बकिंघम पैलेस जितने बड़े स्पेस स्टेशन में फंसी सुनीता विलियम्स: पसीने-पेशाब से बना पानी पी रहीं; धरती से 400KM ऊपर कैसी है एस्ट्रोनॉट्स की जिंदगी

This is Sunita Williams’ third space trip. She is the only astronaut of Indian origin to go to space 3 times.

Date- June 6, Time- 11 pm. Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft reaches the International Space Station (ISS) carrying Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and her partner Butch Wilmore. Due to a malfunction in the spacecraft, this 8-day journey turns into 8 months.

Sunita and Butch may return to Earth in February next year. Currently, they are living in the ISS with 9 other astronauts in a space equivalent to a 6 bedroom house. Sunita calls it one of her favorite places. Butch Wilmore says that he is lucky that he got to live in the ISS.

So what would it be like to live 400 km above the Earth? How would astronauts do essential tasks like washing clothes and eating food…

Every work of the astronauts is monitored from Earth The mission control team on earth monitors the astronauts’ movements every 5 minutes. The astronauts wake up early in the morning. At 6:30 am, they leave their phone booth-sized sleeping quarters and reach the ISS module named ‘Harmony’. It is like a common room. After leaving the ISS module, the astronauts go to the bathroom. Their sweat and urine present in the space station is recycled to make drinking water.

After this the astronauts start their work. Most of the time on the ISS is spent in maintenance or doing experiments. The space station, which is as big as Britain’s royal palace Buckingham Palace or an American football field, looks as if several buses have been parked together. According to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, sometimes we don’t even meet other astronauts until half the day is over.

NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, who has spent 104 days in the space station, says that the world’s best sleeping bags are present in the sleeping quarters. There is a laptop in the astronauts’ compartment. Through this, they can contact their families. Apart from this, their personal belongings and books are also present here.

Astronauts save time by singing songs and writing letters to their families There are 6 labs for experiments in the ISS. Apart from this, astronauts have to constantly monitor their heart, brain and blood in the space station environment. Hadfield said that astronauts often try to finish work earlier than the schedule of Mission Control.

If they manage to save even 5 minutes, they spend it watching the things flying in space outside the station. They often do things like writing songs, taking pictures and writing letters to their children or family members. In between work, it is necessary for astronauts to exercise for 2 hours a day. During this time, they wear different clothes.

Actually, due to lack of gravity in the space station, sweat does not separate from the body. This is why one sweats more while exercising in the ISS. However, apart from this, clothes do not get dirty quickly in space.

The biggest challenge in the ISS is food. Astronaut Nicole Stott said that if a person opens a food packet in space, often something spills out of it. After this, that thing keeps flying in the ISS. All the astronauts are trying to avoid it.

Special food packets come from home, 8 hours time for sleep NASA keeps sending essential items for astronauts in spacecraft a few times a year. This includes things like clothes, equipment, food items etc. The entire crew of ISS eats dinner at night after a full day’s work. The food is packed in different food packets and sent to the astronauts. Sometimes the family members of the astronauts also send bonus packets for them.

After all the work is over, the astronauts return to their compartment to sleep. They get 8 hours of sleep. But during this time many people keep looking out of their window towards the earth for a long time. The experience of seeing the earth from a distance of 400 km is very different and special.