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NASA dirty secret - you cant wash clothes in outter space! - Astronougt admits waring same unwashed underwhere from November to Feburary
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Sergio
Sep 4, 2016, 4:56:23 PM9/4/16
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Astronauts' Dirty Laundry
The International Space Station in orbit.It's been a long day, and your
clothes show it.
After you change into something more comfortable (and clean), you
realize the clothes you just took off could really use a good wash.
Unfortunately, there's no washing machine within 250 miles. That's just
a typical day of life onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
While the Space Station does offer more amenities than did earlier
spacecraft, such as the best free gym off the planet, one of the many
things it still does not have is a way to wash clothes. So, what do you
do with your dirty underwear when you're orbiting the Earth aboard a
spacecraft with no washing machine? Here are four choices.
Option One: Wear It Again
An astronaut exercising on the International Space Station. This is the
most common answer. When you're going on a long trip, it's hard to pack
enough clothes, but when you're about to spend several months on the
Space Station, it's literally impossible. Packing enough underwear for
three members of an ISS Expedition crew to have a clean pair for every
day of a 6-month stay would mean launching at least 540 pairs of
underwear into orbit. Picture how big your dresser would have to be to
hold all that. There's just no room for it on the Station. Plus, when it
costs between $5,000 and $10,000 per pound to launch it into space, that
becomes some very expensive underwear. As a result, astronauts have to
stretch out how long they wear the underwear that they can take with
them in order to make it last for their whole stay. On the Russian Space
Station Mir, that meant that cosmonauts generally had to wear their
underwear for up to a week before it was time to put on a clean pair.
On the International Space Station, things are a little bit better. In
his series of "Space Chronicles," ISS Expedition Six Science Officer Don
Pettit wrote that he changes his underwear once every 3 or 4 days.
That's not quite as bad as it sounds, since clothes don't get dirty as
quickly on the Space Station as they do on Earth. Astronauts on the
Station are living in a controlled environment, so the temperature stays
at a constant, comfortable level. And when everything around you is
virtually weightless, you don't have to exert yourself physically the
same way you do in the gravity on Earth's surface. However, astronauts
do have to spend a substantial amount of time each day exercising so
that their bodies don't atrophy in microgravity, so they do still get a
workout. And, underwear isn't the only item of clothing that gets worn
longer than usual. In an interview in February, Pettit said that he was
still wearing the same pair of shorts he had been wearing since he first
arrived on the Station - in November! Even though they have more shorts
to change into, Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox also has a
favorite pair he chooses to wear frequently. Even though there's no
laundry facility on the Station, Bowersox even figured out a way to wash
his shorts using a plastic bag.
Option Two: Turn It Into A Shooting Star
A Russian Progress ship takes trash away from the ISS. When it's time
for the Space Station crew to return to Earth at the end of their stay,
the Space Shuttle usually serves as their moving van to carry them back
home. In addition to the ISS crew and their personal effects they are
bringing back with them, the Shuttle also has to carry home science
experiments that have been completed at the Station so that new ones can
be performed there. As a result, there's not a lot of free space on the
Shuttle for the ride home, and so nobody wants to use that space to
carry several months worth of dirty underwear. So what happens to it, then?
To make sure that the ISS crew has enough food, water, and other
necessities for their stay in space, the Russian Space Agency launches
unmanned Progress ships to carry supplies to the Station. The Progress
is a nonreusable spacecraft, good for a one-way trip to the Space
Station. Once it is there and the Station crew has unloaded the
supplies, the Progress is then loaded up with trash, including dirty
laundry. Since only a limited number of Progress crafts are sent to ISS
each year, the dirty clothes can sit around on the Station for a while
before they can be disposed of. The Progress is then undocked from the
Station and "de-orbited," placed on a course that causes it to burn up
in Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Option Three: Grow Plants With It
When Science Officer Pettit recently decided to try and grow some tomato
and basil seeds he had aboard the Station, he had a problem. Since
there's no soil, he had to figure out some other way to grow the plants.
In his Space Chronicles, Pettit wrote, "To construct my planter, a
spherical core is needed. An old pair of underwear worked well. We have
supplies on Station sufficient to change our underwear perhaps once
every 3 to 4 Plants being grown on the ISS. days, so I figured there
might be a few nutrients in there as well. An old pair of underwear was
folded into a sphere and held in place with a few well-placed stitches
using needle and thread from our sewing kit." For the outside of the
planter, he sewed some Russian space toilet paper to the outer surface
of the underwear. "This toilet paper is not like what you normally think
of as toilet paper," Pettit wrote. "It consisted of two layers of
coarsely woven gauze, 4 by 6 inches in dimension sewn together at the
edges with a layer of brown tissue sandwiched in-between. It works very
well for its intended purpose. It also makes a wonderful sprouter."
After Pettit solved a problem that was causing the seeds to stay too
cold to germinate, the seeds sprouted in the underwear-toilet paper
planter within 2 days.
