All language subtitles for Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2015 s03e02 Life In Orbit

Now, this looks like fun, and it is.

But it's just one of the many threats
that astronauts face when they're living

in space.

With British astronaut Tim Peake up on
the space station right now, we're going

to find out how to survive in space.

Thank you, thank you.

This is Mission Control for here at the
Royal Institution for the next 60

minutes. And we're getting live
information and pictures from the space

And this is exactly what astronaut Tim
Peake can see.

And right now we're going to see
something very beautiful. We're going to

on that screen sunrise as the astronauts
themselves see it.

And it is very beautiful, but it is
very...

And it's brief because it's brought
about by the motion of the space station

it hurtles around the Earth at 17 ,500
miles an hour. And that speed alone

it dangerous.

Before you even consider what this
really is, this is a machine inside

people live and an artificially crafted
bubble of life support upon which the

crew depend for every second of every
day in the impossibly hostile ocean of

space.

Now, welcome back to the 2015 Christmas
Lectures.

I am Dr. Kevin Fong and I used to work
with NASA trying to protect astronauts

they went about the business of
exploring space.

But Tim Peake's up there right now
living that.

And we're just going to take a second
here to have a look at how he's getting

on.

Hi, Kevin, and hello to everybody in the
theatre in the Royal Institute

Christmas Lectures. I hope you're having
a great time, and welcome on board the

International Space Station.

Now, remarkably, we've managed to get
some questions up to Tim, and one in

particular, which was poised by someone
in the audience. So I know that Lowry

Howard is here somewhere. Where are you,
Lowry? Lowry, what was your question

for Tim?

What does it smell like on the
International Space Station? So let's

Tim... thought of that. Tim, what does
it smell like on the International Space

Station?

Really, it's an interesting smell. It's
not a bad smell at all, but it smells

almost metallic and also almost
chemically, but not in a bad, not in a

way. We'll be hearing more from Tim
later, but right now I've come up to

or at least what counts as space here at
the Royal Institution. So I'm going to

give a wave back down to planet Earth.

Good to see you all so well down there.

This is our replica of the International
Space Station. It is a remarkable piece

of engineering.

It was built by 18 member nations over
15 years.

It is the brightest object in the night
sky when you can see it. And just up

there on the screen, you can see how we
built it block by block in time lapse.

Every single one of those modules was
put there by a rocket and someone

in space.

build the space station, we had to turn
space into a building site.

It's quite remarkable. Now the other
thing you can see on our mission control

screen is the orbital tracker.

Now the orbital tracker there shows us
the track.

of the space station as it's going
across the earth and right now i'm going

lean out and see where it is it's just
heading off the edge of the map there

just off the east coast of australia
heading out over the ocean and it has a

funny shape that orbital track and i can
explain to you why so this is the earth

rotating from west to east and space
station orbits around it But it doesn't

orbit around the equator.

It orbits at a kind of funny angle. So
each orbit goes over a different part

of the Earth.

Let's just go to a bit of video to see
how Tim's getting on in space.

As you can see right now, I'm in the US
laboratory.

But here on the International Space
Station, we have a number of modules

whole range of different scientific
experiments are being conducted.

In fact, over the six months of my
mission, about 265 experiments are going

be going on, ranging from fluid physics,
biology experiments, and, of course,

human physiology experiments, learning
more about our body, how it adapts to

space flight, and how it can benefit
future space exploration and also people

back on Earth.

So great to see him.

Although he had his feet under a bar,
you could tell he was floating.

So that is a question for you. Why is he
floating? Why is he weightless?

Now, Isaac Newton told us that the force
of gravity was the attraction between

two objects that depended upon how
massive those objects were and how far

they were.

Now, if you go from the surface of the
Earth... into space you're only

another 250 miles up and the gravity the
force due to gravity hasn't changed

that much in fact if you measure the
force due to gravity in low earth orbit

it's only gone down to about 92 percent
of what it is here on earth so why why

are they weightless it isn't because of
zero g we call it zero g but it's not

because of zero gravity now how many of
you have ever been weightless before

really I think you're wrong. All of us
have been weightless before.

All of us have been weightless every
time we jump or every time we fall.

Every time you jump or fall, you leave
the ground and you are weightless until

the moment you hit the ground. Again,
I'm going to get off this because I

I'm going to kill myself.

Okay. Whoa.

All right. What is weight?

Weight is just the reaction of the
ground against our bodies as we stand on

Right now, I weigh something because I'm
pushing on the ground. The ground's

pushing on me. When I jump, I am
weightless.

And if you want to be weightless for
longer, you just have to find a machine

that makes you fall for longer.

Now, you could do that by getting in a
lift and cutting the cable, and you'd be

weightless, and you'd float like an
astronaut until you hit the floor. That

would really spoil the ride, I think.

So the question is, can you find a
machine?

that makes you fall for longer without
the ground spoiling everything and the

answer is you can and let's just have a
quick look at that machine it's a humble

plane except for this plane's about to
do something very strange it's cruising

along now pulling up some speed and it's
about to push into a very steep climb

it's about to push its nose up and over
the top and as it gets over the top

You become weightless for 23 seconds,
and it prescribes the shape of a

this that's why this is called a
parabolic flight and now you're floating

inside and Now you're on your way down,
and this is really incredible when

you're inside And it's about to come
down to the bottom of its dive there is

screaming down at 45 degrees and as it
pulls out You don't get back to your

normal weight You go to twice your
weight for a brief second as it pulls

that dive. You weigh twice as much as
you do normally.

It goes up and down and up and down for
about an hour and a half. It's called a

parabolic flight, but it's so violent
with its oscillations that astronauts

train in it will fondly call it the
vomit comet.

And I had a go. Let's have a look at
that.

