Table Of ContentChengmin Zhang
An
Adventure
Weightlessness Phenomena and Life
on Space Station
An Adventure
Chengmin Zhang
An Adventure
Weightlessness Phenomena and Life on Space
Station
Chengmin Zhang
National Astronomical Observatories,
University of Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, China
ISBN 978-981-19-9220-9 ISBN 978-981-19-9221-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9221-6
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023
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Preface: Free Fall and Weightlessness in Space
Travel
With the advent of the space age, global space travel is not the preserve of science
fiction and dreams; it will happen in the Space Shuttle, from the South Pole to the
North Pole, through Mount Everest, to the moon, and even to Mars. People are eager to
understand the strangeness of weightlessness, the wonders of space, and the physics
behind it. This book describes the physical principles of the special phenomena of
weightlessness and other unusual experiences by astronauts on space station, and
is of particular interest to public and the young students who want to explore and
understand the space life of an astronaut. It features cartoons illustrating the extraor-
dinary different scenarios between the space and Earth, analyzing the similarity in
both cases as a comparison. From this book, readers can imagine the adventure of
a space trip, and learn about the strange feelings of a weightless space station, as
well as the physical causes behind these phenomena. The book will emphasize on
the factual, scientific, and physics-based explanations for the phenomena that are
discussed, presented using the easily understanding language and examples. Our
purpose is to uncover the secrets of these extraordinary events in weightlessness, and
inspire the readers to think and imagine the principles of gravity and physics.
The author is grateful for the generous helps from the editors and coordinators
of SpringerNature, e.g., Lillian Zhang, Swetha Divakar, Revathy Manikandan, and
Jian Li, etc. Thanks are also due to the assistance from Stefanie Wachter, Donald
W. Hoard and Yawen Liu for language suggestions, and author also expresses his
gratitude to the painters, e.g., Shanshan Liu, Chen Liu, Fengjiao Liu, Jianye Jia, and
Ni X., in making lots of efforts in the figure plots.
Beijing, China Chengmin Zhang
v
Contents
1 Introduction: Why Do We Fly into the Space? .................... 1
2 Free Fall and Weightlessness in Gravity .......................... 5
2.1 The Story of Isaac Newton and the Apple Falling .............. 5
2.2 Why Does a Cannonball Fall Down to Earth but the Moon
Does Not? ................................................ 6
2.3 Why Do Scientists Launch Spacecrafts from the Equator? ....... 7
2.4 Weight and Weightlessness ................................. 9
2.5 The Wonderful World of Microgravity ........................ 10
3 Measure the Body Weight on Space Station ....................... 11
3.1 Measure the Weight on the Ground .......................... 11
3.2 Measure the “Weight” or Mass of Astronaut on Space Station .... 12
3.3 Why Do We Confuse Weight and Mass? ...................... 13
3.4 Mass and Weight from North Pole to Equator ................. 14
3.5 How is Earth’s Mass Measured? ............................. 16
3.6 Short Summary on Mass and Weight ......................... 16
4 The Space Swing Never Stops ................................... 19
4.1 Constructing a Simple Pendulum ............................ 19
4.2 A Pendulum Anchored in the Cosmos ........................ 20
4.3 The Mystery of Swinging .................................. 21
4.4 Keeping Time with a Pendulum ............................. 23
4.5 Simple Pendulum Motion in Gymnastics ..................... 24
4.6 A Pendulum in Weightlessness State ......................... 25
5 The Gyroscope on Space Station ................................. 27
5.1 Stability of a Spinning Gyroscope ........................... 27
5.2 Gyroscope in Weightlessness ............................... 30
5.3 Gyroscopes in Our Daily Life ............................... 30
5.4 Gyroscopes in Universe: Earth and Pulsar ..................... 34
vii
viii Contents
6 Wonders of Water in Weightlessness ............................. 37
6.1 Shape of Water Drop in Weightlessness ....................... 37
6.2 Thin Film of Water on a Space Station ....................... 39
6.3 Super Water Globe Ball and Cocktail on a Space Station ........ 39
6.4 Amazing Surface Tension .................................. 43
6.5 Disappearance of Buoyancy Force in Weightlessness ........... 49
7 Viewing the Universe and Earth on a Space Station ................ 51
7.1 Why are Stars not Twinkling Seen from the Space Station? ...... 51
7.2 Space Station: 16 Times Sunrise or Sunset in One day .......... 53
7.3 Why is Earth Shown as a Blue Planet? ........................ 54
7.4 Moon is Much Brighter Seen from the Space Station ........... 57
7.5 Can the Naked Eye See the Great Wall from the Space
