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(cheerful music)

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- Hey, I'm Thomas Zurbuchen,

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and the head of science at NASA,

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also known as Dr. Z.

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- And I'm Ellen Stofan,
also known as Dr. E.

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Welcome to another
episode of E.Z. Science.

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So, Thomas, we're here at the
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

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in Chantilly, Virginia,

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at the tail of the Discovery space shuttle

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because we're celebrating
a very special anniversary.

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- That's right.

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I just talked to my kid
who just started college.

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He's 18 years old and
astronauts have been in orbit

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for his entire life.

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There has been an American
in the space station

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and international partners
during this same time.

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For 20 years,

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the space station has been inhabited.

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And what an amazing anniversary

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of international cooperation.

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The six bedroom building up there,

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the length of a football field or so,

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inhabited and doing science.

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- It's incredible.

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And we feel a really close connection

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to the International Space Station,

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because about a third
of Discovery's missions,

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were helping to construct it.

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There's modules on the space
station from the United States,

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from Japan, from the European
Space Agency and Russia.

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And it's such a great example
of international cooperation,

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how even though sometimes
we don't get along here

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on the ground,

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we can literally go to a higher plane

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and find a way to cooperate.

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- That's right, 240
astronauts from 19 countries.

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Nearly 3000 experiments
and many of them of course,

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on the inside,

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but we have multiple experiments
from three disciplines

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hanging from the outside
of the space station.

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I'll pick up one, the
structure of neutron stars.

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The internal structure of that

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is measured by the NICER experiment.

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And that is right now taking measurements

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of x-rays in the sky
from the space station.

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- That's amazing.

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And, you know, my favorite experiment is,

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actually it has to do with human health.

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And I think a lot of people don't realize

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how much research has been done

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on the International Space Station

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around human health.

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You know, almost half
of the Apollo astronauts

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either got an infection in space

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or got an infection soon
after they returned.

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Because what we've discovered

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is that when you put
humans in microgravity,

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their immune system
doesn't function as well.

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And we've actually done enough experiments

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on the International Space Station

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to realize it's the T cell part

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of your immune response in your body

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that's being suppressed.

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Now, that's fascinating because
we can use that information

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to better understand how
our immune system works.

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And obviously right now
in the time of COVID,

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that's really important information.

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- The other thing that
I think about a lot is,

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and I actually talked
to astronauts about it

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who have been up there
for substantial times,

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is the importance of this
experiment called Veggie.

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It sounds just how what it is,

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it's actually growing plants in space.

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And what's really exciting is for them,

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you know, we know psychologically

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that's really an important
part of a livable environment

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to have plants green that live there,

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and frankly, also that they can eat.

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And they'll offer, especially,

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some of the very spicy
plants that are out there.

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But a lot of our research is
being done with these plants

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to just really learn how,

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of course, as we prepare
for longer duration travel,

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how we can use that kind of platform

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to grow food and to have
that livable environment.

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- Yeah, it was funny when
I talked to Scott Kelly,

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after he came back from his year in space.

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He talked about how much
growing flowers in space,

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how much that meant to
him in that long year

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that he was up on the
International Space Station,

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which reminds me of one of
the most important things

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we use the ISS for,

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that we haven't mentioned.

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This whole issue of
learning to live in space

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is critical for getting humans,

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not just back to the moon,

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but onto Mars.

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It's that seven month journey to Mars,

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time on Mars, time back.

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The International Space Station,

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we've been using it as a platform

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to get humans ready,

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to get our technologies ready

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to go further out into the solar system.

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- That's exactly right.

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There's a number of
experiments going on right now

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on the space station

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that are really about life support systems

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that we want to use to go beyond,

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go to the moon first as
part of the Artemis program.

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And of course, we have
one eye on Mars already

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because of course,

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robotically we're on the
way there with perseverance,

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but with humans,

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we want to follow and go there also.

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And yet that space station will forever be

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in the history of that,

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because the technologies were
really developed right there.

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- The ISS has been an incredible platform

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for student experiments.

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So, every year at any
given time up on the ISS,

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there are experiments going on

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that were sent up there by students,

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high school students,

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even elementary school
students at one point,

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college students,

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it's an incredible platform

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to let students get
that first understanding

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of how does science work?

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How do you design an experiment?

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How do you get a result
and what do you do with it?

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- That's exactly right.

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And for me,

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kind of when I think of the space station,

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I think of it as a victory
of the human spirit

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and to coming together
as the earth as one,

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explore as one,

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both on the human side,

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but also the scientific side.

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So, I just really wanna
congratulate the entire team

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that has been part of that, building it,

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but also doing the entire 20 years,

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running this highly complex
machine internationally.

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And I look forward

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to everything we're gonna
learn in the future as well.

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- It's an incredible success

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and we can't congratulate enough

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the International Space Station team

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and all the countries,

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the European Space Agency, Russia,

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obviously the US and Japan
who've been the key core heart

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of the ISS team.

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Well, I think we're
just about out of time.

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Thank you for joining
us for another episode