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> Because of the weightless nature of space, any object that is unsecured or not tied down is likely to float off. And in the ISS, which is larger than a six-be
by koolba 3y ago
> Because of the weightless nature of space, any object that is unsecured or not tied down is likely to float off. And in the ISS, which is larger than a six-bedroom house, there's bound to be a plethora of good hiding spots for a lone-ranger tomato.
The part about the ISS being the size of a six bedroom house really stuck with me. I always imagine it being a single cramped room. But now it’s a floating McMansion!
- dieselgate 3y agoMade me think of the Mitch Hedberg bit about "I just bought a 2 bedroom house but it's up to me how many bedrooms there are though, isn't it? This bedroom has an oven in it... this bedroom is over in that guy's house" The ISS is larger (has more bedrooms) than I imagined too but using the "bedroom" descriptor is funny
- mkesper 3y agoEven mansion doesn't seem quite fitting to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#/media/File:The_station_pictured_from_the_SpaceX_Crew_Dragon_5_(cropped).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#/m... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_the_ISS_taken_during_Crew-2_flyaround_(ISS066-E-081311).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_the_ISS_taken_dur... And all that was transferred part by part to space, having to be usable right from the start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_of_the_International_Space_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_of_the_International_...
- sneak 3y agoIt has an absolute fuckton of gear inside of it, however. The camera equipment alone is quite a volume, to say nothing of all of the racks of stuff for experiments, exercise stuff, life support and water recycling, power storage, etc.
- looping8 3y agoYes, the photo in the article looks very cramped. Probably the same tightness in all other areas of the station, with a few exceptions. I wonder if they make any changes to free space from time to time?
- helsinkiandrew 3y agoIs't it about 1000 m3 of pressurised space - presumably a lot of stores and equipment. I imagine in zero gravity the same size room would have a lot more 'space' too due to the lack of everything tending to concentrate on the 'floor' - so lots of places to hide.
- croisillon 3y agohow many football pitch is a six bedroom house?
- FartyMcFarter 3y ago7 millilibraries of Congress.
- ainiriand 3y agoIt is so tiring to see these kind of 'measure' systems over and over again. Is that because the general public is unable to understand rational measures? Shouldn't be better to start using them so maybe the readers get the urge to understand them? I am not sure about this but I think something can be done, moreso from the people writing these articles. Maybe they can put a link to some website that explains rational measures.
- superhuzza 3y agoThe actual measurements aren't important to the story being told, at all. The story isn't about the ISS and how big it is, it's just a detail to add colour to the article. Writing a "six bedroom house" gets the idea across more easily than 388 cubic metres of habitable volume. I have no idea how big 388 cubic metres is but I have a rough idea of what sizes houses are. Communication is all about tailoring your message to your audience. On the NASA page linked to in the article, they use the house analogy in addition to the cubic metres - because they understand that rough approximations can sometimes be more useful information than hard figures.
- galangalalgol 3y agoI've been in one bedroom houses with 370m^2 floor space, and 4 bedroom houses with 175m^2. Those are outliers but I still have no mental idea of how big a six bedroom house is, at all. And the fact this is a usable volume makes the whole comparison useless.
- InCityDreams 3y agoZillo new ads: "Half the size of the iss, open day Thursday"
- koolba 3y ago“Very secluded neighborhood”
- aaron695 3y ago> now it’s a floating McMansion! In reality it would be larger since it's used in 3D. You have 6 accessible surfaces. Most people only use their house in ~ 2 - 2.5 dimensions. Lots of other savings. Like stacking anvils on top of eggs in the cupboard and you can push things through space more optimized without the constraints of gravity. ie doors and hallways only have to be tight circles, you'll gain a lot there.
- scionthefly 3y agoAnvils on eggs until you have an orbit boosting burn.
- ghufran_syed 3y agoThe even more mind-blowing fact is that if SpaceX starship succeeds, it will be possible to launch a space station with half that volume in a single launch
- Xymist 3y agoThe ISS cost $150 billion. One Starship launch may well cost under $75 million, once they have a cadence going. Three orders of magnitude reduction in cost in thirty years is pretty good going for something that insanely complicated.