Hello Paxi,
I'm American astronaut Anne McClain
and I am an astronaut aboard the International Space Station
Welcome on board!
Today I’d like to talk to you about
the way we move in Space.
Let’s fly around a bit here on the station
All this flying around that we just did
is a mix of translation and rotation.
Let’s first talk about translation.
Translation is when we are moving along a straight line
I’m going to try to demonstrate this on you Paxi
Translation is like this
We can move in three unique locations
up-down
side to side
we can go forward
we can come backwards
That's translation
We call these directions axes
specifically, the X, Y and Z axes
Since we have three unique directions
what do we call that?
3D
Rotation is when you turn an object around on its axis
Like this
or like this
Here we rotated you
around the axis in your centre
Many movements are a mix of translation and rotation
We control our spacecraft,
robots and other machines
through a set of commands of rotations and translations
Our solar cells outside the ISS
are all rotating around to catch the sunlight
and the space crafts that come to visit the ISS
have to rotate and translate very carefully
to dock precisely with Station
But knowing about rotation and translation
is not only important to control robots and spaceships
It is important for us humans too!
We also move around with translation and rotation
and so do you Paxi!
On Earth we are always being dragged down by gravity
Down is where the ground is,
and up is where the sky is
But here in space
we don’t really have a point or line of orientation
or anything to hold us down,
so we translate and rotate,
that can make us a bit disoriented at first
I bet all of you people on Earth
have tried spinning really fast
on an office chair
and losing their balance and get dizzy
This is because that inside our ears
there is a fluid that tells us
what is up and what is down
This really smart system is called
the vestibular system
When we spin around on Earth
the fluid in the ear is swirled around
and we feel dizzy
Here in space the fluid is just flowing around
in our ear all the time
Takes a little bit to get used to
To help us not be sick
and work better while we are in Space
designers and engineers
have worked together
to give us some points of orientation
We have the majority of the lights on the 'ceiling'
and writing on the walls
is pointed in the same direction
This means that we have a sort of floor
and a ceiling that we can use
to find our way around
and know which way is up
It has been a pleasure showing all about translation and rotation
and moving in space Paxi
Come back next time, ok?
Let's rotate