10 SCARY Things About Space Travel That SCARE Astronauts
Space is a massive, scary, empty, endless void that’s filled with all sorts of dangers,
and even within a secure capsule, you can’t help but be scared.
In this video, we’ll be taking a look at some of the SCARIEST things about space travel
that absolutely terrify astronauts, so let’s begin!
10.
The Training
Becoming an astronaut is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
You need to have multiple degrees related to science, astronomy, and engineering, as
well as have extensive flying experience to even be considered for an astronaut program.
Even when you are a candidate for space travel, you will likely need to beat out thousands
of other applicants on the same boat as you.
But the troubles don’t end once you’ve made your way through the applications.
You will now need to go through intense training that will consist of the toughest exams you
will ever have, the most grueling physical challenges you’ll have to overcome, and
the most difficult aspect of it all, you’ll have to learn Russian.
Now that’s difficult!
I think it’s safe to say becoming an astronaut isn’t exactly a walk in the part.
9.
The Permanent Damage on Their Bodies
Astronauts that spend a long time in space can end up damaging their bodies to the point
of no return.
On Earth, we have to use our legs whenever we need to go somewhere, and our backs almost
constantly as well.
This makes our leg muscles and our back muscles some of the strongest muscles in our family,
However, in the weightlessness of space, astronauts barely get to use their back and leg muscles.
In fact, they have to do very specific workouts for hours every day just so they can avoid
losing even more muscle there, and doing that many hours of workouts can also take a toll
on their backs and legs.
The damage this can do on a human body can often be permanent, and many astronauts have
reported weaker legs and backs after long space missions, many of whom still haven’t
gained back full strength.
8.
The Knock
While the space race has always been contested by the likes of the United States, the Soviet
Union (later Russia), and the European Space Agency.
China’s entry into the space race in the 90s was a welcome development for the space
industry.
In 2003, Yang Liwei made history for his country by becoming the first Chinese man to go into
space on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.
However, it’s not his ascent into space that people remember that mission by, but
rather an incident that happened during the mission.
One night during the mission, Yang described he heard someone “knocking at the body of
the spaceship”, despite him being the only person there.
Years later, two other Chinese astronauts reported the same “knocks”, and we don’t
know whether those were actual sounds they heard, or if they were just hallucinating
it out of sheer boredom.
7.
Leaks
The International Space Station is a completely closed system.
All of the air on the international space station is the exact same air that was brought
up with it in the 90s that is then recycled over and over again, making it sufficient
for astronauts to live.
While this system hasn’t failed yet, it came dangerously close to failing back in
2006 when Bob Curbeam, while conducting upgrades on the ISS during a spacewalk, accidentally
broke a cooling line that spilled toxic ammonia all over his suit.
Had he walked back into the ISS closed system wearing that suit, it would’ve contaminated
the entire air supply of it, which could be fatal.
However, thanks to Curbeam’s quick thinking, he was able to stop the leak and later went
and boiled the ammonia by standing in the direction of the sun for a good 30 minutes,
as he knew ammonia had a very low boiling point, and it worked!
6.
Space Music
One of the most notoriously scary space stories of all time takes place on the Apollo X mission
that was launched by NASA in 1969.
The mission consisted of American astronauts Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young.
While the three were taking pictures of the moon and everything was going according to
plan, they started hearing some strange noises on their headsets.
Commander Cernan said “Boy, that sure is weird music; We’re going to have to find
out about that,” to which, John Young replied “Nobody will believe us.”
We still don’t know what the “music” they were referring to is.
As astronauts, they were probably aware of all the strange noises a radio can make, and
this was a unique enough sound that they were audibly confused.
Were they being contacted by some extraterrestrial forces?
Probably not.
5.
Loneliness
At the end of the day, astronauts are still humans, and to some astronauts, the feeling
of loneliness is one of the toughest challenges to overcome during space travel.
Oftentimes, these astronauts can spend months in space without meeting their families, their
parents, their kids, and their loved ones.
It can also get really boring up there sometimes.
There are only so many movies you can watch, so many card games you can play, and so many
different ways you can spend time when you’re on a spaceship far away from home and civilization.
Going to space is cool, no doubt, but it can take an extreme mental toll on you.
4.
Basic Tasks
Becoming an astronaut is one of the most exclusive jobs in the world.
Astronauts have to go through extreme training in order to even be considered for the job,
and they also have to be experts at what they do.
However, when we hear stories from astronauts, the hardest things they talk about aren’t
conducting complicated experiments or fixing technical issues, no, the hardest things they
normally talk about are basic human tasks.
Everything from showering, to going to the bathroom, to even sleeping can be a pain when
you’re in space.
Weightlessness changes your entire perception of life, and you can’t simply even wash
your hands the same way you would on earth.
If you need to sleep, you’d have to be strapped onto your bed, or else you’d be floating
around the ship, damaging expensive equipment or yourself.
3.
UFOs
UFO sightings are really common on earth, and they’re usually attributed to space
or alien life, although most people who believe in UFOs are considered conspiracy theorists.
However, even astronauts have reported UFO sightings while they were in space.
At the Salyut VI space station in 1981, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok saw a strange,
mysterious object that he described as “the size of a finger”.
In his own words, he said, “It was hard to determine the size and the speed of an
object in space.
That is why I can not say exactly, which size it actually was.
[My partner Viktor] Savinykh prepared to take a picture of it, but the UFO suddenly exploded.
Only clouds of smoke were left.
The object split into two interconnected pieces.
It was reminiscent of a dumbbell.
I reported about it to the Mission Control immediately.”.
2.
Fire
Astronauts see a lot of crazy things in space every single day, but if there’s one thing
they do not want to see under any circumstances, it’s fire.You wouldn’t really want a fire
to start out anywhere near you on earth, let alone in space.
However, fires have broken out in space before.
In 1997, on the Mir space station with 6 astronauts onboard, a fire broke out on a supplemental
oxygen tank.
Jerry Linenger, the astronaut who discovered the fire, explained that it looked like a
massive blow torch that was ready to burn and melt anything, including extremely important
equipment, in its path.
There was a plan to make an emergency escape through a Soyuz ship, but that plan was scrapped
since only 3 astronauts would be able to fit inside one.
The fire raged on for over 14 minutes, but was thankfully contained by dousing everything
in its path with a fire extinguisher.
1.
Accidents
One of the most damning facts about space travel is that no matter how advanced technology,
AI, or engineering becomes, accidents can still happen.
Anything from minor accidents that cause a mere injury to massive accidents that took
lives have already happened in space.
19 people have died during spaceflight due to a number of accidents.
In 1971, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev became the first, and
only, people to die while they were in space after the capsule the crew was in decompressed
causing them to lose all of their oxygen supply during the Soyuz 11 mission.
What’s worse is that the team back on earth didn’t even know that the accident happened
until the spacecraft automatically returned to the earth and all they found were the three
bodies of the cosmonauts.
While, thankfully, these incidents are extremely rare, it’s still a very real possibility
that scares the hell out of a lot of astronauts.
That’s a wrap for this video!
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