Today marks a special day in the history of space exploration as the International Space Station orbits the earth for the 100,000th time since it left the planet in 1998, November 20th.
In celebration of the memorable event, NASA joined forces with Snapchat to bring the public a Live Story called Day in Space. The space feed, which is still on Snapchat, follows Tim Kopra who is a NASA astronaut. Kopra is the commander of Expedition 47 and lives and works on the International Space Station (ISS).
In the video, Kopra is seen showcasing the Earth’s view from the ISS. The ISS is a Low Earth Orbit laboratory that goes around the planet once every 90 minutes at speeds of 17,500 miles per hour. Kopra says this makes him and his crew see 16 sunrises and sunsets in 24 hours.
In the Live Story, videos of Kopra doing different daily tasks can be seen. He is seen flying from module to module, performing an experiment with water droplets, eating tortilla, and doing a mid-air flip all in a gravity-free environment.
Since the ISS is an international science laboratory, it has been used to conduct different microgravity tests. The module has also been used to launch Cubesats for 18 years. Kopra states that currently, the ISS has 250 experiments on microgravity that are running.
The module has proved to be a good environment to observe how the human body responds when subjected to weightlessness for prolonged periods of time. Astronauts experience muscle loss and bone degradation after spending too much in an environment that has zero gravity.
This is an issue that bothers space agencies as it pauses a threat to astronauts attempting journeys far into the solar system. For example, Astronauts will have to spend long periods of time in spacecraft just to get to Mars.
One of the most prominent tests about the topic involved two twins who are both astronauts: Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly. In his Year in Space experiment, Scott spent 340 days orbiting the earth while Mark remained on earth. This was part of a study by NASA to look into the results of living in a zero-gravity environment.
Toward the end of Space Story, Kopra is seen showing off the Russian vehicle Soyuz which he says is currently being packed up in preparation for getting it home. A month from now, Kopra is expected to board the Soyuz and ride back to Earth. The trip is set to take place on the 18th of June.
