Hadfield jams out in the ISS
A couple days ago Canadian astronaut–and killer mustache wearer–Colonel Chris Hadfield posted a song he'd recorded aboard the International Space Station on Reddit. It got a ton of love because, you know, it's space music, and how often do astronauts post to Reddit? It's also not a bad track, with a kind of 60s hippie crooner crossed with medieval bard vibe. Here, take a listen:
I know you're wondering how the hell he got a guitar into space, and thankfully Hadfield already explained that in another video. As it turns out, the guitar in question is a compact design that was specifically made to send to the ISS so that astronauts don't get bored or bummed out. As Hadfield notes, floating in space in a fairly small series of metal tubes isn't the easiest thing to handle mentally, and apparently NASA psychologists said a space guitar would be worth the incredible cost (guitars are light, but take up a lot of space) of shipping it up to the station.
But while Hadfield's song is great and the ISS's space guitar is totally awesome, I found the sound clip Hadfield posted today even more fascinating. He recorded a short bit of ambient noise from the ISS, which more than anything else I've seen helps you really understand what it's like to be on the ISS. Have a listen:
Sounds a lot like a plane, doesn't it? That's what hit me first, followed up by an even more intense realization: For as much as we envision how bad ass being in the ISS would be, the truth is you're whipping around the Earth in zero g, totally isolated from the rest of the world, and stuck in a cramped space with bright fluorescent lights and a constant humming of life-support systems to remind you that you're not in an environment you could survive in on your own. Not to get all dark on you or anything, as I'd spend time in the ISS in a heartbeat. But it goes to show that when our best images of life in a space ship are the occasional happy videos sent from smiling astronauts and the roomy futuristic space-yachts in sci-fi movies, the reality is that being stationed on the ISS is probably most similar to trying to live on a flying, zero-g plane. At least you'd get that sweet ice cream though.