Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

  • http://twitter.com/CoreyTamas Joel In Real Life

    I can’t be the only one who read this title as “Fantastic Four on the International Space Station”, right?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Norm-Tedford/1220611758 Norm Tedford

      I did the same thing.

    • http://www.facebook.com/mkoenraadt Mathijs Koenraadt

      haha me too

    • benher

      Fantastic Six? ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joel-Turner/679875041 Joel Turner

    While very interesting, it was still very disorientating.  

  • kansas

    Oh, fantastic! Williams is a great host.

  • http://twitter.com/KKyle Kyle Kilzer

    This is a great video.  My 6 year old was enthralled by it for the full 25 minutes when I showed it to him last week.

    • http://twitter.com/seckela Mikhail Thomas

      My 26 year old self was in the same boat. I honestly have to say that this video almost moved me to tears with the awe-inspiring reality that this, this marvelous thing, is real and that is amazing.

    • phuzz

       So was my 60 y/o dad!

  • Luther Blissett

    What, pray, is a _not_ SFW demonstration of the toilet of the ISS? What in space are you talking about when you say SFW? And, just BTW, could be the reason to be able and possibly even allowed to watch a 25 min vid on teh tubez at work?

    Am I missing something? Or, everything?

    • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

      Trying to clarify that when I said “a demonstration” I didn’t mean that she actually whips off her pants and takes a piss. 

      • Yep

        In space, no one can hear you pee.

      • Luther Blissett

        :-) I am still of the opinion that this would still be save for work, as long as the cameraperson had the decency to pan a way for a sec to give her a moment to sit down. And she would have had to sit down, I’m positive. (BTW: Webster’s on “ISS” may contain: one of the few places where every male human will sit down on the toilet.)

        Somewhat related, in one of my former labs, a lady with a certain sense of humor had placed this in the tea kitchens cupboard. Still wrapped in cellophane. Had a handwritten notice: in case of emergency, rip plastic open.

    • http://memoid.tumblr.com/ memoid

      Great title if this were a NSFW film: “Space hair… Down there”

    • http://twitter.com/seckela Mikhail Thomas

      First of all, being a programmer, my second monitor always has a video going. So I think a good number of people can watch things at work. Second of all, as already stated, “demonstration” of a devise doesn’t mean “using” as much as it means “showing how it works”.

      • Luther Blissett

        Second point first: see above, would using instead of demonstrating a space toilet be NSFW? Its in SPACE! That awesome!

        First point second: my second display has the X.11 devices with the output, and usually a pdf with literature, or a browser hooked on stackexchange (ok, more tabs with other stuff, but not vids of 25min. And none with sound.). The other got scripting windows and the console. Which reminds me, I should get back to interpreting these figures.

  • chenille

    Also, for some reason, it bothers me that she refers to the “left” and “right” side of the Space Station, instead of port and starboard.

    But now there’s another direction to talk about. You could use “port” for down toward the earth and “starboard” for up away from it. Then for the first time ever, the names would be descriptive!

    • GlenBlank

      On the ISS, the up/down axis directions are “deck” and “overhead”.

      X axis (along Velocity Vector) = fore/aft
      Y axis (perpendicular to VV) = port/starboard
      Z axis (toward/ away from earth) = deck/overhead

      That’s assuming the ISS is flying in its XVV (X axis along Velocity Vector) orientation. 

      During construction, it sometimes flew in YVV (Y axis along Velocity Vector) and XPH (X axis parallel to H – Momentum Vector – Inertially stabilized flight), depending on the solar Beta angle.

      But since the main solar panels were installed, it only flies XVV.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Marquardt-Dustin/1010485051 Steve Marquardt-Dustin

    Now I know why the guy on Ancient Aliens has such crazy hair … it’s because he’s IN SPACE

    • euansmith

       I thought she was just a big fan of Robert Smith from the Cure.

    • L_Mariachi

      I really wish long-haired people would tie their shit up when they are in outer space. Or at least come up with hairstyle fashions designed for microgravity.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        It’s much easier to control shed hairs if you have long hair than if you have short hair. If it’s long, you just untie it, brush it out and dispose of them; if it’s short, they’re constantly shedding and floating around.

  • saraeanderson

    What’s with all the dark regions of the video sort of defaulting to a starry pattern?  

    • euansmith

       Its full of stars…

    • phuzz

       Radiation damage to the camera CCDs?

  • http://www.facebook.com/dbspin Gareth Stack

    A longer, more detailed, and generally more informative tour of the ISS from last year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afBm0Dpfj_k

  • TacoChuck

    I see the space station on a regular basis as informed by NASA’s SpotTheStation email notices:

    http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

    Tomorrow morning at 6:55am it will be flying over my house.

  • stedge

    thank You very much, this is indeed fantastic. so when i watch a pass of the ISS again, i can picture an astronaut looking down at me through this neat cupola.

  • RadioSilence

    Wow, BoingBoing, you’re getting slow. I was sent this days ago in an email from my mother! ;)

    • euansmith

       Your Mum evidentially rocks. Congratulations.

  • euansmith

    That is flipping amazing. 

  • http://mattdm.org/ Matthew Miller

     Marshmallow fluff in space!

  • social_maladroit

    Thanks for posting the video — that was fascinating. She seems to have taken to a weightless environment like a fish to water. She probably didn’t use terms like “port” and “starboard” because she was talking to a non-technical audience, including children.

    (One would imagine it helps to have a sunny disposition, like she does, if you’re going to be stuck with 5 other people in a cramped area for months on end. Oh, her biography is worth reading, too.)

  • Timmy Corkery

    For me the most fascinating part of watching Williams maneuver thru the station was the way her toes instinctively went to the grab-bar/hand-holds/straps when she stopped. Much like a cyclist clipping into pedals or a skier stepping into bindings, she does it via pure muscle memory, almost without thinking. Yeah, we’re not super-well-adapted for space (bone density, muscle loss, etc.), but our motor control systems aren’t the weak link.

    Also, “vertigo-inducing horror pod” is frickin’ gold.

  • http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

    this video makes me claustrophobic, how do these guys maintain mental health for so long in that space?

  • Pat L

    That was amazing.  I think what would bother me most is the extreme “busy-ness” of the surroundings–nary a smooth or blank surface to be found.  And the constant noise of what I assume is the air/ventilation system running.

  • benher

    She is so lighthearted in the video that it’s tempting to forget that everyday the crew is putting their lives at risk to further human understanding and the space sciences.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dimitrios.papagiannis Dimitrios Papagiannis

    Commander Williams has the most amazing temperament of any human being I have ever met. I would take her over Captain Kirk any day.

  • francoisroux

    Left and right side is correct, that is a space station, not a space ship. If it was a space ship then port and starboard would have been correct.

    Regardless, there’s no real sense of direction really so none of them make much sense to me either way.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Forposting/100002531076048 Justin Forposting

    There’s a background sound, like a hum or distant windy howl, as if they were near the monolith.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/2NYKEQLHJHWP4I6J7FIVZCSYSE major dennis bloodnok, second

    my favourite film ever is kubrick’s space odyssey. to see cmdr williams scoot about in zero-g and to think back about the ponderous way people moved about on the various spaceships in kubrick’s film is quite amazing. but then to imagine how difficult it would be to film something like cmdr williams on a film set in london in the late 1960′s ….