1 00:00:01,090 --> 00:00:06,260 Feeling weighed down? Feeling the constant pull to the Earth? We all are. 2 00:00:06,260 --> 00:00:11,209 It's gravity, and it's a part of every single thing we do including our science. 3 00:00:11,209 --> 00:00:16,850 But what if we're 250 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station - a 4 00:00:16,850 --> 00:00:21,050 laboratory like no other that offers something we can't get on our home 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,060 planet. 6 00:00:23,060 --> 00:00:55,360 [MUSIC] 7 00:00:55,360 --> 00:01:00,160 My name is Dr. Serena Aunon-Chancellor, NASA astronaut. I recently flew to the 8 00:01:00,269 --> 00:01:05,759 International Space Station aboard Expedition 56 and 57. My relationship 9 00:01:05,759 --> 00:01:09,750 with microgravity is that I got to live in microgravity for a hundred and ninety 10 00:01:09,750 --> 00:01:15,180 seven days when I was on orbit. So many people ask what is microgravity. 11 00:01:15,180 --> 00:01:18,450 Why do you float onboard the International Space Station? Gravity acts 12 00:01:18,450 --> 00:01:22,440 upon all objects. We're never truly in zero gravity onboard the space station 13 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:26,610 but because the space station is traveling so fast around the surface of 14 00:01:26,610 --> 00:01:30,630 the Earth, we're actually in a constant freefall and that's why everything and 15 00:01:30,630 --> 00:01:34,400 everybody appears to float onboard the space station. 16 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:35,940 We are experiencing the 17 00:01:35,940 --> 00:01:40,920 Earth's gravity. In fact we're actually experiencing about 90% of what you all 18 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,970 experience on the surface of the Earth. The difference is we're just moving so 19 00:01:44,970 --> 00:01:49,860 fast that as we fall we actually fall around the earth and that defines orbit 20 00:01:49,860 --> 00:01:54,210 so microgravity means we're not, you know, it's not the absence of mass which of 21 00:01:54,210 --> 00:01:58,560 course creates gravity, but all the objects together are in the same 22 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,549 gravitational field and all falling together. So yes it is a lot of fun 23 00:02:02,549 --> 00:02:07,170 floating around of course it's one of the exciting parts of being up here on board 24 00:02:07,170 --> 00:02:10,590 and being an astronaut, but even more importantly it lends itself to all the 25 00:02:10,590 --> 00:02:13,709 amazing experiments that we can do on board that take advantage of that 26 00:02:13,709 --> 00:02:17,609 microgravity environment to do things that we can't do on Earth but that can 27 00:02:17,609 --> 00:02:19,600 benefit life back on Earth. 28 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,560 The important thing is it's so different than what we 29 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,310 have here on the ground where everything is pulled by the Earth at what we call 30 00:02:26,310 --> 00:02:32,730 one force of gravity. And what that does is it allows you to see the small forces, 31 00:02:32,730 --> 00:02:38,459 the small processes, the small effects of what goes on in life cell development or 32 00:02:38,459 --> 00:02:43,829 technical processes like combustion or fluid flow, and it helps you understand 33 00:02:43,829 --> 00:02:48,120 things that you may not have fully understood on Earth where you see 34 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,810 something happening, something assembling or disassembling, or the shape of 35 00:02:51,810 --> 00:02:56,599 something now going into three dimensions and you learn ah that's really what was 36 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:00,560 driving this thing on Earth that we didn't really understand. 37 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:02,640 On Earth, gravity is affecting 38 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:06,310 all research we do and sometimes that can get in the way. 39 00:03:06,310 --> 00:03:09,709 Studying things in different environments can give a better picture 40 00:03:09,709 --> 00:03:14,269 of how they work. From diseases to fires, and even things that make up products 41 00:03:14,269 --> 00:03:15,840 like milk or shampoo. 