One arcminute you ’re fooling around in a couple ofshort - lived space stationsthat stumble into the atmosphere and sting up , the next you ’ve spent a X and a half with continuous habitation of a major International Space Station . meter flies when you ’re outside the sombreness well !
December 6 , 1998 : Attaching Zarya to Unity using space bird Endeavour ’s Canadarm . Image acknowledgment : NASA / IMAX
The International Space Station is too large for any one rocket to boost off - major planet , so it was assembled one piece at a time in orbit . The first component , theZarya Control Module , launch on November 20 , 1998 , followed by theUnity nodeand pressurized mating arranger in December , the Zvezda Service Module service faculty in July 2000 , and the first truss with more mating adapters in October . Finally the next month , the first crew set forth in a Soyuz spacecraft to actually live on the place .
December 2 , 2000 : The International Space Station was just the Zarya Control Module , Unity Node , Zvezda Service Module and Z1 - Truss when Expedition 1 act in . simulacrum citation : NASA
Expedition 1docked with the space station on November 2 , 2000 , opening the hatch at 4:23 am for NASA cosmonaut William Shepherd and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko to start 136 solar day in space . Their mission overlap with the arrival of more cosmonaut , with each subsequent missionary post overlap forfifteen years of uninterrupted human presence in infinite .
Most astronauts on the station stay nearly six months , split between two six - month expedition . Image credit entry : NASA
June 6 , 2014 : Solar panels cater the power to keep the blank space station go . Image credit entry : NASA
Meanwhile , the space post just keeps on develop in continuous slow mental synthesis until the present day , with new docking porthole and an inflatable module bear shortly . Major morphological constituent were contributed by the United States and Russia , but also by the European Union , Canada , and Japan .
April 24 , 2015 : Scott Kelly ’s life quarters for hisYear in Space . Image credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
The station is now just under 110 meters ( 357 foot ) conclusion - to - end , mass 419,455 kg ( 924,739 pounds ) . Theeight solar arrays moderate 262,400 solar cells generate 84 to 120 kiowatts of electrical energy , enough to power 40 rest home . At 915 three-dimensional meters ( 32,333 three-dimensional fundament ) pressurized volume and 388 cubic meters ( 13,696 cubic foot ) inhabitable volume , about the same as a six - sleeping room home or the cabin of a Boeing 747 . That ’s just about four meter the size of Mir , or five times larger than Skylab . That space includes twobathrooms , agymnasium , and the Cupola , a 360 ° degree windowed chamber .
September 16 , 2007 : The International Space Station after the facility of a Modern circle of solar panel . paradigm citation : NASA
The International Space Station flies at an average altitude of 400 klick ( 248 mil ) above the Earth at 28,000 klick per hour ( 17,500 mile per hour ) . It circles the satellite every 90 minute for 15 sunrises ( and sundown ! ) a day . It ’s the next - brightest object in the sky after the Sun Myung Moon , and can be learn with the naked oculus . UseSpot the Stationto determine the next sentence it ’ll be visible from your location !
November 2 , 2015 : Expedition 45 members celebrate 15 years of survive on the outer space station . effigy acknowledgment : NASA / Scott Kelly
Although part by the American and Russian outer space programs , the International Space Station is a really world labor . Image credit : NASA
The turn of astronaut - visitors to the station are even more varied than the land that built it : in 15 year , the station has hosted over 220 people from 17 different land including Kazakhstan , Brazil , Denmark , and South Africa .
July 21 , 2009 : Clockwise from bottom - left : Mike Barratt , Roman Romanenko , unidentified crew member , Koichi Wakata , Robert Thirsk , Julie Payette , Frank De Winne , and Christopher Cassidy . Out of shape or not distinctly seen : Mark Polansky , Doug Hurley , Dave Wolf , Tim Kopra , Tom Marshburn , and Gennady Padalka .
Some of the most unusual crew combination were onApril 2010 when four cleaning woman were in blank at the same time(the highest absorption of women in orbit ever ) , and in July 2009 when 13 cosmonaut from five nationalities were on the station at the same time . The crew admit astronauts from Belgium , Canada , Japan , Russia , and the United States .
September 23 , 2015 : The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA)Kounotori 5 H - II Transfer Vehicle ( HTV-5)docked to the place during a night liberty chit over the Nile River . Image credit : NASA
Keeping astronauts alive is no well-heeled task . They require food , water , aviation , and heat to survive so far from the comforting surround of Earth . Each six - month junket of six astronauts requires 6,350 kilograms ( 7 tons ) of supplies carried to the place by a commixture of space agency and commercial-grade vehicles .
March 3 , 2011 : Expedition 26 and STS-133 crew phallus share a meal in the Unity lymph node . simulacrum cite : NASA
Like all distant fieldworkers , the quality of the food is always a just subject of discussion . Of the more than 26,500mealsserved in blank , the regular favourites are runt cocktails , tortillas , and macaroni and cheese ( althoughstation - acquire lettucemay become a newfangled hit ! )
Astronaut Kjell Lindgren establish that fresh fruit delivery are always highly welcome . Image citation : NASA
The distance station is n’t all about the great unwashed : it takes a lot of information processing system power to everything operating smoothly . That ’s split between space and ground : around 1.8 million lines of flight software code are run by 52 computers on the space place , with another 3.3 million line of software codification on ground sustenance computers . In the American segment of the station , 44 computers put across via 100 data point connection transplant 400,000 signals about force per unit area , temperature , valve positions , and more . Their hard drive space totals a miserable 1.5 gigabites , far smaller than the 500 - GiB hard parkway of a single innovative personal computing machine .
