Questions tagged [astronauts]
Questions regarding people present on spacecraft or space stations.
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How have space suits dissipated the heat removed from astronauts?
I never thought about this until reading the comments below this answer. To radiate something like 150W (a very conservative lower limit of human + suit systems heat production - see @Uwe 's comment ...
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What would happen if a mutiny occurred on the International Space Station?
Historically, mutiny has often occurred in close-quarter situations. While the International Space Station (ISS) is not a military operation, the term mutiny is often used to refer any sort of ...
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When the ISS accelerates, do the astronauts feel it?
The ISS has thrusters to avoid debris and to combat orbital decay. Do the astronauts feel the station accelerating? Do they have to hold onto something and is it the same when they rotate the station ...
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What are the consequences if an astronaut's helmet gets damaged during a spacewalk?
Note: This has become a frequently asked question. Some related situations which have been regarded as duplicates of this question include these:
Leaving vehicle / going outside without spacesuit or ...
Praveen Kadambari
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How would travel to Mars without artificial gravity affect a crew's initial experience in Mars gravity?
This answer and the linked YouTube video discuss some difficulties with the experience of artificial "gravity" generated by small rotating craft (like one that could be launched to Mars in the near ...
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Do ISS astronauts notice, or experience symptoms of elevated CO2 levels? Do they wear monitors regularly?
A recent (Sept. 2017) news item on the company website of Gas Sensing Solutions Innovative sensor technology assists NASA with vital wearable CO2 monitoring equipment caught my eye. A section of the ...
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Why are these astronauts green?
The Space.com article Space Station Crew Returns to Earth Tonight: Watch It Live leads with a photo of three astronauts on the ISS that are backlit with bright green light, which can also be seen ...
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What medical conditions can impede someone from going into space?
Are there any physical, mental, or health-related medical conditions that could permanently exclude someone from going into space?
Do the criteria differ from one country's (government sponsored or ...
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Becoming an astronaut with engineering background
Which engineering branch will be most suitable for becoming an astronaut, and what other options do I have if I want to become an astronaut with an engineering background?
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Is the Skylab 4 mutiny just a myth?
Within the space history community, it is commonly known [citation needed] that the rookie Skylab 4 crew was over-aggressively scheduled by ground control. As they fell further & further behind ...
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Were cosmonauts equipped with poison pills?
It's frequently claimed without citation that Alexey Leonov carried a poison pill of some kind during his Voskhod 2 spacewalk mission, to commit suicide should he be unable to re-enter the spacecraft. ...
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Has sound ever been used to diagnose a problem not shown by other measurements?
In a video released by NASA here, showing Perseverance recording one of Ingenuity's flights, they have the quotes:
Sound adds a new dimension to space exploration.
and
As a mechanic listens to a ...
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Why doesn't the ISS start to spin if people walk inside?
I have read that prior to launch all people and tools are fastened down to prevent a rocket from losing the balance. Why doesn't the ISS begin to spin as astronauts are walking inside of it? Or is ...
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Was Alexander Gerst the first man to have bare skin exposed to the vacuum of space and live?
On August 30, 2018, a hole was found in the Soyuz Orbital Module on the ISS. Astronaut Alexander Gerst initially plugged it with his thumb, meaning a part of his bare skin touched space. I can't find ...
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Does NASA hire foreign nationals as astronauts?
I've dreamed about it ever since I was six, and where I live people laugh at me when I tell them about this because for one, no one's ever been an astronaut in my country and two, I'm a girl. But I'll ...
maya
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How many seconds of near-zero gravity are practical with a Reduced Gravity Aircraft?
When I saw "50 seconds of weightlessness" (see quote below) I made a very rough estimate based on 45 degrees nose-up to 45 degrees nose-down Reduced Gravity Flight centered at about 35,000 feet where ...
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Does sunlight warm an astronaut's face during a spacewalk?
I understand astronauts' helmets have dichroic optical filters to protect from many different frequencies of EM radiation. Do the filters prevent the astronaut from feeling warmth on their skin when ...
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Do astronauts have to use sunscreen?
Of course the space suits can block most part of the radiation, but do the astronauts need to use sunscreen to protect their faces from the radiation passing thought the helmet or passing through the ...
user17622
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Did the Apollo astronauts ever take any medications while on their mission in order to calm their nerves?
Are there any indications that Apollo astronauts took any medication to overcome conditions like fear or claustrophobia? Or did NASA rely purely on training to prepare the astronauts for situations in ...
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What are the most serious injuries that astronauts have suffered while in orbit?
Among astronauts in orbit, what is the worst real injury recorded?
Has anyone hit himself on the thumb with a hammer or something? Squeezed a finger in a closing door? Gotten poisoned by some leaking ...
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When/where did the cosmonauts fight wolves?
When/where did the cosmonauts fight wolves? or was it bears? With a gun? Could someone provide a more complete story?
One of comments on the article TidalWave linked in the Soyuz joysticks question ...
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Size of Apollo era astronauts
I had read that the early astronauts were all 'short guys'. This made a lot of sense. A short man can have as much stamina and endurance as a large man, yet eat less, consume less oxygen & (...
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Do astronauts on board the ISS have a backup spacesuit?
Do astronauts on the International Space Station have a backup spacesuit with them so that they could use it in case of any malfunction with one of the spacesuits?
If so, how many spacesuits does ...
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What do astronauts eat for pre-flight breakfast?
I’m currently reading W. David Wood’s rather excellent “How Apollo Flew To The Moon” which details the technological development and execution in reaching the moon with the Apollo program.
Part of ...
user21233
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If I want to be an astronaut pilot, what career should I start?
What kind of career should I start if I want to be an astronaut pilot?