42 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,159 One of the main things we perform on the ISS is science 43 00:03:19,159 --> 00:03:23,540 in fact probably 70 to 80 percent of our day is performing scientific experiments. 44 00:03:23,540 --> 00:03:28,189 The International Space Station is a great place to do research for several 45 00:03:28,189 --> 00:03:32,689 perspectives. One of those is it's a big huge satellite orbiting the Earth, so if 46 00:03:32,689 --> 00:03:35,389 you have an instrument that wants to look at the Earth or look out at space 47 00:03:35,389 --> 00:03:39,650 we provide the power, we provide the data, the platform for it. You don't have to go 48 00:03:39,650 --> 00:03:44,750 do your own new satellite. The outside of the ISS is also a very extreme 49 00:03:44,750 --> 00:03:49,040 environment and sometimes you learn things by exposing your hardware, your 50 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:53,569 your polymers, or whatever to a different environment you'll see something happen 51 00:03:53,569 --> 00:03:58,579 different than what is on the Earth, but probably one of the most pervasive uses 52 00:03:58,579 --> 00:04:02,419 of the ISS is just the microgravity environment. The things that we do inside 53 00:04:02,419 --> 00:04:07,909 the ISS to be able to do your experiment in space without gravity which we've all 54 00:04:07,909 --> 00:04:11,389 lived with forever here on the ground which we live with every day and we 55 00:04:11,389 --> 00:04:15,799 don't even realize how it governs so many things that happen around us. If you 56 00:04:15,799 --> 00:04:20,419 take gravity away now some of the small phenomena, some of the small processes 57 00:04:20,419 --> 00:04:24,949 and forces start to come out and you can see them and you can see the behaviors 58 00:04:24,949 --> 00:04:29,300 of your experiment happening differently in space and in microgravity than you 59 00:04:29,300 --> 00:04:30,297 would on the ground. 60 00:04:30,297 --> 00:04:33,289 It takes a lot of people to make all of that microgravity 61 00:04:33,289 --> 00:04:39,349 science happen. Four thousand scientists companies and students from over 100 62 00:04:39,349 --> 00:04:43,820 countries have sent more than 2700 experiments to the orbiting laboratory. 63 00:04:43,820 --> 00:04:49,849 Over the past 20 years, these studies have unlocked new discoveries and even 64 00:04:49,849 --> 00:04:53,974 kicked off hundreds of new microgravity experiments. 65 00:04:53,974 --> 00:04:55,430 We're studying the 66 00:04:55,430 --> 00:05:01,610 physiology of how blood flow and the fluids in our body shift as the result 67 00:05:01,610 --> 00:05:02,520 of microgravity. 68 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:05,990 Yesterday I spent some time setting up a Veggie experiment. We'll 69 00:05:05,990 --> 00:05:08,720 actually be growing mizuna lettuce up here. 70 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:09,710 Drew and I actually have been 71 00:05:09,710 --> 00:05:13,760 helping start a new experiment called the Cold Atom Lab which will create one 72 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:16,790 of the coldest places in the universe right here on the space station, almost 73 00:05:16,790 --> 00:05:18,880 at Absolute Zero. 74 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:21,110 But who are these scientists? And how do they get their 75 00:05:21,110 --> 00:05:25,520 research to the space station? This season we'll take you behind the scenes 76 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:30,140 of the years of preparing an experiment for space. You'll see it launched off the 77 00:05:30,140 --> 00:05:34,430 planet and splash back down in the ocean, and hear what it's like to hand off your 78 00:05:34,430 --> 00:05:38,990 research to the astronauts who serve as the eyes and hands of the scientists 79 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,340 aboard the International Space Station. 80 00:05:42,340 --> 00:05:50,960 [Music] 81 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:56,280 This is our first project that is going up to the station, and our first project 82 00:05:56,290 --> 00:05:59,500 working with anyone involved in the space program, so it's a very exciting 83 00:05:59,500 --> 00:06:05,170 time for us. It'll be interesting to see how all of our planning is played out 84 00:06:05,170 --> 00:06:08,800 when someone else has the experiment in their hands.