Gadgetory

tonight we're wishing happy birthday to the International Space Station as everyone's favorite low-earth orbits sharehouse turns 20 we ask how it got there how did the astronauts survive onboard and who exactly left that weird Pizza stain on the communal couch I'm Claire Riley welcome to watch this space from the CNET studios in sydney this is your weekly guide to everything on earth you need to know about space and tonight the International Space Station is turning 20 old enough to vote not quite old enough to drink sorry ISS you're gonna have to lay off that moonshine for another year the idea for an International Space Station goes all the way back to Ronald Reagan who was no doubt kind of tio de bout missing the first space race and getting to shoot junk into space I guess that's what you get for gallivanting around Hollywood movie sets Oh Reagan Byrne topical anyway in 1984 Reagan called on NASA to build an International Space Station within a decade it took another 14 years to get off the ground but on November 20 1998 the first module of the ISS was launched the Russian built u.s. owned functional cargo block known as Zarya not that one there we go was the first component of the ISS to be launched two weeks later the u.s. built component known as unity was also launched the whole ISS was always going to be way too big to shoot into space in one go it weighs close to a million pounds now instead the space station was built in stages over the years with all the different modules blasting up from Earth on 42 separate assembly flights before being attached to the ISS in space piece by piece think of it kind of like a king-size IKEA bed that doesn't quite fit through your apartment door so the Russian space agency and nasa took all the parts of their floor borg threw them into the space bedroom and then connected them with the double flew and shmoo goose board where their remote ly operated allen key as it stands or more accurately floats now the whole space station is just one yard short of a football field from end to end that's 357 feet all because this is space where smart people use the metric system instead of just measuring everything in yards and penny weights and thimbles that's roughly 109 meters so what's up there well in honor of the Space Station's early noughties history why don't we take a tour of the ISS in a style similar to yet legally distinct from mtv's cribs that's right Claire we're up here on the ISS so sorry if I break up just a wee bit but they've led us on for a special viewing this whole area is about the size of a six bedroom deluxe house in the Hollywood Hills it's got a gym where they work out at least two hours a day they've got two bathrooms complete with the great suction toilets they use up here and of course a water recovery system to make full use of the beautiful imported water that they get on the ISS most importantly for the Instagram game up here they've got that gorgeous 360 degree viewing window which is just a delight there are also six fabulous sleeping quarters up here or you can just peg yourself to a wall and sleep like a rock star fun fact those sleeping quarters need to be really well ventilated otherwise you wake up in the middle and I gasping for air because the carbon dioxide has pulled around your face like a bubble isn't that great outside there's an acre of solar panels with a wingspan of about 240 feet or 73 meters that's roughly the size of - Mariah Carey walk-in wardrobes and when it comes to parking your ride up here Claire the ISS can have the six spaceships connected to it at once for when the crew wants to bring their crew around now while we're up here Claire I do just want to touch on the technology they've got installed they've got 350,000 sensors 50 computers all connected with eight miles of wiring and of course internet via satellite which makes for some really sweet LAN parties MRI no I've lost the connection okay well the ISS orbits the earth 16 times in a single day at a speed of 5 miles a second that's roughly 1 orbit every 90 minutes all up we give the ISS four and a half stars it could be a little bit more spacious but we love what they've done with the place and it makes for a pretty sweet pad back to you Claire thanks Claire that space crib truly is dope AF the structure itself is impressive but what's more impressive is the fact that since expedition 1 first visited on November 2nd 2000 the International Space Station has hosted humans in space for 18 uninterrupted years more than 230 people have visited the ISS in that time more than half of them from the US and the ISS has even hosted a handful of space tourists but the bulk of the time humans spend on the ISS is spent working doing research and conducting remote experiments for scientists back on earth that includes everything from growing plants and biology experiments to track house cell growth differs in space measuring the effects of weightlessness and microgravity and research on how humans cope under extreme conditions and then there's all the time astronauts spend communicating with us here on earth sharing their experiences with students suni explainers on how stuff works in space and yes even briefing the stars of the movie the Martian on how to act as believable astronauts though friend of the show Matt Damon needs no acting tips whatsoever so there you have it spend time on Earth's most remote sharehouse and you're gonna have to work out two hours in a gym every day pee in a suction tube sleep against a wall in a bubble of your own expired air all while hurtling around the planet at five miles per second sorry but that air BnB gets a solid one star review from me that's it for this week's edition of watch this space if you've enjoyed our broadcast then please click the like button on your remote and subscribe to get more updates on space news as it happens I'm Claire Riley fussiness goodnight and Godspeed I'm not sure why they've got me wearing two microphones Claire but I can hear you loud and clear from the ISS here it is really quite amazing that they let me up here I have done no training zero training whatsoever oh no we think the ISS is a great holiday location for mum dad the kids no kids okay and it has a wingspan of 240 feet which is roughly equivalent to three furlongs or two hogsheads - the power will go again