For the past 20 years, without interruption, a small group of 6 people have been living and working 400 kilometers above our heads, spinning endlessly through space at 8 kilometers per second. His job is demanding and dangerous, and perhaps more specialized than any other. Here’s what life is like for an astronaut on the International Space Station .
What is the International Space Station?
The International Space Station, or ISS, is a laboratory in low Earth orbit that works in conjunction with five international space agencies: the United States (NASA), Russia (Roscomos), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA ASC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). It took more than a decade of planning and construction before the station became habitable in the long term, but, since 2000 , it has been continuously inhabited by a constantly rotating crew of international astronauts who use the station for the purposes of investigation.
Visible to the naked eye from Earth’s surface, the space station has become a symbol of international unity , human ingenuity and discovery, and the future of space travel.
It is the largest structure ever seen in space. It began to be built in orbit in 1998 and has had crews on board continuously since 2000. The International Space Station was designed for 30 years of life, until 2028 , when the cost of its maintenance is expected to become prohibitive. When the time comes, to avoid an unplanned orbital disintegration, and a random impact with the Earth’s surface at some point, it will be deliberately driven into the empty expanse of the South Pacific.
Astronauts aboard the ISS conduct experiments in biology, meteorology, physics, and astronomy . The ISS orbits Earth in what is called a low Earth orbit, outside the planet’s atmosphere, at an altitude subject to orbital debris, space debris, and atmospheric resistance. However, moving the station’s orbit to a higher altitude would not be practical, as the one it is currently orbiting is the most optimal in terms of safety.
The life of an astronaut on the International Space Station
Life in space is totally different from what we lead on earth. Their routine is marked by a rigid schedule that they should not skip, following a series of protocols to ensure that the tasks are carried out properly in a timely manner.
Wake
Astronauts on the International Space Station sleep in the Harmony module and their day begins when mission control turns on the lights at 6 a.m. This is the signal for the crew to get up.
Once awake, the day begins just like on Earth, with a visit to the bathroom . The oddities of living in 0 gravity are clearly depicted with details like brushing your teeth – the toothbrush and toothpaste can be floated in the air and the water sticks to the bristles of the brush.
The next activity is to eat breakfast , followed by a planning conference with mission control to run the day’s program.
Station maintenance work
The space station requires routine maintenance and security checks most days: disinfecting surfaces, moving supplies, repairing an essential part of the station, etc.
Almost all the tasks at the station are strictly scheduled by the mission control teams that establish each activity, step by step.
Still, sometimes things get off track. In particular, most astronauts spend their first days on the space station losing things . Everything they wear must constantly be secured with pieces of velcro, clips, magnets, tape, or elastic.
Visit to the gym
The life of an astronaut on the International Space Station can be fun, but floating in 0 gravity poses a long-term risk to the health of the crew. One of the main goals of the space station is to find out what the effects of zero gravity are on our bodies. This kind of knowledge will be essential if there is ever a mission to Mars.
What we already know about living in orbit is that the lack of gravity makes astronauts’ bones more brittle . The fluid movements, which require little energy, also cause them to lose strength in their muscles.
To slow down this process, each crew member must exercise for at least two hours a day. There are three pieces of equipment you can exercise with: a treadmill, a stationary bike (no seat, since you can’t sit without gravity), and the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) . This system is the newest addition to the Tranquility module, and consists of an installation of vacuum tubes and cables to simulate the process of free weight exercises , such as deadlifts, squats and quadriceps lifts, etc.
Meals
The only similarity to life on Earth is that the week in space is also divided into weekdays and weekends . During the week, each astronaut follows their own schedule, and while they may work in pairs or small groups on some tasks, they rarely allow the entire crew to eat lunch together. The exception to this is Sunday , when they often get together to float around the table and enjoy a potluck .
The food of the space station has several formats. Dehydrated foods come in sachets to which hot water is added before eating, and Russian cosmonauts still receive canned food that can be heated in the can before opening.
They can garnish their food sauces such as mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise spicy, but the salt and pepper are used in liquid form, otherwise the station would be filled with granules of salt floating.
The crew also look forward to the fresh fruit that is shipped with each cargo mission, which must be eaten shortly after arrival.
Fresh food deliveries and events like group meals and celebrations are important to crew morale. Taking care of morale is a high priority for mission control, because the fact is that, as exciting as it is to live in space, much of the daily routine can be repetitive and even boring.
No one dreams of being an astronaut to complete routine to-do lists, but this is just one more important part of the work they do at the station.
This video explains what the food that astronauts eat on the International Space Station looks like:
Space walks
Sometimes the job of maintaining the station becomes a bit more challenging, for example when the part in need of repair is located on the outside of the station. Extravehicular Activity (EVA) , or the spacewalk, is not a regular part of life on the space station, but it can be one of an astronaut’s most memorable moments in space.
It is also one of the most dangerous and is planned in detail up to a month in advance. Putting on the spacesuit takes about four hours , while astronauts go through a safety checklist that’s nearly 100 pages long. The most obvious precaution is that all EVAs are done in pairs so that in the event that one astronaut is struggling, the other is there to help.
Once out of the station, the two astronauts could spend up to eight hours performing a series of tasks. To prepare and be properly trained, astronauts spend many hours practicing similar tasks underwater on Earth in a model of the ISS housed inside a giant water tank. However, the view from the space station is much more spectacular.
Here is a video that shows what a walk outside the International Space Station looks like:
Work: experiments in the laboratory
The main purpose of the existence of the ISS is to act as a unique scientific research laboratory and each astronaut spends part of their day as laboratory technicians for scientists on Earth. Astronauts are briefed on the experiments they will be working on during the final stage of their training, and they spend time practicing with the team before going into space.
There are five laboratory modules on the space station: Russia has two mini research modules; the US lab is Destiny; Columbus is run by the European Space Agency; and the most recent laboratory is the Kibo in Japan, which includes a platform that allows experiments to be carried out outside the station.
The experiments that astronauts prepare and record cover a wide range of disciplines. Experiments have been carried out that analyze the effects of zero gravity on different types of materials, in living cells, in small explosions. The station is also a good place to study the Earth by taking different measurements and images over time.
Mice, ants, fish and worms have been sent to the station to see how zero gravity affects their bodies and behavior, but probably the most frequent objects of study are the astronauts themselves.
One of the most important goals of the International Space Station is to discover what the long-term effects of zero gravity are on the human body and to help plan longer space missions , including to Mars. Currently, space agencies are testing new technologies that will be necessary for such missions.
Free time in the life of an astronaut on the International Space Station
Once they have completed their scheduled tasks for the day, the crew is free to spend the remaining time in the evenings as they wish . They can call or email their families, read or watch movies from their bedroom module.
Probably the most popular hobby in an astronaut’s life on the International Space Station is simply watching the Earth spin under the station from the dome of the Tranquility module . In fact, they share these moments with us through their incredible photographs of cities, nature and geographical points of interest, photos that are uploaded to the Internet in their cubicle before falling asleep floating 400 km away from their friends and family.
We leave you this video where Pedro Duque explains what the International Space Station is like:
