International Space Station
A Human Paradise In Space
Within the pages of history, there lives no city, state, or country that could be regarded as a global home for the entire population of humans. We’ve dissected different regions and given them names. What if you’re allowed to be a denizen of an entire planet, not any city or a particular nation. Wouldn’t it be great? Well, there is a possibility once you’re out of the limits of ellipsoidal earth and look right above you at 51.6-degree orbital inclination, at a height of 400km — it’s there — an ever-moving home of humans — called International Space Station(ISS). It keeps on changing position around the low earth orbit with clocks on the ISS running 0.007 seconds slower than those on earth. At one point you’re over the Americas, the next time you peep out of the window, you’d be to another destination, Africa or Asia or Europe. Wouldn’t it be great to have a dynamic home instead of a static one?
Let’s understand about International Space Station(ISS)….
What is a Space Station?
A space station is an artificial human-made structure orbiting around the earth with utilities that are important for supporting human habitation in space for an extended time like the power, dietary supplies, pressurised enclosure, and environmental systems.
Cost of building the ISS — $150 billion(according to present estimates). It costs NASA roughly $4 billion each year to operate the station.
Metals used to build Space Station
— Titanium, Kevlar, and high-grade steel are common materials in the ISS. The reason for using these materials is because engineers had to use these materials to make the structure lightweight without compromising the strength and puncture resistance.
Basic necessities that make Space Station a habitable place — space station needs air, water, food, and power.
Is ISS the first Space Station?
No, ISS isn’t the only and first space station. There are many! Presently, it’s the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, other being Russian Almaz, Salyut, and Mir space stations and the American Skylab.
Why ISS?
The need for experimentation in space led to the idea of the development of a structure in space. ISS was to serve as a laboratory, observatory, and factory while providing transportation, maintenance. In the future, in addition to these, it’s to serve as a low Earth orbit staging base for the future missions to other planets like Mars, Moon, and asteroids.
It took 12 years to complete International Space Station with a total of 80 launches. It has an inclination of approximately 51.6 degrees. ISS completes the orbit of Earth in about a time period of 1.5 hours, and so the astronauts onboard can witness 16 sunrises and equal sunsets in a day. It is the largest manmade object in space and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit. One is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth’s surface.
Dimensions Of Space Station
The International Space Station is 109 metres long and 75 metres wide — as big as a football field. It can house six astronauts, and in addition to these, some guests too.
Ownership
The ownership and use of ISS are established by inter-governmental treaties and agreements. International Space Station legal framework is built on three levels of international co-operation agreements:
- International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement — an international treaty signed in 1998 by the fifteen governments involved in the Space Station project.
- Four Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs)
- Various bilateral Implementing Arrangements
5 Partners of ISS Project
- USA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)
- Russia — Roscosmos
- Japan — Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA)
- Europe — European Space Agency(ESA)
- Canada — Canadian Space Agency(CSA)
Rockets that carried these parts/modules up in the space for ISS
The rockets carried different components of the International Space Station piece-by-piece and assembled them in the space. Three rockets were chosen for the cumbersome task and these rockets include:
- Space Shuttle (USA) — It played an extremely important role in the development of ISS. It worked as a part of the Space Shuttle Program. It did operate between the years 1981–2011 and later was retired. Space Shuttle is a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system.
- Proton Rocket (Russia) — it’s a launching system that is used for both Russian government and commercial space launches. Proton rockets were used to launch Salyut, Mir, and International Space Station modules as well as probes to the moon, Mars, and Venus. The rocket accomplished its recent mission on 13 December 2021, with the launch of two communication satellites in geostationary orbit — Ekspress communication satellites.
- Soyuz Rocket (Russia) — It was designed for the Soviet space program and was originally built as part of the Soviet crewed lunar programs. In between the 2011 retirement of the Space Shuttle and the 2020 demo flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon, the Soyuz served as the only means to make crewed space flights and to reach the International Space Station, for which it remains heavily used. At least one Soyuz spacecraft is always docked as a ‘lifeboat’, in the event of an emergency and it is to be replaced every six months by a new Soyuz as part of crew rotation. Last launch date — 8 December 2021.
Parts of International Space Station
- Truss — forms the backbone of the Station and is made up of a large number of triangular structures and beams.
Our International Space Station consists of 16 pressurised modules. Here is the list of some of the modules along with the country of their origin:
Six Russian modules (Pirs, Zarya, Zvezda, Rassvet, Poisk, and Nauka), eight US modules ( Leonardo, BEAM, Quest, Harmony, Tranquility, Cupola, Unity, and Destiny), Japanese module called Kibō, and there is one European module (Columbus)
- Nauka — It’s the newest module, launched 21 July 2021, and is the primary lab of Russian Orbital Segment. It’s used to conduct experiments and store scientific instruments. In addition to these, it can be used as a backup service module.
- BEAM(Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) — It’s an experimental expandable space station module for testing as a temporary module on the International Space Station.
- Quest — It helps astronauts to exit the interior of ISS for hours while performing spacewalk/EVA. It is composed of two segments, the first one is “Equipment lock”(stores spacesuits and equipment), and the second is “Crew Lock” (from which astronauts can exit into space).