So there's my friend, Thundeeb Dhillon,
who is an intrepid mountaineer. He's

terrible on a flying carpet. Look, can
you see him there?

Dreadful. Probably thought he'd give it
a go. Look, he's fallen off.

Terrible.

And that's zero G, or at least that's a
zero G flight. That's your

weightlessness. That plane's falling.

Now, weightlessness makes things pretty
strange.

And to show you how strange, I am going
to need three...

Special volunteers.

Oh, okay. I think you come on down.

Okay, go on. We'll help you. And I'm
going to go right up to the top here.

think I am going to take you. There you
go. There you go. All right. Round of

applause for our volunteers.

Okay. So, just face front. Now, your
name is?

James. James. And your name is? Alex.

Alex. And your name is? Rosella.
Rosella.

Okay.

So, James, Alex, and Rosella.

So, Alex, let's start lifting that
weight. And you come and stand here next

me. Come over here.

So just keep doing some bicep curls.

All right, here we go.

So in and out. And keep going until I
tell you to stop. That's great.

Okay.

Now, James, you stand over that side.

We'll play ping pong.

And Rosella, what you're going to do is
eat this tea with the chopsticks, okay?

So there you go. All right, so.

Now, let's see what happens if you do
these things on the Vomit Comet.

So, let's see what it's like to lift
weight in weightlessness.

It's much easier to... Oh, there's a bit
of an awkward moment here when I lose

the weight, and gravity's coming back.

Oh, dear.

So, it is...

It is much easier to lift weight and
weightlessly. Are you getting tired yet?

All right, I'll let you off. So, because
the weight doesn't weigh anything

anymore, it doesn't become effortless to
move it because it has some inertia

because of its mass, so it's hard to
move around.

But as long as you don't lose it and it
doesn't fall on you, it's much better.

So, Alex, thank you so much for joining
us. Good to see you.

So James and I are going to carry on
with ping pong so now I'm rubbish at

pong James is much better than me, but
It gets much trickier when you take

gravity away, so let's have a look at
that

Now

has having quite a lot of ping -pong
balls for this

because I kept losing them and you keep
losing them because you're floating, the

balls are floating, and they just don't
do what they do on Earth.

I don't... I'm not entirely sure... I
have no idea.

Okay?

So, the ball doesn't behave like this.
The laws of physics are the same, but

physics of your situation have changed,
so everything is more difficult. Alex,

should we have a quick game?

Yeah?

Now,

how are you getting on with eating that
tea?

Not very well. Not very well, so it's my
fault, because it is obviously

impossible to eat tea with chopsticks,
unless you're weightless.

Shall we have a look at that? I'll let
you off that. Okay, let's have a look.

This is very tricky.

That is tea, despite what it looks like.

And you have to remember to open the
bottle if you want to eat the tea.

I was very pleased with myself.

That deserves a round of applause. I ate
some tea.

Thank you.

So to find out more about the challenges
of living and working in space, let's

talk to someone who's lived there for
132 days. It's my great pleasure to

introduce my friends and colleague,
twice -blown -in -space former astronaut

Parney.

Now Dan, you know all about life
support, but let me introduce you to

mine. Have a seat, I'm going to hook you
up here. Alright, so this is my life

support machine. I'm going to plug you
in here. And we'll have a look at you in

a minute and make sure you're alright.

I'll leave you there.

Now, this machine is the machine I use
at work. This is a life support machine.

I am trained as an anaesthetist and an
intensive care doctor.

And we need to use machines like these
to keep people alive.

And this thing has to provide

the elements of a breathable atmosphere.

So, first of all, you need some oxygen.

Now, this machine does for one person
what the International Space Station has

to do for a crew of nine.

It has to keep them alive and monitor
them.

But this is how I take my oxygen.

So there's about 700 litres of oxygen if
you open the valve there. And that's

not a very good way to take oxygen up to
the International Space Station

because...

It's in some reinforced steel there.
It's under high pressure. It's about 200

times greater pressure inside that
bottle than there is outside, so there's

explosive risk here.

So it's heavy, and it's not a very
efficient way of storing oxygen. So how

you take oxygen with you up into space?

What you do is you take that oxygen and
you park two hydrogen molecules near it,

and you take it up like this.

This is how you take oxygen safely up.

the International Space Station, and how
you store it. You store it as water.

Now, you're going to ask, how then do
you get the oxygen out of that water?

the answer is, you have to give it some
energy.

And the energy that you give it comes
from electricity.

Now, there's not much electricity on the
space station either, so that

electricity has to come from the sun, or
at least by converting the solar energy

into electrical energy.

So the demo team here, there's no sun in
this lecture theater, so they put this

on the roof all day. They charge this
battery.

And that's passing electricity into this
arrangement here, which is an

electrode, which is passing current
through the water, splitting hydrogen

the oxygen.

And the bubbles that you saw there just
popping up and down are bubbles of

hydrogen and oxygen. And on space
stations, they vent the hydrogen

they keep the oxygen, and that is the
safest way for you to take oxygen into

space.

Now, that's not all.

You don't want to take more water up
there than you need to.

So to try and make your use of oxygen as
efficient as possible, you need to try

and re -breathe some of your own exhaled
air. Now, Dan, I'm going to need your

help for this. I'm going to try and put
you literally on a bit of life support

here. Yeah, very good. Okay, all right.
Take all that I can get.

I'm going to ask you to take some gentle
breaths on that, if I can get that

going. So you can see that he's
monitoring his vital signs here.

Breathe gently for me, Dan, to prove
that you're alive.

That would be nice.

And I'll just dial down that a little
bit.

All right. This machine is allowing Dan
to re -breathe the air that he's

breathing out.

When you breathe in, there's 21 % oxygen
in the air that you breathe. When you

breathe out again, there's still 15 %
oxygen left.

