: have exercise to counteract those effects. This exercise includes stuff

697
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:56,280
Speaker 1: like running on a treadmill, or using an exercise bike,

698
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 1: or lifting weights. But Jonathan, I hear you say you

699
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,320
Speaker 1: and have gravity to deal with. How does a treadmill

700
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:05,719
Speaker 1: or weights? How do those work well? With the treadmill,

701
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 1: you're held in place by essentially bungee cords, like you

702
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:13,279
Speaker 1: have a harness that holds you down against the treadmill. Uh.

703
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:15,520
Speaker 1: And the treadmill, at least one of them is on

704
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 1: the wall of one of the modules, and you're typically

705
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 1: facing earth as you run, which is kind of neat.

706
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 1: The weights are more like pneumatic systems where you've got

707
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 1: like a platform and a bar almost like a weight bar,

708
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:34,360
Speaker 1: and you have these pneumatic tubes that end up creating resistance.

709
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 1: So you do various exercises. Some of them are like squats,

710
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,359
Speaker 1: some of them are like curls, uh, And it's all

711
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,479
Speaker 1: in how you're positioning yourself on this platform and using

712
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 1: this bar and using the pneumatic resistance so that you're

713
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,800
Speaker 1: working against that, because obviously weights and micro gravity wouldn't

714
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: mean much. They would have a lot of mass, but

715
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: you know, they wouldn't quote unquote way anything you would

716
00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:01,879
Speaker 1: have moment intem to deal with because you have mass

717
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 1: and acceleration, but you wouldn't have weight, so resistance is

718
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 1: more important in that sense. Of course, then you would

719
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:11,440
Speaker 1: have lunch during the day and at the evening you

720
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 1: would have dinner. You would also have some free time

721
00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: worked into your schedule. NASA learned early on that if

722
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,319
Speaker 1: they did not allow astronauts free time, that their performance

723
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,760
Speaker 1: and morale quickly deteriorated, and free time was absolutely necessary.

724
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:28,839
Speaker 1: So that gets worked into your schedule so that you're

725
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 1: not just constantly tending to you know, your hygiene or

726
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:36,879
Speaker 1: working out or working at an experiment. Okay, we're just

727
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:39,840
Speaker 1: about ready to wrap up on space stations. But before

728
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 1: we get to that, let's take one more quick break.

729
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 1: Lots of the crew have said over the years that

730
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:53,399
Speaker 1: their favorite thing to do in their free time would

731
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,399
Speaker 1: be to look out a window back at Earth and

732
00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:58,799
Speaker 1: the space station orbits are fast enough that crew can

733
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 1: watch a sunset or unrise every forty five minutes or so,

734
00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:06,440
Speaker 1: which is pretty amazing. Astronauts also get weekends off, though

735
00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: you know, they might have to do some maintenance stuff

736
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:11,480
Speaker 1: here and there on weekends, but otherwise they get to

737
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: be a little leisurely. They can watch movies, they can

738
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,760
Speaker 1: read books, they might play games, they might play with toys,

739
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 1: they might play pranks on each other. Uh. Apparently they

740
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 1: occasionally do prank phone calls back down to Earth from

741
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 1: the space station, which I think is awesome. Uh. And

742
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:31,240
Speaker 1: they do talk to their families. They get about once

743
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:33,880
Speaker 1: a week they get a chance to chat with folks

744
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 1: back on Earth besides the you know, regular communications with

745
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 1: like ground control. Now, at the end of the day,

746
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:43,480
Speaker 1: it's time to go to bed, except there aren't actually beds.

747
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,359
Speaker 1: It's more like little sleeping chambers. They kind of look

748
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 1: like padded phone booths. If you happen to remember what

749
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 1: phone booths look like. Uh. And inside these booths, there's

750
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: like a sleeping bag tied to the wall. Typically the

751
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: bag has a little arm slits worked into it, so

752
00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:01,640
Speaker 1: you would get into your pj's, you go into your

753
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,279
Speaker 1: sleeping chamber, you know, your phone booth thing, and you

754
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 1: would climb into your little sleeping bag and zip it

755
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,760
Speaker 1: up and put your arms through the arm slits, and

756
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:11,319
Speaker 1: like I said, you're tethered to the wall so that

757
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:14,400
Speaker 1: you don't just bump around as you sleep. The chamber

758
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 1: also has little doors, so you can close the doors.

759
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:20,080
Speaker 1: You've got privacy and your little tiny you know phone

760
00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:23,360
Speaker 1: booth of a bed bedroom. Uh, you can have like

761
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,399
Speaker 1: a computer in there, so you could do a little work,

762
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:28,720
Speaker 1: or you could watch something on the computer if you liked,

763
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: or you could just drift off to sleep, where upon

764
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: your arms would lift up in front of you, kind

765
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,120
Speaker 1: of like your Frankenstein's monster, and you can totally just

766
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:40,080
Speaker 1: you know, relax, and you don't have to worry about anything, Like,

767
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 1: you don't need anything to support you because again you're

768
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 1: in microgravity, so you don't need a pillow, you don't

769
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:49,480
Speaker 1: need anything like that. You just you're just floating in place, sleeping.

770
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:54,879
Speaker 1: Crew get eight hours scheduled for sleep on each mission day. Now,

771
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 1: let's talk about the future of the I S S.