Station? .................................................. 58
7.6 Space Telescope from Hubble to James Webb ................. 59
8 Wonderful Space Life: Part One ................................. 63
8.1 Playing with Fire on the Space Station: Round Flame ........... 63
8.2 Will People Shed Tears on the Space Station? ................. 66
8.3 Will the Astronauts Become Taller in Space? .................. 67
8.4 Spacewalking Outside of a Spacecraft ........................ 67
9 Wonderful Space Life: Part Two ................................. 71
9.1 Sleeping in Weightlessness ................................. 71
9.2 Drinking and Eating on a Space Station ....................... 74
9.3 Brushing Teeth and Taking Shower on a Space Station .......... 76
9.4 Space Toilet and Water Cycling System ...................... 77
10 Extended Knowledge and Products Based on Space Exploration .... 79
10.1 Effects of Weightlessness on Women and Men ................. 79
10.2 Animals Respond to Weightlessness ......................... 80
10.3 Risk of Cosmic Rays and Solar Wind Storm on Astronauts ...... 83
10.4 Plant Growth on Space Station .............................. 85
10.5 Broad Knowledge Inside the Spacesuit ....................... 85
11 Postscript: Flying into Space is a Human Dream .................. 89
Chapter 1
Introduction: Why Do We Fly
into the Space?
In the twenty-first century, more and more children curiously ask why
humans have desired to fly into space?
I attempt to answer this question by presenting the best reason or excuse, however,
after pondering for a while, I think that the best answer to a question might be not
the best reason for it, thus I have to concentrate myself onto several good excuses
that would not destroy the inborn curiosity of children. Taking myself as a civilized
bird or animal, I would avoid the political contexts of the space exploration, although
the United States, Europe Union, Russia, and China have shown a little bit different
tendencies on the space station collaborations.
To start, the earth is the cradle of lives, and it is impossible for mankind to lie
in the cradle forever. It is our dream to fly into the space and look for a new planet
for home. With the development of modern high-tech, especially aerospace and
electronic information technology, our dreams have been planted with wings and
traveling into the space can be expected soon (Fig. 1.1).
The sun’s life span is about 10 billion years, and now it has been around 4.6
billion years old, an half of the total lifetime. As time goes by, the aging sun will
keep expanding slowly, and eventually becomes a giant and red star. By then, the
edge of the sun will be approaching our earth step by step. Its high temperature of
several thousands of degrees will burn our earth and high-energy particle flows will
impact and devour the earth, which is the inevitable end of the earth in the future 5
billion years. It may sound like still a long time before it comes, but if one day our
earth suffers this serious impact by the asteroids accidently, then there is no doubt
that we will die out like that the dinosaurs experienced about 60 millions of years
ago. Therefore, it is going to happen that the human beings would find a new plant
for our home to continue our lives in the future.
Also, with the deterioration and overdraft of the earth’s ecological environment,
the risk of human survival is increasing. A series of nightmares also urge the people to
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 1
C. Zhang, An Adventure,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9221-6_1
2 1 Introduction:WhyDoWeFlyintotheSpace?
Fig. 1.1 A parrot says to
Isaac Newton, “Isaac, why
are you lying in the cradle
like a baby? Have you ever
seen Albert Einstein? He’s
flying into space”
explore the space and look for another planet, such as the expansion of uncontrolled
population, global warming phenomenon, COVID-19 virus pandemic, limited earth
resources, and so on. If human does not protect our environment and continue to
cut down the forests, the Brazilian Amazon rainforest may disappear in the next 20
years. At that time, oxygen in the atmosphere will be reduced by one-fifth. Human
and animals will confront the difficulties on their breaths. Therefore, the danger of
human living environment is coming soon (Fig. 1.2).
If the emission of carbon gets out of control and results in the greenhouse effect,
then the deterioration of the climate will lead to the serious consequences. For
example, the Arctic creatures, such as polar bears and seals, suffer threatened; a
large quantities of fresh water stored in the Arctic glaciers will flood into the ocean
and raise the sea level by 7 m; the coastal cities will also be affected, and the island of
Maldives may be sunk into the Indian Ocean forever. If the Antarctic glaciers melted
and the methane were released on a massive scale, a global warming would accelerate
rapidly and the seriousness of consequences were unimaginable. Therefore, human
survival on the earth is indeed facing a huge risk of global warming.
