“I think one reason people like hearing about these sorts of things is that it helps them see the world slightly differently, perhaps even with a sense of wonder. On Earth, it's just a given that if you put a fork on the table, it will stay there. But remove that one variable, gravity, and everything changes. Forks waft away; people sleep on air. Eating, jumping, drinking from a cup – things you've known how to do since you were a toddler suddenly become magical or tricky or endlessly entertaining, and sometimes all three at once. People like being reminded that the impossible really is possible, I think, and I was happy to be able to remind them.”
Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
But you have to understand the circumstances. As part of the process of building our newsletter, I spend a certain amount of time every morning doing research online: looking for articles of interest, checking in on professional news, and watching for upcoming events.
Part of this process involves sifting through Twitter for useful links - I follow a wide range of industry accounts, with only two personal exceptions: the Canadian Space Agency and Chris Hadfield. And that's where the train left the tracks...
Normally I just glance at those accounts as I scroll through the latest tweets - Chris Hadfield's wry wit makes for a nice break - but today, the CSA was retweeting a live feed from NASA featuring two astronauts doing a spacewalk in order to do some upgrades to the International Space Station. Astronauts Christina Koch and and Jessica Meir were replacing nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries, taking the new batteries from a pallet attached to the Canadarm2.
It was a struggle to close the low-res video window and return to work. Which is funny, because it was admittedly the most mundane thing in the world, I might as well have been watching a mechanic change tires, except for the fact that it was two people in spacesuits, working in zero gravity on a space station orbiting the planet at 7.66 kilometers a second. To make it even better, part of the feed involved POV from helmet-mounted cameras, so we could see exactly what the astronaut saw.
I was simply fascinated. The process itself was a clumsy one, but then, imagine doing something as simple as changing a light bulb while wearing heavy gauntlets, a helmet, and 280 lbs of airtight insulated fabric and associated mechanisms. Admittedly, a spacesuit weighs nothing in zero gravity, but it's still a restrictive and cumbersome barrier to easy movement.
That being said, they have to take those factors into account when designing the access points, fasteners, required tools and operating procedures for work on the surface of the ISS. For example, I had no idea that the ISS was equipped with a system of safety bars to which the astronauts attached themselves with snap locks when working or moving from place to place - certainly a good idea, at least based on my recollection of countless science fiction stories where astronauts lose their tethers and come to a bad end.
After doing a handful of screen grabs, I finally closed the video window and returned to Earth, reminded, as Mr. Hadfield points out, that the impossible really is possible - a good lesson to take with me for the rest of the day.
- Sid
