The days of the astronaut who returns to space on Wednesday. Work shifts, overtime and the race to look at the Earth
Samantha Cristoforetti celebrated her 45th birthday on Tuesday preparing for the launch of the Crew-4 mission, scheduled for Wednesday at 9:52 am, Italian time, from the Kennedy Space Center. The launch of SpaceX’s Freedom shuttle will take her to the International Space Station (ISS) for the second time. Duration of the mission: 5 months. But how will her days unfold?
The alarm
The ISS completes a tour of the Earth in 90 minutes, therefore every Earth day foresees about sixteen sunrises. This messes up the circadian cycle. After several attempts it was understood that it is best to put an alarm on the earth’s sunrise to avoid an effect called continuous jet leg.
What time on the ISS?
Setting the alarm clock: easy said on Earth. But if everyone lived in their own time zone, the ISS would be dominated by chaos. It was therefore decided to apply the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which corresponds to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). So Cristoforetti lives almost on Italian time if you have to call her.
How long do you work?
Eight hours, like on Earth, even if there is no astronaut union. Obviously overtime happens.
And definitely
At the station we eat three times a day. The food is not like that of the Apollo missions but in any case the absence of gravity does not help: the cutlery is held in place by magnets on the table. Liquids are drunk with straws from special closed containers. Prolonged microgravity dulls the taste buds, so spicy food usually a crew favorite. In order not to be mistaken, Cristoforetti ordered a risotto before leaving (her colleagues steaks and lobsters…). The ISS is not really a Michelin star restaurant. (Read also:
S to ketchup, only liquid salt. Samantha Cristoforetti in space: what can eat and what not)
The sport
There are two hours of sport a day (on the ISS there are exercise bikes, squats and treadmills: but to train and reduce the atrophy of muscles and bones you need to bond).
Leisure
The race literally to pass it in front of the famous glass dome from selfie more exclusive than there is. Three things: 1) it seems that you never get bored looking at the Earth; 2) there are shifts; 3) the dome was built and designed by the Italians. Nobody wanted to do it because they considered it a possible weak point. The Italian architects of domes are well versed. Long live Brunelleschi.
I social network
In summary: eight hours of work and two of sport, plus the dome and meals. There is some free time for social media and @AstroSamantha one of the astronauts who has used them the most: she has almost a million follower.
Breathing
Discounted? Each day each of us breathes the equivalent of 0.9 kg of liquid oxygen and drinks a total of 2.7 kg of water. The station is a unique laboratory of sustainability and circular economy. Waste water from urine and condensed moisture from the air are either purified and reused directly or broken down by electrolysis to provide fresh oxygen.
The sleep
Many decide to tie up and sleep in vertical sleeping bags (nothing changes in the absence of gravity). But there is a problem: since the hot air does not rise the carbon dioxide produced could remain in front of their mouth like a bubble. Astronauts tend to adopt ape-like intuition, that is, the fetal position. And to dream of floating.
The bathroom
You have to tie yourself on the toilet which is essentially a large vacuum cleaner. When the bathroom broke on the Mir they had to use bags… it was a dramatic moment. Doubts?
April 27, 2022 (change April 27, 2022 | 12:38)
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