00:00For decades, space exploration has aroused the dreams of men.
00:04And since 2000, a human presence has been maintained in orbit.
00:09Recently, a new record was established.
00:12Just a few weeks ago, 17 people from 5 different nationalities were simultaneously in terrestrial orbit.
00:19The previous record dates back to September 2021, during the Inspiration 4 mission,
00:25financed by private funds, where the number of people in orbit reached 14.
00:30Let's see. Recently, 3 new people have joined the Chinese space station in Tiangong.
00:36On board are also 3 other astronauts, present since November 2022,
00:42who should return to Earth in June.
00:44In addition, 7 individuals are on board the International Space Station,
00:49while 4 crew members have left the ISS aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom vehicle,
00:55successfully returning to Earth on May 30, 2023.
00:59This leaves 13 people in orbit.
01:02Interestingly, this record also includes the 600th person to reach terrestrial orbit.
01:07Rayana Barnawi, a member of the AXII mission,
01:11became the 600th space traveler and the first Saudi to travel in space.
01:16But we have something even more fascinating to reveal to you.
01:19Indeed, the record for the largest number of people in space,
01:23and not only in terrestrial orbit, was also broken recently.
01:27However, this record only lasted about 5 minutes.
01:31During this brief lapse in time, 20 people were out of the planet.
01:35This record was established when 6 members of the Virgin Galactic's USS Unity 25 crew
01:41were at the same time as 3 Chinese taikonauts living and working on board Tiangong,
01:46as well as 11 astronauts on board the ISS.
01:49This is starting to be incredibly crowded.
01:51Well, the International Space Station has always welcomed the majority of space travelers from Earth.
01:58However, I bet some fascinating facts about this technological feat still escape you.
02:04The ISS is one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
02:07The most impressive?
02:08You can register for a special service that will send you a notification
02:12every time the station passes just above your location
02:16and remains visible to the naked eye.
02:17Personally, I have seen it many times, and it is a truly impressive experience.
02:23Normally, you can see it between dusk and dawn,
02:26but be careful, because the station moves extremely fast.
02:30At a speed of 8 km per second, it loops a complete orbit around the Earth in just 90 minutes.
02:36The International Space Station is a real record in itself.
02:40It is the largest object man-made in space, with a length of 110 meters,
02:45which is the same size as a football field.
02:48Its weight reaches about 450 tons,
02:51and 8 spaceships can dock at the ISS simultaneously.
02:54The living and working space on board is larger than a 6-bedroom house.
02:59Astronauts have 6 bedrooms, 1 gym, 2 bathrooms,
03:04as well as an impressive panoramic view at 360 degrees from their large windows.
03:09Let's move on to more technical details.
03:11On the ISS, astronauts do not have to face bad odors.
03:15A specially trained person smells everything the astronauts carry with them to protect them from bad odors.
03:21The problem is that, in space, you can't just blow the room if the smell becomes unpleasant.
03:28This is why NASA is extremely careful about fragrances allowed on board.
03:32Finally, know that it is necessary to get rid of your clothes after each use,
03:38because each simple load of half a kilogram sent to the ISS costs up to $ 10,000.
03:43It is therefore more economical to throw away your dirty clothes than to waste water to wash them.
03:48While sleeping, you would benefit from an exceptional flow of air around you.
03:52Otherwise, the carbon dioxide you would exhale would form a bubble around your head,
03:57causing oxygen deprivation.
03:59And this is clearly not ideal.
04:01People often think that in space, gravity becomes zero,
04:05hence the weight that astronauts feel on board the International Space Station.
04:09But this is not entirely accurate.
04:11Gravity remains one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
04:15Thanks to it, the Moon can orbit around the Earth,
04:18and the Sun does not drift from our galaxy, the Milky Way.
04:22But on the ISS, astronauts do not encounter gravity in its entirety, but microgravity.
04:28In other words, very low gravity.
04:30The Earth's gravity on board the station is only 10 to 12% lower than that on the surface of the planet.
04:36However, astronauts are constantly free-falling.
04:39The ship, the people on board and all objects continue to fall forward.
04:43Not down, but around our planet, following a specific orbit.
04:48And as they all fall together, the crew and the objects seem to float.
04:52However, our space exploration plans go well beyond the Earth's orbit on board the International Space Station.
04:59We are preparing to send missions to the Moon and establish colonies on Mars.
05:04Some experts estimate that over the next 25 years,
05:07about 20,000 people will be able to leave Earth.
05:10But how many people would it take to colonize an entire stellar system?
05:15In 2002, the anthropologist John Moore of the University of Florida
05:19announced that a spacecraft carrying 150 passengers
05:22could leave Earth and embark on a journey of several thousand years to another stellar system.
05:29At their arrival, the descendants of the initial crew could build colonies on a new world.
05:34It seems to be a project as ambitious as Titanic.
05:38But let's continue.
05:39The closest stellar system, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years from our planet.
05:46On a cosmic scale, it's the door next door.
05:49However, for us, it's such a gigantic distance
05:52that it would take to build a generational ship to get there.
05:56But the real question is to know how many people it would take to send
06:00to guarantee enough genetic diversity.
06:03A new study contradicts John Moore,
06:05stating that it would take more than 150 people.
06:08According to a scientist at the University of Portland,
06:11a ship traveling to such a distant world should carry at least 10,000 individuals.
06:16This number could ensure the success of the mission.
06:1940,000 people would be even better,
06:21because who knows what could happen to travelers on such a perilous and unprecedented journey.
06:26For now, NASA is not ready to send humans even to Mars,
06:30even less to a distant solar system.
06:33However, some private organizations are working on this project.
06:37They hope to make interstellar travel possible over the next century,
06:41by focusing on a significant increase in propulsion speed,
06:45which could reduce travel time between stars to only a few hundred years.
06:50Researchers have conducted several simulations to analyze the different scenarios
06:54that could occur during such an interstellar mission.
06:57They concluded that the success of this mission would greatly depend on the size of the starting population.
07:03Genetic diversity would maintain the health of travelers.
07:07The larger the population, the more diversified it is.
07:10And 150 people would clearly not be enough to maintain this genetic diversity.
07:15Even a population of 500 people would not be enough.
07:18On the other hand, if we send 40,000 people to another stellar system,
07:23we could maintain a 100% variation.
07:26Even 10,000 travelers would make the scenario relatively stable,
07:30which means that any number between 10,000 and 40,000 people would be a fairly safe bet.
07:36But of course, we could not send as many people with a single space ship.
07:41Several would have to be built and distributed.
07:44These ships could be modular, capable of docking together for trade and social contact,
07:49probably to maintain a certain genetic diversity.
07:53However, they would travel separately so that, if a disaster struck one of them,
07:58the others would get out unscathed.
08:00But to make interstellar travel possible,
08:02researchers and engineers will have to overcome many challenges.
08:05Increase propulsion speed, manage the negative effects of space life,
08:10and invent autonomous systems that provide air, water and food.
08:14Or we could simply decide to repair our own planet and stay at home.
Comments