Option Four: Feed It To Bacteria
This one isn't really an option right now, but it might be in the
future. While the Mir station was still in orbit, Russian scientists
were already working on a new solution to the problem of dirty underwear
being stored on the Station for months at a time. The scientists began
designing a system that would use bacteria to digest the astronaut's
cotton and paper underpants. The researchers said that it was even
possible that the methane gas given off when the bacteria ate the
underwear could be used to help power the spacecraft. The system would
even be able to be used to dispose of some other waste on the Station,
as well. While the system was never completed for use on Mir
(researchers said it could take up to a decade to find the right
combination of bacteria), it may be an option for people living in space
in the future.
So while astronauts have a well-deserved reputation for being smart,
well-educated, hardworking, physically fit, sociable, dedicated people,
now you know their dirty little secret-despite their mothers' advice,
they don't always wear clean underwear.
Courtesy of NASA's Aerospace Technology Enterprise
Published by NASAexplores: April 10, 2003
The International Space Station in orbit.It's been a long day, and your
clothes show it.
After you change into something more comfortable (and clean), you
realize the clothes you just took off could really use a good wash.
Unfortunately, there's no washing machine within 250 miles. That's just
a typical day of life onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
While the Space Station does offer more amenities than did earlier
spacecraft, such as the best free gym off the planet, one of the many
things it still does not have is a way to wash clothes. So, what do you
do with your dirty underwear when you're orbiting the Earth aboard a
spacecraft with no washing machine? Here are four choices.
Option One: Wear It Again
An astronaut exercising on the International Space Station. This is the
most common answer. When you're going on a long trip, it's hard to pack
enough clothes, but when you're about to spend several months on the
Space Station, it's literally impossible. Packing enough underwear for
three members of an ISS Expedition crew to have a clean pair for every
day of a 6-month stay would mean launching at least 540 pairs of
underwear into orbit. Picture how big your dresser would have to be to
hold all that. There's just no room for it on the Station. Plus, when it
costs between $5,000 and $10,000 per pound to launch it into space, that
becomes some very expensive underwear. As a result, astronauts have to
stretch out how long they wear the underwear that they can take with
them in order to make it last for their whole stay. On the Russian Space
Station Mir, that meant that cosmonauts generally had to wear their
underwear for up to a week before it was time to put on a clean pair.
On the International Space Station, things are a little bit better. In
his series of "Space Chronicles," ISS Expedition Six Science Officer Don
Pettit wrote that he changes his underwear once every 3 or 4 days.
That's not quite as bad as it sounds, since clothes don't get dirty as
quickly on the Space Station as they do on Earth. Astronauts on the
Station are living in a controlled environment, so the temperature stays
at a constant, comfortable level. And when everything around you is
virtually weightless, you don't have to exert yourself physically the
same way you do in the gravity on Earth's surface. However, astronauts
do have to spend a substantial amount of time each day exercising so
that their bodies don't atrophy in microgravity, so they do still get a
workout. And, underwear isn't the only item of clothing that gets worn
longer than usual. In an interview in February, Pettit said that he was
still wearing the same pair of shorts he had been wearing since he first
arrived on the Station - in November! Even though they have more shorts
to change into, Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox also has a
favorite pair he chooses to wear frequently. Even though there's no
laundry facility on the Station, Bowersox even figured out a way to wash
his shorts using a plastic bag.
Option Two: Turn It Into A Shooting Star
A Russian Progress ship takes trash away from the ISS. When it's time
for the Space Station crew to return to Earth at the end of their stay,
the Space Shuttle usually serves as their moving van to carry them back
home. In addition to the ISS crew and their personal effects they are
bringing back with them, the Shuttle also has to carry home science
experiments that have been completed at the Station so that new ones can
be performed there. As a result, there's not a lot of free space on the
Shuttle for the ride home, and so nobody wants to use that space to
carry several months worth of dirty underwear. So what happens to it, then?
To make sure that the ISS crew has enough food, water, and other
necessities for their stay in space, the Russian Space Agency launches
unmanned Progress ships to carry supplies to the Station. The Progress
is a nonreusable spacecraft, good for a one-way trip to the Space
Station. Once it is there and the Station crew has unloaded the
supplies, the Progress is then loaded up with trash, including dirty
laundry. Since only a limited number of Progress crafts are sent to ISS
each year, the dirty clothes can sit around on the Station for a while
before they can be disposed of. The Progress is then undocked from the
Station and "de-orbited," placed on a course that causes it to burn up
in Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Option Three: Grow Plants With It
When Science Officer Pettit recently decided to try and grow some tomato
and basil seeds he had aboard the Station, he had a problem. Since
there's no soil, he had to figure out some other way to grow the plants.