And you could use that again, only
here's the problem. Oh, dear.

Here's the problem.

That air has got carbon dioxide in it,
and you don't want to breathe that. If

you breathe enough carbon dioxide,
eventually you will feel sick, feel

eventually get drowsy, become
unconscious, and later you die. So you

to do any of that.

So what you do is you try and re
-breathe your own gas. Now this circuit

doing exactly that for Dan. He's
breathing out through this limb of the

He's breathing in.

Just ignore that, Dan. It's all right.

Breathe in through that limb of the
circuit, and it allows him to re

his own air. I can add just tiny bits of
oxygen and keep him topped up. How do I

get rid of the carbon dioxide? And the
answer is right here.

Down here in this canister is some
sodium hydroxide.

So this is a chemical which, when it
reacts with carbon dioxide, absorbs the

carbon dioxide and removes it from the
circuit.

Now, right now, you can see Dan's...
This number here is measuring how much

carbon dioxide there is at the end of
Dan's breath. It's 5 .2, it's going up

now, because I've taken out the thing
that absorbs your carbon dioxide, Dan.

And it's going to keep going up. Now,
Dan might start to feel a little bit

he's short of breath, because the thing
that makes you feel short of breath is

not being short of oxygen, which he's
got plenty of, it's having too much

dioxide on board.

Now this is exactly how Space Station
gets rid of carbon dioxide.

I'll get to you in a minute, Dan.

Space Station takes the carbon dioxide
you breathe, puts it through a scrubber,

removes the carbon dioxide, and gives
you back the oxygen so that you can

breathe it again with top -ups of only a
little bit. You're nearly at six now,

Dan. I'm getting a bit worried. So I am
going to get you back on a scrubber. And

we should see that number fall again.

Okay, so just watch that number. So it
was six.

And it happens instantly. Every time he
takes a breath, it removes the carbon

dioxide.

Hey, yeah, it does work eventually. I
wouldn't kill my friend on television.

And we're going to see it dropping now.
And that's exactly how space instruments

work. Dan, I'm going to take you off
that because I might kill you here. All

right. Thank you very much, Dan, Sally.
Thank you.

Now, Dan, I'm going to let you get back
to your seats, and I will see you later,

I hope. Great. This is just like a
spacesuit. It works just like a

It's awesome.

Your spacesuit doesn't look as big as
mine. No, it's smaller.

All right. I'll see you later, Dan.
Cheers.

So I've told you how you get oxygen up
the space station. I've told you how you

store it safely. I've told you how you
scrub the carbon dioxide out so you can

only top up your oxygen a little bit.

But the problem with a carbon dioxide
scrubber is it doesn't work if your

dioxide never gets to the scrubber. Now,
John is doing a bit of chemistry here

with some pretty simple reactions.

So this is citric acid and bicarbonate
of soda, right? Which makes carbon

dioxide quite a lot. And it's gathering
in that cylinder.

And to help us see how this is going to
behave, I need a volunteer.

I'll go all the way up here, shall I?

And how about you?

Come and stand here and face the
audience. What's your name?

Caitlin. Caitlin. Caitlin. Okay.

So, Caitlin, I'm going to show you that
gases are affected by gravity. Now, we

don't really think of them as being
affected by gravity, but they really

So, John is going to do something here.
Can you see him pouring that stuff into

that beaker?

You can?

I can't see him pouring anything into
that beaker.

And can you see what's in that beaker?

There's nothing in that beaker. John,
what are you doing, you crazy person?

But there is something in that beaker.
There's carbon dioxide in that beaker.

And you don't believe me, but there
really is. And because carbon dioxide is

heavier than air, I'm hoping that it
sits in that glass. Now, Caitlin, I'm

to light these candles for you.

And you're going to take that seemingly
empty beaker in a second. And I just

want you to pour it all over these
candles.

You sure you're done pouring, John?
Yeah.

Okay, cool.

So, Caitlin, pick up that beaker just
gently and pour it on those candles all

the way across, all the way, all the
way. Keep going, keep going, keep going,

keep going. Yes!

I love that one. Now, here's the thing.

Gravity held the heavier carbon dioxide
in the glass.

But what it also did was clear it away
because I can relight these candles.

carbon dioxide doesn't fit on those
candles.

And it doesn't because convection takes
it away again. So as soon as the carbon

dioxide hits the candles, it falls down
and cold air and heavy air sinks and hot

air rises and it mixes up and it
ventilates the whole system.

So Caitlin, that is why you could put it
out, but why the carbon dioxide isn't

there anymore. Caitlin, thank you so
much. Take your seat.

So, on the space station, there is no
gravitational force, everything is

weightless. So hot air cannot rise, cold
air cannot sink, and so there's no

mixing, there's no convection, and there
are no drafts.

So you cannot get your air, your exhaled
air, to the scrubbers unless you have

an artificial draft.

On space station, the draft, like
everything else upon which you depend

life, The draughts are our perpetual.

They're generated by fans that hum all
the time. That's the humming sound you

can always hear in the background when
Tim speaks to us. John, thank you so

much. Thank you.

Now, when we first started sending
people into space, we started to think,

what's going to happen to them? And
almost immediately we realized that

muscles would waste. Now, anyone who's
even looked at a gym... knows that if

don't use it, you lose it, and so your
muscles waste very rapidly in space.

And it's not just your muscles.

It's the things your muscles are
attached to. Now, this is my friend

she doesn't look like this because she's
gone into space. She's here to explain

the effect of spaceflight on bones.

