Microgravity: living on the International Space Station

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Microgravity: living on the International Space Station provided by OpenLearn is a comprehensive online course, which lasts for 24 hours worth of material. Upon completion of the course, you can receive an e-certificate from OpenLearn. The course is taught in Englishand is Free Certificate. Visit the course page at OpenLearn for detailed price information.

Overview
  • This free badged open course, Microgravity: living on the International Space Station, will help you to consider microgravity environments in more detail than before! You will make direct ...

Syllabus
    • Introduction and guidance
    • Introduction and guidance
    • What is a badged course?
    • How to get a badge
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week1Week 1 Microgravity and the International Space Station
    • Introduction
    • 1 Microgravity and the ‘vomit comet’
    • 2 The International Space Station
    • 3 How astronauts get up there
    • 3.1 How to launch a rocket
    • 3.2 Location of launch sites
    • 4 How the ISS stays up there
    • 4.1 Practical experiment 1
    • 5 Is there any gravity on the ISS?
    • 6 This week’s quiz
    • 7 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week2Week 2 Ageing and microgravity environments
    • Introduction
    • 1 An introduction to ageing
    • 2 Ageing forecasts by country
    • 3 Bed rest and ageing
    • 4 Reducing the effects of ageing in a microgravity environment
    • 5 Research on astronauts and the ageing process
    • 6 Measuring your heart and respiration rates
    • 6.1 Practical experiment 2
    • 7 Comparing the heart rates of animals and human beings
    • 8 Preparing for the bread mold experiment
    • 9 This week’s quiz
    • 10 Summary
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week3Week 3 The quantum world
    • Introduction
    • 1 Research areas and orders of magnitude
    • 2 An introduction to quantum science
    • 3 Diffraction of waves
    • 4 Sodium D-lines and the hydrogen atom
    • 5 Quantum energy levels
    • 6 The double-slit experiment
    • 7 LASER cooling: researching quantum effects
    • 8 Gravity, timing and metrology
    • 9 Communication and security
    • 10 This week’s quiz
    • 11 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week4Week 4 Researching online sources
    • Introduction
    • 1 Do weird physics effects also occur in nature?
    • 2 Microgravity research and its impact
    • 2.1 Disciplines in space research
    • 2.2 PROMPT criteria
    • 3 Travelling to Mars
    • 4 This week’s quiz
    • 5 Summary
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week5Week 5 Bacteria and fungi
    • Introduction
    • 1 Microbes, bacteria and fungi
    • 2 Your bread mold experiment and yeast
    • 3 ‘Space bugs’
    • 4 Random positioning machines
    • 5 Can microbes survive elsewhere in the Universe?
    • 6 The habitability of planets
    • 7 This week’s quiz
    • 8 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week6Week 6 Microgravity environments on Earth
    • Introduction
    • 1 Felix Baumgartner’s record freefall jump
    • 2 Using drop towers to simulate microgravity
    • 3 Practical experiment 3
    • 4 Forming planets: an introduction
    • 5 Forming planets: using models
    • 6 This week’s quiz
    • 7 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week7Week 7 Space exploration and science
    • Introduction
    • 1 How much does the ISS cost?
    • 2 How much does space exploration cost NASA?
    • 3 How much does space exploration cost the USA?
    • 4 How much do space missions cost the world?
    • 5 Space research and its impact on social issues and problems
    • 6 Is there a difference between ‘good science’ and ‘bad science’?
    • 7 This week’s quiz
    • 8 Summary
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
    • Week8Week 8 To the ISS, Moon and Mars!
    • Introduction
    • 1 The astronaut challenge
    • 2 Astronauts: do you have what it takes?
    • 3 Human exploration
    • 4 Current and future microgravity research
    • 5 This week’s quiz
    • 6 Summary
    • Take the next step
    • Tell us what you think
    • References
    • Acknowledgements