Even in the cold and dead space, wherever there are people, there is a human color, whether the background is joy or worry.
At 7:27 p.m. Eastern Time on November 15, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida made a loud noise, and the SpaceX "Tenacity" manned spacecraft soared into the sky on the "Falcon 9" rocket and flew into the gloomy night sky.
An hour later, NASA's ground command system received a message from the spacecraft, "This is a really great journey!" 'Toughness' is in orbit! "The spaceship commander, Colonel Hopkins, reports.
After another 26 hours, The Resilience docked smoothly with the International Space Station; it meant that Musk's space rocket company SpaceX's first official manned commercial flight was a success.
On November 15, local time, SpaceX's Falcon 9 was successfully launched Picture: AFP
The four astronauts on board were Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi from NASA. Upon arrival at the space station, they will begin a six-month work.
In addition to Victor Glover, the first black man to work on the space station for a long time, the other three astronauts over the age of fifty all have a wealth of experience in space: some have experienced the early construction of the space station, some have trained as commanders during long-term space operations, and some have repeated encounters with the space station on rockets of different eras.
Image: AFP
This was clearly not arranged by chance. Sending older astronauts on this mission is not only a tribute to their experience, but also a tribute to the international space station, an old friend of these astronauts, who has entered its twilight years.
As of November 2 this year, humans have been stationed on the International Space Station for 20 years.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "to build a symbol of human civilization in space."</h1>
The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular scientific research facility located in low Earth orbit, it is currently the largest man-made object in space, and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit, which can often be seen from the surface of the Earth with the naked eye.
As a laboratory for the study of the space environment with microgravity, scientists can conduct scientific research in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics and other fields here. The ISS is also suitable for testing the spacecraft systems and equipment needed for possible long-term lunar and Mars missions in the future.
The International Space Station is not the first. The world's earliest orbital outpost was russia's Salyut programme, which was launched in 1971. The principle is simple, that is, to launch a small manned satellite into perigee orbit with a rocket.
Later, due to the need for an arms race with the Soviet Union, coupled with the great encouragement of the successful moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969, the United States also decided to develop its own space station.
In 1973, the Saturn 5 carrier rocket launched Skylab. In fact, the so-called "SkyLab" is the third stage of the Saturn rocket. It has been transformed into a small cylindrical laboratory before launch, and can double as a work area and living space, accommodating up to three astronauts at the same time.
Not only did SkyLab assist American astronauts in landing on the moon three more missions between 1973 and 1974, but more importantly, it was important for the agency to understand how to sustain humans in space for weeks on end.
By 1979, Skylab's orbit had decayed to a point where it could not be recovered, and that summer it was burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere.
After Skylab, NASA began preparing to build a larger space station. NASA's ambition is to build a "Space Base," a springboard for sending astronauts and supplies to a lunar base, and a powerful space logistics supply station that would support its own astronauts to land on Mars in the 80s. To support these grand space exploration programs, the space station would have to be able to accommodate at least 100 people.
But as they deepened their research, they quickly realized that to build a space station of this scale, just one module was not enough. The cost of launching the space station components into orbit with a disposable rocket will far exceed the cost of building the space station modules themselves. As a result, the application of the space shuttle has become extremely urgent.
With the space shuttle officially on a mission in 1982, the U.S. government decided that the time was ripe to build a space station.
Toughness Commander Hopkins (left) with Grove , the first black astronaut to work on the space station for a long time , right. Image: AFP
In his State of the Union address, U.S. President Ronald Reagan formally instructed NASA to build a space station, which he named Freedom and saw as a shortcut to a powerful space economy.
"We can follow our dreams to distant planets, live and work in space, and achieve peaceful economic and scientific results," Reagan told Americans, "just as the ocean opened up a new world for clippers and American businessmen, space has enormous commercial potential today." ”
But in the nearly decade since Reagan's speech, NASA hasn't built a single space station. Scientists have overturned one program after another in the process of repeated design and trial and error, and the more funds are burned, the more they burn.
By 1993, NASA had spent a full $9 billion on the design of the space station, but all it got was a bunch of engineering research. This stalemate has nearly exhausted the patience of the U.S. Congress. It was in that year that the House of Representatives had a heated debate over whether to scrap the entire space station program. After a vote, the space station plan was retained, but there was only one more supporter than the opponent.
