life on the ISS

Hey

I have a couple of question that I hope you can answer. I was googling
around earlier but found no official papers about them...

Anyway I'd like to know:

- how do the astronauts clean their clothes? they spend about 3-6
months on the station, i'm quite sure they need a washing machine or
something. how often do they get to change ... underware and socks and
stuff?

- what kind of 'entertainment' possibilites do they have? is there an
hdtv onboard for nfl maybe?

- do they have continouos internet connection? can they use it to chat
with their friends in offwork hours?

- what kind of noise pollution do they live in? with all the machines
and lack of walls really, i imagine getting a good uninterrupted sleep
would be hard

Thanks for any answers ^^

No, nopermanent internet access, yes some IP phone time. Yes plenty of
recorded media. Some live media, but as it has to come through the ku
resources, its obviously limited.

I don't know about clothes, I assumed they just dumped them in a Progress,
but if they hada awashing machine I'm sure we would have heard about it.

One astronaut described the noise as a bit like sleeping next to your fridge
every night, but they do measure the sound levels regularly, and some places
are noisier than others according to the data I've seen. Noise is difficult
as its more the nature of it than the actual level that tends to disturb.

I'm sure folk with more detailed answers will be along shortly.

Sorry just having silly thoughts of a space washing line.

Brian

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Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
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Blind user, so no pictures please!
wrote in message
...
Hey

I have a couple of question that I hope you can answer. I was googling
around earlier but found no official papers about them...

Anyway I'd like to know:

- how do the astronauts clean their clothes? they spend about 3-6
months on the station, i'm quite sure they need a washing machine or
something. how often do they get to change ... underware and socks and
stuff?

- what kind of 'entertainment' possibilites do they have? is there an
hdtv onboard for nfl maybe?

- do they have continouos internet connection? can they use it to chat
with their friends in offwork hours?

- what kind of noise pollution do they live in? with all the machines
and lack of walls really, i imagine getting a good uninterrupted sleep
would be hard

Thanks for any answers ^^

Maybe it's not a regular washing machine, but along with taking a
shower to clean the sweat and stuff, you obviously need to change
clothes. And since there's no space or payload capacity to launch 90
pairs of trousers and shirts and underwear and socks for each
astronaut, I'm thinking they must have something to clean the cloths.

Maybe a few seconds in the airlock?

wrote in message
...
Maybe it's not a regular washing machine, but along with taking a
shower to clean the sweat and stuff, you obviously need to change
clothes. And since there's no space or payload capacity to launch 90
pairs of trousers and shirts and underwear and socks for each
astronaut, I'm thinking they must have something to clean the cloths.

Nope. No washing machine and I don't believe there is a shower either. The
shower on Skylab turned out to be a lot harder to use than you'd think. It
reportedly took a long time to vacuum up the water droplets on yourself, and
the inside of the shower.

Maybe a few seconds in the airlock?

Nope, they re-use some articles of clothing for multiple days, but
everything they wear comes up clean and ends up being thrown out with the
trash.

Jeff
--
A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it. -- Einstein

I thought the russian service module was equipped with all kinds of
hygienic stuff...
They wash themselves by hand only then? For several months?

What does the space station smell like from inside?

wrote:
I thought the russian service module was equipped with all kinds of
hygienic stuff...

It does have a toilet. But no clothes washing machine, and no shower.

They wash themselves by hand only then? For several months?

Yes.

What does the space station smell like from inside?

Fortunately, in space the sense of smell is somewhat dulled by body
fluids redistributing themselves evenly throughout the body (instead of
being pooled by gravity), which clogs the sinuses a bit. It affects
taste for the same reason; astronauts tend to prefer spicier foods in
space than they would eat on the ground. The number one food item among
NASA astronauts is shrimp cocktail loaded with horseradish.

Nevertheless, some smell does come through. The interior smell of ISS
has been compared to a locker room, though different crewmembers report
different impressions.

Well, I understand Mir used tohave a very interesting odour.

I'd imagine washing is rather as one would do in hospital, wet cloth or
similar. You can dry things but the adding of too much moisture in the air
might overload the dehumidifiers a bit.

There are always tests for airborne spores and bacteria, so they have
obviously thought this through to some extent. Some upgraded hygene
equipment would beneeded for any long stay off planet I'd have thought, so I
expect someone is working on it somewhere!

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
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wrote in message
...
I thought the russian service module was equipped with all kinds of
hygienic stuff...
They wash themselves by hand only then? For several months?

What does the space station smell like from inside?

wrote in message
...
I thought the russian service module was equipped with all kinds of
hygienic stuff...

No shower or clothes washer/dryer.

They wash themselves by hand only then? For several months?

Yes, this is what they do.

What does the space station smell like from inside?

Surely as bad as the shuttle does after a couple of weeks with five to seven
people living in it. Which is to say the smell bowls you over.

Jeff
--
A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it. -- Einstein

Brian Gaff wrote:
No, nopermanent internet access, yes some IP phone time. Yes plenty of
recorded media. Some live media, but as it has to come through the ku
resources, its obviously limited.

Right. Lots of DVDs, fairly limited live broadcasts.

One astronaut described the noise as a bit like sleeping next to your fridge
every night, but they do measure the sound levels regularly, and some places
are noisier than others according to the data I've seen. Noise is difficult
as its more the nature of it than the actual level that tends to disturb.

The Russian segment is considerably noisier than the US segment, as it
was adapted from Mir designs without regard for US noise standards.
Early crews installed baffles on some equipment to muffle the sound but
the dB levels still exceed standards.

It is hard to make the kind of equipment quiet and for it to stay that way.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Jorge R. Frank" wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote:
No, nopermanent internet access, yes some IP phone time. Yes plenty of
recorded media. Some live media, but as it has to come through the ku
resources, its obviously limited.

Right. Lots of DVDs, fairly limited live broadcasts.

One astronaut described the noise as a bit like sleeping next to your
fridge every night, but they do measure the sound levels regularly, and
some places are noisier than others according to the data I've seen.
Noise is difficult as its more the nature of it than the actual level
that tends to disturb.

The Russian segment is considerably noisier than the US segment, as it was
adapted from Mir designs without regard for US noise standards. Early
crews installed baffles on some equipment to muffle the sound but the dB
levels still exceed standards.