22 Everyday Challenges in Space: Life on the ISS

22 Everyday Challenges in Space: Life on the ISS

Food, glorious food. On the ISS menu, there are close to 200 items, although they are not always available all the time. Since they have to stay fit up there, astronauts don’t survive on Doritos and alien-looking cheese dip. They usually eat at least 2500 calories a day, and the food is nutritionally diverse. When they open a bag of dried food, they scan a barcode. This keeps track of what they eat.

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Tortillas are a mainstay up there because they are easy to manipulate and they don’t cause many crumbs. Crumbs on the ISS are a bit of a nightmare to clean up. According to NASA, “Crew members use them to make breakfast burritos, hamburgers, and even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.” That sounds OK, but remember that there aren’t any freezers or refrigerators for foodstuffs, so things are generally freeze-dried or thermostatically, so they don’t go off. As for fruits and veg, because they spoil very quickly, the crew eats them first. They then wait for a ship to come and hand over supplies.

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In 2017, the ISS had its very first pizza party. We are now again going to explore something that again might seem a little childish. But as you’ll see, it’s serious business.

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The question is, do astronauts ever get in a cosmic punch-up? Months together in a very tight space can’t be easy. Let’s imagine one day a Russian cosmonaut tells an American astronaut that Rocky IV was nothing but a vacuous exercise in anti-Russian propaganda designed to separate the ostensible goodies from the baddies and prolong the false-narrative that the US is the world’s unblemished protector. We couldn’t find any instances of out-and-out punch-ups in space, but you only need to look at some diary entries from Russians to know astronauts are human, and yes, they can get annoyed with other astronauts.

Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin wrote in 1980, “‘All the necessary conditions to perpetrate a murder are met by locking two men in a cabin of 18 by 20 feet . . . for two months.” Another cosmonaut wrote, “Today was difficult. I don't think we [he and another guy] understand what is going on with us. We silently pass each other, feeling offended. We have to find some way to make things better.” Do astronauts on the ISS get peeved at each other? We guess it does, but there are no stories of it kicking off up there.

NASA actually has training programs to deal with cabin fever to stop that from happening. Still, as you’ll now see, all astronauts will suffer psychologically while in space for a few months.

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A psychiatrist in the US who studies how being in space affects the mind said months in space will take its toll on most astronauts. He said, “There are breakdowns I think in people’s ability to tolerate psychosocial stresses after the first couple of months.” What’s fascinating is what he says about what he learned from Russian space diaries. He said after those first two months, issues will pop up. Astronauts might feel bugged about personal space. They might have a disagreement that leads to them ignoring each other.

The psychiatrist said the issues could become “progressively worse over time unless they’re dealt with and recognized.” In fact, in the past, Russians and Americans have expressed they felt isolated when the language mostly used wasn’t theirs. Still, one space psychologist wrote, “The selection of astronauts tends to favor people who don’t have major characterological issues or neurotic issues – they’re screened out.” A NASA psychologist, though, said the difficult environment will always lead to some psychological stress. He used the term I.C.E., which stands for an isolated and confined environment.

To practice this, astronauts spend time in cabins together in the remotest parts of Canada. He said up in space, people tend to get on, but at times they will “get a little bored of each other.” He said there are more issues and tension when astronauts from various countries have to work together. His conclusion: “Expecting the astronauts to be perfect individuals – and never have any tensions, and never have any conflict, never have any negative feelings – is completely unrealistic.” So yeah, while the videos we see back home show an environment that looks like The Walton family, astronauts no doubt fall out from time to time.

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To get a good view of everything, astronauts can head to a module that has six windows. It’s called the Cupola Observational Module. The very thick windows all have metal shutters in case micrometeorites or other debris comes knocking. What would happen if the space station was hit by something?

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Larger things in space are tracked by the Department of Defense. The department can’t pick up smaller stuff, so there is always some concern about getting whacked. But when we say small, we mean something really small can cause quite a bit of damage. The European Space Agency explained that one chip in the window of the Cupola was caused by “possibly a paint flake or small metal fragment no bigger than a few thousandths of a millimeter across.”

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All the cables that connect the electrics on the ISS measure around eight miles (12.8 km).

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There are over 350,000 sensors up there, all to make sure the ISS and the crew remain safe.

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Scott Kelly was asked what he did when he had free time on his hands. He said he used Twitter, and occasionally watched Netflix. His favorite two shows were “Better Call Saul” and “Game of Thrones.”

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Astronauts don’t have direct internet, instead, their connection is linked to NASA's communication system. If there was a punch-up after the Russian crowd all started shouting support for Rocky, it wouldn’t be live-streamed on Facebook.

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US astronauts also have a bunch of movies they can pick from a library. Some of them include The Matrix, Moon, Blade Runner, Terminator 2, Armageddon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Aliens, Alien Resurrection. Rocky IV is not on the list. Now you need to hear how they wash their clothes up there.

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As you know, water is very precious on the ISS. There isn’t enough to wash clothes, so astronauts have to wear the same clothes for quite a few days. Maybe that would put you off going into space, but former British astronaut, Tim Peake, explained why it’s not all that bad. He said, “We live in a temperature-controlled environment, so clothes do not get as dirty as they might on Earth. Some of the items, like socks and our exercise gear, sometimes have antibacterial materials in them, too.”

