What is ISS ?
The International Space Station is a modular space station located in low
Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five
participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA and CSA. The
ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental
treaties and agreements.
Assembling of ISS
1. The International Space Station was built between 1998 and 2011.
The ISS wasn’t created by just one nation but an extensive collection of
different national space agencies.
Some modules were created by the US, and others were created by Russia,
Europe, Japan, and Canada throughout the 90s and early 2000s.
The actual assembly began in 1998 when the first module, the Russian-made
Zarya, was launched on a Russian Proon rocket.
The rest of the modules were all ferried to the ISS by NASA Space Shuttles.
2. The ISS is constantly evolving.
By 2011, the space station had accumulated over 150 different components
and fourteen pressurized modules, with astronauts spending more than
1,000 hours in space to assemble all the pieces.
Five more modules were added over the next eleven years, with more
modules already in the works.
3. The crew aboard the ISS can see the sunrise and set 16 times in 24 hours.
This happens because the ISS orbits the Earth once every 1.5 hours.
As you can imagine, this could completely wreak havoc on the
astronauts' sleeping schedules.
Because there is only microgravity on the ISS, astronauts simply
cannot lie in bed.
Instead, they sleep in sleeping bags attached to the walls of the
crew cabins—small compartments large enough for a person to fit
inside.
4. The ISS has a robot crew member.
The ISS wouldn't be a proper spaceship if it didn't also have a robot
crew member.
In an effort to make good on our fantasies of robot space companions
like Lieutenant Commander Data and the simply named Robot from "Lost in
Space," scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) crafted Robonaut
2 as the first synthetic member of the station's crew.
5. The ISS can't see you, but you can see it.
Astronauts aboard the station can see a lot through the cupola, including
large features, which are clearly visible. However, it's not possible to
perceive individual people from roughly 250 miles up. Seeing the station
with the naked eye is a lot easier.
As long as the sun isn't out, it's likely you'll be able to see the
International Space Station in the sky. The station's exterior, mostly its
solar panel arrays, reflects a significant portion of sunlight as it
orbits across the sky.
6. The ISS will remain in operation until at least 2030, and it might get
a neighbor .
On January 31, 2022, NASA confirmed that activities on the ISS have been
extended to 2030. After that, the future of the station is unclear.
Roscosmos has expressed a desire to exit the station due to aging
technology, which is now beyond its initial mission design. It could happen
as early as 2025.
Even if the Russian space agency leaves the ISS, they won't be completely
out of the space station game. Plans for a new station to be known as the
Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) are in progress.
7. In the space of just 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of
Earth, travelling through 16 sunrises and sunsets .
As per the data given by NASA, the ISS measures 109 metres
long and 75 metres wide, similar to the length of an American football
field.
Besides, it weighs 420 tonnes and travels around the Earth
at extreme speed. The ISS orbits the earth at a speed of over
twenty-seven thousand kilometres per hour and thus completes a full
revolution in just 90 minutes.
Breaking down the data, the station makes 16 orbits of Earth and
thus, travels through 16 sunrises and sunsets in just 24 hours .
8. After the moon, the ISS is the second brightest object in our night sky -
you don't even need a telescope to see it zoom over your house .
The ISS is a high tech laboratory, orbiting the Earth at around
17,000 mph at almost 300 miles up in space, where astronauts live,
work and do experiments.
To look at it, you’d think it was a huge Meccano model, and in a way
it is – a multi-billion dollar model built over many years, by
different countries.
Its pieces were all joined together in space, making it Mankind’s
most ambitious, complicated and risky construction project ever.
If you look at photos of the ISS you’ll see it looks nothing like the
graceful, wheel-shaped space stations seen in science fiction films
like “2001 A Space Odyssey”.
That’s because a) we can’t afford to build one of those, and b) in
real life, spacecraft don’t need to be pretty, they just have to
work.
The ISS is made of many different parts, and has bits sticking out of
it everywhere.
9. More than 50 computers control all the systems on the station
.
The space station has an internal pressurized volume equal that of
a Boeing 747.
More than 50 computers control the systems on the space
station.
More than 3 million lines of software code on the ground support
more than 1.5 million lines of flight software code.
10. The ISS weighs about 420,000kg - that's about the same as 320 cars
.
The ISS is an engineering marvel: the largest structure ever built
in space.
It weighs around 420,000kg (more than 320 cars) and at 109m is longer than a football pitch.
Modular in design and constructed over 13 years, it has 8 solar
arrays, a main truss 'backbone' and pressurised habitation modules
.
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