The International Space Station was launched into outer space in 1998. At the moment, for almost seven thousand days, the best minds of mankind have been working day and night to solve the most complicated puzzles in zero gravity.
Space
Each person who at least once saw this unique object asked himself a logical question: what is the height of the orbit of the international space station? That's just a monosyllabic answer is impossible. The orbit altitude of the ISS international space station depends on many factors. Let's consider them in more detail.
The orbit of the ISS around the Earth is reduced due to the impact of a rarefied atmosphere. Speed decreases, and so does height. How to rush up again? The orbit altitude of the ISS station can be changed using the engines of the ships that dock to it.
Different heights
Over the entire duration of the space mission, several basic values have been recorded. As far back as February 2011, the orbit altitude of the ISS was 353 km. All calculations are made in relation to sea level. The ISS orbit in June of that year increased to three hundred and seventy-five kilometers. But this was far from the limit. In just two weeks, NASA employees were happy to answer reporters the question “What is the current orbital altitude of the ISS?” - three hundred eighty five kilometers!
And this is not the limit
The ISS orbit altitude was still insufficient to resist natural friction. Engineers took a responsible and very risky step. The orbit altitude of the ISS was to be increased to four hundred kilometers. But this event happened a little later. The problem was that only the ships lifted the ISS. Orbit height was limited for shuttles. Only with time the restriction was abolished for the crew and the ISS. The orbit altitude since 2014 exceeded 400 kilometers above sea level. The maximum average value was recorded in July and amounted to 417 km. In general, height adjustments are carried out constantly to fix the most optimal route.
History of creation
Back in 1984, the US government had plans for the launch of a large-scale scientific project in the near space. It was quite difficult even for the Americans to carry out such a grandiose construction alone, and Canada and Japan were involved in the development.
In 1992, Russia was included in the campaign. In the early nineties in Moscow they planned a large-scale project “Mir-2”. But economic problems prevented the implementation of grandiose plans. Gradually, the number of participating countries grew to fourteen.
Bureaucratic delays took more than three years. Only in 1995 the sketch of the station was adopted, and another year later - the configuration.
November 20, 1998 was an outstanding day in the history of world astronautics - the first block was successfully delivered to the orbit of our planet.
Assembly
The ISS is brilliant in its simplicity and functionality. The station consists of independent blocks that are interconnected as a large designer. It is impossible to calculate the exact value of the object. Each new unit is manufactured in a separate country and, of course, varies in price. In total, a huge number of such parts can be attached, so the station can be constantly updated.
Validity
Due to the fact that the station blocks and their filling can be changed and upgraded an unlimited number of times, the ISS can plow open spaces of near-Earth orbit for a long time.
The first alarm bell rang in 2011, when the Space Shuttle program was curtailed due to its high cost.
But nothing terrible happened. Cargo was regularly delivered into space by other ships. In 2012, the private shuttle for commercial use even successfully docked with the ISS. Subsequently, a similar event occurred repeatedly.
Threats for the station can only be political. Periodically, officials from different countries threaten to stop supporting the ISS. First, support plans were scheduled until 2015, then until 2020. To date, there is tentatively an agreement to maintain the station until 2027.
In the meantime, politicians are arguing among themselves, the ISS in 2016 made a hundred thousandth revolution around the planet, which was originally called "Jubilee".
Electricity
Sitting in the dark, of course, is interesting, but sometimes annoying. Every minute on the ISS is worth its weight in gold, so the engineers were deeply puzzled by the need to provide the crew with uninterrupted electrics.
Many different ideas were proposed, and in the end they agreed that nothing could be better than solar panels in space.
When implementing the project, the Russian and American sides went in different ways. Thus, the first country’s electricity is generated for a system of 28 volts. The voltage in the American unit is 124 V.
During the day, the ISS makes many turns around the Earth. One turn - about an hour and a half, forty-five minutes of which pass in the shade. Of course, at this time generation from solar panels is impossible. The station is powered by nickel-hydrogen batteries. The life of such a device is about seven years. The last time they were changed back in 2009, so very soon the engineers will make the long-awaited replacement.
Device
As previously written, the ISS is a huge constructor, parts of which are easily interconnected.
As of March 2017, the station has fourteen elements. Russia supplied five blocks called “Dawn”, “Search”, “Star”, “Dawn” and “Pier”. The Americans gave their seven parts the following names: Unity, Destiny, Tranquility, Quest, Leonardo, Dome, and Harmony. The countries of the European Union and Japan so far have one block each: Columbus and Kibo.
Parts are constantly changing depending on the tasks assigned to the crew. A few more blocks are coming that will significantly enhance the research capabilities of the crew. The most interesting, of course, are the laboratory modules. Some of them have complete tightness. Thus, they can investigate absolutely everything, even alien living creatures, without the risk of infection for the crew.
Other blocks are designed to generate the necessary environments for normal human life. Still others allow them to freely go into space and perform research, observation or repairs.
Some blocks do not carry research load and are used as storage facilities.
Ongoing research
Numerous studies are actually what the politicians decided in the distant nineties to send into space a designer, whose cost today is estimated at more than two hundred billion dollars. For this money you can buy a dozen countries and get a small sea as a gift.
So, the ISS has such unique capabilities that no terrestrial laboratory has. The first is the presence of an unlimited vacuum. The second is the actual absence of gravity. Third - the most dangerous cosmic radiation, not corrupted by refraction in the earth's atmosphere.
Do not feed the researchers with bread, but let them learn something! They are happy to fulfill the duties assigned to them, even in spite of the mortal risk.
Most scientists are interested in biology. This area includes biotechnology and medical research.
Other scientists often forget about sleep, exploring the physical forces of extraterrestrial space. Materials, quantum physics - only part of the research. The favorite pastime of many revelations is to test various liquids in zero gravity.
Experiments with vacuum, in general, can be carried out outside the blocks, right in outer space. Earth scientists can only envy in a good way by observing experiments on video communication.
Any person on Earth would give everything for one exit into space. For station employees, this is almost a routine.
conclusions
Despite the disgruntled exclamations of many skeptics about the futility of the project, ISS scientists made many interesting discoveries that made it possible to look differently at space in general and on our planet.
Every day, these brave people receive a huge dose of radiation, and all for the sake of scientific research that will give humanity unprecedented opportunities. One can only admire their performance, courage and determination.
The ISS is a fairly large object, which can also be seen from the surface of the Earth. There is even a whole site where you can enter the coordinates of your city and the system will tell you exactly what time it will be possible to try to see the station, being in a deck chair right on your balcony.
Of course, the space station has many opponents, but many more fans. And this means that the ISS will confidently keep in its orbit four hundred kilometers above sea level and will once again show avid skeptics how wrong they were in their predictions and predictions.