10. What kinds of spaces, with what functions, are planned for the ISS? *(response: Russell Romanella) (A K2S Question)
From The Space Library
The primary purpose of the ISS is to be a laboratory where humans will live and work in space. The ISS will have multiple laboratories where the astronauts can work in a shirt-sleeve environment. The United States, Europe, Japan, and Russia will all have at least one on-orbit laboratory as part of the ISS. Each laboratory differs in size. The US laboratory (named Destiny), for example, is 28 feet long and 14 feet in diameter and the Japanese laboratory (named Kibo, which means "hope" in Japanese), is about 37 feet long and 14 feet in diameter. As is true anywhere people live, we'll need a place to sleep and eat and go to the bathroom. There are also windows so the crew can look out at space or the Earth. There are places to store food and water, and there is an airlock that the astronauts use when they go on a spacewalk. The astronauts also keep spare parts and tools on board so they can work on things. A large portion of the ISS is made up of large solar arrays that generate electricity from the Sun's energy. These are truss-type structures that go from one end of the ISS to the other.
Answer provided by Thomas Rogers & Russell Romanella
Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer
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