This Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of mankind's greatest architectural and technical achievement in history, the construction, commissioning and use of the largest spacecraft ever built by mankind: the International Space Station, which opened its door on November 2, 2000 to NASA's Bill Shepherd and Russia's Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko from Russia's Roscosmos.
Then it was just a cold, damp, three-room station, and today it is about 109 meters long (like a soccer field) and weighs around 453 tons. "Like a four-star hotel," says one of its former inhabitants.290 people from 26 countries have visited the space station, which now has multiple laboratories... and even a telephone with internet for personal use by astronauts, along with a glass dome for privileged views of the Earth. There is the ball in the image of this article, one of the few things that survived the terrible accident of the Challenger shuttle, and that has returned to space three decades later.
Originally planned to last half as long on the ISS, which orbits the Earth 16 times a day at 28,000 km/h at an altitude of around 400 km, sport is and has been vital for the more than 200 astronauts who have traveled and lived, sometimes for months, in this magnificent facility... which has microgravity, quite a problem for the human body.
Not for nothing, just because if you don't exercise, the body loses bone, muscle mass... everything. In fact, at least two hours of exercise a day are necessary to avoid muscle and bone weakening. With lack of use, weight-bearing bones can lose up to 1% of mass for each month they are in orbit. This exposes astronauts to the risk of bone fractures when they return to Earth.
The equipment used includes treadmills for running in place and stationary bicycles to strengthen muscles and stimulate blood flow. Sometimes astronauts can also wearspecial pants that push blood to their legs and force the heart to beat harder, because if it doesn't, it weakens.
And of course, during the 25 years of space travel, there have been several World Cups and Olympic Games that have unleashed a multitude of funny videos in an American, Russian, Japanese and Canadian facility with astronauts from dozens of nationalities. There were even some guests to speed up the coasts of this space dream.
There have even been tennis matches, advised by Juan Martin del Potro, American football plays and small soccer matches with a smaller ball, but of course, bicycle kicks like in Captain Tsubasa, 10-minute long matches, extremely long dives and all kinds of impossible flexes down here...
The ISS will remain in operation for another five years, until its retirement in 2031, amid doubts about its actual performance, at a cost of more than $100 million in the US alone. "The scientific returns have been meagre," says Sir Martin Rees, the UK's Astronomer Royal
"We've learned a little bit about how the body reacts to spending long periods in space, and we've developed some [protein] crystals in zero gravity, but that's by no means proportional to the tens of billions of dollars that have been spent on the ISS," he says.
"We still have hope that on board the ISS we are going to help create a drug that cures cancer. Can you put a price on that? Bringing clean water to remote areas of Earth, is there a price for that? The cost of the ISS compared to the benefits it brings to humans is probably minimal," Carlos Fontanot, ISS imagery manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center, countered.
The experimental greenhouses have also added color and flavor, producing chilies and zinnias. Even an espresso machine had a brief trial, as did an oven for cookies. But there is still no shower or laundry: only sponge baths, and dirty clothes are thrown away, not washed.Among the most serious setbacks: the near-drowning of a spacewalker, a docking that sent the station spinning out of control, persistent cracks and air leaks, and the ever-increasing threat of space debris.
For NASA, the International Space Station remains a vital scientific platform, providing the necessary foundation to survive and thrive as humanity ventures into the unexplored territories of our universe. A total of 259 spacewalks (EVAS) have been conducted outside the spacecraft.