Actualmente, el único destino de los astronautas y cosmonautas es la plataforma de investigación en órbita conocida como Estación Espacial Internacional. Este episodio expone la vida laboral de las personas que pasan meses orbitando en microgravedad en la estación espacial internacional y los avances que se han logrado en este laboratorio espacial.
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00:00The International Space Station is a laboratory that orbits the Earth every 90 minutes.
00:11It is the most expensive project ever built.
00:17The International Space Station, owned and operated jointly by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada,
00:24is a triumph of international collaboration.
00:27But it was not always like this, and during its planning phase, the project was about to be abandoned.
00:34The International Space Station
00:53Unlimited space exploration.
00:56The International Space Station.
01:04We are directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station, and to do it within a decade.
01:11In 1984, towards the end of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan unveiled his plan to Congress.
01:20It was named Space Station Freedom.
01:23But the details were lacking, and the plans were constantly changing.
01:27NASA considered a space station its next logical step.
01:31The space launcher had been designed with the construction in orbit as one of its main functions.
01:40During a cold January morning in 1986, the tenth flight of the Challenger spacecraft was being prepared.
01:49Take-off of mission number 25 of the spacecraft, which has already passed the tower.
02:02Challenger, maximum acceleration.
02:04Roger.
02:10The seven astronauts died, and the transporter program was suspended.
02:19Only a month later, the cosmonauts began to occupy the Mir, the new Soviet space station.
02:31The Soviet Union had long shown its interest in long-term space flights, with its space stations Alyut.
02:38And with the Mir, the Russians were acquiring a valuable experience in the research of microgravity and construction in orbit.
02:47As the 1980s advanced, the Mir expanded using modular construction techniques.
02:53They began to experiment with automated attraction systems.
02:56The new modules were transported by the Proton launcher, and the Progress cargo ship was used for refueling.
03:05The fleet of NASA transporters remained on the ground while an exhaustive investigation was being carried out.
03:11And the Freedom space station was stuck on the design table.
03:16In 1989, discontent in Poland spread throughout the Eastern Bloc, causing the fall of the wall that had divided Germany.
03:24Two years later, the Soviet Union itself dissolved, giving way to an era of social and economic agitation.
03:34Moscow was now the capital of the Russian Federation, a single-party democracy.
03:40The crew of the tenth expedition to the Mir arrived at the space station as Soviet citizens, and would return to Earth as Russians.
03:48The new Russian space agency, Roscosmos, saw its budget reduced by 80%, and the money was not enough to launch two newly completed modules.
03:59In 1988, NASA resumed the flights of transporters, but after the fall of the Soviet Union,
04:05the interest of American politicians in the Freedom space station was at its lowest point.
04:12NASA began working with Roscosmos.
04:14In the joint program Shuttle-Mir, the Russians would benefit from the injection of funds they so much needed,
04:20and the Soviet Union would benefit from the reduction of its budget.
04:24In 1988, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, began to work with the Russian Federation,
04:29and the Soviet Union would benefit from the reduction of its budget.
04:35In the joint program Shuttle-Mir, the Russians would benefit from the injection of funds they so much needed,
04:41and the Americans would gain experience in long-term space flights.
04:47The astronauts learned Russian, and began to travel to orbit in the Soyuz.
04:52The cosmonauts learned English.
04:54During that program, ten cosmonauts flew in the space launcher,
04:58and eight Americans served as members of the crew aboard the Mir.
05:02The transporter docked at the Russian space station nine times.
05:06Roscosmos had begun to work on a replacement project, the Mir-2,
05:11completing the functional cargo block and the room module 28,
05:16but the lack of funding forced the agency to file the plan.
05:20NASA convinced the Russian Federation, with liquidity problems, to participate in its project.
05:27Europe, Japan and Canada also participated in the so-called International Space Station.
05:34The already functional cargo module was renamed Saryah,
05:38and became the first piece of the International Space Station,
05:41put into orbit in November 1998.
05:49The Saryah was launched from Kazakhstan with an orbital inclination of about 50 degrees.
05:54This is how the orbit of the International Space Station was established.
05:58From then on, the space launcher would transport most of the modules.
06:03NASA knew that this orbit would cause problems for the transporter.
06:07Launched from Florida, it would normally orbit at 30 degrees.
06:11To reach that more pronounced inclination with a significant payload,
06:15the transporter needed to gain power or lose weight.
06:20A redesign of the cargo compartment allowed to save some weight,
06:24but the construction missions could only be achieved with a new external tank,
06:29manufactured with a new light alloy.