Now, you might think of bones as being
sort of one of those solid, inert

that one caveman might...

once have hit another caveman with but
actually they're very dynamic tissues

they remodel themselves constantly along
the lines of force that you apply to

them that's why it's important at least
at your age to do lots and lots of

exercise so you can make sure that your
bones think you need lots of bone for

later in life now your whole skeleton
doesn't bear the same sort of weight as

you're standing up in fact the weight
bearing bones the principal weight

bones the bones that bear the most
weight are here this is the calcaneum

heel, here, the neck of your femur, and
here in your lower

back. I'm going to spin Juliet around.

Down here, the bones of your lower back.
So those are the areas that bear the

most weight.

And when you go into space, those bones
don't need to bear any more weight, and

your body says, well, why do I need to
carry around this excess bone if I'm not

going to use it?

And the rule applies. If you don't use
it, you lose it. So your bones begin to

waste.

And that's the problem, because when
bones start to waste, they start to lose

their mineral density, they become
weaker.

Now, to show you what that bone looks
like up close, we've taken, imagine at

least, that we've taken a speck of bone
from the neck of that femur there,

perhaps just slightly less than a
centimetre cubed, and made a model, and

exactly what we've done.

So this is a model of bone.

This is that tiny speck from here, from
the neck of the femur, blown up maybe

four, five hundred times, to give you an
idea of the structure.

Now, you might find yourself a bit
surprised to see that it's full of

You might have expected it to be solid,
but it's not, because it has to be

strong, but also light.

So it's got a very interesting structure
that makes it behave like that. And the

strength of this structure depends...

on the way that this network of bone is
laid down, but also on how much bone

we have in it.

So to show you how important it is to
have the right amount of bone so that

bones don't break, I'm going to need a
volunteer.

Let's see.

Let's have you.

Come and stand here.

What's your name?

Luca.

Luca, when astronauts go into space,
their bones waste, at least their heels

the neck of their femur and their lower
back, waste at about a rate of 1 to 2 %

per month.

Now, what we've done is we've taken this
model of the bone and we've simulated

what would happen if we put it in space.

And if we put that bone in space, Luca,
it would have wasted and it would have

lost some of its density. It's the same
structure. It's exactly the same

structure. But it's wasted because maybe
this person has a disease or they've

been to space.

All right. Now, to show you how weak a
bone gets when it starts losing some of

its density, we've got this crusher box.

So bone is remarkably strong for the
amount of material that's in it. And

is normal bone.

And how much do you weigh, Luca?

40 to 50 kilos.

40 or 50 kilos. All right.

Let's see what this is like. So will you
very gently climb up on there?

All right, and stand on that.

Now, this model of bone is made of
plaster. It was printed by a 3D printer.

So let's see how strong it is. Okay,
ready, steady, go.

All right, so that's pretty good. So
let's take you down, Luca.

So let's come back down, so step down,
and let's try and do the same thing with

the weaker bone. Now, this bone, as I've
told you, simulates what would happen

if you sent an astronaut to space for 14
months.

and you let the bone waste.

Now, if you lose maybe 10 or 15 % of the
density in that bone, you don't just

get a 10 or 15 % reduction in its
strength, it becomes incredibly weak.

Luca, I'm going to ask you to try and
stand on this one, and we'll see how we

go. All right, very gently on.

Okay.

And let's have a quick countdown, so
we'll get a countdown for this one.

Three, two, one, go.

Ooh.

Oh, okay, Luca, down you get.

Luca, thank you so much for helping us.
That's fantastic.

So that is what happens to you if you go
into space. This is bad news. If you

are an astronaut coming back to Earth or
visiting Mars, what you don't want is

to get off your spacecraft and have you
break both your bones because they've

become as weak as this. So that's
another problem. Thank you very much,

Thank you.

So that's muscle and bone, and that's
what happens to them when you unload

and you stop them having to deal with
weight.

In the end, all your systems are
affected. And that same thing that pulls

fluid out of your head and pushes it
into your legs on Earth, that is

is absent in space.

And so the fluids in your body behave
rather peculiarly.

And that's exactly what Tim Peake has
been finding out. So let's go and have a

look at how he's getting on on Space
Station.

My head feels a little bit full all the
all the fluid in my body has shifted up

into kind of this central area And so
it's almost a little bit of a stuffy

feeling as well as if you've got a bit
of a blocked up nose And so let's have a

look at a picture of him now on the
right and him just before flight on the

now Can you see his face is much rounder
much puffier? And that's not because

there's an enormous module full of pies
up there is because the fluid is pushed

up from his legs into his head, and
that's why he feels that stuffiness.

They very technically refer to this
shift in fluid from the lower body to

upper body as chicken legs and puffy
face.

Did that happen to you, Dan?

A little bit, yeah. I've seen pictures
of you. You've got a really puffy face.

You can protect yourself from some of
these changes by going to the gym.

Astronauts have to do that. They have to
go to the gym a lot. They spend about

two hours in the gym. We're going to see
a clip here. This is Scott Kelly on

something called the A -RED. This is
like a machine that looks like a

weightlifting machine that they've
worked out on the space station.

And it allows them to do some exercise.
Now, it's not because these guys are

fitness freaks. They're all very fit and
healthy.

But it's because it's like...

The Alice in Wonderland story.

This is all about doing as much running
as you can do just to stay in the same

place. All of these people have to do
two to three hours of exercise a day

to maintain the standard of health that
you do to maintain their muscles and

their bones and to a degree their heart
as well.

Otherwise they'll just waste away and
they'll have real, real trouble when

come home.

Tim is up on the space station right now
and he's going to go to the gym.

pretty much every day for two or three
hours, which means that he thinks he's

going to be able to, well, I'm told he's
going to run the London Marathon on a

treadmill, whereas most of his
colleagues will run about 26 miles, and

about 20 ,000 while he's up there.

So, there are other systems that are
affected.