Underwear is usually changed every two to three days. Socks and t-shirts every week, but trousers and shorts will usually be worn for an entire month before they get ditched. As you’ll now see, this isn’t the worst part about living in space.

In a Q&A, Peake was asked, “What’s the grossest thing about living in space?” He replied, “By far the grossest thing about living in space is watching the soles of your feet disintegrate during the first couple of months in space.” The reason is astronauts aren’t using their feet up there so the soles get very, very soft. The skin drops off, which is something astronauts have to be very careful about. He said you can become quite unpopular if you take off a sock quickly and let all the flakes of skin loose. Gross is fine, but what about something more dangerous?

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A former NASA astronaut named Clayton Anderson said the three biggest dangers on the space station are

1) fire,

2) depressurization or

3) a toxic spill.

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As for a fire, the US module has CO2 fire extinguishers, and the Russians side has soapy water ones. From what we can see, there hasn’t been an accidental fire up there, although astronauts have done experiments with fires. Depressurization would also be a huge downer. If it ever happened, it would likely be the result of an impact with some space junk or rock. If it were to happen, the astronauts would all group together, usually at the Russian Service Module.

There they would discuss the plan of action. Anderson explained, “By dividing the station in half, we can quickly deduce which half is leaking, the Russian side or the US side. Once that is known, we continue methodically closing hatches (but not locking) until the leaking module is isolated.” As for a toxic spill, as soon as someone smells something weird and fears one, they will press the alarm. All astronauts will subsequently put on oxygen masks.

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Nothing that crazy has happened up there. At the start, we mentioned a thruster going off due to a software glitch. It did cause a spin, but inside the space station, the astronauts didn’t feel a thing. Still, tipping like that was certainly something to be concerned about.

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NASA actually released a lengthy report by an ISS safety task force. We’ll be honest with you, some of what we read was a little above our pay scale as non-rocket scientists. Here is what the report said are the main dangers: “Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris penetration of the ISS pressure wall or other critical hardware. A catastrophic collision with the ISS by a visiting vehicle or robotic arm. An on-board fire that results in loss of crew life or the ISS vehicle.

A toxic spill in the crew-habitable volume. A catastrophic system failure.” There was absolutely no mention of an alien Facehugger bursting through a guy’s stomach during mealtime. It seems NASA does not take an alien invasion of the ISS seriously at all. 119 pages and nothing about aliens. This next part is interesting, though.

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Imagine one of the astronauts received a command from ground control, and they thought, “Hmm, that sounds a bit sketchy.” NASA called this an “errant command.” For that reason, any command that could potentially lead to the loss of life has two stages. They are the “arm” and “fire”. In fact, there are lots of safety protocols when it comes to commands. The ISS receives about 100,000 commands every year, and 99.95% of them have been accurate. Still, there has to be backup for that very slight chance a command is telling the crew to do the wrong thing.

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We’re really bugged there was no talk about aliens in that report, but we did manage to find some alien chatter involving the ISS. In 2017, a report stated that Russia may have found extraterrestrial bacteria clinging to the ISS. A cosmonaut said at the time that the bacteria came “from outer space and settled along the external surface. They are being studied so far and it seems that they pose no danger.” Years have now passed, and it seems the alien talk was just a storm in a teacup. The next question: Do astronauts dream of electric sheep?

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It seems they don’t, but they often dream of weightlessness when they are on the ISS. According to NASA, they also suffer from space-related nightmares. Scott Kelly said for him, sleeping on the ISS was a figurative nightmare. Astronauts have to be inside a sleeping bag, and it is not easy to change position. There is no morning and no night, so they don’t appreciate the end of the day as we do. There is also a constant humming noise, so it’s like sleeping in a box of mechanical bees.

Kelly said he always had a bad night’s sleep, adding, “My dreams are sometimes space dreams and sometimes Earth dreams. And they are crazy.” Now you’ll see the lengths astronauts are prepared to go to just to be clean.

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One important thing you need to know before you endeavor to go to space is astronauts don’t spit, they swallow when it comes to brushing their teeth. First, astronauts put some water in a bag. That bag can’t just be let go. It has to be hooked onto the wall, otherwise, it will float off. Then they squeeze a tiny bit of water onto the brush’s bristles by holding the brush above the bag. Next, they apply the paste. The paste goes back in a bag and is hooked to the wall.

Brushing has to be done with the mouth closed as much as possible, otherwise, the mess can go everywhere, including all over the person’s face. When they’re done, they swallow. Just so you know, the toothpaste is edible. As for washing, they usually use a wet towel with soap on it. After they’ve applied that, they can use another wet towel without soap on it to finish up. This is how they wash their entire body. As for their hair, they use a waterless shampoo.

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This last one is short and sweet, but it’s also the best way we can think to end the show. We imagine you’ve never asked yourself, what does space smell like? It turns out, space does have a unique smell. Scott Kelly said it smells of burning metal. Chris Hadfield said burnt steak and gunpowder. Don Pettit described the smell as being “a rather pleasant, sweet metallic,” a little bit like “welding fumes.”

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