- Harmony — is known as the “utility hub” of the International Space Station. It connects the laboratory modules of the United States, Europe, and Japan. In addition to these, it is used to provide electrical power, electronic information, and houses four of the crew members.
- Tranquility — this module contains environmental control systems, a toilet, exercise equipment, life support systems, and an observation room called a cupola.
- Unity — it was the first U.S part of the International Space Station (ISS). It connects the Russian and United States segments of the station and is the place where the crew eats meal together.
- Destiny — This module, is also called the U.S. Lab. It’s the primary operating facility for U.S.research payloads aboard. Destiny is NASA’s first permanent operating orbital research station since Skylab was vacated in February 1974.
- Columbus — Columbus is a science laboratory that is a portion of the International Space Station(ISS) and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency (ESA). European Space Agency has spent approximately US$2 billion on building Columbus, including the experiments it carries and the ground control infrastructure necessary to operate them.
- Zarya(Functional Cargo Block) — It is the first module brought in up space. It is used for propulsion, storage and served as guidance during the early stages of assembly. In addition to this, it’s also used for electricity.
- Poisk — It’s a docking module that is almost identical to the Pirs Docking part.
- Zvezda — It was the third module launched and successfully functions as a life support system. It’s in the Russian part of ISS. It also serves as living quarters for two crew members. It was decommissioned in the year 2021 with a new module called Nauka.
- Rassvet —also called Mini Research Module 1 — It’s being used for storing cargo and also as a docking port for visiting spacecraft. It was attached to Zarya with the help of the Canadian robotic arm Canadarm 2. Rassvet has two docking units: one to attach to the port of the Zarya module, and one to provide a docking port for a Soyuz or Progress spacecraft.
- Pirs —It was located on the Zvezda module. It served as a docking port for spacecrafts like Soyuz and Progress from earth. It was also used as an airlock for Russian EVAs or simply spacewalks.
- Leonardo —This module is named after Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci, and is used for the storage of spares, supplies, and waste on the International Space Station. It also serves as the personal hygiene area for the astronauts.
- ExPRESS Logistics Carrier(ELC) — it’s a place to store hardware. An ELC provides scientists with a platform and infrastructure to deploy experiments in the vacuum of space without requiring a separate dedicated Earth-orbiting satellite.
- Cupola — it’s like any other room but there’s a difference, and this difference is enough to distinguish it from other places on ISS — you can look out of its seven windows in every direction, even towards the earth.
- Canadarm 2 — ISS has a robotic arm known as the Remote Manipulator System. It has another name — Canadarm 2. This robotic arm is used to help construct the Station by moving modules and astronauts into required positions while working on the Space Station. It is shown in the picture below.
- JEM— Japanese Experiment Module(nicknamed Kibō (Hope))is a Japanese science module for the International Space Station (ISS) developed by the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA. It is the largest single ISS module and is attached to the Harmony module.
- Dextre — Another piece of robotics built by Canada is Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator(SPDM) or simply Dextre. It can be attached to the same grapple fixtures that are used by Canadarm 2.
Research Environment in ISS
The conditions for research are different from those on earth like:
Microgravity — weightlessness, it changes many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences when observed in the ISS in comparison to when observed on earth.
Extreme conditions — exposure to extreme heat and cold cycling,
high energy radiation, ultra-vacuum, etc. While testing the materials in ISS has provided the long life of components on earth as well.
Research
- Research on ISS is conducted in a variety of fields, which includes astrobiology, physical sciences, astronomy, space weather, materials science, meteorology, and human research including space medicine and the life sciences.
Achievements of ISS
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), mounted on ISS, is a cosmic particle detector that is designed to detect dark matter as well as antimatter and provide answers to other fundamental questions about our universe.
Expedition 60, the microgravity laboratory has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations from researchers in more than 108 countries
ISS program researchers aboard the ISS have researched the earth and have examined water vapor, ozone, aerosols, and oxides in Earth’s atmosphere. They’ve also studied the Sun, cosmic rays, and cosmic dust.
Life of Humans inside ISS
- sleep station — it’s a place for the astronauts to have rest.
- Bathroom — astronauts wipe their bodies clean by using a wet towel, and use waterless shampoo for washing their hair. There are no sinks or showers inside the space shuttle(the reason being water does not flow in a zero-gravity environment, the astronauts cannot wash their hands like you and I do on Earth).
- Kitchen — It contains similar foodstuff as is there in a kitchen on earth. Food includes Russian, Japanese, USA, Canadian, and European. Food includes nuts, peanut butter, fruits, chicken, seafood, beef, candy, brownies, and much more. To quench human thirst is no big deal for ISS. Apart from water ISS has other drinks including tea, coffee, juice, fruit punches, and lemonade.
- Laboratory — There are as many laboratories aboard the International Space Station. Humans and humanity have benefitted from these labs in many ways.
- Gym — they have treadmills, exercise bikes and various other machines to keep their bodies in shape they have to in fact do at least 2 hours every day otherwise their muscles, and their bones would weaken.
International Space Station acts as the second home of humanity that has always helped humans to understand nature and its principles. It has watched from the heavens to the ever-changing aspirations of the human mind. No doubt, it has served as humanity’s best friend. International Space Station is an example of humans’ ability to achieve great objectives with a limited amount of resources. The secret of human accomplishments lay in synergy and International Space Station is the best example of it……
