Welcome back to Seeker+ and our series on the ISS. This is episode 2 and if you missed
the first episode where I geek out about how the space station got up there in the first
place be sure to check it out. There’s a wild fact involving Pizza Hut I bet most of
you didn’t know in that episode.
Now we’re going to turn our attention to the ISS today and there’s no one better
to tell us exactly what’s going on up there right now than, well, people who are actually
up there right now. Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet agreed to talk to us for
this series because NASA volunteered them and there’s not really anywhere else for
them to go, they’re sort of stuck with me. Unlike you, you chose to be here. Thanks for
that, by the way.
Shane and Thomas aren’t just steely-eyed missile men capable of performing complex
tasks under pressure in a hostile environment AND speaking Russian. They’re also scientists.
The ISS is after all a laboratory unlike any on Earth where experiments can be conducted
in microgravity. Several of the modules are dedicated laboratories. Astronauts have compared
the station’s research capabilities to world class universities. Science isn’t just done
inside the station, but on the outside too. The station’s exterior can host 20 different
experiments to study things like new materials and particle physics. Research conducted on
the ISS has affected you, even if you don’t know it.
A couple of the ones that we've worked on recently that I kind of like are
one, we do a lot of medical research up here. And we're just you know, we're partnered with
the researchers and we we help them out with their data. One of the ones that we've done
recently is worked with the new canes, muscular dystrophy and some of the protein
crystal growth that we've had onboard the space station, have proven to be a treatment
for that. And now they're, I think, phase three clinical trials now. And it looks like
it can reduce, you know about half or it can slow down about the growing potential for
that by half. So that's gonna prolong people's life that had that disease. That's pretty
special to be involved and things like that. Other things that we really get involved in
are taking pictures of planet Earth and natural disasters. that happened, you know, all over
our planets, unfortunately, but wildfires and hurricanes and things recently that we've
been able to photograph with cameras from the inside of the space station with us taking
the picture, as well as cameras on the outside so we can help the first responders we can
help, you know, other weather agencies in those kinds of situations, predict things
and then help other people on the ground.
All told there have been about 3,000 experiments performed aboard the ISS. The lion’s share
have been focused on biology and biotechnology and have spurred advances like the ability
to better test saliva for active viruses. I don’t think I need to go into why that’s
a huge contribution in this day and age. The astronauts and cosmonauts on board the ISS
have explored how a Bose Einstein condensate behaves in microgravity and how to grow crystals
out of proteins for possible cancer treatments. With so much science that’s been conducted
on board, I wanted to know if Shane and Thomas had any personal favorite experiments they’d
witnessed or been a part of.
We're going to do fluid physics, one day, you're going to do medicine or biology
the next day, so that's, that's pretty special for us every day. I think one that we actually
really like that's ongoing right now. And that's very module. It's called plant habitat
for and we're growing some plants on board the space station, because when we when we
venture further and deeper into space, we'll need to be able to grow our own food. So we
have to study this on board the space station. And by doing so we also identify how to make
plants maybe more more resistance to difficult conditions where water is scarce, when they're
they're liking what they usually get from the natural environment, because as you can
imagine, up here, it's actually difficult, there's no soil, you have to watch the plants,
it's everything becomes much more complicated. But nevertheless, we were able to with the
help from the scientists to grow some red hot chili peppers, are actually really
good looking. I haven't tasted them yet. But we like to look at them. We like to interact
with them. Because it also reminds us of nature on the ground, there's not so many natural
animals around us on both the space station, but this is one and that's why everybody likes
it.
They themselves are also an experiment. Some of the greatest minds in history
have proposed that humanity should one day spread beyond earth. Some like Stephen
Hawking have even suggested it’s necessary for our survival as a species. If we’re
ever going to become a spacefaring species, we need to understand what prolonged trips
in space do to us.
Gravity seems like such a drag, doesn’t it? I know it always gets me down. Weightlessness
seems so much more appealing until you realize that there are things that our body needs gravity for.
Thanks to millions of years of evolving to survive on the earth’s surface, some systems
in our bodies actually rely on gravity to function properly. Thanks to the first extended
trips to space we learned that microgravity can take a serious toll on the human body
in a surprisingly short amount of time. Astronauts lose an average of 1% of their bone density
per month in space. Muscles atrophy faster too so ISS astronauts have to exercise for
two and a half hours every day to keep their strength up. Microgravity also causes fluids
to shift up into their heads, putting pressure on their eyes and potentially hurting their
vision.
And of course… there’s going to the bathroom. How does one y’know... go... when there
is no down? I asked social media what questions they had for Shane and Thomas and unsurprisingly
that was the most common response I got. Now normally I wouldn’t ask these very important
space-scientists for the dirty details, but as it happens the ISS just got a brand spanking
new toilet. It cost $23 million dollars to design and build and it’s supposed to be
more compact and efficient, making it better suited for future crewed missions to the moon
and beyond. So I asked about what this new toilet means for astronauts on the go.