772
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 1: While Russia has just had no could join the r

773
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 1: OS section of the station, and there's another module that's

774
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: scheduled to launch before the end of this year. The

775
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: current agreement for the I S S between Russia and

776
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,280
Speaker 1: the other partners, in fact between all the partners expires

777
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:17,040
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. Now, there have been some talks

778
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: from Russia that have indicated that the country is prepared

779
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 1: to cease participation in the space station upon citing, in

780
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:30,280
Speaker 1: part sanctions that Americans, you know, the American government has

781
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: leveled against Russia as one of the reasons for that. Subsequently, however,

782
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:39,799
Speaker 1: Russia has backed off from that kind of rhetoric, so

783
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:42,879
Speaker 1: the future of the I S S remains uncertain. There's

784
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:45,319
Speaker 1: also been some concern that some sections of the I

785
00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 1: S S, particularly the original modules, the Russian ones, are

786
00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:53,760
Speaker 1: well beyond their projected lifespan and they're getting a little

787
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:58,000
Speaker 1: too old to rely upon. Russian engineer Vladimir Solovyov has

788
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:01,319
Speaker 1: said that around eight of the in flight systems in

789
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:04,200
Speaker 1: the r OS are at the end of their service period,

790
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 1: and he has warned that there could be irreparable failures

791
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,800
Speaker 1: to follow now. As I mentioned in the previous episode,

792
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:14,279
Speaker 1: the oldest modules in the r O S followed a

793
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:20,880
Speaker 1: Soviet design that directly incorporated equipment into the station structure itself,

794
00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:24,759
Speaker 1: meaning it's impossible to replace those components. They are part

795
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:27,080
Speaker 1: of the station, so when they break, you have to

796
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:30,480
Speaker 1: repair them or you gotta do without. You can't replace them.

797
00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:33,279
Speaker 1: The US takes a much different approach. The U S

798
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 1: takes a if it breaks, we can replace it kind

799
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:39,880
Speaker 1: of approach. Meanwhile, various parties in the International Agreement are

800
00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 1: hoping to extend the I S S experiment to eight now.

801
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 1: Whether or not the station will make it that far

802
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,840
Speaker 1: remains to be seen, but there are a lot of

803
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 1: engineers who have said that they believe they can make

804
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:56,000
Speaker 1: the goal of operating into eight maybe even a little

805
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 1: bit further, maybe as far as twenty uh maybe even

806
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 1: more than that. The Axiom modules that are proposed to

807
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,799
Speaker 1: connect to the I S S starting next year could

808
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:09,279
Speaker 1: potentially separate from the I S S at the end

809
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:12,880
Speaker 1: of the older space station's service, and then the Axiom

810
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:17,600
Speaker 1: station could operate as its own standalone commercial space station. Likewise,

811
00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:21,839
Speaker 1: there's been talk that the Knaka module could detach from

812
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 1: the I S S and reposition to join a new

813
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:29,320
Speaker 1: Russian space station. The other plans for a Russian Russian

814
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:32,480
Speaker 1: space stations say that all components would be made specifically

815
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:36,480
Speaker 1: for that station. That seems to be contradictory. At the

816
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 1: end of the I S S service, the station will

817
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:41,680
Speaker 1: be cleared out and then de orbited. It will likely

818
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:45,360
Speaker 1: be the last US backed space station, with future stations

819
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:49,120
Speaker 1: being commercial enterprises. The NASA will likely form partnerships with

820
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:51,520
Speaker 1: so that the agency can make use of the facilities

821
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:55,279
Speaker 1: for future experiments. And there's one other space station I

822
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 1: need to quickly mention before we sign off. This year,

823
00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:01,440
Speaker 1: China launched a module called tiaton a h the first

824
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:04,600
Speaker 1: of three modules for a space station named tian Gong.

825
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:09,480
Speaker 1: This module is a habitation module a crew habitat module.

826
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,160
Speaker 1: The other two are lab modules, which China plans to

827
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 1: launch and join to tian Hay next year. One crew

828
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:18,880
Speaker 1: has already visited tian Hay. They did so earlier this summer.

829
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 1: Three Chinese astronauts visited briefly and uh, yeah, they prepared

830
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:26,399
Speaker 1: it for future missions that will build it out as

831
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 1: a full space station. So we do have another one

832
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:33,240
Speaker 1: up there, and there's some plans for different commercial ones

833
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 1: potentially in the future, but obviously I can't really say

834
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:39,160
Speaker 1: much about them now. They're in the planning stages. And

835
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,319
Speaker 1: as we have learned in this series, if nothing else,

836
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:46,320
Speaker 1: you can't plan on anything as being absolute. There's always

837
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:49,840
Speaker 1: wiggle room in these things. And that's it. That's it

838
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 1: for this this round up about space stations. I'm gonna

839
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,640
Speaker 1: move on to different topics. So I hope you've enjoyed

840
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,920
Speaker 1: this series of episodes about the evolution of space station

841
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 1: over the years. It's really interesting. It's a lot more

842
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:08,360
Speaker 1: haphazard than I originally thought, Like I just didn't realize

843
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:14,040
Speaker 1: how delicate the whole process is. Like the station itself

844
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:19,200
Speaker 1: is incredibly resilient, but the path to getting there was

845
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 1: fraught with challenges. And uh, if you have suggestions for

846
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:26,160
Speaker 1: topics I should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff,

847
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 1: please reach out to me. The best way to do

848
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:31,759
Speaker 1: that is over on Twitter. The handle we use is

849
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:35,120
Speaker 1: text stuff h s W and I'll talk to you

850
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:46,239
Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is an i heart Radio production.

851
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,279
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i

852
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

853
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:53,600
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.