International Space Station

Can humans live on Mars? Is it safe? The Vision for Space Exploration opens the door for NASA to find out. Researchers on Earth are using several experiments aboard the international space station to study health and safety issues. Space travelers living on Mars for extended periods will need to grow plants, which provide food and generate oxygen. But the decreased gravity and low atmospheric pressure environment will stress the plants and make them hard to grow. Greenhouses in the Station's Destiny Laboratory and in the Zvezda Service Module grow plants in a controlled environment. Station crews tend the plants, photograph them and harvest samples for return to Earth. Researchers can use the resulting data to develop new techniques for successfully growing plants in space. NASA is also concerned about health hazards posed by space radiation. A spacecraft bound for Mars will be exposed to substantial amounts of radiation, and it will have to protect the humans inside from exposure. On the station, sensors inside the crew areas monitor radiation levels. NASA scientists, who have maintained radiation data since the beginning of human space flight, continue to learn about the dangers it poses. Researchers use the station to test materials that could be used for Mars-bound spacecraft. Will it ever be safe for humans to live on Mars? Researchers are learning more every day, thanks to the results of ISS experiments.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015. As of 2009[update], the ISS is the largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit, larger than any previous space station. The ISS programme is a joint project among the space agencies of the United States (National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA), Russia (Russian Federal Space Agency - RKA), Japan (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency - JAXA), Canada (Canadian Space Agency - CSA) and ten European nations (European Space Agency - ESA). The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) participates through a separate contract with NASA. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) similarly has separate contracts for various activities not done within the framework of ESA's ISS projects (where Italy also fully participates). China has reportedly expressed interest in the project, especially if it would be able to work with the RKA, although as of 2009[update] it is not involved. The space station is in a Low Earth Orbit, and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. It orbits at an altitude of approximately 350 kilometres (220 mi; 190 nmi) above the surface of the Earth, travelling at an average speed of 27,724 kilometres (17,227 mi) per hour, completing 15.7 orbits per day. The ISS has been continuously staffed since the first resident crew, Expedition 1, entered the station on 2 November 2000. This has provided a permanent human presence in space for the last 8 years, 223 days. Prior to May 2009, the station had the capacity for a crew of three. However, to fulfil an active research programme, since the arrival of Expedition 20, it has been staffed by a resident crew of six. The crew of Expedition 20 is currently aboard. Early crew members all came from the American, Russian and Canadian space programmes until German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter joined the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006, becoming the first crew member from another space agency. The station has been visited by astronauts from 16 different nations, and it was the destination of the first six space tourists.

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