That's a great question. And the new toilet is called the Universal waste
management system. And the universal really is key there because we want to not just use
it here, we're using it as a testbed here on the station. But we're going to use it
on future missions that are going to the moon and maybe even to Mars. But it's going well,
we've been testing it out for one week now. And I've been the sole tester. So things are
going pretty well with that. And you know, it's great, the upgrade is kind of a, you
know, it's smaller, overall smaller and lighter, which is great. And so we reduced the system
almost by over half actually, with the whole thing, if you look at the toilet side by side
with the current toilet, it looks bigger, but the whole overall system was much smaller.
So we figured out a way to do that, which we're gonna need if we're going to go into
smaller capsule, like we're intending to go to the moon here in the next few years.
There, I asked the people I admire about doo-doo. For you. I hope you’re happy. Alright now
that we’re done with that bit we can get off the pot. There’s more concerns around
prolonged space-travel than what it does to our physical health. We also need to examine
what it does to our mental state. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this but staying
cooped up in a confined space for an extended period of time can really take a toll on a
person’s psyche.
Astronauts on the ISS typically spend 6 months on the station at a time and the only privacy
they get is when using the previously mentioned commode. Some astronauts like Scott Kelly
and Christina Koch have spent close to a year on the station in a single stretch. Scott
Kelly was a particularly useful case because he has an identical twin brother Mark who
was also a former astronaut. Mark served as a control subject on Earth, allowing NASA
to better understand how a year in space affected Scott’s mind and body. Scott’s body experienced
stress due to oxygen deprivation, more inflammation, and his genes expressed themselves differently.
Most of that went away quickly once Scott was back on earth but about 7% of his genes
didn’t return to normal and they could have a long-term effect on his immune system, DNA
repair, and bone formation. As for his cognitive and psychological health, Scott’s test scores
in space were consistent throughout his whole year up there. Interestingly, they dipped
for 6 months when he got back to earth, but the pain and difficulty that comes with readjusting
to earth’s gravity may have something to do with it.
Based on what they’ve seen NASA is developing techniques to keep astronauts in a good head
space, like VR simulations of relaxing environments and new LED lighting systems that keep astronauts
on a 24 hour rhythm. Getting good sleep is important but it can be a little disorienting
when you see 16 sunrises and sunsets a day like Shane and Thomas do. Future Mars explorers
will have to deal with the planet’s day which is 37 minutes longer than earth’s,
although to me that sounds like heaven. 37 minutes is what, about 4 snooze buttons worth
of extra sleep?
Company can make the long journey more bearable, and if it wasn’t clear Shane and Thomas
were selected in part because of their personalities and their dynamic with each other and other
crew members. NASA is refining how to pick the best crew possible to make sure the ISS
doesn’t become like an old sitcom episode where squabbling roommates paint a line down
the middle of their apartment. It’s important that everybody up there can work together,
regardless of their nationality or culture. It’s also important that the space agencies
and governments on the ground supporting them can work together too, so while the ISS may
play a big part in the future of humanity, it also plays a part in promoting peace and
cooperation on Earth today.
I think it's pretty significant. I think what first of all, you realize that
everything that's ambitious, now, it happens at an international level, and we need cooperation,
it's very, very difficult to do ambitious things such as, you know, send humans to,
to the moon send humans to Mars, without international cooperation. So we'll need everybody to United
to contribute something to a common endeavor, that's one. And then second is obviously not
easy, you know, to to, to agree, cuz people are different, obviously, even for us within
Europe, we have to agree on you know, anything before we bring it up to the diocese partnership.
So that's, that's two levels of reaching an agreement. And that's not easy. But what he
does, I think, is it forces you to focus on the things you have in common, rather, to
focus on your differences. And that's great. And that's what we need. That's why we need,
you know, corporations, like the ISS that are hugely visible for everybody to see. And
so that it forces the countries to to contribute, it's very, very easy to disagree, people are
different all over the planet, everybody has their own interests in priority, it's not
always easy to cooperate. So we need to, we need to be an example. For this, we need to
set an example. And we need to force people to think about what they have in common rather
than their differences. And that's what the ISS does every day.
So what does the future hold for the International Space Station? How much longer will this global
partnership last and what’s the next big thing we’re going to build in space? We’ll
cover all that on the next episode of Seeker+. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t
miss it and leave a comment with what you think our next series should be about. We
could talk about motorsports or medieval forts or John Cena’s jean shorts. Just let us
know! I’m Julian, and I’ll see you next time on Seeker+