Did You Know?

I'm in a very science-y mood right now, since I'm working on a presentation. So don't mind me spewing random information about space at you. Actually, since I can't think of anything better to do, I will spew several interesting pieces of information at you. Well, I thought they were interesting...

When astronauts abord the International Space Station (ISS) have worn their clothes as many times as possible (no washing machines!), they are disposed of. How? Why, by natural incineration, of course! They are simply dumped into the shuttles or resupply vehicles that carried them there, launched back to Earth, and bid farewell as metal and fabric burn up in a fascinating trail of ashes in the atmosphere that somebody will probably mistake for a shooting star, making an erronous wish that doesn't come true.

Wow. >_> What an efficient use of clothing. And supply vehicles. And shuttles. Though I suppose they do become quite useless after bringing their cargo in. So far (if I'm not wrong), there is no way to recover shuttles, etc. sent beyond the heavens. Thank God the government supplies an infinite amount of money to allow them to be built, otherwise a hundred million dollars here, half a billion there, and NASA would vapourize. But I guess the taxpayers would be happier with the way their deductions would have been spent.

Water is crucial in space. It must be conserved and recycled in any way possible. Filters extract the humidity from the air and distil it back to a liquid form. Urine (from humans and test animals) is filtered and reused. Waste water from fuel cells is collected and stored. The water pressure in taps is kept at half of what we use on Earth. Handwashing is done with a washcloth. "Showers" are merely sponge baths. While the average person uses 50 litres of water per shower, astronauts use four. This is accomplished with special detergents, like rinse-less shampoo. Expensive water resupplies are still necessary because of small inefficiencies like unusuable brine produced from the water filter and water lost in air filters. Humidity can also escape from air lost in airlocks. Once the efficiency reaches 95%, the water contained in foods will be enough to cover that small bit lost.

Some pretty cool stuff. I like how the moisture in the air is used, and not just waste water. All of the filters clean the water so that it is purer than you would ever get out of a tap.

Microgravity affects not only muscles and bones, but also the amount of blood in the body. Typically while standing, the blood pressure in the feet is high; about 200 mmHg. But in the brain, the level is only at 60-80 mmHg. When in space, the levels even themselves out to around 100 mmHg, and this causes the body to think that it hass too much blood. Astronauts can lose up to 22% of their blood volume. This also affects the heart, because if there is less to pump, there is less work to do, causing it to atrophy.

Huh. I never thought of that, even though I knew that the pressure difference was what caused astronauts to become dizzy after landing. I came across several other "oh yeah" moments while researching, which is what's making the project fun. And it's always cool to learn about new technologies and medicine being researched, like the Lower Body Negative Pressure device, which uses a vacuum to generate a sort of pseudo-gravity that restores said blood pressure differences.

On a completely unrelated note, why the heck is our school providing us with random "snacks" in the morning?