question for astronauts
where
your poop will go
i'll translate
where's the poop when i'm instead of
poop hi i'm mike massimino today i'm
going to answer your questions on
twitter this
is space support
[Music]
at happy grampy asks
nasa what do astronauts do as they're
blasting into infinity and beyond at
37.3 bazillion miles per hour under 27.2
g's that's only part one of the question
there's more to follow but with those
numbers i'm not sure what you would do
glassing into infinity and beyond don't
sign up for that we go to definite
places i went to the hubble space
telescope you can go to the
international space station have you
picked
37.3 bazillion miles per hour seems a
little bit too fast i think that's over
any speed limit now i feel like a
slowpoke we actually in orbit we go 17
500 miles an hour and it says under 27.2
g's which i don't think that would be
pleasant either we take up to three g's
are they telling jokes throwing up
praying holding on to their seats for
dear life until they're in orbit pretty
much all the above i would say yeah you
hit just about everything joke telling
is more for the launch pad before
you go to space so you're like sitting
there lying on your back for a few hours
typically it was a responsibility of the
pilot to supply jokes that was their job
do i remember any jokes that the pilot
said on the no maybe i just wasn't
paying attention like i should have to
the jokes because you know about the
launch into space i also played
tic-tac-toe with my buddy and rock paper
scissors that kind of thing throwing up
really doesn't happen until after you
get to space lots more of a zero gravity
issue so you're not throwing up during
the launch praying absolutely throughout
the launch i found myself doing that and
holding on to your seats uh you're
strapped in so you don't have to really
hold on to anything it's all those
things but it's also an amazing
experience at peter peach asks why do
astronauts need belts in space and i'm
looking at a photograph of my friend
megan macarthur and they're wearing
belts
so why do you need belts in space kind
of a good question but i think it's just
to keep your pants up you're not going
to have gravity pulling your pants down
but if your pants aren't fitting really
well they'll kind of float around you
but having a belt i use the belt in fact
look at this i'm using a belt now i wore
this belt in space this is actual a
flown in space belt so i brought my own
belt to space to keep my pants on
correctly and i think it's more of a
comfort thing and also maybe some
excuses to get a belt flown in space
because i was able to bring it home and
wear it this next one is from at miguel
tavares how do astronauts get leverage
when attempting to unscrew tough bolts
you can use your body and gravity on
earth so seems a little difficult while
floating this is a really good question
and something we do think about as
miguel says when we're on on earth you
can brace yourself against something and
you're on the ground you're not floating
away in space when you push on something
you're going to go the other direction
so you're really not going to get
anywhere if you do that what we do is we
make sure that we are stable so when i
was working on the hubble space
telescope my feet would be in in a in a
foot restraint so my feet are nice and
solid and then i could
react that force through my feet if i
didn't have my feet and foot restraints
i would try to push the wrench and my
feet would go flying this way another
interesting thing maybe a little more
advanced to think about is when you're
undoing a bolt or you're going through a
hard stop on a bolt and you get to the
end it's going to give you a kick well
if you're not steady that you know the
tool will go flying so we would always
think about reacting it with our arm
we're out there in our spacesuits we'd
be in our foot restraints and i'd always
have my arm in position to absorb that
kick that we would get at the end so
we're a lot steadier on earth when we
work with tools and work on things in
space it's a little more challenging but
i prefer it it's a lot more fun
at dima hajj question for astronauts so
only for astronauts
where
your poop will go on the space shuttles
we did have a commode it was not a flush
toilet it had a seat on it it's fairly
complicated you had to turn it on and
create a vacuum and make sure everything
was where it's supposed to and and then
every couple days the poop would be kind
of compressed it was a very ingenious
way they did it had these different
screens and so poop would be in there
and then one screen would go and compact
it and then more poop and then another
screen but we just collected that poop
over the course of a couple weeks
everybody's poop went into the same
thing we brought all that poop back with
us
for no reason other than we didn't know
what else to do with it i think i don't
