Picture story of ISS

Through this cold night of winter, while we all are celebrating Christmas in our homes on Earth, there is a super-massive artificial satellite somewhere in the space, constantly orbiting around earth at a speed of 8 km-per-second, orbiting Earth 16 times a day, carrying at-most 10 humans, at an altitude of ~400 km. It’s called ISS or International Space Station.

The length of ISS is same as an American football field.

ISS is called the most expensive man-made object, costs around US$150 billion in 2010.

Providing safe home to space travellers since 2000.

Credits-nasa.gov

The space station is a work of five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).

There Are 9 People from 4 Different Space Agencies, Living and Working on ISS, in 2019. Credits-nasa.gov

ISS orbits the earth about every 90 minutes.

This makes astronauts living and working over there, enjoy 16 sunrises and sunsets in a day.

Sunrise Seen through The Window of ISS . Credits-nasa.gov

8 giant solar arrays cover the energy requirements of the station.

They rotate constantly to catch as much sunlight as possible.

They produce more power than the station needs at one time for station systems and experiments.

Solar Array Wing Panels on ISS. Credits-nasa.gov

Oxygen in the ISS comes from a process called “electrolysis,” which involves using an electrical current generated from the station’s solar panels to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gas.

Water: In space, every drop counts.

Tanks of H20 can’t be constantly shipped up to the ISS, so the complex water systems on the ISS collect moisture from breath and sweat, urine from people and research animals, and runoff from sinks and showers to keep the station hydrated.

Due to low gravity, the water behaves differently in space, water bubbles form themselves, so they occupy a shape having the least amount of surface area, which is a sphere. On Earth, gravity distorts the shape, but not in space.

Astronaut Looking at Water Bubble Formed due to Low Gravity. Credits-nasa.gov

Coupla — A window with an extraordinary view of earth. Coupla stands for “dome”.

Many of the fantastic pictures of earth are taken from coupla.

Astronauts use coupla to see and control robotic arms outside the ISS and to observe docking & undocking of space crafts from ISS.

Coupla - A Dome Structured Window with 360 degree View having 7 glasses. Credits-nasa.gov

Marvelous View of Clouds through Coupla. Credits-nasa.gov

Astronaut Peeking through Coupla. Credits-nasa.gov

Merry Christmas From Space 2016. Credits-nasa.gov

This story is a work in progress, I will keep adding more information and pictures to this. Let me know if you learnt something new and useful.
- Pooja