Complete Tour of the International Space Station

[Yazata]

This is interesting. It's a US astronaut narrating a tour through all the modules of the Space Station. He proceeds through the American, European and Japanese modules (bright, relatively spacious and well lit) and the Russian modules (dark, cramped and pretty clearly based on old Soviet-era technology) He did make what sounds like an old astronaut joke about NASA gear though while showing us the Station's vacuum cleaner: "It's the only piece of NASA gear that doesn't suck."

In real life it's apparent that a lot of thought went into everything.

He shows you their individual living quarters (smaller than closets but he says he likes his and doesn't need more space) and he shows you how he sleeps in a sleeping bag and his two laptops (one has the internet, which is only up about half the time) and another laptop connected to the Station's LAN, which has work schedules and stuff. They also have iPads and old 20th century style written notebooks. He shows you all kinds of science experiments and where the crew eats, how they eat, what they eat and how they cook it. There's a dinner table (up against a wall), but nobody sits there but floats around instead. The don't set things on the table since nothing 'sets', though the table is velcro and they stick stuff to it. They gather to watch movies while floating there. There are gym facilities, including a treadmill and a weight lifting machine, and he opines on how well they work in zero G (pretty well, actually). And there's their toilet where they take craps and urinate in zero G, and shows you the gear for that. (Admit it, everyone's wondered.) He says that it's 50 year old technology, but it works well. Solid waste is put in non-returnable supply capsules and burns up, while urine is recycled.

Everyone seems to wear sock feet and they hook their toes in little padded bars in strategic spots, to keep from floating around.

My first impression is how messy it looks (like my house!) with stuff everywhere. Except here there isn't any up and down, and there isn't any floor in zero G. All the walls have gear and cabinets and jumbles of cables and stuff. They call down 'nadir' and up 'zenith'. So they might say when encountering a 6-way junction (front-back, up-down, left-right) 'moving nadir'. It looks like a maze.

The coolest place on the Station is the cupola, a bump on the station's side with windows all around. Great views. The astronut says that he'd like to spend all his time there, but unfortunately they make him work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvTmdIhYnes

This gives an idea what it looks like inside, with a colorfully dressed female astronaut in the picture. You can see the blue toe-hook bars above and below her.

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The cupola --

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[C C]

. . . And there's their toilet where they take craps and urinate in zero G, and shows you the gear for that. (Admit it, everyone's wondered.) He says that it's 50 year old technology, but it works well.

Which perhaps says a lot about how absolute necessity finally provokes design improvement, considering that the nasty Elsan toilet and urine tubes of some WWII bombers were only 2-plus decades earlier.

When Nature Calls: The Elsan was hated [...] While we were flying in rough air, this devils convenience often shared its contents with the floor of the aircraft, the walls, and ceiling and sometimes, a bit remained in the container itself. It doesn't take much imagination to picture what it was like trying to combat fear and airsickness while struggling to remove enough gear in cramped quarters and at the same time trying to use the bloody Elsan.

[...] Another necessary caution on urination was to warn the ball turret gunner if the relief tube was to be used. The stream of urine from this tube impacted onto his turret while flowing in the air stream. At high altitudes, it froze as a yellow cloud on his turret. The instruction was to warn him about your intention so that he could turn his view screen away from the relief tube. When not warned, his guns were useless since he had no visibility until the yellow cloud melted at lower altitudes. Often, forgetful urinators were cursed roundly by the ball turret gunners.

~

[Yazata]

Here's a young Italian austronaut showing off the Space Station's elegant toilet. (It's Russian made!) There's a urine tube with kind of a funnel attachment on the end (the hose has suction, the astronaut in the first video compared it to a shop-vac).

Turds go into a silver can that also has suction to keep the turds (and the smell) from getting loose and floating away. The toilet seat looks uncomfortable, more like a gasket than a seat, but our Italian lady tells us that it's not bad, since you don't really put weight on it in zero G. Apparently you just float your butt up to it and direct the turds in where the suction catches them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-65mBQ7s_Q

The whole toilet space is about the size of an outhouse or a porta-potty and has a curtain for a door.

The turds in the can are put into a space capsule that burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. The urine goes into a recycler and they end up drinking it again. (Tasty!)

The astronauts all say that the Space Station experience is kind of like camping. If you're ok with camping, you will be ok with the Space Station too.

[Yazata]

Here's the inside of the Russian side of the Space Station. It's a lot more cramped than the American, European and Japanese modules. But the Russians live there and seem to like it. They have their own bathroom. The Russian modules are where the Soyuz capsules dock with the station. (They are currently the only way to get to and from the station from Earth.) So we are taken to see the inside of a Soyuz. Starting around the end of this year or early next year, SpaceX Dragon II and competing Boeing capsules should begin flying astronauts to and from the station. They will dock on one of the American modules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJT0FMN_Ua0