Pedro Duque's diary from space: Lost in space

Pedro Duque's diary from space: Lost in space

26 October 2003

In a tidy house or office with a clean floor you can see immediately if
someone has dropped something, a glasses case, for example. Lying on the
floor, this object catches the eye, and everybody passing by will notice it.
In the Space Station a number of factors make it very difficult to find
something that is lost.

First of all, of course, zero gravity. The other day I had a ballpoint pen
clipped to my trousers when I brushed past something and lost it. I noticed
immediately, so I turned around quickly to pick it up. Nothing. My ballpoint
pen was nowhere to be found, it had flown away, I didn't know in which
direction, up, down; it could have been anywhere.
I began to accept the fact that I had lost it, but when I turned to proceed
with my daily schedule I saw it in front of me, flying in the same direction
I was moving. When it flew away it must have bounced on something, and kept
going without waiting for me.

The Station is made of modules in which the working area is more or less
rectangular, but ahead and behind; up and down; and even right and left
there are multiple adaptors with hatches. As a consequence there are many
corners in which things can hide.

Besides that, which wall is the floor? And which is the ceiling? In many
places the four walls of the 'tube' that make a module are all the same, so
everything is difficult to find.

For example, I do quite a lot of work in a module that is not in the main
'tube', but is attached to a side. You have to make a ninety-degree turn to
enter that module from the others. Until then, everything is fine; when you
enter, what is below you, you call 'the floor', and what is above, 'the
ceiling'.

But sometimes you might come from the other direction on your trip along the
tube, and make the turn. Now you find that the ceiling is the floor and
vice-versa. Because of this, if I have left the computer switched on and
attached to the wall, when I go back I always have to make a full turn to
find it.

And, finally, there are so many things attached to all four walls.
Describing it like this must make it sound untidy, with everything in the
way, but it's a matter of necessity. The photo cameras can't be put away
because we take a lot of pictures of the work we do with the experiments,
and of the Earth as well. The cameras are all stuck in place with Velcro,
together with a variety of lenses, flashes etc. Sometimes you need to turn
three times to find the camera you are looking for.


Other items that are also in view are spare parts, food packages, bags full
of clothes, etc. It is not that we use these things everyday, but there's no
more room in the cupboards. The Station is not finished yet, and there won't
be enough storage space to put everything away until all the planned modules
have been connected.

One of the things that I use most frequently is a notebook where I take down
information about the experiments. I carry it with me everywhere, I write
down the precise hour at which I have changed the samples, the results,
things to be aware of, etc.

This notebook has to come back to Earth with all this data; it will help the
scientists to rebuild exactly how everything has happened. The first days
this little notebook drove me crazy. I stuck on it, of course, a large piece
of Velcro to help keep it from flying around. But at the end of the day, if
it was not in the first place I searched then it took me a while to find it.


Now I've got used to leaving it in one of three different places, but at
first it was a nuisance because I didn't know if I had dropped it somewhere
else or if it had loosened itself from the Velcro and was floating around,
in which case it could be just about anywhere.

Once I made the famous turn carrying the notebook in my hand, together with
some books and other items. When I reached the workplace I didn't have the
notebook anymore. I knew I must have lost it when I slightly hit the corner,
so I went back immediately. It was nowhere to be found. After some frantic
minutes - fearing that I would bitterly pay in delays by the end of the
day - I found it in a little hidden corner. Thank heavens.

I forgot to mention an important factor in loosing things: the air stream.
As everything floats, and because the air gets renewed and cleaned with fans
and filters, anything that flies away tends to follow the direction of the
air stream. The air stream actually helps more than hinders, contrary to
what you may expect. If you have lost something small you only have to wait
a couple of hours and you know where it will go: to the filter where the air
enters the circulation system. We are already used to checking there every
now and again: all kind of interesting things can be found.




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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info