Now, not just your bones, not just your
muscles, not just your heart, but there

is the apparatus that senses where we
are.

Now, let me explain that.

We're used to having mobile devices
these days that know where they are.

one has a quite lovely app on it that
knows where it is. So wherever I turn

app, the device knows where it is. And
that's because it's got a really

impressive bit of sensory equipment in
it called an accelerometer. It detects

acceleration.

And that's how the device knows where it
is in space.

Now this is impressive, but you have
your own system of accelerometry, and

much more sensitive.

And that system of detecting
acceleration is in the inner ear. Now

outer ear.

There's the middle ear down here that
does most of your hearing or

amplification. And then here you have
the semicircular canal

in which you have cells that do exactly
what that switch does.

sensing acceleration as you shift
around.

So these semi -circular canals that are
orientated at right angles sense your

rotational acceleration as you spin
around.

And there's a small swelling just below
them that contains two other

accelerometers, and they detect
acceleration in the linear plane, so

and backwards, in the horizontal plane,
and up and down.

Now the problem with all of that when
you go to space

is that your inner ear, your system of
detecting acceleration, seems to need

gravity as some sort of reference to
kind of calibrate itself. When you're in

space, that all changes.

If you're floating in a module, there's
no pressure on your feet.

There's no load on your joints for you
to detect.

Your inner ear says, I have no idea
what's going on here. There is no load

on. And your eyes say, calm down. You're
in a spaceship.

It's fine.

And somehow that's okay. But it's still
a bit funny. You feel a bit wobbly up

there.

Astronauts... If you go to space for the
first time, feel sick or are sick for

about the first 48 to 72 hours, Dan, the
first time you went to space, what were

you like for the first 48 hours?

I didn't feel very good. It felt like my
whole stomach was in my throat and it

was a very unpleasant feeling. But boy,
I tell you, I woke up on the third day

and I felt 100%. It's amazing. But for
that first couple of days, I just didn't

feel very good at all.

Were you sick in space?

I always had an airtight bag with me,
but I never had to use it.

Okay, or I believe you. Now, to show you
just how disorientating it is, if your

eyes tell you something that your ear
isn't feeling, I'm going to need a

volunteer who is very good on fairground
rides. Let's have you.

Thank you.

Come and stand here.

What's your name?

Brin, Brin, Brin, come and have some
astronaut training with me. Now, this is

chair that, it's used in astronaut
training, Dan, right? This is a chair

use quite a bit, yeah.

The Russians use it.

Did they ever put you on one?

No, I never got to ride one. Okay, okay,
all right, well, let's not spoil the

surprise. So, Brin, this is, if you want
to be an astronaut, do you want to be

an astronaut?

Yeah. Yeah? Okay, all right.

You sound less sure about that than you
really should be.

So I'm going to ask you to close your
eyes, put your left ear on your left

shoulder. That's brilliant, okay?

Don't do anything until I say three,
two, one, up, and then we'll see how we

And I'm going to need some blockers in.
Okay, here we go, Bryn. Ready? So right

now, I am telling Bryn's inner ear that
his head is rotating in a plane that's

not really rotating because his ear's
over to the side, but it's not sure

going on.

He's getting a bit of information from
being on that seat.

but not much, and his feet are off the
ground.

His eyes are closed, so he can't use
that as a source of information.

And so, at the moment, his body is
saying, what have you volunteered for?

And in a second, I am going to stop him.

Three, two, one, up.

You all right?

Oh, yeah.

You're not sure about that either, are
you?

Now, Bryn, just describe to me what that
was like. That wasn't just dizziness,

was it?

Uh, that was... Yeah.

And what did you experience? Did you
feel like you were tumbling?

Sort of like you're in a hurricane.

Like you're in a hurricane. Yeah.

I've never been in a hurricane.

But it feels, I'm told, because I do
this to other people, but I don't do it

myself, like you're tumbling head over
heels or think the world is spinning

around at a funny angle.

And that's all that fluid calming down,
but giving you a really, really, really

incorrect set of inputs.

So Bryn, are you all right getting back
to your chair?

Yeah. Yeah, sure. All right, we'll help
you back to your chair. You might need

this. This is our very own and donated
to us by Dantani space sick bag.

It's great because, you know, you get
your sick in there and then you can seal

it all up with a little towel for you to
wipe your face with. So that's what you

get for doing that. Thank you so much,
Bryn. Thank you.

So that's what happens to you on the
space station, and we're just going to

some video from the space station to see
how Tim's finding all of that.

When I first came on board, it was all a
bit disorientating, and your body feels

a little bit dizzy.

If you can imagine that your brain is
trying to work out the difference in

your ears are saying.

as opposed to your eyes. Your vestibular
system really is all a bit messed up in

zero gravity.

And we have to rely on the information
from our eyes to try and make sense of

our orientation.

And so it's best not to move your head
from side to side too much, like that,

up and down, but instead to move your
whole body.

However... I've been amazed at how
quickly the body has adapted to space

already. In just two days, I'm feeling a
lot more comfortable in this

environment. Today, I was unpacking
cargo, changing orientations, and really

feeling a lot more comfortable.

So this is Tim, a couple of days in
space, doing a somersault. But this

how you show off in space. This is how
you show off in space.

That's Scott Kelly, who's been on board
for months now, and he can really throw

himself around.

So, fantastic to see that.

But despite all of that, International
Space Station is still a relatively safe

place to be so long as you stay inside
it. The problems come when you want to

for a walk. Now, I know someone who has
gone for a walk outside Space Station,

and he's right here with us in the
audience. I'm going to ask Dan Tanney to

me back here. Dan.

Now, Dan.

I understand that when you go for a
walk, you need to dress properly, right?

you need a spacesuit because you've got
to protect yourself from the environment

and space, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

And how much is your spacesuit?