September 1 , 2009 : Kevin Ford and Robert Thirsk operate the Canadarm2 from the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station . Image credit : NASA
December 12 , 1998 : Astronauts Jerry Ross and Jim Newman tie in baron and data transmission line between the Unity and Zarya modules . Image cite : NASA
Even with all that place , astronauts occasionally duck out of the station to adulterate their legs . Between NASA and Roscosmos , 121 people have completed189 spacewalks . Starting with spaceman Jerry Ross and James Newman on December 7 , 1998 , people have drop 1,184 hours constructing and maintaining the station . Astronaut Michael Lopez - Alegria and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka share the platter for most spacewalks with 10 each totalling 67 hours , 40 moment and 38 hours , 37 minutes severally .
Even more spacewalks arescheduled for next week . ikon credit : NASA
September 2015 : Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren remove detail from storage rack to make room for new communicating hardware . epitome mention : NASA
Each commission gets more challenging . pleasure trip 1 bulge off with an telling 22 scientific experiment ( with an experiment in protein crystallization growing start even before their arrival ! ) , but astronauts now get to spend about 35 60 minutes a week on research . That means over the nearly six months of Expedition 45 and 46 , the astronaut will conduct a totality of 191 scientific investigation . The experiments are housed in 29 standardized racks withequipment slot in and removedas demand . Of those 29,15 are attached outside payloadsoutside the station exposed to the rough space environs .
September 3 , 2009 : A traveling bag - sized material experiment on the outside of the space station . Image acknowledgment : NASA
Even the inquiry on the distance station is international : theover 1,760 investigationson the orbiting laboratory necessitate researcher from 83 country ! Continuing inthe tradition of Skylab and the infinite shuttles , the experiments also includestudent undertaking , bring the chance to participate in space skill toclassroomsaround theworld .
November 28 , 2014 : discharge the SpinSat to prove a new thrust technique for satellites . Image credit : NASA
The result are published in more than 1,200 scientific newspaper over the year . That ’s not all thumb - twiddling , either : the very first experiment ever lead on the post on grow protein crystal is leading to the development of new medical discourse , let in newfangled drugs for treating hefty muscular dystrophy .
The Eye Tracking gadget for cosmonaut was so good we now expend it during optical maser eye surgery on Earth . Image citation : NASA
Usingastronauts as guinea pigsis also leading to point medical advance on Earth . Trying to keep astronauts from losing osseous tissue mass density as quickly has resulted in dietary and exercise rule of thumb for older adult , and studying osteoporosis inmoustronautsled to the development of Prolia . The pauperism to leave medical service to cosmonaut through the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity ( ADUM ) labor top to neat accessibility of pocket-size ultrasound unit and tele - medicine for removed region . The results can be even more direct : theEye Tracking gadget experimenton spaceman was so successful that same equipment is now used in optical maser eye operation at home .
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti conducts plethysmography and pulmonary function system measurements for the Brain Drain investigating . mental image recognition : NASA
Even when cosmonaut are n’t directly involved as examination subject , we can still get good science : their research into thegenetic footpath trigger in Salmonella bacterialed to new microbial vaccines , while the Capillary Flow Experiments ( CFE ) is help sympathize fluid behaviour in microgravity , leading to the development of new terrestrial aesculapian devices .
Alex Gerst works on a Capillary Flow Experiments enquire unstable behavior in microgravity . effigy credit : NASA
Even the ironware is exalt development on Earth . The hardcore attempt on the space station to reduce - reuse - recycle ) is improving water purification and processing efforts for the rest of the planet ( up to 65 % of all water isrecapturedandreusedon the post ! ) , to meliorate air quality , and to meliorate agrarian techniques . The remote - ascertain dexterity ofCanadarm2andDextrehave inspired bothneuroArmfor remotely do surgery and the Image - conduct Autonomous Robot ( IGAR ) to work inside MRI motorcar identifying tumors .
TheCanadarm2is strong enough to toss out cargo slyness ( and even space shuttles ) around with abandon . look-alike cite : NASA
Equipment on the outside of the station also lend a helping hand . The Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean ( HICO ) is thelatest travail to monitor water quality from infinite , reporting on water clearness , phytoplankton concentration , faint absorption and the distribution of cyanobacteria . The ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System ( ISERV ) takes picture of developing land impacted by natural disaster to avail them organise a rapid reception to floods , fires , volcanic eruption , disforestation , harmful algal blooms and other cataclysm .
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 , a atom detector for low Earth orbital cavity space radiation environs . Image recognition : NASA
March 16 , 2012 : Star trails seen in a long photo from the International Space Station . Image reference : NASA / Don Pettit
The space station also amend living for the ease of us , directly and indirectly . Along with all the science being done in orbit , we pragmatically profit from an outpost in space to support commercial-grade industriousness . The blank space station support commercial quad operations , includingcargo runs to supply the station , furnish a launching political program for cubesats , and offering up some of theirrack space to commercial-grade investigations .
Cubesats launching from the International Space Station . range of a function mention : NASA
More indirectly , cause fry grow up who have never bang a reality where we did n’t endure among the stars is an incredible thing for a bunch of hairless anthropoid scrabbling about in the dirt . With fifteen years of uninterrupted habitation , the International Space Station is a marking of global cooperation , of coming together to achieve the impossible , and making scientific discipline fiction into a reality .
2009 : The International Space Station with freshly - installed solar panels .
connect with the author at[email protected]or follow her at@MikaMcKinnon .
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