“Space is not far from us, just an hour's drive away, if your car is capable of going up,” said the British astronomer Fred Hoyle. So, you have such a machine. So you're in orbit. Now forget everything that you took for granted on Earth. In space, you can't just take and …
But stop. Not in open space, of course - on the ISS. In an airless space without a spacesuit, you will not last even a couple of minutes. First, your lungs and digestive tract will be filled with expanding gases (due to the fact that there is no external pressure in space) inside the body. This will burst the lungs, water on the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth and nose will quickly boil and evaporate, and gas bubbles will enter the bloodstream. Radiation from the sun will burn your skin. And then the banal suffocation will come. And then the blood boils … Well, okay, you're on the ISS. Things are good. But there are also many of their own "no". In addition to the obvious - walking, standing, lying - in space you can't …
See the stars twinkle
Everything is simple here. As the "universal man" Leonardo da Vinci said, "the blue of the sky is due to the thickness of illuminated air particles, which is located between the Earth and the blackness above." For the same reason, stars do not twinkle in space. Because of the "thickness of air particles", that is, the atmosphere. Looking through it at the stars is about the same as looking through water. The water is moving, so the stars begin to "shake". But the air in our atmosphere is in constant motion, and even of different density, and there is no air in space. And there is no flicker.
View from the ISS.
Write with a ballpoint pen
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Have you ever wondered why the pen stops writing on the wall or ceiling? This is understandable because the ink does not flow to the tiny ball at the end of the rod. A regular pen needs gravity to "push" the ink towards the base of the pen and you can write. But what do they write in orbit? Soviet cosmonauts wrote with wax pencils (graphite rods could break off and become a threat to equipment and the respiratory system of people). American astronauts used felt-tip pens.
Space Pen (Russian space-pen - "space pen", also known as Zero Gravity Pen - "weightlessness pen") - a ballpoint pen made and marketed by Fisher Spacepen Co. in which ink is contained in a special pressurized cartridge.
There is a well-known legend that NASA allocated $ 1 million to create a pen that can write in the absence of gravity. It is not true. The Zero Gravity Pen, or Space Pen, was indeed developed (and is actively used today on the ISS), not by NASA, but by the American inventor and entrepreneur Paul Fisher. And it really took more than $ 1 million to create it, but from the personal funds of a businessman. The ink in the "space pen" is in a special cartridge pressurized with compressed nitrogen. And they can write, according to the developers, not only in zero gravity, but also under water, on wet and greasy paper, at any angle and at extreme temperatures. The price of such a pen for the Apollo program (the one when the Americans flew to the moon) was $ 6.
Boil the kettle
In the "earthly" sense of the word. Let's remember the school physics course. The higher we go, the lower the boiling point of water. It's all about the pressure of the atmosphere. At the top of the mountain, it will be less than at its foot. Therefore, in the absence of pressure, as in space, the water will boil almost instantly (and only then the particles of its vapor will freeze, since it is very cold in space). But on the ISS, pressure (and temperature, of course) is created artificially (without it the astronauts would simply have died), although not the same as on Earth, but it is still possible to boil water with it. It will boil at 85 ° C. But not all.
31st expedition to the ISS. European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, flight engineer, plays with water in space. September 20, 2012.
In boiling, not only pressure is important, but also convection - simply mixing the liquid when heated (due to the action of gravity). There is no convection on the ISS (including air convection, so powerful fans work there; otherwise, the astronauts would have to breathe in the air that they just exhaled, and soon would simply suffocate), so water in zero gravity begins to boil only in place heating, and the rest remains cold. Therefore, a special "smart" kettle is installed on the ISS. The most expensive in the world.
Find out the exact time
According to Einstein's theory of relativity. Don't be alarmed. It's simple. There is no gravity in orbit (or rather, it is there, but quite small - the complete absence of gravity is possible only in distant space, where there are no large planets and stars nearby). But the ISS itself revolves around the Earth at a breakneck speed - 7.9 km / s. And based on the theory of relativity, gravity and high speed change the flow of time, slowing it down. You don't need to delve into it. Just take it as a fact - time flows on the ISS and on Earth differently. It's faster on Earth, slower on the ISS. For a split second. What nonsense? If the astronaut has been in orbit for a couple of months. But if he returned from a trip to another star, he will not even find his great-grandchildren on Earth - by that time they will have died.
40th expedition to the ISS. Flight engineer Oleg Artemiev shared a snapshot of various timing devices that he uses in orbit.
Put on perfume
It is simply forbidden to take them to the ISS. And that's why. In space, the sense of smell and taste changes. Not necessarily strong, and everyone has it differently. But mostly in the direction of a milder taste and a pungent smell. That is, the borscht will be somehow unsalted, and the smell of roses will be somehow very sharp. Primarily because in zero gravity, more blood accumulates in the upper body than it does on Earth. Because of this, the olfactory and taste buds fail. The flavors are weaker, so a lot of all sorts of hot sauces and seasonings are supplied to the ISS. Olfactory is the opposite. So no perfume or colognes.
A festive feast on the ISS in honor of the crew change.
By the way, space itself has a scent. Despite all its vacuum, in which, as you know, odors do not spread (but the vacuum is far from empty, there is a certain number of atoms in it). They say it smells like fried steak or welding. And the moon smells like gunpowder.
Give up sports
No stress - muscles atrophy. For the full program. Our body is lazy, in a state of weightlessness it very quickly gets used to the fact that everything is “easy and simple”. You don't have to bother to walk: swim yourself among the countless wires and buttons. Therefore, at one time, after returning to the "vale of tears," the cosmonauts for some time could not even walk - their muscles were so weak. Today their routine is daily and compulsory physical exercise. And still, after the flight, they don't feel like a cucumber at all.
Astronaut Suny Williams works on the first treadmill installed on the ISS.
Sneeze
Of course you can. But with other consequences. More serious than on Earth. If you sneeze hard in zero gravity, a reactive effect will be created that will spin a person and then there is a great risk of getting hit on the back of the head with a “wall”, “ceiling” or “floor” (none of these concepts are on the ISS, of course).
Crew of the 37th expedition to the ISS.
By the way, for the same reason, we do not recommend that you shoot in space (not on the ISS, where this will lead, first of all, to depressurization of the station, but in airless space). Remember Newton's third law. The force acting on the bullet will equally exert the reaction force on the pistol in your hand. And so, on you. But in space, there are almost no atoms holding back your movement in the opposite direction. So get ready that you will be carried in this very direction. Albeit with a speed much slower than a bullet (after all, you weigh a lot more). And yes, the bullet will move forever. And you too. Because, as astronomer Matiya Cook says, "The universe is expanding faster than a bullet."
Long look at the flames
Light, for example, a match on the ISS is possible (if you do not take into account the ban on "smuggling" of such things). But it will burn in a different way. In zero gravity, hot air does not tend upward, so the flame of a match will not be elongated, as on Earth, but round, like a bathing cap. And also, due to the lack of gravity, the processes of transition of combustion particles from an area with a high temperature to areas with a lower one will not occur, so the match will quickly go out.
Candle flame on Earth and in zero gravity.
Olga Fadeeva