How will two astronauts stuck in space pass time (and survive) until 2025? | Science & Tech News

It’s the plot of many science fiction movies: two astronauts are stranded in space and still don’t know how they will get back.

Sunita “Suni” Williams and Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in June as the first crew to test Boeing’s new Starliner, which suffered helium leaks and thruster failures before docking, raising questions about how safe it is for return flight.

Boeing has insisted that the astronauts are not trapped and has said there is “no major risk” in bringing them back on the Starliner, but POT Instead, he’s contemplating putting them back on a SpaceX flight.

They should have only been in space for eight days, but they have already been there for more than two months and may have to stay until February.

But do they have enough supplies for that period? How do they cope mentally and what is daily life like on the ISS?

Size and facilities

The ISS is 356 feet (109 meters) from end to end, one meter shorter than the total length of an American football field, including end zones.

The live-work space, NASA says, is larger than a six-bedroom house and has six bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym and a 360-degree view bay window.

As you’ll see later, it’s not as luxurious as it seems.

Williams and Wilmore are not alone; They share the facilities with seven other astronauts from other missions; four of them fellow Americans and three of them Russians.

Is there enough food, water and oxygen?

Yes, there are reserve supplies there to keep astronauts going for a long time.

The space station has its own oxygen generation systems and approximately 50% of exhaled oxygen is recovered from carbon dioxide.

As for water, the station has a system for recycling urine into drinking water, and a part of that system also captures moisture released into the cabin air from the crew’s breath and sweat.

Food supplies are a little more sophisticated. Meals are created at NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, where chefs focus on making foods appetizing and nutritious.

Much of it is dehydrated, meaning it needs to be filled with water before consumption, while some is ready to use and just needs to be heated.

There is meat (grilled beef brisket is an example of food offered), eggs, vegetables, bread, savory and sweet snacks in the station kitchen.

Crew members can also request some of their personal favorites available on the shelves.

In a video on NASA’s YouTube channel, Williams revealed that his favorite product was nut butter spread and showed off a jar that his family had sent him.

When were supplies last shipped?

The spacecraft periodically receives more supplies from Earth; the last one will arrive on August 6.

Launched by rocket from Kazakhstan on May 30, the supplies included about three tons of food, fuel and other supplies for Ms. Williams, Mr. Wilmore and the other seven crew members on board.

Basically, the crew can place their requests for what they want to come on these ships by talking to Mission Control before launches.

That was good news for Wilmore and Williams, who were forced to ditch their personal suitcases before takeoff in June to make room for additional equipment, meaning they had to wear spare clothing that was already on the ISS upon arrival. .

His own clothes finally arrived with the supplies on August 6, and more supplies will be sent in a few months.

Once the supply ships are emptied on the ISS, the crew fills them with their trash before sending them back to Earth.

How do you use a gravity-free toilet?

There are some things that space movies just don’t cover, but Williams got into the gritty details of space life on NASA’s YouTube channel.

In the video filmed in 2012, Williams showed off the toilet, which looks a bit like one you might see on an airplane.

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The difference is that there are two separate tubes: one for urine and one for feces. The urine one, yellow in color, is attached to the wall and almost looks like a vacuum cleaner and, appropriately, has a suction function to prevent gravity from making a mess.

The poop tube looks more like a typical toilet, also with a seat, although you have to hold on to a handle on the wall next to it to keep it from floating as you go.

The good thing is that there are about half a dozen types of toilet paper stuffed in bags on the walls of the toilet, including wet wipes and disinfectant wipes in case “things don’t come out properly”, as Ms Williams puts it.

Astronauts also receive toiletry kits that come with things like a toothbrush and toothpaste (which you have to swallow or spit into a tissue) and a hairbrush, which Williams says makes no sense in the space because gravity constantly keeps the hair upright.

What about sleeping arrangements?

Surprisingly you can sleep on the floor, on the wall or on the ceiling.

This is because without gravity, the crew never feels like they are lying down. It doesn’t matter if they are on the ground, standing or face down: everything feels the same.

That’s why the ISS has sleeping stations the size of telephone booths that the crew climb into, consisting of a sleeping bag and pillow on the floor, wall and ceiling.

Leisure

When they’re not conducting space experiments, the crew can enjoy the view of Earth from the station’s observatory deck or head to the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) on the Tranquility node, a fancy term for gym equipment.

ARED offers traditional upper and lower body exercises such as squats, deadlifts, calf raises, bicep curls and bench press by using vacuum cylinders to replicate dumbbells in gyms.

The crew is encouraged to use it during their space stays, as muscle and bone loss is common on long missions.

How does the couple feel?

Both are retired Navy captains and long-time NASA astronauts with extensive space station missions under their belts.

Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, said that by participating in this test flight they hoped to learn a lot about Starliner and how it works.

At their only press conference from space in July, they assured reporters that they were staying busy, helping with repairs and research, and expressed confidence in all the Starliner testing going on behind the scenes.

“I have a very good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” Mrs. Williams told reporters.

Tests are underway on Earth to determine if the Boeing craft can still be safely used to bring them back.

“That mantra you’ve heard: ‘Failure is not an option,’ that’s why we’re staying here now,” Wilmore said last month.

“We are confident that the testing we are doing is what we need to get the right answers and give us the data we need to come back.”

There has yet been no public word from them about the prospects of an eight-month stay.

Wilmore’s wife, Deanna, told the AP earlier this week that he is “content” on the space station, “not worrying or fretting.”

He said Widmore, a longtime elder at a church in Texas, has faith that God is in control and that this gives his family “great peace.”

What is happening now?

As things stand, all but one of the Starliner’s five failed boosters have been reactivated in orbit.

Tests are currently underway on Earth to try to remedy the problems seen in space, but engineers are unsure what exactly causes them and are also trying to plug helium leaks in Starliner’s crucial propulsion system. for maneuvers.

Boeing has reiterated that its capsule could still bring astronauts home safely, but the company will need to modify Starliner’s software in case it has to return without a crew.

Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief, has suggested that returning home on the same plane remains an option.

Bowersox said during a recent meeting that they “heard from a lot of people who were concerned and the decision was not clear.”

The SpaceX flight they would board would leave Earth in September, but two astronauts scheduled to fly on it would have to stay home to make room for Williams and Wilmore.

A decision is expected next week.

Would this be the longest anyone has ever spent in space?

No: Russian Valeri Polyakov set that record in the mid-1990s, spending 437 days outside of Earth.

And last year NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. He returned from a 371-day trip. along with Russian astronauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, breaking the record for the longest time spent in space by an American.

That trip, like this one, was prolonged due to technical difficulties and was only supposed to last six months.