Questions tagged [iss]
Questions about the International Space Station, a habitable man-made low Earth orbit satellite whose first component was launched in 1998 and used to conduct experiments for a wide variety of research fields in a microgravity environment.
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How close was the ISS to running out of supplies after the failure of CRS-7?
2014-2015 probably was a scary time to be aboard the ISS, though not for the usual reasons. They were worried about supplies running low, at least somewhat. There was quite the string of bad luck.
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What is the relationship between the power supply system and the thermal control system?
According to Wikipedia, the solar panels of the ISS produce an average of about 120 kW of electrical energy, which is then used by the station's systems. Can it be converted into something other than ...
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How many printed novels have been in space to date?
I am talking about actual novels brought for recreational purposes. As in manuals don't count. Also, I would like to know who and on what mission these were brought.
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How are oxygen and nitrogen replenished in the storage tanks on the ISS?
How they add gases to high pressure tanks. Will the supply trucks bring it? And how will it be connected?
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How was SSRMS IROSA IPA disposed
On this video, we can clearly see the payload being disposed, but I fail to understand how it gained so much momentum as the Canadarm appears to not be moving.
The video mention a new procedure, can ...
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Was the shot-on-the-ISS movie "The Challenge" ever released or is there a release date?
In October 2021 scenes for a movie entitled "The Challenge" were shot onboard the ISS with actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko spending a short stay on the station.
Source: ...
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Could you observe air-drag on an ISS spacewalk?
The ISS orbits in the thermosphere and needs periodic re-boosts because of air-drag. At the other extreme, the slowest(?) fixed-wing aircraft are f1d planes made out of 2 grams of balsa wood, ...
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What does trash from ISS consist of?
How much does it cost to return 1 kg from the ISS to the Earth? What are the parameters influencing this price?
What kinds of waste does the ISS dispose of? To mind come:
human waste*
household items ...
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What do the module walls look like on the ISS?
I know they are about 10cm thick and act like a whipple shield. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20120002584
It should be two layers of aluminum. But when I look at the photos from the inside, the ...
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How much does it cost to return 1 kg from the ISS to the Earth? What are the parameters influencing this price?
I heard in a few places downmass is a limiting factor in the ISS national lab capacity. Is that true?
According to NASA's pricing plan, it actually costs more to get downmass than upmass. Why is that?
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Dragon as a Lifeboat for Soyuz
The only serious alternatives I have seen reported for the current Soyuz coolant problem are to either use the existing Soyuz, hopefully patching and testing it enough while attached to ISS to be able ...
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How long does the Soyuz Instrumentation/Propulsion Module remain attached to the Descent Module during re-entry?
Soyuz MS-22, attached to the ISS, has developed a leak in an external coolant loop in the Instrumentation/Propulsion Module. This spacecraft is needed to return the three cosmonauts who are currently ...
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Why does the gold reflector of the COWVR on the ISS rotate?
The answer here What is the rotating gold object on the outside of ISS? describes in detail what the rotating dish is, and what the package is used for. However, it is not clearly explained why ...
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What is the rotating gold object on the outside of ISS?
What is the rotating gold object on the outside of ISS?
It is sometimes in view on the Live_ISS_Stream SD video feed:
https://video.ibm.com/channel/live-iss-stream#
A Google search gives no current ...
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What is the velocity of the ISS relative to the Earth's surface?
This was asked once before, but I believe there was no clear answer given and accepted.
The ISS has an orbital period of 92.9 minutes, or 5574 seconds. If it were in a completely equatorial orbit, ...
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How many kg of air escape from the Quest airlock during one EVA?
Do they have a system that pumps the air out or does it just let it out?
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How do propellant transfer technologies work?
I'm new to the aerospace world, and I was wondering how the ISS or other rockets were refueled in space. I've found some information, but most were patents and I wasn't able to understand them well.
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How can you calculate the pressure that a liquid develops when freezing in a pipe?
My current understanding is that in addition to the reasons pointed out in the answer to this question here, another reason for choosing
ammonia in the space station external coolant loops is that the ...
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Why are there so many visible cables on the exterior of the ISS?
Looking at the modules of the ISS every one of them (the Russian ones in particular) seems to be covered by silver and white cables, wires and pipes on the outside. Some of them have been added later ...
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Does the ISS keep pointing prograde for most of the time?
I know the solar panels rotate independently, so theoretically there should be no need for keeping the station pointing prograde. It would also be problematic for docking maneuvers.
But on the other ...
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Identifying Antenna-Like Object with Gold Orb on ISS [duplicate]
Many photos of the Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) show it partially obscured by an object which looks like a golden orb on a poll. What is this object?
Attempted Solution
Zooming ...
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Is there any way to predict if the ISS will lose its signal or to know it directly?
I am currently working on a project by using the ISS livestream:
https://video.ibm.com/channel/iss-hdev-payload
But sometimes there is a loss-of-signal and it displays a screen that breaks the ...
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Does NASA have any rocket options to replace ISS segments?
Roscosmos has announced their ISS partnership will end in 2 years
This might have been seen as an indication that the new administration at Roscosmos was in a more cooperative mood. Any such hopes ...
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Modelling ISS orbit in GMAT
I am a complete newbie in all things space related. I am trying to work out how I can model the orbit of the ISS in the NASA open source tool GMAT.
I can get the TLE for ISS (ZAYRA) from space-track....
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What is the orange material seen within the window frames of the Columbia Shuttle?
I'm seeing this orange material within the windows of Columbia shuttles -- any thoughts on its precise function? The ISS's Cupola also contains similar international orange bands, though they seem ...
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What percentage of humans could execute the job of astronaut if given the opportunity? [closed]
Becoming an astronaut is notoriously difficult, with something on the order of 0.01% of all applicants getting picked for the job. To a large extent this is inevitable as only a dozen people per year ...
