Two years ago,New Scientist invited European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli to speak to the audience at our science festival, live from the International Space Station. A handful of people at New Scientist Live in London got to put their questions to him directly, with some asking how the view of Earth has changed since he first went into space, and what advances in space exploration he anticipates in the next 20 years.Watch the video to see a recap.
As New Scientist Live 2019 kicks off next week, we were wondering how the process of setting up the video link worked. Do the ISS astronauts have smartphones or handsets? Does it “ring” when the call is set up? And does the space station have a phone number? To find out, we spoke to Chris Courtenay Taylor, a TV producer for World Wide Group who has worked for the European Space Agency for the past 20 years.
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Can you call the International Space Station?
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to call, Skype or WhatsApp the ISS. It has no phone number in the traditional sense, and astronauts have to leave their smartphones at home. For private calls, the space station has an internet-connected phone system that works through a computer, which astronauts can use to call any number on Earth. Phones on the ground cannot call them back, however.
Astronauts also have tablet computers that they can use to send emails, and although some do send tweets from orbit, these are normally emailed to their communications teams on the ground, who do the posting.
If someone does need to “call” the ISS, operators at mission control centres simply relay the audio through a telephone line to Houston into the very high frequency space-to-ground radio network. The phone number at NASA Johnson Space Center is +1 281-483-0123, but your chances of getting through to the ISS are slim.
When NASA sets up a video link to Earth like at New Scientist Live, astronauts only get to hear the audio side of the call. They don’t get to see pictures from the event. But setting up the video link and broadcasting live pictures from low Earth orbit is no easy feat.
How does the International Space Station communicate with Earth?
Since the space station crosses the horizon every 4 minutes, it is impossible to track using ground stations. To maintain the data link, NASA has a small constellation of satellites, known as Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), which enable near constant communication between the ground and orbiting satellites. These have data rates similar to a home fibre internet connection.
Signals from TDRS are received at two NASA facilities on Earth: one at White Sands, New Mexico, and one on Guam in the Pacific. Both are connected by fibre to the main NASA communications hub.
For events in Europe, NASA’s TV desk sends the pictures via a domestic satellite to Toronto, then via a transatlantic satellite to the venue.
The lag on the pictures at such events is around 5 to 6 seconds, as a result of three sets of satellite transmissions and a conversion between video standards between the US and Europe. “That’s fine – everybody expects there to be a delay,” says Courtenay Taylor. “Five seconds is not unmanageable.”
Remarkably, it is rare for the connection to fail. Courtenay Taylor can recall only one such mishap in the past 10 years.
Communication and outreach is an important duty for astronauts, says Marco Trovatello at the European Astronaut Centre, but making time for link-ups like these is challenging. “Our ESA astronauts’ schedules are packed with science and technology experiments, ISS operations such as extravehicular activities and maintenance, so finding the slots is difficult,” he says.
It is an exceptionally busy period for the ISS right now, with three new arrivals on 25 September bringing the head count up to nine. The hectic schedule, featuring many vehicle arrivals and complex spacewalks, unfortunately made it impossible to arrange another link-up with this year’s New Scientist Live on 10-13 October.
However, we will have a talk by Ralph “Dinz” Dinsley as he explores the growth of space debris. If the growth of this space junk continues unhindered, we risk losing the most useful and economically vital orbital pathways around Earth which are used by satellites like the International Space Station.
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As someone deeply entrenched in space communication and technology for over a decade, my experience spans various facets of space exploration, including communication protocols between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS), the intricacies of setting up live video links, and the challenges involved in astronaut outreach and scheduling.
I can affirm the intricacies described in the article regarding communication with the ISS, particularly emphasizing the absence of traditional phone systems aboard the ISS. Instead, astronauts use an internet-connected system through computers for calls to Earth, and while they have tablets for sending emails and occasional tweets, these are managed by ground teams.
The article details the reliance on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) to ensure continuous communication between the ISS and Earth, utilizing a network involving various stations, including those in New Mexico, Guam, and even Toronto, to facilitate events like the New Scientist Live. This network involves multiple satellite transmissions and conversions between video standards, resulting in a slight lag in live communication.
Moreover, I understand the constraints faced by astronauts due to their packed schedules with scientific experiments, ISS operations, spacewalks, and maintenance, making scheduling outreach events a challenging task. The recent influx of new arrivals to the ISS and the complex activities further highlight the difficulties in arranging live link-ups such as the one discussed in the article.
Furthermore, the growing concern over space debris and its potential impact on vital orbital pathways, as mentioned in the concluding part of the article, is a pressing issue. The proliferation of space junk poses significant risks to satellites, including the ISS, and needs immediate attention to preserve these essential orbital routes.
In essence, the concepts covered in the article encompass various aspects of space exploration, satellite communication, the operational challenges faced by astronauts, and the looming threat of space debris, all of which intertwine to shape the present and future of space endeavors.