06:33We have a go-ahead on the main engine.
06:35We have a go-ahead on the main engine.
06:37Four, three, two, one.
06:40We have a go-ahead on the main engine.
06:42We have a go-ahead on the main engine.
06:44We have a go-ahead on the main engine.
06:47Two weeks after the launch of SARIA,
06:49the Endeavour space transporter put the Unity module into orbit.
06:54Houston has the control and the Endeavour flies northeast from Kennedy Space Center
06:58towards a meeting at 386 kilometers altitude with the SARIA control module.
07:03As a preparation, the crew connected the Unity module to the transporter's air hatch
07:08and by means of the transporter's robotic arm, they joined both modules.
07:14The crew entered the space station for the first time and stored equipment,
07:19but no one settled in it.
07:23The construction works had just begun.
07:27Eighteen months passed until the arrival of the next section,
07:30the Svesta, the Russian habitation module.
07:33It was automatically coupled to the SARIA module.
07:43In October 2000, the Discovery space transporter arrived with more sections.
07:49During four spacewalks, the crew installed a structural arm and communication equipment.
07:59Finally, in November 2000, the first crew, the Expedition 1, took off from Baikonur.
08:14The cosmonaut Yuri Gdyshenko was the commander of the Soyuz spacecraft.
08:19The astronaut Bill Shepard was the team commander once at the International Space Station.
08:24And Sergei Krikaliov, the most experienced member of the crew, was the flight engineer.
08:33Much of the crew's daily activities consisted in unpacking and installing equipment.
08:39There are always problems to be solved and maintenance to be done.
08:47In microgravity, the muscles lose tone.
08:51One of the first equipment installed was a static bicycle.
08:55Each member of the crew had to perform two and a half hours of cardiovascular exercise every day.
09:02Unlike subsequent missions, the Expedition 1 carried out very little scientific research.
09:08At this time, the main laboratory module of the station was still on Earth.
09:16But not for long.
09:23The crew of the Atlantis space transporter transported the laboratory module, called Destiny.
09:29The potential of the space station increased drastically.
09:34The laboratory has 13 cargo racks, which match the international standard,
09:39and can house various modules for experiments.
09:42But they were still empty.
09:46With the Destiny module and a much larger solar panel,
09:49the International Space Station was taking shape.
09:56A perfectly organized launch calendar was being fulfilled.
10:00And it was expected that the space station would be completed in 2006.
10:07In November 2002, the Endeavour transporter took off with the crew of Expedition 6,
10:12a new module of the station's superstructure, and two tons of supplies.
10:21Upon returning to Earth, no one was aware that any cosmonaut would fly on the transporter again,
10:27nor that the tasks of building the International Space Station would be suspended for more than two years.
10:40After the failure of the Columbia transporter during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere,
10:45no transporter took off again.
10:56Eighty-one seconds after launch, part of the foam insulation separated from the external tank,
11:01and damaged the left wing.
11:03From that moment on, the Columbia was doomed.
11:10The research commission did not trust that the fleet of space transporters
11:14could operate safely beyond a few years.
11:18They considered them aged space ships.
11:22The suspension of the transporter flights stopped the tasks of building the International Space Station.
11:28The replacement crews were reduced to two members.
11:32The Russian cargo ship Progress was the only method to transport supplies to the station,
11:37and all the crew rotations used the Soyuz space ship.
11:51What had started as the Freedom Space Station of the United States,
11:55now depended entirely on Russian technology.
11:59It would be more than three years before the tasks of building the space station were resumed.
12:07In 2004, the US President George Bush
12:10gave a speech to a group of NASA administrators.
12:21In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty,
12:27will be retired from service.
12:30The tasks of the space transporter would be restricted to the International Space Station,
12:35where the crew could expect their rescue if the ship suffered damage.
12:39The scientific tasks were reduced to a minimum,
12:42and the reduced crews focused on maintaining the station.
12:46The tasks of building the modules continued on the surface.
12:51The space transporter Discovery flew again in 2005.
12:57Before docking with the International Space Station,
13:00it made a maneuver that allowed the crew of the station
13:03to inspect the ship in search of damage.
13:08It transported supplies and equipment, and returned to Earth without setbacks.
13:14The Atlantis transporter arrived 14 months later,
13:17and after a period of almost four years, the construction work resumed.
13:24NASA astronauts faced what they called the wall of extravehicular activity.
13:3014 more flights of the transporter
13:32to assemble the International Space Station to its current configuration.
