There are heaps of matter most of us never contemplate when we fantasise about endure in quad : What happen to your arms when they do n’t naturally light at your sides ? Do you keep your callouses when you are n’t walking ? What ’s it like to sleep in free fall ?
NASA cosmonaut Scott Kelly — he of theYear in Space experimentation , excellent Instagram provender , thenot - so - first flush , andwater Ping River - pong — answered these and other burning question when he swing by Reddit on Saturday for an Ask Me Anything .
Southeast Asia at dark . Image credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
For months , Kelly has n’t worn shoes and tromped the ground like the rest of us Earth - bound folk . alternatively , he ’s been floating and scrambling , using his groundwork for purchase instead . This means the calluses on the fundament of his feet have fallen off , and he ’s develop newfangled ones on the top . “ [ T]he bottoms of your feet become very delicate like newborn babe feet,”Kelly reported . “ But the top of my base develop rough alligator skin because I use [ them ] to get around here on [ the ] space station when using pes rails . ”
It ’s not exacting , it ’s comfortable ! Image mention : NASA / Scott Kelly
In nigh every photo we see of Kelly , he keep open his arms crossed ( unlesshe ’s fiddle with his food ) . This stern posture is n’t stylistic , but practical . “ Your arm do n’t hang by your side in place like they do on Earth because there is no gravity,”he wrote . “ It feels ungainly to have them blow in front of me . ” The tucking and folding continues when he ’s out of sight , too : even at Nox he constrains them within his sleeping handbag so they are n’t awkwardly drifting in space .
blend in to distance without your team lid to wear off when watching the big plot ? unimaginable ! mental image credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
You ’d think the strict mass boundary on personal effects would keep astronaut from institutionalise the common wickedness of overpacking , but plainly not . When inquire what Kelly would rede his Day 1 ego now that he ’s drop dead on over 300 days in space , he wrote , “ pack lighter ! ”
Astronaut Scott Kelly ’s bedroom on the International Space Station . ikon credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
“ I am not a gravid sleeper . ”Kelly take . “ I do n’t think I have ever slept 8 hours straight in the last 20 long time . I wind up waking up a twosome of multiplication . ” Unlike astronauts who describe sleeping in space as the ultimate comfort , Kelly finds it really exacerbates the problem .
“ [ T]he sleep positioning here is the same position throughout the day,”he excuse . “ You do n’t ever get that sense of gratifying relaxation here that you do on Earth after a long day at work . ” On top of that , it ’s noisy . The station constantly hums , so he endure spike fireplug every night . The lack of solemnity can disorient him . “ If I close my eyes , I can give myself the virtuoso that I am falling,”Kelly say . “ Which I am , I am falling around the Earth . ”
Despite all that , he keeps to the same sleep cycle as everyone else , report , “ We utilize Greenwich Mean Time and we get up at 6 in the morning and go to catch some Z’s at 10 at night . ”
Astronauts Kimiya Yui [ far left ] , Oleg Kononenko , Mikhail Kornienko , and Sergey Volkov , and Scott Kelly [ far right ] practicing emergency procedures . double credit : NASA
Although they prank each other “ once in a while … ” ( a story we ’d love to hear more about ) , the astronauts on the space post get along for the most part . Although they sometimes debate ( “ by and large it involves piece of work . ” ) , everyone is aware that they ’re bantam , fragile humans a hairsbreadth away from the harshness of space . “ We get along very well,”explained Kelly . “We have to because we bank on each other for our lives . ”
Astronaut Scott Kelly lease photographs through the cupola on the International Space Station . figure of speech deferred payment : NASA
in good order now , the five visible - middle planets are all visible from Earth before dawn . Kelly ’s also trying to catch the view . “ I ’ve been reckon for them,”he publish . “I do n’t conceive our orbit is where we can see them yet , but we will be . I ’m keep back my eye out for it and will certainly share them with everyone when I see it . ”
Scott Kelly desexualise a cooling pump during a spacewalk . Image quotation : NASA / Kjell Lindgren
When asked about being afraid or alone because of being in blank space , Kelly downplayed business about his environs . “ It is a picayune turn dreamlike to know that you are in your own small spaceship and a few inches from you is instant death,”he recognise . He ’s more cognisant of itduring spacewalks . “ When I calculate at the clouds over the Earth , and I get it on how high clouds are , I get a sense we are really , really far above those clouds,”Kelly tell . “ I would n’t call it scary , but I am aware I am in blank space . ”
But he has been scared when NASA wanted to speak to to him privately . “ I have been afraid when the earth has called and privatized the audio,”Kelly recounted . “ [ That ] loosely mean something spoiled has happened . ” Although he did n’t clarify the circumstance of the call , we knowKelly was on the space place five years agowhen his baby - in - law , Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords , was shot .
While not the first , Kelly ’s space flower are the most photographed and most beautiful . icon credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
On a related to note , the blank station has n’t been aired out in fifteen years . It is smelly . “ Smells vary depend on what section you are in,”started Kelly . “ Sometimes it has an antiseptic smell . Sometimes it has an aroma that smells like food waste . ” But the flavor of the hatch when transiting back from a spacewalk is whole different . “ The smell of outer space when you start the crosshatch smells like burning metal to me , ” he conclude .
Scott Kelly : astronaut , engineer , medical police officer , farmer , and occasional plumber . prototype credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
When asked what the creepiest matter he ’s encountered on the job , Kelly admitted , “ Generally it has to do with the privy . ” consider the previous horror history we ’ve heard offloating messesorbroken toilets creating a vacuum Navy SEAL , we ’re not surprised . But he still managed to contribute something novel and gross to the collection : “ latterly I had to clean up a gallon - sized ball of pee mix with dot . ” Why acid ? It ’s added to the urine to keep it from clogging the organization or prejudicious machinery . Ew .
Movie night : The Martian . ikon credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
Kelly joined in the spaceman viewing parties for Gravity and The Martian , but he ’s also demonstrated a love for Star Wars with aseriesofthematicphotosleading up to thepremiere . He also branches out into other genres , writing that Straight Outta Compton is on his to - sentinel list when he gets home .
Astronaut Scott Kelly briefly leaving the International Space Station to re - dock a Soyuz spacecraft . effigy cite : NASA / Scott Kelly
Any unaffixed pulverisation on the space station is a catastrophe for the airing system . alternatively of little packets of salt granule , Kelly explain , “ We really use liquid saltiness that we put on our food . ”
richly over the Bahamas . range of a function credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
Being an astronaut face so easy and fun from the exterior , it ’s gentle to forget how much workplace goes into keeping humans living in space . “ It is a huge U. S. Army of gruelling figure out people to make it happen,”Kelly remind us .
But seeing the Earth from afar is gorgeous . “ The brilliant and varied colors of the blue water system and demarcation [ of the Bahamas ] from here is pretty spectacular,”Kelly glowedabout hisfavorite photography mark . And seeing North and South Korea at nighttime , or watching Hurricane Patricia build providesa profound sensory faculty of contextlacking from the background . He reportedthat when he gets home , “ I will treasure nature more . ”
Aurora engulf the major planet , backlighting a Soyuz spacecraft attached to the post . Image credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
Kelly launch for the quad station onMarch 27 , 2015with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko . They are schedule to deliver to Earth onMarch 3 , 2016 . Kelly now view as theAmerican long duration spaceflight records for NASA .
[ NASA , Reddit ]
Top image : Scott Kelly on Day 183 in blank space . figure credit rating : NASA / Scott Kelly
reach out to the author at[email protected]or follow her at@MikaMcKinnon .
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