I don't know how much the whole thing is
altogether. I do know that one glove

that we wear, one glove, it's about a
million bucks.

A million dollars? Yeah, for each glove.
We do wear two. Two million dollars for

a pair of gloves? Yeah, and we bring
three sets just in case, so a backup set

and a backup to the backup.

So the whole suit, you know. Big million
dollars for the glove?

Maybe $30 million, $50 million for the
whole suit.

I don't have to buy it, but, you know.

Dan, I think your tailor is taking you
for a ride. I think we here at the R .I.

can build a better space suit, and for
that, show you how, I think. I'm going

need a volunteer. Who would like to
volunteer?

Okay, let's have you.

Now, what's your name? Molly. Molly.

Okay, Molly. Dan bought a suit for $50
million.

It's ridiculous.

Now, Dan, we can definitely do better.
So, Molly, we're going to get you the

Royal Institution spacesuit that is
going to be much better than Dan's 50

million spacesuit. Dan, just tell me
what we need here to get Molly ready for

space. Probably the most important thing
to get pressure. You need something

that holds pressure. Something that
holds pressure. A pressure garment. Oh,

there we go. This holds some pressure
around you, Molly. All right, what else

we need, Dan? You need to protect
yourself from the environment, the

environment. Thermal environment, okay.
So we need something that reflects the

heat. Back into you in golden space. Oh,
you know what?

But your body gets hot. You need to cool
the body down. You need a cooling

garment. Okay, all right, Molly. All
right, good.

Okay, you need a cooling garment. What
else do I need? Those expensive gloves

and a helmet. Those expensive gloves and
a helmet. You need to be able to pee

and work. I'm going to put those in
there, Molly. All right, all right.

Okay. And a helmet, Molly. We're going
to get this helmet. You know what? We're

in that thing for like eight hours or
ten hours.

We wear a nappy. Oh, we need a nappy.
Nappy. Okay, all right. Yeah, there you

go. Okay, we'll just put that in the top
with everything else. All right.

And a portable life support system. Oh,
you need oxygen, of course, yeah. Okay,

all right.

So that's brilliant.

And what on earth is that? That is a bit
of Kevlar, isn't it? Oh, well, that's

very important. A bulletproof vest.

You need to protect yourself from
micrometeorite.

Okay, well, let's stick it on. All
right. All right, how are you feeling,

Very, very covered in everything.

Very, very covered in everything. Well,
the real space suit weighs about 300

pounds. 300 pounds. This is quite light,
actually. Yeah, it's a light one, yeah.

Molly, this is our space suit that we've
made for you that does all the things

that Dan said.

Would you be happy to go into space in
this?

No.

No, I don't blame you.

Maybe we should spend money on space
suits. Molly, thank you so much. Molly.

But I don't understand why...

You needed to have a bulletproof jacket
in that seat.

Why did you need a bulletproof jacket?
Well, you're going 17 ,000 miles an

and if you run into something going that
fast, even a very tiny speck of maybe a

piece of paint or some part of an old
rocket, it could go right through you,

so you need some protection.

Now, it's a bit weird to think of small
objects as being harmful, but we can

show you they really are, and to show
you, I'm going to need a volunteer.

Here, why don't you come down?

And what's your name?

Viraj. Viraj, small objects traveling
very quickly can cause a lot of damage.

Now, to prove it, I've got some orbital
debris here that we have specially

brought up. So that may look like a
carrot to you. Now, Viraj, I'm going to

you that this carrot can go through
this.

Cardboard okay, which they've decided to
put a picture of me on all right So

there are I want you to try and throw
that carrot through that map that

ready give it your best shot No Let me
try let me try

Dan It's quite it's quite therapeutic
bit back to the other like But

we're not going to get it through. We
need to move it a bit faster. Now, this

may look like some copper pipe in a
bicycle pump, but it is an orbital

simulator. What we're going to do is
we're going to give those carrots enough

energy to get through this.

So we're going to get some safety
glasses on.

You better put those on, and I better
put these on. And we're going to show

the power of the carrots here as we load
it up.

The energy that we're using is kinetic
energy. Kinetic energy, as you know, is

half times the mass times the velocity
squared.

Definitely knew that, didn't you? And so
the important component is the

velocity, how fast the thing is moving.

And so if you get it moving fast enough,
it can have some surprising

consequences. So, Faraj, you come around
here.

And just in a minute, I'm going to help
you. If you put your hand down there,

and you tell me, Dan, when you're ready
to go.

Go. Three, two, one, go.

Now

look,

there is the hole in me.

I'm very upset right now. I'm going to
have a bit of an emotional moment.

So in case you didn't know, carrots are
dangerous.

Carrots moving at high speed are
dangerous. Never, ever, ever try and do

home. I mean, it's not a joke. This
stuff travelling fast enough will take

eyes out pretty easily.

So Dan, that's just one of the hazards
you face.

When you go on a spacewalk, so what's
that like? When we're doing a spacewalk,

we're out there to do a task, fix
something or move something.

And we are very, very lucky here to have
this space suit. Now, you have trained

on these spacesuits, and we're not
allowed to touch them, so you can grab

gloves.

Tell me about this space suit, Dan,
because this is an actual... This isn't

the space suit you launched into space
in. This is a suit for a spacewalk,

right? For doing spacewalks. This is
called an Orlan space suit. It's the

Russian version of the spacewalking
suit. Just take me through some of these

features. These always look very
complicated. So just some of this stuff

Now, this is a Russian suit. Some of
this stuff's written in Russian, right?

of it's written in Russian, yeah.

But you have to learn Russian to be able
to...

To walk in it, right? Yes, exactly
right. And the spacesuit is its own

It's a very complicated machine.

