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68 April 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com
ovember 5, 2018. Vo y a g e r 2
approaches heliopause, the
boundary at which the solar
winds balance the winds of
other planets’ stars—the edge of inter-
stellar space...SOMETHING
TO READ
ON THE TRIP
In 1977, the Vo y a g e r probes began their mission: NASA’s “Grand
Tour” through the outer planets during a rare alignment. The
probes have learned what we will come to know: Beyond the moon,
beyond Mars, at distances from which no man could return—
tourism blurs into exploration. Popular Mechanics presents...I am almost deaf to Earth now. Still that thin
whisper in my antenna sends instructions, the
engineers in mission control eking out another
year, another month, another hour of discovery.
Inertia never dies. There will come a time when I
w ill t umble blind, my senses failing one by one until
in the end only the shell of me will fall through dark-
ness toward the stars of the constellation Pavo. Still
I will retain on eight-track tape cassettes the traces,Is there a
space version
of motion
sickness?
Yes. And it’s actually the
inverse. When you get queasy
from, say, trying to read in
a car, it’s because your eyes
say you’re still, but your
vestibular system can feel
that you’re moving. In space,
your eyes see movement, but
without gravity your body
can’t discern it. This is also
why VR can make people
feel nauseated—so if you
want to know how susceptible
you might be, give VR a go
before you leave.Hygiene—is
that a thing
in space?
Lack of water (and gravity)
make “showering” impossi-
ble. Expect to sponge bath.
And forget about laundry,
though that’s not as bad as
it sounds. “If you were wear-
ing your pants on Earth for
six months, they would be
pretty rank,” says Scott Kelly.
“In space, the pants are not
really touching your skin that
much. They are floating and
you are floating inside them.”What about
the bathroom?
The current era of
space toilets use vacuums and
offer a user-specific funnel
for liquid waste and a seat
with a small hole—only four
inches in diameter—for the
other stuff. Navigating that
four-inch hole can be tough,
so astronauts practice on
Earth with a mockup toilet
that has a camera just under
the rim. To help align things.FA Q
SPACEPM FICTION
No Longer of the Sun
BY TERRENCE HOLT