After breaking through the "ghost gate" of Congress, the politicians who support the space station finally realized that the strength of one country alone, even with the transportation support of the space shuttle, could not build a space post that could continue to operate for many years and complete a series of valuable scientific experiments in a short period of time. As a result, after Clinton officially moved into the White House in 1993, he immediately announced that the Freedom plan would be built by the United States alone to be built by international cooperation.
The European Space Agency and Japan soon joined in, and with the end of the Cold War, Russia was invited to join the project.
"The International Space Station was born out of the ashes of the Cold War." Jeffrey Manber, ceo of Nanox, who has since made a fortune through the International Space Station, recalls, "At that time, a common hope of many industrial countries was to build a symbol of human civilization in space, like the Taj Mahal." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > from naming controversy to "Nobel Peace Prize."</h1>
After international cooperation began, the space station's plans were rapidly advanced. In 1998, the United States launched the first space station component, the Unity node module, which later became a restaurant for astronauts.
On October 31, 2000, NASA's Bill Shepherd and two Russian astronauts, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, set sail aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and two days later, on November 2, they docked with the space station and officially began a four-and-a-half-month period in orbit.
From left to right, the first three astronauts to board the International Space Station are the ones
From this day on, human beings officially began to live in space beyond the Earth.
In the first few days, the crew usually receives a set of instructions from NASA's Mission Control center in Houston, but the Russian control center in Moscow will overturn these plans. In turn, after Moscow's directive, NASA will also raise objections.
The three astronauts, exhausted by the ground command systems of Russia and the United States, decided to speak out openly and honestly. Commander Shepard told the mission control center, "Yes, there is a project in Houston and one in Moscow. But we're not going to do what you plan, because we're on the International Space Station, and we're going to judge it according to the situation on the ISS. ”
Shepard later said in an interview, "It was my happiest day in space. ”
Shepard's recollection reflects from another side the irresolvable contradiction between the United States and Russia, who is also the "main creator" of the International Space Station. In fact, after the initial construction of the space station was completed, the two countries had a clear disagreement over the naming of the latter.
At the time, Shepard said the station's code name was "Alpha," which was the name NASA had wanted to give the station, but Shepard's move was immediately met with strong protests from the Russians. Because the Russians know that the meaning of the "Alpha space station" is to imply that this is the first space station in human history.
But in fact, before the International Space Station, the former Soviet Union and Russia had successfully operated 8 space stations. So at the strong request of the Russian side, the space station was eventually named "International Space Station".
Although there were often differences between the United States and Russia at the beginning of cooperation, the situation gradually changed as the work of the space station deepened. The key to change is not the two governments, but the astronauts of each country.
The International Space Station is only the size of an American football stadium, and the living space is equivalent to a six-bedroom house. In the past 20 years, 141 people from 19 countries have visited here. They've tasted the food here, complained about the toilets, drawn blood here, tried spacewalks, and looked at the universe and the earth countless times from the tiny confines of outer space.
International Space Station in Space, image taken from Hadfield's MV "Space Monster Talk"
The station is filled with high-tech equipment such as laptops and cameras carried by the astronauts, and the walls are plastered with mission stickers and photos of their friends and family. Of course, stickers for "original space heroes" like Yuri Gagarin are also everywhere. Although the astronauts came from different countries and spoke different languages, in this crowded outer space habitat, they soon began to learn each other's languages and cultures; eating together, sharing music and their own stories.
"The space station is not only a laboratory, but also a diplomatic tool," said Michael Lopez-Ariglia, a former NASA astronaut, "and this discovery surprised many people, including me." Indeed, there are still some obvious international tensions, especially between the United States and Russia. But in the space world, we always have to live a good life. ”
The International Space Station seems to be the only place in the world where relations between countries are very harmonious, so some are pushing for it to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
"When you think about people for 20 years [who's been to the space station], gay, straight, Muslim, Christian, Catholic, atheist — all of these people can come together and build an international outpost the size of a football field from a single module." Former NASA astronaut Lilan Melvin said, "It's worth the Peace Prize. ”
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > experiment: for Earth, for humanity, for interstellar expeditions</h1>
In the 20 years that humans have been with the International Space Station, accidents have also occurred.
On October 11, 2018, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian cosmonaut Aleksey N. Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague prepared to travel to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz-FG rocket.
But 118 seconds after the rocket liftoff, a rocket booster exploded as it separated, and the entire spacecraft and rocket system immediately entered a state of emergency, and the spacecraft began to detach from the rocket.
