The International Space Station

1. The International Space Station A Cosmic Laboratory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtrVwX1ncqk

2. So What Is It? • The International Space Station (ISS) is an orbiting laboratory and construction site that synthesizes the scientific expertise of 16 nations to maintain a permanent human outpost in space. • While floating some 240 miles (390 kilometers) above Earth's surface, the space station has hosted a rotating international crew since November 2000.

3. The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in… • Biology • Human Biology • Physics • Astronomy • Meteorology • Etc. • The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.

4. How do we get there? • Astronauts and supplies are ferried by the U.S. space shuttles and the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. • Astronauts who reach the facility aboard one of these missions typically live and work in orbit for about six months.

5. Station Structure • The ISS is a third generation modular space station. • Modular stations can allow the mission to be changed over time and new modules can be added or removed from the existing structure, allowing greater flexibility.

6. Canada’s Contribution… • Along with the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan, Canada is a partner in the International Space Station (ISS), an orbiting research laboratory. • The station is about as long as a Canadian football field, and has as much living space as a five-bedroom house.

7. Canada's contribution to the ISS is the Mobile Servicing System (MSS)—a sophisticated robotics suite that assembled the station in space, module by module. • The MSS is comprised of: • Canadarm2, a 17-metre long robotic arm. • Dextre, the station's two-armed robotic "handyman“. • The Mobile Base is a moveable work platform and storage facility.

8. Chris Hadfield • Retired Canadian astronaut who was the first Canadian to walk in space. • An Engineer and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot, Hadfield has flown two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the ISS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPw8C1fID80

9. Chris can teach us a lot about life on the ISS…and life on Earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bCoGC532p8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE1IPiWs-Lg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JPuaRBTMKs&list=UUtGG8ucQgEJPeUPhJZ4M4jA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hj3GnPRsJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxOp_Rd8_cA

10. Microgravity • The Earth's gravity is only slightly weaker at the altitude of the ISS than at the surface. • However, objects in orbit are in a continuous state of freefall, resulting in an apparent state of weightlessness. • Researchers are investigating the effect of the station's near-weightless environment on the evolution, development, growth and internal processes of plants and animals.

11. The Effects of Microgravity on Us • Not having to bear weight on your feet sounds relaxing, but in the long term there are many health problems associated with it. • Bones and muscles weaken, and other changes also take place within the body. • One of the functions of the ISS is to study how astronaut health is affected by long periods in weightlessness. • This will also be a huge focus of the first one-year ISS mission in 2015.

12. Temporary Health Effects • Weightlessness causes several key systems of the body to relax, as it is no longer fighting the pull of gravity. • Astronauts' sense of up and down gets confused, NASA said, because the vestibular system no longer can figure out where the ground and the ceiling are. • Spacecraft designers take this into account; the ISS, for example, has all of its writing on the walls pointing in the same direction.

13. Crewmembers also experience a disruption in their proprioceptive system, which tells where arms, legs and other parts of the body are oriented relative to each other. • "The first night in space when I was drifting off to sleep," one Apollo astronaut said in a NASA interview, "I suddenly realized that I had lost track of ... my arms and legs. For all my mind could tell, my limbs were not there.“ • This disorientation can cause astronauts to become queasy for a few days. One famous example took place during Apollo 9 in 1969: • Rusty Schweickart had to change a planned spacewalk because he was feeling ill. • The concern was that if he vomited while in his spacesuit, the fluid could spread through his helmet (making it hard to see) or interfere with the breathing apparatus and cause him to potentially choke to death.

14. Long-term health effects • Astronauts in space for weeks to months can run into trouble. • Calcium in bones secretes out through urine. • As the bones weaken, astronauts are more susceptible to breaking them if they slip and fall, just like people with osteoporosis. Muscles also lose mass. • Astronauts typically exercise two hours a day in space to counteract these effects, but it still takes months of rehabilitation to adjust on Earth after a typical six-month space mission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ0PxT7wnuU

15. The first one-year mission to the ISS will take place in 2015. • One of the astronauts, Scott Kelly, has a twin, Mark, who will remain on Earth. • The brothers have volunteered to be guinea pigs to look at effects on Scott Kelly's body in weightlessness in comparison to Mark Kelly's body on Earth.

16. In Summary… • The International Space Station (ISS) is an orbiting laboratory and construction site that synthesizes the scientific expertise of 16 nations to maintain a permanent human outpost in space. • Along with the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan, Canada is a partner in the International Space Station (ISS), an orbiting research laboratory. • Chris Hadfield is Canada’s world famous astronaut to first walk in space. • Microgravity can have serious short and long term effects on astronauts.