Is there Sky in the sky?

May 23, 2007 12:51 PM

Can astronauts/cosmonauts on the International Space Station get satellite TV?

(yes, this question was inspired by the Heineken commercial)

posted by medium format to Science & Nature (11 answers total)

Directly from the satellites, probably not as it would require a tracking antenna to keep the dish aimed at the satellites. Also the space station would often pass behind the Earth or be at the fringes of the transmission, so there would be no way to watch programming continuously for more than a short period. I would think that any entertainment would have to be piped up from the space agencies, if at all. Good question though; I do wonder if they get any TV luxury.
posted by hodyoaten at 1:03 PM on May 23, 2007

Also from this Q&A: "TV is the same way, we don't have actual TV, but they can load files into the e-mail just like you get streaming video files that you can click on in your regular e-mail and they send those up, and you can click on them and watch the video."
posted by hodyoaten at 1:08 PM on May 23, 2007

Probably not for free.. they'd still need the decoder card in the receiver. ;-)
posted by drstein at 1:27 PM on May 23, 2007

They're paid to be astronauts, not paid to watch TV. But if they wanted to, they could quite easily steal the tapes from the satellites and watch their shows when they get back home.
posted by popcassady at 1:50 PM on May 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Not a chance. The satellites are in geostationary orbit above the equator. The ISS moves in a sinusoidal path relative to a square map of the earth. One revolution takes 90 minutes.

So if they had a rotating receiving dish with sophisticated tracking software they might be able to watch TV for about 5-10 minutes per revolution.
posted by dendrite at 1:56 PM on May 23, 2007

All the above is true, plus I'm sure they don't have the equipment. Nothing is on the ISS that isn't directly needed for the mission.

I'm pretty sure that the only significant communications link the ISS has is with TDRS.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:32 PM on May 23, 2007

quite easily steal the tapes from the satellites

I'm not exactly sure what it is you meant by this, but now I have this image of astronauts drivin' the ol' Shuttle out to geostationary orbit and openin' it up with a crowbar to get at the thousands of VHS tapes in the gooey center. Because that's how they work, right?

Of course, they'd probably do better to just form a boarding party and attack the spaceship that delivers those VHS tapes every week.
posted by dmd at 6:26 PM on May 23, 2007

Arrr.. here there be space pirates.
posted by Mercaptan at 9:05 PM on May 23, 2007

I'm not exactly sure what it is you meant by this, but now I have this image of astronauts drivin' the ol' Shuttle out to geostationary orbit and openin' it up with a crowbar to get at the thousands of VHS tapes in the gooey center. Because that's how they work, right?

Yes, I think that was the joke they were going for. Thank you for explaining it, that made it funnier. Heh.
posted by davejay at 11:20 PM on May 23, 2007

nope ... satellite TV runs over a line of sight communications channel. No transponders on the satellite would be pointing to the ISS (or tracking if it is moving) hence no comms channel!
posted by jannw at 7:57 AM on May 24, 2007

So if they had a rotating receiving dish with sophisticated tracking software they might be able to watch TV for about 5-10 minutes per revolution.

Why wouldn't they be able to get the signal for half the revolution, or 45 minutes? Seems like the earth is either in the way or not.

Also, the space station manages to track the sun pretty well to keep its solar arrays aligned correctly. And I think they track stars to do dead reckoning.
posted by smackfu at 6:53 PM on May 28, 2007