Seeing that the entire spacecraft had fallen at a high altitude, the International Space Station's emergency escape system played a role, and it successfully threw away the spacecraft's orbital module and propulsion module, giving the two astronauts a chance to escape from the return capsule. With only 31 miles left from the Earth's surface, Ovcenin finally briefly took control of the return capsule, allowing the latter to hold on in the air for a few more minutes, and just as the spacecraft was falling sharply again, the two astronauts opened the hatch and successfully parachuted.
In an interview with reporters afterwards, Aufchenen and Hague said with some trepidation that the pull on their bodies when they fell was 7 times the normal gravity, "It's like putting a large piece of cement in your chest, which weighs 7 times your weight." ”
Although the two astronauts were unscathed, the incident caused an uproar at the time, as it was the largest manned spaceflight hazard ever encountered since the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia crash that killed seven astronauts.
In addition to relying on the excellent technology of astronauts, the emergency escape system of the International Space Station is also indispensable to the ability to resolve dangerous situations. It is also the only time the space station has used the system since it was built in 2000.
Preventing sudden events is only one of the responsibilities of the space station.
For 20 years, astronauts on the space station have spent most of their time experimenting with equipment, in addition to maintaining equipment. Experiments are mainly divided into three categories, experiments on the medical aspects of the human body, exploration of outer space, and preparation for future exploration of interstellar voyages.
Compared with Earth, the biggest advantage of experimenting on the space station is that researchers can rule out the interference of gravity factors. If you want to 3D print an organ on Earth, you'll find that gravity will make it collapse like an soufflé, so scientists on Earth need to reinforce the experiments extra when doing these experiments.
But it's different in weightless space, where scientists don't need to add extra stents to the walls of the heart's lumen, "and this space station has allowed us to conduct experiments for 20 years without the influence of sustained gravity, which is really exciting." As a researcher, this is also the shiny new tool that the vast majority of scientists will never see in their toolbox! Eugene Boland, chief scientist at Techshot, an Indiana research firm, praised the station's scientific significance.
On the International Space Station, the most important studies are related to the human body. For example, astronaut Scott Kelly stayed on the space station for a year to compare his physical condition in space with his twin brother Mark, who lives on Earth. Current studies have found that Kelly's gene expression has changed, and the telomeres at the ends of its protective chromosomes have become longer.
Medical research on the space station could also help humans better understand the effects of long-term exposure to space on the human body. Current data on bone loss and muscle atrophy suggest that if astronauts land on a planet after a long interstellar voyage (such as a six-month interval to Mars), there is a significant risk of fractures and movements.
In addition to being able to better study human beings themselves, another important experimental content of the International Space Station is the exploration of outer space.
Interior view of the International Space Station. The picture is taken from the first human MV completed by astronaut Hadfield in space - "Space Monster Talk"
According to NASA, the most striking experimental instrument on the International Space Station is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), whose purpose is to detect dark matter and answer other fundamental questions about the universe, no less important than the Hubble Space Telescope. On April 3, 2013, scientists reported that the AMS may have detected signs of dark matter. According to the scientists, "The first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in Space confirmed the existence of an unexplained excess of high-energy positrons in Earth's cosmic rays." ”
In addition to better understanding the universe, human exploration of space is also a preparation for future interstellar exploration. The International Space Station also plays an important role in this regard.
For example, the study of plants is very important. At present, astronauts have been able to grow a variety of vegetables such as lettuce. This move not only directly improves the dietary conditions of astronauts during their long stay in space, but also provides material support for potential long-term interstellar voyages.
Another example is water filtration technology. At present, the filtration and purification system developed on the space station can already enable astronauts to recover 93% of the water. Just in September, NASA announced that it would ship a new toilet to the space station, which is smaller, lighter, more suitable for women, and most importantly, it can convert more urine circulation into drinking water. The astronaut laughed at this, "Today's coffee is tomorrow's coffee." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > endless voices of doubt</h1>
However, the international community has long debated whether the space station is worth the money. Especially with the covid-19 pandemic around the world, some have once again questioned the significance of sending humans into space.
"The human space industry is corrupt," said Linda Billings, a researcher at the National Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Billings was an advocate for manned spaceflight, but she's changed her mind, and the title of her most recent article was: "Should Humans Colonize Other Planets?" The answer is 'no'! ”
She argues that the motivation to carry people into space is not driven by science, "it is actually ideologically driven, essentially a value idea of conquest and exploitation." ”
In Billings's view, space colonization is not advisable, even if you want to invest resources to explore outer space, the motivation should be based on "earth consciousness", in other words, human beings should stay on the earth and solve many practical problems of human beings on earth.