And so this here selects what kind of
oxygen you're going to be breathing,

either from your umbilical or from your
tank.

This is a regulator for temperature.

So if you're getting too cold or too
hot, you move this and it'll regulate

temperature inside of you. And I don't
speak any Russian, but this looks like

it's written backwards to me, this stuff
around here. Why is that?

Well, it is because your eyes are up
here and you're never going to see

on here. So we have a mirror.

that we have on our spacesuits. And so
to see parts of your spacesuits, you use

the mirror. And just like the front of
an ambulance or a fire truck that's

written backwards, this is written
backwards so that when you look at it in

mirror, it'll look the right way.

And then up here, gold, gold sunglasses.

What's that about?

Well, it's very bright. Without an
atmosphere to protect you, it's

bright. And so you need the protection
for your eyes, and you would get a...

awful sunburn if you didn't have this
kind of protection.

Wow, that's pretty impressive.

And this does all the stuff that we
tried to get Molly's suit to do earlier

that keeps you alive.

That's exactly right.

I just want to look around the back,
because around the back here, I'm going

spin it around.

So this is a Russian suit. Now, I've
tried to put on one of your American

spacewalkers. It's pretty hard. It's
like a fiberglass T -shirt. You've got a

wriggle inside. I nearly dislocated my
shoulder.

This is like a Russian suit. It's got a
door. You climb straight in at the back.

It's very popular at the astronauts when
they train in it because it's very easy

to get in. And it's very cleverly
designed so that you can close up and

suit all by yourself. It's a one -person
donning suit.

What's your scariest moment on a
spacewalk, Dan? Well, when we say

we're not walking with our legs, we're
walking with our hands. And I remember

going down the space station, and I
think I got a little overconfident

there was one moment where I was going
to grab onto one handrail and let go of

the other, but it turns out I wasn't
even on that handrail, and I let go of

one, and I started floating a little bit
and realized I didn't have it, and I

was able to quickly grab on, but that
one second was a little terrifying for

Did you nearly fall off the space
station? I almost lost the space

yeah. Wow, that's pretty exciting. Now,
I think what all of us want to know is

what does it feel like? What is the best
thing about walking in space?

The best part is when you open that
hatch, there's nothing between you and

Earth. And so you float out of the space
station and you're holding on, but you

look down at your feet and under your
feet, 250 miles below you, is the Earth.

kind of rolling by you, and maybe it's
the coast of California, or maybe here

comes Ireland, and it's just
unbelievable to have that experience.

Sounds incredible, and you've done that
six times? Six spacewalks in my career

have been very important.

Dan, thank you so much for sharing that
with us. It's been great to see you.

So you take a lot of precautions up
there, but what if something goes wrong?

What if you get seriously injured or
seriously ill?

What do you do?

Well, I know what I would do here on
Earth. I would call my colleagues and

friends from the Helicopter Emergency
Medical Service.

And so that's what I'm going to do now.
I would like to introduce you to my

friends and crewmates from Kent Surrey
Sussex Air Ambulance, Dr. Marwa El

-Zanfali. and Karen Clark, our
paramedic.

So guys, this is, we fly together, don't
we, on the back of a helicopter

delivering medical care.

This is our kit. Tell me a bit about how
this all works.

So what we try to do is we use the
helicopter to get to our patients as

as possible. What we like to think that
we can bring some of the emergency

department and the intensive care
department with us to deliver enhanced

where the patient needs it the most, so
in their home or the side of the road.

All right, so this is the kit that you
bring to the scene to deal with an

emergency. You're pretty proud of that
kit.

I want to show you another kit, a kit
from the International Space Station,

to show it to us.

I want to introduce you to my very good
friend, who is not only a doctor, he's

also an astronaut, flown in space twice,
for one tour aboard the International

Space Station. I'd like to introduce you
to Dr. Mark Brown.

Now,

you have

a helicopter emergency medical kit.

Mike here has the International Space
Station's medical kit.

And I think, given that it's holiday
time and Christmas, we should have a

of medical kit trump. See who's got the
best medical kit. And there's two of

you, so I'm going to take the
International Space Station medical kit.

right, so let's get it on. I'm looking
forward to this. What is your

capability, helicopter?

So we can deliver a number of different
anaesthetics depending on the situation.

So we've got some drugs here and here to
do that. We also carry all the

necessary equipment to deliver a safe
anaesthetic as well.

So I think I'm going to give us an 8.

Yep, 8 out of 10. You can give a general
anaesthetic.

Okay.

Mike, Mike.

Helicopter, 8 out of 10 for anaesthetic
capability. International Space Station.

So on the International Space Station,
we would have only local anesthetic, a

little injection of lidocaine that can
deaden the skin so that we can repair a

cut, a laceration, if you will. But
that's all we have. So I would probably

us a 2.

2 out of 10. I'd think a 2 out of 10.

They won that one.

All right. Okay, okay, okay.

Intensive care capability.

Helicopter, what is your intensive care
capability?

Well, we have a ventilator. We have all
the equipment to monitor somebody

who's... Being given a general
anesthetic, we have the ability to give

transfusion and plasma for somebody
who's lost blood.

So you can give a blood transfusion? We
can.

So I think probably... So you've got
drugs to support the heart as well?

so I'd probably say seven or eight for
that as well. Intensive care capability,

seven or eight.

Don't disappoint me here, Mike. What's
our intensive care capability on the

International Space Station? So on the
International Space Station, we can put

in a definitive airway, but we have a
very limited supply of oxygen we can use

because you release all that oxygen into
the atmosphere while somebody breathes

it, and the oxygen concentration gets
too high, and we worry about fire.

So we can't really ventilate someone too
long.

We can put in a large intravenous line
and we would have normally three big

of saline here But then when that's
done, we're done. So I would probably

us about a two.

