The ISS: the International Space Station

The ISS

The French astronaut Thomas Pesquet returned recently from his six-month mission in low Earth orbit aboard the ISS, the International Space Station. Here is a quick overview of its history, features, and mission.

What is the ISS?

The ISS is the only international space station. The station moves around the Earth in low orbit at an altitude of between 360 and 400 kilometers and travels around our planet in ninety minutes.

Sixteen times a day, it spends 45 minutes in the dark and the following 45 minutes exposed to the sun.

The habitable volume of the station is 388 cubic meters. The station is 109 meters long, 73 meters wide, and weighs 419 tons. It’s the most complex and massive object assembled in space. It is also the most expensive ever manufactured by man. It is estimated that it cost $150 billion.

Thomas Pesquet

What is the ISS used for?

The ISS is mainly a large scientific laboratory where hundreds of experiments are carried out.

The Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, who is the tenth Frenchman to have spent time in space, carried out a hundred different experiments during the six months of his stay aboard the station.

His experiments were mainly to do with health and medicine.

Who pays for the ISS?

The station is co-managed by five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan) and CSA (Canada) and financed by sixteen countries: the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and eleven European countries, including France.

These 16 countries signed an intergovernmental cooperation agreement on 29^th January 1998. Most of the costs are met by NASA.

How many people are permanently in the ISS?

The ISS permanently hosts 6 people.

Each group of three astronauts spends six months in the station.

How do I travel to the ISS?

Up to 2011, journeys to the ISS were by the US Space Shuttle, launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, or by the Soyuz vessel from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Since 2011, the only way to reach the ISS is with the Russian Soyuz.

Is there a procedure to get the astronauts back in case something goes wrong?

In case of problems, two Russian Soyuz vessels are permanently attached to the International Space Station. One arrives with the astronauts, the other is used to return to Earth.

Both vessels can be used to evacuate the station in the event of a major malfunction.

What will become of the station?

The International Space Station will remain operational until at least 2024; the various partners have pledged to finance the program until this date.

With the advent of private partners such as SpaceX, NASA will be able to progressively reorient its budget to finance ambitious mid-term projects, such as returning to the Moon or manned missions to Mars.

To replace the current International Space Station, the agencies are considering the construction of a station in a cistern orbit, that is, an orbit around Earth-Moon.

Article by Hugo Abelard

All agog at Google goggles! By Benjamin

Recently, researchers from the famous Google company presented Project Glass: spectacles equipped with the Android system. Using Google glasses, you can easily consult your SMS, your mails, your music, and you can also take photos and surf on the Web!

It seems to be totally crazy and unrealistic but Google says that these glasses, which are still a prototype, could be marketed soon.

With this new invention Google is trying to meet the challenge of Apple's iphone, and it is also a way to show the world its ambition to become the hightech number 1. The question is, is it just a publicity stunt or a real invention?

In my opinion, it would be such fun to watch a video on your glasses when someone you don’t find interesting speaks to you, or to call your friends and play video games at the same time… In few months, if you see lots of people tripping over in the street, you will know why!

Bless you, viruses!

Is there anything better guaranteed to ruin your summer holidays than catching a nasty cold? Swimming and living your life to the full become a no-no. I just feel bored, useless, a real vegetable. I wonder how I could do something useful, to contribute to family life, even if I am sick. In fact, the only thing you can do is to sleep like a doormouse and take disgusting medicine to recover... But, how about creating energy thanks to my cold? Will viruses be our future allies to power the world?!

Scientists in the US have developed a way to generate electricity using viruses according to BBC news in an article published last May (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18074644). The principle is quite simple: negatively charged molecules and viruses are connected to particles which increase the voltage of the viruses. These arrange themselves into an “orderly film” called piezoelectric material. By applying pressure on this film, mechanical energy is then converted into electricity. And there you have it!

At the moment, the maximum energy released has only allowed the number “1” on a screen to appear, but the researchers hope to improve this revolutionary technique using nanotechnology.

In my opinion, a new step has been crossed in biochemical energy development. Thanks to these scientists, in the future, we will be able to produce our own energy so as to power our own batteries, generators, devices. Just imagine the number of viruses that are in the air, this potential energy which is right under our nose!

Nonetheless, this discovery implies the use of microorganisms, modified at the atomic scale and which might be dangerous for humans or the environment. Furthermore, creating personal electricity means human body mutations, and these kinds of transformations might be very dangerous...

This extraordinary discovery is only at the research stage, so I’m sure I’ll not be producing personal energy this summer thanks to my cold! However, I’m convinced that further research is a good thing.

Friendly neighbours? By Hannah & Clotilde

The article written on 5th December 2011 for BBC News deals with Kepler 22-b, a planet discovered in 2009. It is in a solar system 600 light-years away. This planet is thought to be habitable...

54 other planets are on their way to be considered as Earth-like planets too. The Kepler team doesn't know yet if Kepler 22-b is made of rock, gas or liquid, but as the planet is situated in a zone which is neither too hot nor too cold, maybe we are not alone in the Universe after all...

Read the BBC article on Kepler 22-b!

NASA over the moon!

Xenomorphobia! By Floriane

The U.S. space agency has revealed the existence of a planet similar to Earth, whose characteristics are conducive to the emergence of life. It is outside our solar system. It was spotted by the powerful telescope of the American Kepler probe, launched in March 2009.

This brings to three the number of potentially habitable planets discovered by the international scientific community. It is as yet impossible to tell if some form of life exists on them, only that the conditions are right.

So, if you're bored with life on earth, you know where you can go to start from scratch !

Read The Guardian article on Stephen Hawking giving advice about aliens! 

Do not read this New World Encyclopedia article on extraterrestrial life (too scary)!