"How can human space exploration save countries like Bangladesh and India, which are both water-dependent and frequently flooded, from years of disasters?" What I really care about are these issues. ”
Billings' view is not new. In the past few decades when the affirmative action movement has never stopped, the significance of exploring space has been questioned.
In July 1969, shortly before the launch of Apollo 11, humanity's first successful lunar mission, black civil rights protesters from the southern United States gathered at Cape Canaveral to stress that sending humans into space was unequal when many Americans lived in poverty. Today, Robert Patillo, an American civil rights lawyer and space enthusiast, expects such debates to persist in the future.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk aims to get humans to the moon again in 2024 Picture: AFP
In addition to questioning the significance and value of human exploration of space, the debate about "what path to take to explore space" is equally lively.
Astronomer Royal and astrophysics Lord Garss bluntly said: "I don't think the Iserlis is worth a 12-figure investment. None of the hundreds of astronauts who have worked on the International Space Station have done scientific research that convinces us that the cost of investing in the space station is worth it. ”
Lord Reese believes that the international community should spend public funds on robots and let them take on more space exploration tasks than the International Space Station, because such missions can really refresh our understanding of the universe.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the space station of the future: more comfortable and luxurious</h1>
Questioning the International Space Station has not stopped humans from exploring space.
In the past decade, private companies have begun to rise rapidly in the field of space exploration. Twenty years ago, the ISS was almost entirely funded by national public funds, but today, businesses represented by SpaceX under Elon Musk and Blue Origin, amazon founder Jeff Bezos, are beginning to be a force in the human space industry.
NASA's goal is to send humans back to the moon by 2024, while Musk plans to build a settlement on Mars, and Bezos has a bigger goal of establishing colonies in space.
On May 30 this year, the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft was successfully launched, and two American astronauts, Bob Benken, Doug Hurley, and a dinosaur doll flew to the International Space Station on a Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX also became the world's first private company to successfully send humans into space.
"Dragon Spaceship" produced by SpaceX Image: AFP
The rise of new forces often means the end of the old era. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine lamented at a recent Senate hearing, "We think of the Apollo era, and as much as we love it, it's come to an end." ”
The current ISS is expected to run until 2024, after which it may crash into the Pacific Ocean or extend its useful life for four years. The future fate of the ISS is uncertain now, but what is certain is that the new space station will no longer be owned and operated by NASA, and that it will be operated by private companies like Axiom.
Currently, the company is preparing for the construction of a new space station. According to Mike Suffredini, co-founder of Axiom and who led NASA's ISS project for a decade, the new space station will build on the old ISS, but with lower assembly costs and easier maintenance.
Externally, it resembles the International Space Station, with a living capsule, a solar array, and a spacecraft interface. But its interior is a far cry from the "old" space station, as it will replace the existing dome capsule with "the largest window observation deck ever built for space."
"We want our customers to feel great, comfortable, luxurious." Sufredini said, "We're even working on how to cook on the space station to make the food a little more delicious." ”
The interior design of the new space station was led by French architect and designer Philippe Starck, who is known for designing projects such as furniture, yachts and the company's headquarters. His vision of the Axiom workstation was to "create a 'nest', a cozy and friendly nest." ”
Needless to say, all these efforts are nothing more than the intention of creating a more habitable place in space, which has always been one of the important goals of human exploration of the universe.
Screenshot of a video of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield taking a "Space Monster Talk" in space
The 20 years of the International Space Station are a process of slowly understanding space. In the memory of many people, the scene that happened on the space station has been difficult for them to forget.
It was a day in May 2013 when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sang a David Bowie's "Space Oddity" after completing his final mission and made a video of it back to Earth.
As a result, astronomy enthusiasts all over the world have seen such scenes: space standing above the earth flying at high speed, guitars floating in the cabin full of wires and scientific research instruments, Hadfield himself sometimes leaning up into space against the hatch, sometimes holding guitars, singing melancholy in weightless space...
This video has fascinated countless astronomy enthusiasts, it has narrowed the distance between space and humans, and made the International Space Station once again appear in the headlines of the world's major media.
Dennis Overbye, a well-known reporter for the New York Times, later lamented that its popularity was actually a reminder that even in the cold and dead space, as long as there are people, there are human colors, whether the background is joy or worry.
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