think there was any science behind it
but that poop came back to earth and it
was serviced on the ground never to be
seen again as far as i know the space
station's a little bit different the
toilet is a can with a seat on top of it
and a plastic bag is a liner so you poop
into that can you close up the
bag and then you
get it to the bottom of the can
and you put a new liner in for the next
person clean up and you're done once
that can fills up you take the seat off
you cap it and you put it in a cargo
ship that is now a dumpster there are
certain cargo ships that come up and
then they don't return to earth with
anything they're used as dumpsters so
all your waste garbage things you don't
need go in there it gets sealed off
after a while it reenters and everything
burns up during reentry that is a much
better way to go this shuttle toilet was
very expensive and complicated this
thing is a can and it works really well
so that's where a poop goes
or
or poo poo as it says at vwb58
why do astronauts have mirrors on their
gloves this is a really good question i
think we have mirrors on our gloves when
we launch into space in case there's
an instrument or a panel or something
you need to see behind you it's really
hard when you're launching into space or
when you're landing to move your head
around you have a helmet you can kind of
turn your head a little bit but you
can't really see behind you so well so
having a mirror right on your wrist
makes it easier to see behind you if you
look closely at a space walking suit the
emu the eva mobility unit and you look
at the way these con these controls are
labeled they're reversed so when you
hold up the mirror to it it all is in
the in the right orientation another
thing about the mirrors i thought was
interesting is they're not actually
glass
because you don't want to have glass
around the spacesuit it could shatter it
can cut things no good
so they're actually highly polished
metal they polish the heck out of them
to make them shiny so that's why we wear
wrist mirrors they're very very helpful
particularly during a spacewalk
will taft asks to astro illini astro
illini is my good friend mike hopkins by
the way real good guy mike if you're
listening how are you i hope you're
doing well miss you all right does nasa
put any time in the schedule to give
first-time spacewalkers a minute to take
it in
yes and no the first few minutes of your
spacewalk are considered to be
translation adaptation of your very
first time spacewalking it's the first
time you're out there you're in the big
suit just like you were in your training
but we typically train underwater
so when you're underwater and you're
moving around you move differently than
when you're in air or also when you're
in space we call it space walking but
really what you're doing is using your
hands to move around so as you move
around with your hands you want to go
very very lightly and very slowly if you
put too much oomph into it that's not a
good thing you'll go flying now in the
water you kind of need that extra oomph
because the water viscosity slows you
down it makes you more stable requires a
little more force to move around you get
to space there's nothing there's not
even any air to slow you down there's no
resistance at all so the same type of
motion that you would use in the pool
will send you flying somewhere you don't
want to go
in space so the first 15 minutes or so
are usually dedicated to you just to get
used to moving around it's not really
look around take it in have fun it's get
used to that environment so you can do
your job
at free the stones asks space travel
question
it's about fuel once you get your
spaceship pointed in the right direction
and get going do you need to keep your
engines going in other words do you only
need to save fuel to either change speed
direction or to slow down if you're in
an orbit around around earth let's let's
take that as the example here there
still is a little bit of drag now if
you're familiar with the drag equation
it's velocity squared if you have a
large amount of velocity like 17500
miles an hour you square that that's a
really big number so even just a little
bit of resistance can give you enough
drag that eventually the orbit will
decay from atmospheric drag even though
it's just little traces of it there's
still a little bit you'll get lower and
lower and eventually re-enter the planet
which is what happens sometimes some
spacecraft will slow down enough and
they'll come back into earth usually
they'll burn up in the atmosphere and
reentry or if anything makes it through
to land in the ocean or some place where
people aren't around so it typically
isn't a problem but that will happen the
only way to prevent that is to increase
your altitude and go back up and give it
a boost so for example when i visited
the hubble space telescope
we gave it a boost and it raised its
