Next space station crew launching November 13th

The International Space Station (ISS) is about to have a change of crew. On November 13th (or as soon after as possible) 1 and 2 cosmonauts are scheduled to launch into space from , Kazakhstan.

Expedition 29 crewmembers pictured from the left on the front row are Commander Mike Fossum and Flight Engineer Dan Burbank. Pictured from the left on the back row are Flight Engineers , Sergei Volkov, and

Mike Fossum and Flight Engineers Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa JAXA astronaut (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 7 aboard the TMA-02M spacecraft, docking their Soyuz on June 9. They have been the space station crew since arriving on June 9, 2011. Fossum, Volkov, and Furukawa will return to earth on Nov. 21, 2011

According to the current plan, the Soyuz 28 spacecraft, carrying NASA's Dan Burbank and Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, will launch Nov. 13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the station on Nov. 16. These three and cosmonauts will return to earth in March 2012 after reaches the station.

1. How many crewmembers will be on the space station on November 13th and what are their names?

2. How many on November 17th and who are they?

3. How many on Nov 22nd? Please name them.

Since the ’s retirement with Atlantis on July 21, 2011, crew and supplies have flown to the ISS on Russian Soyuz rockets.

NASA retired Shuttle Discovery Russian Soyuz TMA rocket These look like very different vehicles. Let’s do some comparisons. Shuttle Soyuz Crew sits in the nose section of the Crew sits in the top most capsule for Crew placement on takeoff shuttle for take-off take-off 7 cubic meters of living space (5 m³ in , plus 2.5 m³ in descent Crew compartment space 2,325 cu ft (65.8 m3) module) (See the pictures at the end of this paper to visualize the modules and the vehicle.) Maximum payload 55,250 pounds (25,060 kg) 6,900 kg from Baikonur Six to eight (Commander, Pilot, four to six Mission Specialists, Payload Crew capacity Three astronauts or cosmonauts Specialists, or passengers to/from space stations). Life-support possible time Provides life-support for 7 people for Provide life support for about 30 lengths about a month person days Reusability of components Reusable shuttle but not the fuel tanks Just the reentry module is reusable Cost of each launch $450 million dollars $35 to $40 million dollars

4. Using volumes expressed in cubic meters of the two spacecraft’s crew compartments, give an example of a commonly known space that is of similar dimensions to help understand what it might feel like to live in these spacecraft during the trip to the ISS. For instance, the interior room of a medium sized station wagon is about 4 cubic meters. A small bathroom (5 feet x 8 feet x 8 feet) is about 9 cubic meters in volume.

5. Using the payload capacity and cost of each launch for the two vehicles, make a chart to compare the cost of transporting a lot of kilograms of equipment and supplies to the ISS.

Total cost of the shipment = Number of launches required Kilograms of cargo number of launches times cost to transport that weight of each launch, Shuttle Soyuz Shuttle ,900 kg

25,000 kg

6. Which vehicle, the Shuttle or the Soyuz, do you think is a better value in terms of cost to transport materials and crew to the ISS. Give details to support your response.

In the column of my vehicle data called life support possible time lengths, the Soyuz expresses this duration in person-days. I’ve seen the expression man-hours before. If it takes 60 man-hours to complete a task and you have 5 people working on the task then they would have to work for 12 hours each.

7. If the Soyuz spacecraft can support crewmen for 30 person-days and there are 3 passengers on the vehicle, how long could they survive in this craft?

Soyuz TMA-22

I’ve added a few pictures to help you appreciate the components and appearance of the Soyuz rocket system.

The Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft is raised into vertical position at the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Sunday, June 5, 2011. The rocket is being prepared for launch June 8 to carry the crew of to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

Sources; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter - Structure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(spacecraft) http://www.averillpark.net/space/booster.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/index.html