STRANDED in the International Space Station, over 200 miles from Earth, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been told they may not be rescued until February 2025.
The American duo – who were initially due to spend just eight days in space – will now have to sit it out for eight months due to helium leaks in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that dropped them there in June.
Now British astronaut Meganne Christian, who is part of the UK Space Agency’s reserve team for a mission to space, has shared her insight into exactly what Butch, 61, and Suni, 58, will be going through on board the isolated ISS.
Meganne, 36, says the pair will have no showers, drink recycled urine and face radiation during their extended stay.
Meganne says: “Suni and Butch were prepared for a long duration mission should it happen. Space is hard, that is the line that we always take.”
The British scientist knows all about being stranded in an isolated research lab with little hope of immediate rescue – even though she’s yet to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.
From 2018 to 2019, she lived on a remote research station in Antarctica nicknamed White Mars – nearly 400 miles from civilisation, further than the space station, which is 248 miles away.
Here she reveals the everyday trials of the ISS inhabitants.
Grim recycling
Suni and Butch were on a test flight, trying out the Starliner for the first time with humans on board.
The US space agency Nasa is now carrying out tests to decide whether it is safe for them to fly back on the Boeing or if they’ll need to come back on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX vehicles, due to arrive in February.
And living on the Space Station is not easy.
At the moment nine people are sharing the two bathrooms and six sleeping quarters in the ISS.
Food and water supplies, which are delivered from Earth, have to be carefully managed.
The liquids that go out of the body – mainly urine – need to be retained via the Water Recovery System and recycled.
The same applies for sweat and exhaled moisture.
Meganne explains: “You have to reuse and recycle as much as possible. They say ‘yesterday’s coffee is today’s coffee.’
“That sounds disgusting. But by the time it gets to you it’s just pure water again.”
A special suction type toilet is able to collect the bodily fluids which would otherwise float about in microgravity.
Tim Peake, the first British astronaut to live on the ISS, explained: “We pee into a hose that has a conical-shaped receptacle with a switch on the side.
“For a number two, there is a rather petite loo seat secured on top of a solid waste container. Attached is a rubberised bag with an elasticated opening.”
He also revealed that a crewmate once told everyone “to keep an eye out” for a number two which had gone missing.
At least the food sounds slightly more appetising than the coffee.
Meganne continues: “The food is kind of normal food but the mass and volume is reduced as much as possible.”
The meals are dehydrated to minimise the size and water is added again prior to eating.
Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/12232429/astronaut-international-space-station-stranded/