CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The so-called "staterooms" are like broom closets and the bath is strictly Motel 6. But the new crew quarters for
the International Space Station will rank right up there with the penthouse at the Ritz.
| Zvezda: A Self-Contained Space Station |
| Think of it not only as the International Space Stations living quarters but the all-important command post at a fledgling frontier settlement more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) above the planet. Want to Larn More? |
Building A City in Space: Watch the video animation of Zvezda dockingwith Unity and Zarya. |
So says former NASA astronaut John Blaha, who ought to know. The
Mir space station veteran spent four months living aboard a carbon copy of Russias soon-to-be-launched Zvezda service module in 1996."If you had your best friend or girlfriend in the world, and you could go up there and eat dinner and spend a couple of evenings, it would be better than staying in the best hotel in the world," Blaha said in an interview with SPACE.com.
"The foods pretty good, and the view is just absolutely incredible."
Set for launch July 12, the service module dubbed "Zvezda," or "Star" by the Russians will be home-away-from-home for construction and research crews at the now-unoccupied outpost.
Video animation of the Zvezda Service Module adjusting its trajectory.
The size of a Greyhound bus, the barrel-shaped spacecraft is an upgraded model of Mirs core lab, and like the best rooms at the Ritz, its equipped with sleeping quarters, a bathroom, a kitchen and an entertainment center not to mention exercise equipment.
At first glance, though, Zvezda is a Spartan place that seems a bit bleak. Harsh fluorescent lamps line a stark white ceiling. The walls are dirty tan, the floors are muddy brown and for those who prefer to be pampered, creature comforts are few and far between.
Take the "staterooms."
Set into walls on either side of the 43-foot- (13-meter-) long module, they actually are tiny closets that have privacy curtains for doors. Cocoon-like sleeping bags are hung within them, and each has a small window that looks like a porthole on a cruise ship.
"A sponge bath in zero gravity is not a bad deal," said astronaut John Blaha.
"On the ground, they look like crummy little closets. But in space, they are very, very useful and quite nice," Blaha said.
"You can just float into them, climb into your sleeping bag, close the little curtain to give yourself some privacy, and then, there you are," he said.
"You can kind of just lay there in your sleeping bag, look outside into space, and dream. Youre either looking out at the stars, or youre looking at the planet (Earth), or youre looking at the horizon. Its like your bedroom. Its your place, and nobody else goes in there."
Zvezda, however, only is equipped with two sleeping stalls, and the first several resident crews at the station each will include three people. That means someone always will have to stake out some personal space elsewhere in the module probably in front of one of its 12 other windows.
Said Blaha: "The only difference is that the person who doesnt have a cabin has to spend three or four minutes in the morning rolling up their sleeping bag and stowing it somewhere, and then another three or four minutes in the evening setting it back up."
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Tucked off in the rear of Zvezda is the bathroom, which features a high-tech toilet.
The commode is not unlike a space-shuttle toilet. Dual thigh bars and foot restraints keep people from floating off its seat. A flexible hose -- with an attachable funnel for females -- is used to collect urine, and it employs suctioned air to gather fecal matter into a canister that is replaced every three to four weeks.
"When it gets full, you just sort of pull it out and put a new empty one in," Blaha said.
The canisters and other station trash are stored on Russian Progress space freighters -- supply ships which double as garbage scows that burn up during suicide dives into the atmosphere.
Zvezdas orbital privy also has a sink and a shower, but both are quite a chore to operate and clean. Astronauts and cosmonauts, consequently, probably will opt for simpler sponge baths.
Scrubbing up with soapy washcloths and drying off with towels is imminently easier than trying to contain water and siphon it up in weightlessness. Its also safer when one considers that stray droplets can float off and wreak havoc with critical station electrical equipment.
"A sponge bath in zero gravity is not a bad deal. In fact, I almost think you clean yourself better with a sponge bath in zero G than you do in the shower on the ground," Blaha said. "Its not like youre roughing it on a hike up some mountain or on a journey to the North Pole."
The water used for washing up will come from Zvezdas so-called "wardroom," which never will be confused with the type of fully equipped kitchen preferred by gourmet chefs.
Just a step or two away from the sleep compartments, the galley is outfitted with a small refrigerator-freezer and a hot-and-cold water dispenser. The latter will be used to juice up culinary delights such as freeze-dried turkey tetrazzini or chicken strips in salsa.
And when crew mates tire of irradiated beef steak and thermostablized frankfurters, theres a small dining table that features hot plates to prepare delicacies such as borscht and Russian canned perch.
Crammed in between it all is a treadmill and an exercise bike -- two items considered key to keeping fit in weightlessness -- and an entertainment center that features a small library for bookworms, a VCR for movie fans and a CD player for those who would rather indulge in Beethoven or the Beatles.
All in all, "itll be a pretty nice place to be," Blaha said. "I mean, it might look like Motel 6 on the ground, but up in orbit in zero gravity, and with the view out the window itll be better than the best penthouse in the world."
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