00:00We're here to answer all your questions about the UAE astronauts' first trip to the International Space Station.
00:09The International Space Station is like a floating laboratory.
00:13It's just a little smaller than a American football field, and it's orbiting the Earth at a distance of
00:21400 kilometers above the Earth. It goes around the Earth 16 times
00:27in a day, every 90 minutes. So that means everyone on the ISS
00:32experiences 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets. ISS is like a giant Lego piece.
00:38It was constructed in 1998 and it took around 10 years for it to be fully built.
00:4415 countries worked together for this engineering marvel, which is up in space at the moment.
00:51What do astronauts do in space? Every year they conduct around
00:55250
00:57scientific experiments on the ISS. These experiments are such that can't be done on Earth.
01:03Actually, astronauts are like space heroes.
01:07So maybe you're asking, why are we sending an Emirati to the ISS?
01:12It is part of the UAE astronaut program launched by His Highness Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
01:18Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai.
01:22So in December 2017, he announced the hunt for a UAE astronaut.
01:27So it took two years and they came up with two names out of
01:324,022 candidates. And these two names are Hassan Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Niyadi.
01:38Hassan will be the prime crew who will fly to the International Space Station. Hassan will be launched to the International Space Station on
01:45September 25 at
01:485.56 p.m. UAE time.
01:51He will be accompanied by Russian commander Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
01:58The trip will take around six hours from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and
02:03it will dock on the International Space Station at about midnight UAE time and the hatch will be opened at 2 a.m.
02:12Following which Hassan and the rest of the crew will be welcomed into the International Space Station.
02:19So what will Hassan do on the International Space Station? Based on the schedule that the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center gave us,
02:25he will conduct 16 scientific experiments on the ISS.
02:29Along with it, he will be doing an ISS tour in Arabic, which has never been done before.
02:37Hassan Al Mansouri will be launched to space on board a Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
02:45It's a three-stage rocket that will propel them to space at a distance of 400 kilometers,
02:52around 400 kilometers above the earth. Once Hassan is on the International Space Station, he will be its
02:59240th visitor, making the UAE the 19th country visiting the ISS.
03:05He will conduct 16 scientific experiments on board the ISS.
03:10Many of these experiments will be on how his body would react to zero gravity.
03:17So Hassan is like the test subject. He's putting himself on so much risk just so we can test how much
03:23zero gravity can affect the human body.
03:26After eight days on the ISS, Hassan will return to earth on October 3.
03:30There is always one spacecraft docked on the ISS. This provides a lifeboat, if you like.
03:36It's like an emergency escape mechanism of astronauts, should something happen, should an emergency happen, on the ISS.
03:44So on the way to the ISS, Hassan will be on board the Soyuz MS-15, but on the way back to earth,
03:53he will be on board the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, which the July 20 crew took when they went to space.
04:02The Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft will undock from the ISS at 11.36 a.m. UAE time,
04:10and it will take around three and a half hours for the Soyuz spacecraft to land on earth.
04:16Landing will take place at 1.30 p.m. UAE time at the chosen location, somewhere 661.5 kilometers away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
04:28On landing, Hassan will be taken to the Baikonur Cosmodrome for medical tests,
04:33after which he will be taken to Moscow for further medical tests.
04:37While Hassan is on the ISS, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center wants students to ask him questions.
04:43So they'll put up a tent at MBRSC and invite students to pitch their questions to Hassan.
04:49All these questions will be answered by Hassan in four live space-to-earth calls.
04:54So if you're lucky, and if your question is the best one, you might be chosen to ask Hassan your question live.
05:01Interested in how astronauts live in space?
05:04Well, we have a video for that if you log on to GoFuse.com,
05:07but we'll still give you a brief explanation on how astronauts live in space.
05:12How do they eat? Their food is supplied to them from Earth.
05:16Obviously, because there are no shops available in space, all their food has to be pre-packed.
05:21This could be freeze-dried food, or it can come in a squeeze tube like a toothpaste, or it can come in a can.
05:29How do they drink in space?
05:32Astronauts drink from a pouch with a reusable and resealable straw.
05:37That can be water, juice, or coffee.
05:40In space, they try to save all the water that they can get.
05:43That includes one's urine, sweat, and humidity condensate.
05:48So what do they do with this?
05:50They recycle all this, they process it, and make it into a potable water.
05:55So those on the U.S. side of the ISS also drink this recycled water.
06:01Now you may be asking, will Hassan drink this recycled water?
06:05During our interview with him in Moscow, he said yes, definitely he will drink it because it's potable and there's nothing wrong with it.
06:12How do Muslims pray on the ISS?
06:14According to IACAD, or the Islamic Affairs Charitable Activities Department, in their primer,
06:20Hassan can shorten his prayer if there is a need to, from four to two, for example, for the Dhuhr prayer.
06:27Or if he cannot bow or prostrate himself, he can pray in whatever position he can.
06:34As for ablution, since there's no running water in space, he can just run his hands on a clean, dry surface on the ISS.
06:42How do they sleep in space?
06:44They tuck themselves in a sleeping bag, and they have to strap themselves on the sleeping pod.
06:48Otherwise, they'll float around.
06:50It doesn't really matter whatever position they'll sleep in, because there's no sensation of lying down in space.
06:56For toilets, there are no flush mechanism in space, but their toilets have suctions that act like a vacuum cleaner.
07:03So astronauts just have to put on the leg restraints.
07:06Exercise.
07:09Astronauts are required to do an average of two hours of exercise daily.
07:16You might ask, why? That's too long.
07:18That's because in space, because of the lack of gravity, it affects the bone density and muscle mass.
07:26You need to exercise in order for you to keep fit until you return to Earth.
07:31What does it feel like to be in space?
07:33Astronauts have often reported of experiencing space adaptation sickness or motion sickness, space motion sickness.
07:41Well, what's the remedy?
07:43Astronauts have been told to just keep still until they get better.
07:47Aside from space motion sickness, they also face a host of other risks in space.
07:52That includes radiation, isolation, and harsh environments.
07:57You might be wondering why we keep sending astronauts and cosmonauts to space.
08:00Well, they do that because they conduct a lot of researches.
08:03That will help improve our life on Earth.
08:06If you didn't know, there are so many space tech or space technology that have come about because of these researches.
08:14There's so much about space that are around us right now.
08:18That includes your camera phone, the water purification method that they use in places where there's no potable water,
08:23LED lighting, wireless headsets, computer mouse, weather satellites that help us predict whether there's going to be a typhoon or not.
08:31Even mapping software is because of space technology.
08:35So the more we study space, the more it can help us improve our life on Earth.
08:41Follow our coverage of Hassa Almansuri's journey to space on both news.com and our social media pages.
08:53NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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