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Why is the ISS camera (nearly) always off when passing over/near French Southern and Antarctic Lands / FSAL well south of India?
I have viewed ISS images for about 18 months and only twice seen partial glimpses of FSAL. Other areas of the world between 51 N&S latitudes routinely appear, although the camera is off sometimes....
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short duration of crew 4 mission
I am wondering why the crew 4 mission is (for the moment) only planned for 4 and half months and not the usual 6-6.5 months? Thanks.
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How spontaneously can a spacecraft be deorbited [duplicate]
Currently the return of AX-1 has been rescheduled multiple days due to weather concerns in the landing area. How quickly could astronauts on the ISS evacuate to the ground if so required?
Scenarios ...
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How fast can LEO be evacuated [duplicate]
Currently the return of AX-1 has been rescheduled multiple days due to weather concerns in the landing area. How quickly could astronauts on the ISS evacuate to the ground if so required?
Szenarios ...
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What is the maximum distance between two satellites orbiting at 400 km that would still allow them to communicate with each other using radio waves?
All satellites have the same inclination.
At an altitude of 400 km, the circumference of their orbit is $2\pi \cdot (6371+400) = 42\ 543$ km.
If, for example, you have only 2 satellites separated by ...
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Specifications for Spacecraft interior and exterior paint colours
Are there specifications for Crewed mission spacecrafts in terms of interior and exterior paint colours?
I.e. Only specific paint colours are required internally and externally.
Can these paint ...
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What will happen to the parts of the ISS after they burn up?
NASA has announced that the ISS (International Space Station) will be deorbited in 2031. Even if this date is moved the space station will eventually deorbit. Once the ISS has broken into thousands of ...
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Were Hasselblad cameras used in space after the Apollo mission?
Analog Hasselblad cameras with photochemical film were used extensively during the Apollo mission to the Moon.
Were they used later for Spacelab, Space Shuttle and Mir or ISS?
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What is this patch worn by the American astronauts?
In this image the American astronauts wear some patches on their chest but what is it?
If it is the expedition's emblem, why it is so different from Russian ones?
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Why is Nasa retiring ISS
Is there no need to do experiments in space or have that thing where people can go into space. If they spend so much time building it why just trash it for essentially nothing?
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What would happen to the ISS if the Russians undocked their part?
So... RIA Novosti (Russian media agency) made a video, where they show the Russians ostensibly undocking the Zarya module and the US part of the station falls into the atmosphere (someone was playing ...
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What is the purpose of these three taut cables near an ISS astronaut during EVA? To what do they connect and why do two appear intertwined?
During CBS News senior space analyst Bill Harwood's explanations in the video Russia's space agency severs ties with the U.S. and its European partners they keep showing the same five seconds of an ...
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Could SpaceX deliver the Interim Control Module to the ISS?
Three days ago Roscosmos chief, Dmitry Rogozin, bemoaned the sanctions on Twitter saying they could break the ISS cooperation, asking Joe Biden how he'd manage to manage the course corrections given ...
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How does the Russian invasion of Ukraine affect ISS operations? [closed]
I realise this question may be shut down as opinion-based, but here goes anyway.
With diplomatic relations in the toilet following Russian military activity in Ukraine, how will this affect future ...
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Do you need to operate laptop computers to run the ISS SSRMS robots Canadarm2 & Dextre? What if there's a pressure loss and you're wearing a suit?
Comments and to some extent the current answer to If an ISS emergency requires pressure suits temporarily, can they still use the laptops? Move the cursor? address a highly unlikely scenario where a ...
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Why procure a separate de-orbit vehicle for the ISS? Why can't the ISS flip over and de-orbit itself?
From NASA Solidifies Planning to Deorbit ISS in 2031:
ISS average altitude estimates targeting re-entry early 2021
Figure 4. shows the ISS end-of-life de-orbit altitude, cargo resupply, and de-orbit ...
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Why is ~280 km one month before reentry the lowest altitude that the final ISS crew may see? Isn't that cutting it kinda close?
Writing this answer to When will the ISS deorbit? I came across Space Policy Online's NASA Solidifies Planning to Deorbit ISS in 2031 and the image below.
It shows the estimated last crew occupying ...
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When will the ISS deorbit?
Is this undecided or still up for debate? Also, might it be delayed or put earlier for some reason? What about if we just abandon it?
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What can/do astronauts look at with the portable telescopes aboard the ISS?
I would like to know what will be the visibility from the portable telescope aboard the International Space Station.
What could they potentially view, and what are (at least some of) the things they ...
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New spin on laundry day: How will ISS cope with washing machine vibration and angular momentum?
Although the ISS currently has no laundry facilities, NASA’s Glenn Research Center sponsored a washing machine design contest to do the drudgery during spaceflight. Plans have been made for testing a ...
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How many hours/week on the ISS is spent on science vs maintenance?
This was asked in 2016 : Does ISS crew exercise time count toward their X hour work week? The answer as of 2016 was 40 hours / week for a crew of 6.
But as noted there, when the crew size increases to ...
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Why do EVA suits have legs?
Why do EVA suits have legs?
Planetary exploration suits (PES) obviously need legs. Spacesuits with legs are “a classic icon of human space exploration” and a requirement for mobility. https://www....
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Pressurized gloves have significant limitations. What are objective advantages/disadvantages of the alternatives? [closed]
Conventional EVA suits suffer from mobility and tactile sensory limitations due to their pressurization. Any articulated container which changes volume with motion will resist motion if pressurized. ...
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What are all these packages attached to a side module of the ISS? How did they all get there?
Ars Technica's New images of the International Space Station reveal that it is still a jewel includes the photo below and I've added a view of a side module with a collection of various rectangular ...
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