In his Space Chronicles, Pettit wrote, "To construct my planter, a
spherical core is needed. An old pair of underwear worked well. We have
supplies on Station sufficient to change our underwear perhaps once
every 3 to 4 Plants being grown on the ISS. days, so I figured there
might be a few nutrients in there as well. An old pair of underwear was
folded into a sphere and held in place with a few well-placed stitches
using needle and thread from our sewing kit." For the outside of the
planter, he sewed some Russian space toilet paper to the outer surface
of the underwear. "This toilet paper is not like what you normally think
of as toilet paper," Pettit wrote. "It consisted of two layers of
coarsely woven gauze, 4 by 6 inches in dimension sewn together at the
edges with a layer of brown tissue sandwiched in-between. It works very
well for its intended purpose. It also makes a wonderful sprouter."
After Pettit solved a problem that was causing the seeds to stay too
cold to germinate, the seeds sprouted in the underwear-toilet paper
planter within 2 days.
Option Four: Feed It To Bacteria
This one isn't really an option right now, but it might be in the
future. While the Mir station was still in orbit, Russian scientists
were already working on a new solution to the problem of dirty underwear
being stored on the Station for months at a time. The scientists began
designing a system that would use bacteria to digest the astronaut's
cotton and paper underpants. The researchers said that it was even
possible that the methane gas given off when the bacteria ate the
underwear could be used to help power the spacecraft. The system would
even be able to be used to dispose of some other waste on the Station,
as well. While the system was never completed for use on Mir
(researchers said it could take up to a decade to find the right
combination of bacteria), it may be an option for people living in space
in the future.
So while astronauts have a well-deserved reputation for being smart,
well-educated, hardworking, physically fit, sociable, dedicated people,
now you know their dirty little secret-despite their mothers' advice,
they don't always wear clean underwear.
Courtesy of NASA's Aerospace Technology Enterprise
Published by NASAexplores: April 10, 2003
The Starmaker
Sep 4, 2016, 5:54:13 PM9/4/16
to
i'm sure the chineese would not have that problem...
Sergio
Sep 4, 2016, 9:20:06 PM9/4/16
to
On 9/4/2016 4:55 PM, The Starmaker wrote:
> i'm sure the chineese would not have that problem...
>
No tickie, No laundry.
> i'm sure the chineese would not have that problem...
>
noTthaTguY
Sep 6, 2016, 1:39:10 PM9/6/16
to
latticve structure of air,
chop
> No tickie, No laundry.
chop
> No tickie, No laundry.
Serigo
Sep 22, 2016, 11:14:29 PM9/22/16
to
> This one isn't really an option right now, but it might be in the
> future. While the Mir station was still in orbit, Russian scientists
> were already working on a new solution to the problem of dirty underwear
> being stored on the Station for months at a time. The scientists began
> designing a system that would use bacteria to digest the astronaut's
> cotton and paper underpants. The researchers said that it was even
> possible that the methane gas given off when the bacteria ate the
> underwear could be used to help power the spacecraft. The system would
> even be able to be used to dispose of some other waste on the Station,
> as well. While the system was never completed for use on Mir
> (researchers said it could take up to a decade to find the right
> combination of bacteria), it may be an option for people living in space
> in the future.
.
> So while astronauts have a well-deserved reputation for being smart,
> well-educated, hardworking, physically fit, sociable, dedicated people,
> now you know their dirty little secret-despite their mothers' advice,
> they don't always wear clean underwear.
>
>
> Courtesy of NASA's Aerospace Technology Enterprise
> Published by NASAexplores: April 10, 2003
.
> future. While the Mir station was still in orbit, Russian scientists
> were already working on a new solution to the problem of dirty underwear
> being stored on the Station for months at a time. The scientists began
> designing a system that would use bacteria to digest the astronaut's
> cotton and paper underpants. The researchers said that it was even
> possible that the methane gas given off when the bacteria ate the
> underwear could be used to help power the spacecraft. The system would
> even be able to be used to dispose of some other waste on the Station,
> as well. While the system was never completed for use on Mir
> (researchers said it could take up to a decade to find the right
> combination of bacteria), it may be an option for people living in space
> in the future.
.
> So while astronauts have a well-deserved reputation for being smart,
> well-educated, hardworking, physically fit, sociable, dedicated people,
> now you know their dirty little secret-despite their mothers' advice,
> they don't always wear clean underwear.
>
>
> Courtesy of NASA's Aerospace Technology Enterprise
> Published by NASAexplores: April 10, 2003
Wally W.
Sep 23, 2016, 1:36:13 AM9/23/16
to
On Thu, 22 Sep 2016 22:14:12 -0500, Serigo wrote:
>On the Russian Space
>> Station Mir, that meant that cosmonauts generally had to wear their
>> underwear for up to a week before it was time to put on a clean pair.
Somehow, Walter Cronkite's vision of the future spewed to kiddies of
>On the Russian Space
>> Station Mir, that meant that cosmonauts generally had to wear their
>> underwear for up to a week before it was time to put on a clean pair.
the 1960s didn't include this info on the glamour of living in space.
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