13:39The failure of one of the installation spacewalks
13:42could threaten the entire project.
13:44The schedule was implacable,
13:46because the days of the transporter were numbered.
13:50The training for the assembly missions was very intense.
13:54NASA's Neutral Float Laboratory had a copy of the station
13:58so that astronauts could experience something similar to ingravity while practicing.
14:06In July 2011, the Atlantis flew to the International Space Station
14:10on the last flight of the transporter fleet.
14:15The International Space Station was practically finished,
14:19although it is still being reconfigured,
14:21and it would be possible to add new sections.
14:25The volume of its 16 pressurized modules
14:27is equivalent to that of a five-room house,
14:30and includes laboratories, storage spaces, and cabins.
14:36It receives energy from eight solar panel wings that follow the Sun.
14:40When the International Space Station enters the shadow of the Earth,
14:44the solar wings enter in nocturnal mode.
14:47They totally tilt towards the orbital direction.
14:50Although the station orbits 400 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
14:54and the atmosphere is tenuous,
14:56at that altitude it still offers resistance.
14:59The nocturnal mode reduces that resistance
15:03and minimizes orbital decay.
15:08Water, oxygen, food, and equipment supplies
15:11are periodically transported by unmanned cargo ships.
15:16The most used has been the Russian Progress,
15:18which looks similar to that of the Soyuz.
15:23It can be coupled by itself using the automated Kurs system.
15:28It can also be coupled manually if necessary.
15:35Like the Soyuz capsule,
15:37the Progress cargo ship remains docked.
15:40In addition to transporting supplies,
15:42it can boost the station's orbit
15:44or transfer fuel to the station's propellers.
15:50In the end, once full of waste,
15:53it decouples to burn in the atmosphere.
15:57The Japanese space agency JAXA
16:00currently operates the largest cargo ship
16:02that visits the International Space Station.
16:05To dock with the station,
16:07it approaches in stages until it is quite close
16:10to be captured by the robotic arm
16:12and connected to one of the attraction points of the Harmony module.
16:16It has a pressurized area that can be manually unloaded
16:20and a depressurized area
16:22to which the robotic arm accesses to store external loads.
16:27After the cancellation of its space carrier,
16:30NASA has turned to the private sector
16:32to fulfill its supply commitments.
16:35The cargo ship Cygnus
16:37visited the station for the first time in 2014.
16:41The cargo ship SpaceX Dragon
16:43transported supplies to the station for the first time in 2012.
16:47It differs from other cargo ships
16:49in that it can return important loads to the surface.
16:53The experimental materials of the International Space Station
16:56can be in a terrestrial laboratory
16:58two days after leaving low Earth orbit.
17:02SpaceX is developing a Dragon
17:05capable of transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit.
17:13The mission of the International Space Station
17:15is the investigation.
17:17It is not possible to study the dynamics of fluids
17:20and the science of materials
17:22in a microgravity environment on the surface.
17:25And the orbital platform is also the perfect place
17:28to study the Earth
17:30and carry out meteorological and astronomical studies.
17:33The study of the development of plants in microgravity
17:36is of great interest.
17:40One of the main fields of study
17:42are the effects of prolonged gravity on the human body.
17:46Without the resistance of gravity,
17:48muscles and bones deteriorate.
17:51This is partially compensated by regular exercise.
17:55The International Space Station
17:57is equipped with a treadmill,
17:59a static bicycle,
18:01and a resistance exercise device.
18:03All have a floating mount
18:05so as not to transmit vibrations through the station.
18:08The loss of bone mass
18:10causes an increase in blood calcium levels.
18:13Blood samples are periodically extracted
18:15and stored at low temperature
18:17for later analysis.
18:19Excess calcium can cause kidney stones.
18:22NASA and JAXA
18:24cooperate in the study of an agent
18:26that can prevent these effects.
18:29Most astronauts on long-term missions
18:32have reported a deterioration of their vision
18:35that can persist for years after a flight.
18:38Changes have been detected in the eye
18:41and regular eye exams are carried out
18:43using ultrasound.
18:49Astronauts and cosmonauts
18:51depend entirely on the station's technology
18:54and this requires regular maintenance.
18:57In August 2018,
18:59a small but constant drop in air pressure was detected.
19:02It was located in the Soyuz MS-9 capsule.
19:05Apparently, someone had deliberately drilled
19:08a 2-millimeter hole
19:10and unpleasant rumors began to circulate about a sabotage.
