Week 2: the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) is a large spacecraft that orbits around the Earth. Click Here to learn some fun facts about the ISS.

Have you ever wondered how astronauts eat in space? Where do they sleep? How do they exercise? Click Here to go to a NASA website that is full of videos about living on the ISS...they even show you where they go to the bathroom!! Or if you want the quick tour...Click Here to walk through the model ISS used for training at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX (and yes they still talk about the bathroom).

The astronauts living on the ISS have a busy schedule. When they aren't eating, exercising, and doing maintenance on the station, one of their main jobs is to work on research experiments. On the ISS there are hundreds of experiments going on from plant studies to how zero gravity impacts the human body and even learning how to 3D print human organs! Scientists and researchers use the Scientific Method to help plan out their experiments.

Growing plants in space is one of the most important experiments for the astronauts on board ISS. Learning how to grow plants in space helps astronauts get the nutrition they need from fresh veggies during their long missions. This will be even more important as we attempt to send people to Mars.