First astronauts were military aircraft pilots. Since those days, automatic flying was present in the spacecraft so that someone ...
user55
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Do the majority of astronauts experience space sickness while adapting to micro-gravitational conditions?
Do the majority of astronauts (and cosmonauts) experience nausea, or symptoms of space sickness while adapting to micro-gravitational conditions? How severe are their symptoms and how much they vary ...
user54
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Are all crew on board a spacecraft trained to handle flight-systems?
Spaceflightnow.com writes to say
(Edited to apply my highlights)
"The improvements are rather significant," Kelly said in a NASA interview. "The displays that the cosmonauts and myself ...
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Can astronauts wear eyeglasses inside their helmets during launches and landings?
Are astronauts allowed to wear their eyeglasses inside their helmets during launches and landings?? Are there any special considerations or rules?
During spaceflight (launches and landings) there can ...
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How did Alexey Leonov bleed off the pressure in his space suit?
On the Voskhod 2 mission, cosmonaut Alexey Leonov performed a spacewalk which ran into issues when Lenov's spacesuit had some sort of pressure buildup. From the wiki -
[Leonov] was forced to bleed ...
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How much jerk do astronauts experience? Is there a safety limit?
From Wikipedia:
In physics, jerk is the rate of change of acceleration; that is, the derivative of acceleration with respect to time, and as such the second derivative of velocity, or the third ...
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How many earth stations had astronauts on-site during John Glenn's orbit in Friendship-7?
The Washington Post just republished it's February 21, 1962 article covering the launch, Earth orbit, and safe re-entry and recovery of (Senator) John H. Glenn, in recognition of his service and ...
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Lunar astronauts and freezing temperatures
How do astronauts walking on the moon keep their waste body fluids from freezing in the extremely cold environment? I understand that if they need to release waste body fluids, they do so into ...
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Who is the unnamed astronaut in this uncredited photo used in commercial promotional material?
When I linked back to Do ISS astronauts notice, or experience symptoms of elevated CO2 levels? Do they wear monitors regularly? in this question, I was surprised to find that I hadn't named the ...
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Which Apollo 12 astronaut is shown examining the Surveyor 3 lander in this photograph?
I used this image in Exactly what was Surveyor 3 doing with a spring-loaded boxing glove-like device? but in the captions for the image on two NASA sites I noticed a disagreement in the identify of ...
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Is this the only eclipse where Moon's shadow on the Earth (umbra) has been photographed by a person in space?
In this nice video musing about (among other things) the US Naval Observatory's $3,500 expedition to Baker City or at least Baker County Oregon to observe the June 18, 1918 solar eclipse, there is ...
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When did an astronaut in space first see someone on a TV screen?
The Apollo missions had video cameras and transmitted live images to Earth. But what about the other direction -- astronauts seeing live images of people on Earth?
Question: When did an astronaut in ...
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Do Astronauts have their appendix removed?
A recenct article on the BBC news got me wondering about Astronauts in the ISS. technically they are fewer miles from the closest hospital, but the transportation is bit more complex.
Imagine that ...
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How tall do you have to be to be an astronaut?
Currently I am 13 years old and the thought of space amazes me. I am 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 m) tall. I researched how tall you had to be to be an astronaut. Sites agreed and disagreed, throwing out a ...
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Did the astronauts seated on the space shuttle mid-deck have responsibilities during reentry and landing?
Space Shuttle mid-deck, it doesn't look like there is much for the astronauts there to do.
I recognize this photo was not taken during a mission.
I couldn't find an image of the mid-deck during ...
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What is the largest number of humans in space at the same time and what vessels were they on when it happened?
What is the largest number of human beings in space at the same time, and what vessels were they on when it happened?
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What happens to astronaut sweat on the ISS?
Does perspiration from the astronauts aboard the ISS stick to the skin, evaporate or somehow float away from the skin?
Is the part of the sweat that sticks to an astronaut's skin kept there until they ...
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Do ISS astronauts have to be conversant in both English and Russian?
I've noticed that some of the American astronauts on the ISS can speak (at least a smattering of) Russian and similarly, some of the Russian cosmonauts are fluent in English. Is such bilinguality a ...
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How far have astronauts been in space?
I just listened to a podcast where it was said that astronauts have only been at most 400 miles from Earth (except for the moon of course in the '60s/'70s). Is this true?
I know that the ISS orbits ...
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How can astronauts float in space without being affected by the gravitational force of nearby objects?
According to the Newton's law of universal gravitation:
Any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely ...
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How were the pilots of the space shuttle able to operate the rudder after time in space?
I've just watched this video showing three astronauts who've returned from space. At around the 5:46 mark in the video we can see astronaut Chris Hadfield being carried out of the Soyuz capsule. I've ...
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What is the difference between an astronaut in the ISS and a freediver in perfect neutral buoyancy?
For example, does the blood of the freediver accumulates in his/her head while being upside down, as it would on land, or not, as it would in microgravity environment ?
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How long were the Apollo astronauts allowed to breathe 100% oxygen at 1 atmosphere continuously?
This answer explains that from the time they suited up "in the Suit Lab before launch" until the time the capsule started depressurizing during ascent, the Apollo astronauts were breathing 100% oxygen ...
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If a human is being sent to space in a rocket, does the seating angle matter?
All manned spacecraft have had seats in an "on-back" angle for launch. What is the benefit of this seating position for a manned spacecraft launch?
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Have astronauts in space suits ever taken selfies? If so, how?
Have astronauts in space suits ever taken selfies?
Were selfie sticks used?
If not, how was this feat accomplished?
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What is this device/object that the SpaceX astronauts are holding?
Watching the SpaceX Demo-2 launch preparation livestream, I saw both Bob and Doug using some sort of little gadget. It looks like a chunky cell phone, or a flat gopro. It appears to have an LCD on the ...
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