Two out of ten.

Yep.

Two nil.

Two nil. We've got one more category and
I think we can take this category.

Helicopter, I would like to challenge
you on your surgical capability. And

before I do, I'd like to explain to you
that this is Mike Barra, current

astronaut, former NASA flight surgeon.

And I am going to get you to challenge
us on surgical capability.

What is your surgical capability?

Well, in my humble opinion, I think our
surgical capability is pretty good,

actually. So we can do a surgical
airway.

and we also are able to perform
emergency chest surgery, and that

-heart surgery where necessary.

So I think probably about six to seven.

Mike, this is awkward.

They can do chest surgery on a motorway.
What is the International Space

Station's surgical capability?

So we can do a laceration repair, a
pretty deep wound. We can do a chest

So we actually train people to do that
because we worry a lot about pressure

changes and injuries.

But that's about where we stop.

One of the most important things we
don't have to go with a surgery kit is a

surgeon or anybody trained to do such
surgery.

So I'd like to give us a little bit
better than two, but I will advance us

three.

We locked Mike.

Okay, we're going to have to talk about
this.

Why is their kit so much better? I would
have thought a helicopter would not

have as good a kit. I thought you'd have
a whole...

Star Trek type sick bay up there. Why
don't you have that? Right. So that's an

excellent question. And mostly it's
because the patients that we have to

with are very different from what Marwa
or Karen would have to deal with. So if

you take some of the forces that cause
the injuries that you respond to, falls,

motor vehicles, we don't have that. You
can't fall up there.

We don't have any cars. And so a lot of
those energies that cause those injuries

are gone.

Gunshot wounds, stab wounds, we tend to
be an affable group. We get along quite

well with each other. so we don't have
those types of injuries.

I'm really disappointed to lose that
game. I chose the wrong side.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's my great
pleasure to say thank you to Mike

And my colleague from Tensori Suffolk
Bear Ambulance, Karen Amawa. Thank you

very much.

Thank you.

So what we've learned is that in space,
like everywhere else, prevention is

always better than cure.

And they're very good at doing that on
ISS.

But what do you do if the worst happens?
What you do is you come home in an

awful hurry. And the way you do that is
aboard the Soyuz capsule.

Now, that's the way that Tim, one way or
another, is going to have to come home

at the end of his mission.

And the problem with that as a lifeboat,
as a thing that gets you off the

station, is that when it comes home
eventually, it needs to pass through the

atmosphere. And when it passes the
atmosphere, it gets very hot.

Now, why does it get hot?

I used to think that it was because it
hit the atmosphere and there was loads

friction. And as it came through, that's
why it heated up. But that's not true.

The reason it heats up is the same
reason that this tube of air is going to

hot.

If you imagine the end of this is the
Soyuz capsule coming through a column of

air in the atmosphere, then this capsule
is going to compress the air as it

comes through. The air molecules just
don't have time to get out of the way,

I am going to try and...

The piston didn't touch the cotton. It
just compressed the air. The air got hot

enough to light the cotton. And you can
start a fire like that. Actually, it's

quite an ancient way of starting a fire.
It's a better way of starting a fire

than rubbing sticks together.

But that is exactly why Soyuz gets so
hot as it comes through the atmosphere.

Now, the way to defend against that for
the Soyuz is to have a very clever type

of shielding called an ablative shield.

And as it burns, this shield releases
gases that literally push.

the flames and the heat away protecting
the capsule and her crew that's how tim

will keep alive as he comes back at the
end of his mission and to show you just

how good this material is at getting rid
of heat i'm going to need some help

from my colleagues what we have in here
is the material that protected the space

shuttle but you can't get it very hot if
you just play a blowtorch over it for a

few seconds you have to put it in a kiln
and that kiln has to be at about

1 ,000 degrees.

What's that? 1 ,100 degrees. Right
there, you can see that. 1 ,100 degrees,

kiln's at. We are going to open that in
a second.

And when it comes out, this material is
going to be red hot. You're going to see

it. I'm going to pick it up without any
gloves.

All right.

Okay, so let's get that kiln open, Alex.

Why do you have gloves and I don't?

Let's not go there right now. Okay, all
right, all right.

Okay. So that's pretty hot.

So this material is made mostly of air.
It's silica actually woven.

And so if we get the lights down a
little bit, you can see that glowing.

So that is going to stay hot for hours.
That's been baked for hours.

You can see that glowing red hot. Now,
if I'm right about this, and its

properties. It rejects heat very
quickly. So it calls from the outwards

furthest bits from the centre, the
corners, so I should be able to pick it.

really actually don't want to do this.

I don't think I'm going to help, is it?
Licking my fingers.

Oh my God.

Wow.

I am as amazed as you are, actually.

That only works because that is how this
material is made. It doesn't hold heat.

It's got a very low specific heat
capacity.

It gets rid of that heat as soon as it
comes out the kiln. The centre of that

still very hot, but it's losing that
heat immediately.

And so even a couple of seconds out of
the kiln and I can pick it up. And that

is how you survive re -entry. Thank you.

and we're going to finish as we started
with sunset as it happens on the space

station 45 minutes after sunrise and
that's what we're seeing here you can

the darkness spreading across the earth
there's the soyuz on the right there

that very beautiful sunset 45 minutes
after the sun rise and that brings us

end of this lecture we have found out
how to live and work in space if we can

crack that so where else might we go
next perhaps back to the Moon or onwards

Mars, perhaps more exotic destinations.

And we've just heard some exciting news.

There might be a spacewalk, an
unexpected spacewalk happening in the

of days and we'll be covering that live
in the last lecture in this series.

But for now, I am Dr. Kevin Fong and
this has been How to Survive in Space.