Adam Savage Reflects on the Small Spaces Astronauts Must Endure

While visiting the National Air and Space Museum in August 2021, Adam stopped by the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project -- the very first international human spaceflight -- and marveled at the ambitious endeavor as well as the very small spaces (like this one) that astronauts must endure sometimes for weeks. Three men fit in that command module! Could you be confined like that?

Shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Produced by Kristen Lomasney

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#AdamSavage #ApolloSoyuz #Smithsonian

[tested]

Three men fit in that command module! Could you be confined like that?
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[gregkrekelberg]

There are a couple of things to note regarding this video:

Because of the mutiny (especially during reentry), the Apollo 7 crew, Wally Shirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham, never flew in space again. It was also the impetus for the prelaunch isolation procedures for future Apollo flights. This is particularly relevant because we have to do the same things during the covid era. Nobody wanted sick astronauts in orbit ever again (measles included).

The other thing of note here is that the Apollo-Soyuz flight included Deke Slayton as the docking pilot. Head of the astronaut office, Slayton was barred from flight until this last Apollo flight because of a slight heart fibrillation that never developed into any later problem. Slayton _earned_ that flight more than any other astronaut.

[Valisk]

I chose the Apollo/Soyuz mission as the subject for my final major at art college (Design/Illustration), back in the 80's. Had great fun researching it - produced mission profile infographics, cutaway drawings etc. All traditional media back then too, so pencil construction, Indian ink, airbrush, watercolour etc. Happy times.

I remember when I was drawing the human figures for scale, I thought 'these look way too big' - it really made me appreciate just how little room there was inside.

[jaajaa]

The docking adaptors were amazing. They had to be androgynous, because neither side wanted there to be a male half and a female half, so they’re androgynous docking adaptors. Wild.

[timhamlin]

Maybe it's because of science fiction but it cracks me up when people talk as if space travel is so cool. SF gives us huge ships so the story isn't too 'cramped' so to speak. But the thing is that even if you had the luxury of relatively large living spaces it would, still, be very very stressful. There's a good documentary about astronauts who stayed on the space station for 1 year. It is very clear that most of them get real depression from being cut off from (literally) life on earth. Never a fresh breeze, never a grassy field to treat your bare feet, or a swim in a lake or any of a thousand things we tend to take for granted down here. Living in a can (even a somewhat larger one) in the vacuum of space is no picnic. Thanks for this video. It makes a good point.

[engineeredlifeform]

I live near the National Space Museum in England. Sadly, it doesn't have anywhere near as many exhibits... but it does have a Soyuz, and you really do appreciate the bravery of the people that squeezed into one and ventured into space. There's also a mock up of the ISS Columbus module, albeit without so much stuff stored, and it's not exactly roomy when empty. It's about the same size as my touring caravan, and I can open an window, or go outside of that.

[TheChipMcDonald]

The LEM mockup at the Smithsonian really conveys the claustrophobic environment, you can walk up to it and see first hand the kind of spaces they had to work in.
.... and look at the size of the Gus Grissom helmet: I think the astronauts must have been smaller than advertised.

[Aerowind]

I always wonder if Adam's ever looked at (or played) the Kerbal Space Program game. For a silly little game, it's done a ton for making people understand just how space travel actually works. Stuff like delta v and slingshotting, and how to align two objects moving terrifyingly fast so that you even have a chance to dock. It just kind of seemed like to me the type of thing he might like fiddling with a bit.

[Russellsperry]

I always love it when Adam goes to the Smithsonian. So many great stories, and amazing engineering feats. 👍

[ATs_fm]

It's always ever so lovely to see Adams glow in his eyes when he gets excited over engineering stuff.

[_WillCAD_]

This mission was incredible. The American side was commanded by Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts; he supposed to be on the second sub-orbital flight but was grounded in 1962 by a medical issue and replaced by Gus Grissom. He missed the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs and never expected to fly in space, but was medically cleared in 1972 and commanded the ASTP flight in 1975 at the age of 51, making him the oldest person to fly in space at that time.

The Russian side was commanded by Alexi Leonov, the first person to walk in space, who had a pretty epic career himself.