orbit and it kept it up we'll keep it up
in space for a longer period of time if
you're on your way to another another
place on you know going to going to the
moon or to mars or something like that
it's going to be a little bit different
you would just need to coordinate your
speed use your fuel to maybe slow down
to enter the orbit correctly but you're
not necessarily worried about
the orbital decay that you would
experience on earth when you're not in
orbit if you're traveling somewhere else
then you do have to uh manage the fuel
usage with not only with your straight
trajectory but when you encounter
whatever the target is you're going to
you need some fuel to slow down and
enter into the orbit correctly at
christo
cs
asks do spacesuits fit well are they
even remotely comfortable
yeah as best as you can get them you
know you're not going to uh you're not
going to a tailor but they do their job
i think they're adequate are they even
remotely comfortable yeah they're all
right you know you wouldn't want to wear
one around town necessarily but for what
they what their function is and what
they need to do to protect you
yeah i would say they are comfortable at
kyo pajinkuk hashtag ask nasa as an
astronaut how many languages do you have
to learn to be able to communicate with
the crews from other countries it's not
just english right that's true it's not
just english anymore for going to the
international space station you're going
to operate and work there as a as a nasa
astronaut or as an astronaut from the
european space agency or canada or
japanese space agency or the russian
space agency you need to be able to
speak two two languages because it's
russian the russian segment of the u.s
segment the u.s segment we speak english
as the primary language on the russian
segment it's russian on the u.s side he
needed to be able to get along pretty
well in russian and the same for the
russians in english so yes two languages
required on the space station at
christine one
two
asks my wife just turned to me and asked
baby do you think space smells i have no
idea how to answer this question so if
you're inside the cabin you're in a
pressurized environment and space will
smell
like things smell here on earth if
you're smelling food or each other use
your imagination it'll smell the same
the question might be more of what does
space smell like this requires a longer
answer but we're not doing a longer
answer we're going to do a short answer
it has what it there i got to go with
the long answer when i was a new
astronaut sergey krikalev a russian
cosmonaut had just come he had been on
mir a few times on space station here he
just came back from a shuttle flight and
he said there was a very distinct odor
you come inside the airlock you close
the door to space and you open the door
to the spacecraft inside when you enter
that airlock is what sergey told me it
was the same smell on mir as it was on
the space shuttle it doesn't last for
long because that air starts to mix with
the air in the cabin and the smell goes
away but on my first mission i wanted to
check this out so sure enough after the
first spacewalk i was not outside i was
inside for this first spacewalk helping
the guys outside as soon as the
spacewalk was over i opened up the hatch
i went in there started i've got a good
nose for smelling
and it was this very metallic smell
almost like a burnt metal smell it's
very distinct and i like to think
that's what space smells like at almira
a mcl
asks mike massimino is in big bang
theory ah
yes i was on the big bang theory ah hey
fruit loops wanna hit your fan switch
that was a very cool experience i got a
chance to be on the show the way that
happened was nasa called me up said hey
mike do you know about the big bang
theory i said yeah it's this big
explosion and the universe is expanding
he goes no no no no the show and i was
like yeah i think at that time i had it
i wasn't that familiar with the show i
kind of heard of it but he said they
wanted to speak to an astronaut about
sending a person to space and i was
having to be in los angeles maybe a
couple weeks later and i went by the
warner brothers studio to the writers
room which was extraordinary bill praty
and chuck laurie the creators of the
show and their writing team was there
and i told them stories kind of like i'm
telling you now and he
wanted to work some of these ideas into
their scripts so i helped him a little
bit with that i went to see a taping and
about six months after all this
they got a note from bill praty one of
the creators and he said hey mike we'd
like you to do a cameo what do you think
and i was like okay so i went in and i
did a cameo and that led to six more and
a lot of good friendships out of that
with the cast and the crew and it was a
great experience the point of all that
is sometimes you just need to say yes
thanks for all your questions this has
been
space support