I'm making my way through Scott Kelly's new book "Endurance" and there's a couple of things that have stood out to me so far.
One is a mention of the feeling that astronauts on the International Space Station get to missing feeling something related to nature. As far as I know there isn't a word for that yet, but it makes sense. Being in what basically is an office for a year with artificial lighting makes me wonder about the first astronauts to Mars and what feelings the astronauts will have being disconnected for so long from seeing anything Earth related for months and possibly years at at time.
The second notion is just how much Scott Kelly had to deal with mechanical problems on ISS, namely his problem with the CO2 scrubbers throughout his time up there. It makes me realize just how much when we engineer for things for the mission to Mars the need to keep shit as simple as possible. The more time spent trying to solve things and taking apart things that were put together in the hardest way possible eats up resources that distract people from what they need to get done. This principle is true in a lot of scenarios, but seems to be amplified even more so in human spaceflight.
The final thing that I've noticed so far is just how far we need to go still in understanding humanity in zero G and in space. Scott Kelly's health problems from space are known from various news articles and he mentions in his book the loss of vision as well as the pressure buildup in the upper body. I find it interesting that we're trying to devise pants that "suck" pressure back down to the lower half of the body. I find it an interesting solution to the problem; and much cheaper than myself constantly pushing the idea of a rotating space station to general artificial gravity. How effective it is remains to be seen. The study is here and is called the 'Fluid Shifts' study.
Other things to note is just how much you don't account for while in space. For example, Scott Kelly mentions that whenever a cargo craft docks to ISS, how they have to make sure that air is circulated first before entering the craft - the craft may have a pocket of CO2 that you don't want drifting into you. The whole notion of making livable habitats in space is fascinating and complicated.
One is a mention of the feeling that astronauts on the International Space Station get to missing feeling something related to nature. As far as I know there isn't a word for that yet, but it makes sense. Being in what basically is an office for a year with artificial lighting makes me wonder about the first astronauts to Mars and what feelings the astronauts will have being disconnected for so long from seeing anything Earth related for months and possibly years at at time.
The second notion is just how much Scott Kelly had to deal with mechanical problems on ISS, namely his problem with the CO2 scrubbers throughout his time up there. It makes me realize just how much when we engineer for things for the mission to Mars the need to keep shit as simple as possible. The more time spent trying to solve things and taking apart things that were put together in the hardest way possible eats up resources that distract people from what they need to get done. This principle is true in a lot of scenarios, but seems to be amplified even more so in human spaceflight.
The final thing that I've noticed so far is just how far we need to go still in understanding humanity in zero G and in space. Scott Kelly's health problems from space are known from various news articles and he mentions in his book the loss of vision as well as the pressure buildup in the upper body. I find it interesting that we're trying to devise pants that "suck" pressure back down to the lower half of the body. I find it an interesting solution to the problem; and much cheaper than myself constantly pushing the idea of a rotating space station to general artificial gravity. How effective it is remains to be seen. The study is here and is called the 'Fluid Shifts' study.
Other things to note is just how much you don't account for while in space. For example, Scott Kelly mentions that whenever a cargo craft docks to ISS, how they have to make sure that air is circulated first before entering the craft - the craft may have a pocket of CO2 that you don't want drifting into you. The whole notion of making livable habitats in space is fascinating and complicated.
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