Leonov and a member of the American crew, Tom Stafford, became lifelong friends because of this mission, with Leonov even being godfather to Stafford's younger children.

[anthonyx]

Wondering if one detail of filming and description might be misleading. The NASA portion included the service module (large silver-white cylindrical segment leftmost in frame), command module (cone-shaped segment as Adam focused on), and Apollo/Soyuz docking adapter (irregular-looking object with small silvery spheres). The Soviet portion was essentially everything to the right in frame (greenish color). The point at which the two sides mated is the part with the interleaved trapezoidal petals - the interleaving is the actual point at which Apollo met Soyuz, not the neatly circular ring where the Apollo command module "docked" with the adapter (where the camera was looking as Adam described the exquisite match-up between independent efforts). The adapter rode to orbit behind the service module just as the LM did on the lunar missions; Apollo did the same "docking and transposition" maneuver to extract the adapter from the third stage as it would have done with the LM before rendezvous and docking with Soyuz. BTW the adapter also had to accommodate the fact that Apollo was a low-pressure mostly oxygen atmosphere, where the Soyuz atmosphere was more Earth-like.

[njcurmudgeon]

I spent many happy hours as a kid haunting the various galleries of the NASM. As an astronomy buff, I would always seek out stuff like the glass photographic plate on which Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. They were the talismans. I love watching Adam geek out and see these exhibits through a different and knowing eye, appreciating the nuanced engineering in a way I might not have been able to. It's like seeing these "old" artifacts in new ways. His enthusiasm is as infectious as it is unabashedly and gloriously geeky!

[triggerfish]

I’ve been to the Air and Space in DC (I was supposed to be working for a UK company but went awol for a day to see all this amazing Apollo stuff). The LM display…a full sized LM …is astonishing. The crew had v little space…true…but…the whole lander is actually a sizeable chunk of hardware. And to think of its function…get down to the surface, provide life support and cargo space for all the kit..and *then* be a working launch pad for the crew cabin to…separate from the lander bit. I mean..it’s just astonishing. Seeing the thing for real was an experience I’ll never ever forget.

[Riley_Mundt]

Apollo-Soyuz is a testament to something my brother said to me when I was just going into college:

"If you understand math, you don't need to know anything else."

[Shockedbywater]

Seeing Adam's excitement and awe about the space program is a lot of fun. I am always amazed by space travel and almost always think about the astronauts when I see the moon. What is it like to walk out of your house, look up and see the moon and say to yourself 'I was there' it must be mind blowing for them

[blackbear]

Adam tells the story of how a long time ago, in a galaxy not far away, American and Russian engineers united across languages and vast distances. As Seth Meyers would say, "this is the kind of story we need right now!" :D

[gustafapplequist]

I have been fortunate to spend time in the Soyuz and Apollo trainer capsules at the Cosmosphere in Kansas. As small as the Apollo capsule was, it was palatial compared to most other capsules. The Apollo had about 4.5 cubic meters of useable internal volume, the Soyuz has about 2.5 cubic meters of useable space. I was much shorter when I was in those trainers but I still shudder at remembering the claustrophobia than set in after just getting in the Soyuz. Howard Wolowitz..I get it man.

[AniskinONE]

Рукопожатие в космосе. При подготовке этого полёта всё национальные стандарты были приведены в соответствие. Такие как электрические сопряжения, радио частоты для связи и телеметрии, внутрикарабельная атмосфера и т.д.

[thomasackerman]

Even having elbow room, plenty of it, is not enough. Skylab also suffered a "mutiny" as mission control pushed and pushed a very intensive workload over weeks. However, rather than going on strike and stop working, the astronauts merely had a conference with CAPCOM Richard Truly about improvements which included protecting crew off-duty days every 10 days, minimizing scheduling activities during the crew’s pre-sleep and post-sleep periods, allowing time between different activities for the astronauts to clean up from the first, translate in what was a very large station, and set up for the next, and not splitting up the crew’s exercise periods.

And if you think Apollo and Soyuz were cramped, just go squeeze into a Gemini or Mercury capsule!