The International Space Station turns fifteen - RTVE

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First configuration space of the ISS: from left to right the Progress M1-3, Zvezda, Zarya and Unity NASA

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‘WICHO’”/> JAVIER PEDREIRA ‘WICHO’

Today marks fifteen years of the launch of the Zarya , the first module of the International Space Station by a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Space shuttle Endeavour

be responsible just two weeks after putting into orbit the Unity module, the December 6, 1998 was permanently attached to Zarya.

But it was not until July 26 2000 when the module Zvezda automatically docked to Zarya and the station became a spacecraft area , since the early systems contained Zvezda Life Support Station and two crew cabins.

These three modules in orbit, was the November 2, 2000 when Bill Shepherd, Yuri and Sergei K. Gidzenko Krikalev became the first crew of the station, which has been continuously manned since then, so it might be more correct to celebrate his birthday in November.

The last to come on board have been Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, Richard Mastracchio of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, accompanied Torch Sochi Winter Games 2014 , on November 7.

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Over time, the International Space Station has been growing modules launched by rocket or transported there by the NASA space shuttle and coupled with the rest of the Station during the corresponding walks space, although its construction has suffered numerous delays , as it initially was planned to end in 2003.

ISS has become the largest ship ever built

Still, it has become the largest ship ever built, with a measures 51 × 109 meters including fifteen pressurized modules in addition to the structure supporting the solar panels , radiators and other external equipment as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. It is also the most expensive, with estimated cost of 100,000 million .

And that the station is not finished yet and have yet to launch, among other things, the laboratory Russian Nauka, built from backup module Zarya, and the robot arm of the European Space Agency.

Yes, it is true that in space, since this limit is set by convention in the Kármán line at 100 miles high, the International Space Station orbits Earth about 400 miles high , which is almost nothing, the moon, without going any further, it is about 300,000 miles from Earth.

At first glance

The fact that the station is in such a low orbit and the large size of its solar panels makes it possible to see at a glance , either at dawn or dusk when it comes to the shadow of the Earth and reflects the Sun

is the third brightest object in the sky after the Moon and satellites Iridium

In fact, the station becomes the third brightest object in the sky after the Moon and Iridium satellite flare, and if the sighting occurs on a moonless night without sparkles Iridium, is directly brightest object in the sky at times when the sun strikes the solar panels , which also rotates continuously to point to the sun and maximize the power of this.

To know where to look, NASA has a service known as Spot the Station which you just tell where one lives to send you email, or even by SMS if you live in the United States, when and where you can see the station, which occurs several times a year from almost any point on Earth.

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Besides having served as learning platform in order to build and operate large structures in space , including pertrechada conveniently keep cargo vehicles as Russian Progress, European ATV , the Japanese H-II, or the Dragon and Cygnus capsule, the ISS also aims to become a platform for scientific production , so that crew members spend much of their time to carry out experiments designed scientists from all member countries of the project.

Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. of NASA, aa left, and Christer Fuglesang of ESA during one of the spacewalks devoted to ISS assembly . Photo: NASA

Work areas covered are biology and biotechnology, Earth science and space, educational, research on the human body, physics, and technology, taking advantage of the free-fall environment, but not zero gravity Station to do some experiments that would be impossible or very difficult directly to ground .

In any case, the scientific results of the station are hot point of debate, since many people believe that the investment has been excessive compared to the return obtained, so the member countries of the project, now that the station is nearly complete, seek to give more time to the science on board this .

onboard astronauts spend much of their time to keep the station

But the main problem with it is found that the station is designed with technology in some of its modules date back to the 70s of XX century, so much of the time the astronauts on board This is dedicated to the maintenance of own station , although for some time on board Robonaut 2, a robot to study whether and how in the future many of these tasks can be performed by a machine, but be controlled remotely from the ground.

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Space is a harsh environment for the materials that make up the station and to the electronic components of its onboard systems, including their computers, so in principle Station end its life in 2020 .

Anyway, been into account the enormous effort made to mount, project members are considering extending its use beyond that year. In any case, for now is our only permanent presence in space .