Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Talking to astronauts live from space”.
We’Re about to speak with astronauts, Tim Peake, Jeff Williams and Tim Kopra aboard the International Space Station to find out what life is like in lower Earth orbit. [ NASA radio control ], please stand by for a voice check from The Verge. Loren Station. This is The Verge. How do you hear me Tim Kopra? We hear you loud and clear, Loren First off, I would love to have you describe your day-to-day routine on the station? You know what are your hours like? Is it a typical 9 to 5 gig, and what do you spend most of your time working on Tim Kopra? You know it’s a great question.
You know and it’s an interesting place to both work and live, because some aspects of our jobs are sort of like at home. We have a list of events, we have to perform every day, but when you wake up and you get out of your sleeping bag in your crew quarters, you float out. Usually float out to uh the place. We have all our food stowed and get some coffee and some breakfast Tim Peake, [ nat pop ], Scrambled Eggs, Tim Kopra and then do some cleanup. Loren. Originally coffee came in a freeze-dried bag, but recently astronauts were treated to a microgravity espresso machine which pours coffee into a special 0g coffee, cup., Tim Kopra and then the rest of the day is really filled with the science experiments with maintenance, so that we can maintain The quality of life that we have up here, Loren The microgravity environment of the space station, offers up a lot of opportunity for research and the astronauts are responsible for making sure those experiments run.
Smoothly. That can involve growing human tissues and protein crystals starting fires or cultivating produce and plants in the VEGGIE plant growth area. Tim Kopra. There are very specific skills that we all have to have even just be assigned., To be able to fly the robotic arm, because we have a vehicles that come here that we capture and then the ground docks it on to the space station.. We have spacewalks and it’s very challenging task and we have to be proficient in that.
Loren. Of course, space isn’t always the easiest place to live and work. What have been the biggest adjustments, both physically and mentally, to living in microgravity Tim Peake. I it took about 24 hours before I felt actually comfortable, because for the first 24 hours, there’s a lot of dizziness and disorientation, just as your vestibular system needs to really shut down, and I think your brain tends to then rely just on information. Coming from the eyes so that you don’t feel nauseous. Loren, Along with this space adaptation syndrome, astronauts often experienced a lot of other health changes, while in orbit. People lose bone and muscle mass because they don’t have to work against.
Gravity. Astronauts must exercise such as weight. Lifting or running on a treadmill for two and a half hours each day to counteract this problem and the space environment has some other frustrating side effects. Too. Tim Kopra, you know, um living in zero gravity is some of the best things about living and some of the most frustrating things about living because uh, you know you can’t just put your things out on a table and expect it to be there..
You have to be very meticulous about all the things that you have.. It has to be in a certain place, and you have to remember where you put it, because you no longer is it just a flat surface and which something can be stowed., It can be stood on any surface either with tape or with velcro, and so that Becomes a you know a little bit of a challenge until you get used to living in this very unusual environment Loren, But once you get the hang of microgravity, it makes for a great place to show off your skills. As for general, human up keep the astronauts.
Are deprived of one key earth, comfort, Jeff Williams? Obviously we don’t have a shower and that’s probably one of the things that most of us most miss while we’re up here and look forward to when we get back on the ground.. But we are, we still are able to keep a very clean, essentially taking sponge baths. Uh. We have a toilet that you would. You would recognize as a toilet. That works very well, Loren, Wonder how that toilet works. The answer is: suction. Astronauts use, leg restraints to position themselves over the toilet, and then a fan draws out waste and liquid.. Each astronaut has their own personal funnel for going number one, but don’t worry. The space environment is kept super clean.
What’S the air like up there, Is there a distinct difference between the environment on the space station and the air here on earth Tim Peake, You know we get to enjoy pretty good air up here. It it’s recycled it scrubbed from carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses.. It’S a fairly constant humidity and temperature. The one thing that’s very different from Planet Earth is we we have about 10 times the co2 level up here, but other than that, it’s a it’s a pretty good atmosphere..
Often people ask about the smell of space and and the smell of the space station.. I remember it being almost like a a clinical smell when I came on board – and i know you’re Jeff having just arrived couple of days ago, said “. Ah, that that’s very familiar smell.” Its quite hard to describe of the space station Loren, The workday starts to wind down around seven or 730 p.m. after that the astronauts can enjoy some free time, such as watching a movie reading a book or talking with loved ones.
Back on earth. Tim Peake, we also have great communications on board the space station with our families.. We can use voice over IP telephones and effectively. We can call anywhere in the on the planet, so we can keep in touch with friends and families in the evenings.
Once we’ve uh finished our working day. Loren, Then it’s time for bed. The astronauts crawl back into their sleeping bags and get some shut-eye before they do it all again. The next day.
And that’s how life continues on the station. Well, until the astronauts hurdle back to Earth in a capsule at more than 500 miles per hour, [ NASA radio ]. Thank You The Verge. Station.
We are now resuming operational audio communications. Loren. Oh my god. I love this.
they’re doing flips All rightttttt Did we kill it? Yeah .