Space . . .Its Past and Present, Our Future.

We all need certain things in order to live including water, air, shelter, room, food, and light from the sun. Our earth gives us these things so we are very lucky. However, if we want to live and work in space, we will need to create our own habitat in order to survive.
What would a space habitat need to have? How can we meet our needs in space?
Let’s look at the International Space Station (ISS) which is busy orbiting Earth right now. We can learn a lot when we study the way those astronauts and engineers are surviving in the Earth’s orbit.

Air
First, let’s check out the air situation. We must have air. We need it to breathe, and we need the pressure of air so the air and liquids inside us don’t escape. NASA once used just the oxygen we need in spaceships, but pure oxygen causes fires very easily. During an Apollo 1 training session, a fire started that killed three crew members. Since then, NASA has mixed oxygen with nitrogen to keep the astronauts safer.
Now station modules are launched with natural air inside. This air grows stale and needs to be replaced. The nitrogen and oxygen gas mix is chilled into liquids to take up less room and later warmed back into a gas.
The space station also makes oxygen from recycled water. Oxygen makes up about 90% of water, and the solar panels are able to “zap” that oxygen right out of the water. The leftover hydrogen in pushed out into space.

Water
Astronauts learn to live with much less water than the average American on Earth who uses about 160 gallons a day! Astronauts use about 8 gallons a day. It helps that the space station has a waterless toilet, food is warmed without water, and dirty laundry is sent back to Earth.
Most of the water used evaporates back into the air of the space station and a cooling system heat exchanger condenses the water from the air and keeps it in a holding tank. Some of this water is used for drinking and some is used to make more oxygen.
Believe it or not, the space station even recycles urine! While the crew sleeps, about 13 gallons of urine is made into useable water each day.
Water doesn’t flow when there is no gravity, so when the astronauts “shower,” they simple rub water from a hose on like lotion.
Learning to conserve water in space, the astronauts set good examples for those of us who waste too much water here on Earth.

Light
The sun never sets in space, but for half of each 24 hour day, the space station in in the shadow of the Earth and no light can be collected by the solar arrays. These panels are like wings and are the largest ever built (each about a hundred feet long).The rotating arrays only make electricity when there is sunshine on them, so about half of the electricity is stored on batteries. The electricity is used to run everything on the station.

Shelter and Room
Of course, without the space station itself, no astronaut could survive. The station provides for all needs, including “air conditioning.” Hot air on Earth is lighter than cold and rises up and away from us. On the space station, however, hot air would surround each astronaut and never cool because of the lack of gravity. On the ISS, fans move the air and push it into a cold bath called a heat exchanger. The exchanger is shaped like a fan with over 30 layers of air and water to separate. The cooled air is pushed back into the station and hot water is stored in pipes.
Humans also need “space” to survive. Even though the space station is far from roomy, there are modules for living (called habitats), labs for working, capsules for storage, communication, and a truss for moving from one place to another.

Food
We cannot forget the need for food. Much of their food is dried and water is later added to rehydrate it. Nutritionists planned their meals carefully so the astronauts get just the right amount of calories they need for living in space. They are also treated to fresh fruits and vegetables when the shuttle delivers a new module to the station.