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life on the ISS



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 13th 08, 06:15 PM posted to sci.space.station
[email protected][_2_]
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Posts: 10
Default 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 ^^
  #2  
Old March 13th 08, 07:48 PM posted to sci.space.station
Brian Gaff
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Default life on the ISS

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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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 ^^



  #3  
Old March 13th 08, 08:22 PM posted to sci.space.station
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Posts: 10
Default life on the ISS

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?
  #4  
Old March 13th 08, 09:18 PM posted to sci.space.station
Jeff Findley
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Default life on the ISS


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


  #5  
Old March 13th 08, 09:45 PM posted to sci.space.station
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Posts: 10
Default life on the ISS

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?
  #6  
Old March 13th 08, 10:48 PM posted to sci.space.station
John Doe
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Posts: 1,134
Default life on the ISS

wrote:

- how do the astronauts clean their clothes?


There were a few succesful attempts at washing clothes. (Using a ziplok
bag, a techniques I described here a long time ago)

Other than that, each progress bring a new batch of clothes, they were
them as long as possible then dump then in the progress to be burned up.

Clean water is a precious commodity on the station. A washing machine
would consume large amounts of water and that water would be
contaminated with soap and dirt, very hard to re-use.


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


Nop. They use laptops to watch DVDs and shows ground uploads to their
disk drives.


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


No internet access. But they have some IP phones and I think video
phones that they can setup to talk to family members via NASA
facilities. Don't think that they can "dial" anyone directly, they have
to get someone at NASA to establish the connection to the other party.


- what kind of noise pollution do they live in?


The russian modules are quite noisy. But they have 2 bedrooms there and
I suspect that closing the doors gives them better sound levels. The USA
segment is much quieter. I think the Quest airlock is the quietest place
(not sure about node2 and columbus).

Noise levels on the russian segments have been a concern since day1.
  #8  
Old March 14th 08, 05:14 AM posted to sci.space.station
Jorge R. Frank
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Posts: 2,089
Default life on the ISS

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.
  #9  
Old March 14th 08, 11:07 AM posted to sci.space.station
Brian Gaff
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Posts: 2,312
Default life on the ISS

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

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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?



 




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