markg wrote:
I don't doubt what you're saying but how come they were all freezing their tits off on Apollo 13 after they turned all the power right down?
There wasn't much source of heat in there beyond the people and the electrics, and there weren't many electrics compared to a modern spacecraft. Also the film may have exaggerated this, although I'm not sure.
Space isn't meaningfully hot or cold; hot and cold are characteristics of matter and space doesn''t have much of that. So a space ship or station is gaining heat due to processes happening within in (ie. people doing work and electrical systems working) and absorption of sunlight, and losing heat from radiation, which is pretty inefficient. Depending on what's going on and how it's designed it's quite possible it gains heat faster than it loses it. Without cooling systems (e.g.
the ISS's), it'd overheat.
While I'm OT and talking about common misconceptions about space, the force of gravity caused by the Earth on board the ISS isn't zero. It's about 90% of the level it is at the surface of the Earth. (ISS orbits about 400 km up. It's not that far.)