19:15Cosmonaut Sergei Prokopiev
19:17made a recording from the Soyuz
19:19that showed the repairs
19:21to silence the rumors about the low morale
19:23at the space station.
19:27As you can see, everything is calm.
19:29We live in harmony, as always,
19:31and all experiments proceed as planned.
19:35Later, it was decided that a spacewalk
19:37to remove part of the external insulator
19:39from the Soyuz over the hole
19:41could provide more clues about its origin.
19:48Since the Soyuz capsule was not designed
19:50for external maintenance
19:52and lacks spacewalks,
19:54it was a real challenge for the cosmonauts.
19:59It was difficult to cut the eight layers
20:01of thermal fabric used
20:03to stabilize the ship's internal temperatures.
20:07From the inside, it seemed that the hole
20:09had been repaired using an adhesive
20:11that came off after the Soyuz docked at the station.
20:18It was thought that the adhesive analysis
20:20would shed more light on the mystery.
20:24Since the hole was in the room module,
20:26it did not pose a threat
20:28to the safe return of the ship.
20:30The affected fabric was not necessary
20:32during the re-entry either.
20:39Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopiev,
20:41European astronaut Alexander Gertz,
20:44and American astronaut Serena O'Neill-Chancellor
20:47had arrived on this spaceship
20:49and would return home on it.
20:53When it is necessary to carry out
20:55maintenance or repair work
20:57outside the station in NASA,
20:59the European Space Agency or JAXA,
21:01the crew members with the necessary experience
21:04receive training on the use
21:06of the American space suit, the EMU.
21:09Some crew members
21:11have also received training
21:13on the Russian space suit Orlan.
21:15According to those who have experience with both,
21:17the American suit is more flexible and comfortable,
21:20but it is very complex
21:22and takes a long time to put it on.
21:26On the contrary, the Russian suit
21:28is easy to put on and is designed
21:30so that the cosmonauts
21:32can easily repair it.
21:34The slightest failure in a team
21:36can put your life in danger.
21:38While the astronaut
21:40of the European Space Agency,
21:42Serena O'Neill-Chancellor,
21:44installed cables outside the station,
21:46water began to leak into her helmet.
21:51I see a lot of water in the nape,
21:53but I don't think it comes from my bag.
21:57Are you sweating?
21:58Are you trying hard?
22:00I'm sweating,
22:02but I think it's too much water.
22:05The mission control
22:07ordered her to go back in,
22:09but when she got to the airlock
22:11she couldn't see or hear.
22:13Her companions quickly put her inside
22:15and removed the helmet
22:17with more than a liter of water.
22:20Later, they activated the empty suit
22:22and discovered the failure.
22:25The water was leaking
22:27from the suit's cooling system.
22:29A report blamed the mission control,
22:31which assumed that the water
22:33came from the suit's drinking water bag.
22:37Normally, a crew stays in orbit
22:39for about six months.
22:42The arrival of a new crew
22:44means that for three other members,
22:46their stay comes to an end.
22:50They board the same Soyuz spacecraft
22:52that they traveled to orbit
22:54to return to the surface.
22:57The capsule's detachment
22:59is carried out at the precise moment.
23:01First, it is separated
23:04by a spring mechanism
23:06in the docking interface.
23:09At a safe distance
23:11from the International Space Station,
23:13the Soyuz makes the first
23:15of its separation ignitions
23:17to avoid contaminating the space station.
23:20At a point in the opposite orbit
23:22to the planned landing area,
23:24the re-combustion begins.
23:26It brakes the spacecraft
23:28for its descent through the atmosphere.
23:34This combustion is timed precisely
23:36and lasts four minutes
23:38and 45 seconds.
23:41At this stage,
23:43the descent capsule is still
23:45attached to the habitational
23:47and instrumental modules.
23:53In Kazakhstan,
23:55a fleet of land vehicles
23:57heads to the landing area.
24:00Medical and rescue personnel
24:02from Roscosmos, NASA
24:04and the European Space Agency
24:06are also deployed.
24:10Explosive pins are activated
24:12to separate the three parts of the Soyuz.
24:20Given the heat of the re-entry,
24:22the crew loses contact
24:24by radio with the surface.
24:27In the upper atmosphere,
24:29the braking parachute is deployed,
24:31which brakes the capsule even more.
24:35And then the main parachute.
24:43On land,
24:45the crew is taken out of the capsule.
24:47They are experiencing gravity
24:49for the first time in several months
24:51and will need a few more
24:53to regain normalcy.
24:57They are transported by snow
24:59and will soon return to their homes.
25:26NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology