US elections|The space station astronauts’ ballots were sent to Earth via satellites, electronic and encrypted.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
Two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, voted on election day in the US election aboard the ISS space station.
Astronauts voted in the elections with special arrangements. The ballots were sent by satellite encrypted and via a circuitous route to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The astronauts were supposed to return to Earth on the Starliner ship already in July, but it got stuck in checks. Now they are waiting for the return flight.
Maan during the elections, it is enough to get to the polling station, whatever the weather.
But sometimes life surprises. For example, you can get stuck in space.
That’s what happened to two astronauts. Their ie Butch Wilmoren and Suni Williams had to be in his home state of Texas on election day, so on Earth and not in space.
The astronauts were scheduled to return home aboard the Starliner as early as July. However, the ship was traveling and stayed for inspections.
So the astronauts are still on the ISS space station. They are waiting for a return flight for next year. Nevertheless, they got their vote on Earth and on American soil.
Of course, US astronauts want to fulfill their responsibilities as citizens. There are currently four Americans aboard the International Space Station, or ISS.
Williams said before the election that voting from space is “pretty cool”.
“Nasa makes voting very easy. We’re excited about the opportunity,” fellow astronaut Wilmore said on a call to reporters.
Williams and Wilmore voted for Maas as absentees. This is how the heavenly voice was quoted in the election:
Astronaut Suni Williams filled out a ballot on the station. It was converted into code in the space station’s computers.
The ballot was then transferred electronically to the station’s equipment, which communicates with various ground stations and exchanges data with the space station.
According to astronaut Butch Willmore, the employer, Nasa, made voting in space easy.
Heavenly the message with voice flags was first taken on earth to White Sands. It is located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. There’s a NASA test station.
From there, the ballot went encrypted via ground stations to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
At the Johnson Center, the ballot that fell from the sky was transmitted electronically and encrypted to the election officials. They register sound from space.
The ballot is still encrypted. Only the astronaut and the polling officer can access it.
To the station have also later flown astronauts Don Pettit and Nick Hague. They knew they were in space during election day.
So they filled up before the flight federal FPCA form. It is usually filled out by citizens who are outside the United States at the time of the election.
US soldiers, for example, are familiar with the form. Astronauts also use the same form.
Most astronauts live in Texas because it is home to training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
According to NASA, the home state of the astronauts is also often Texas.
As early as 1997, state legislators passed a special law. It allows astronauts to vote from Earth orbit.
Astronaut already in the same year David Wolfista became the first American to vote in space.
He told about voting in space website Space.com.
In the 2020 election, an astronaut Kate Rubin
built on the station
even a small voting booth. However, it is not mandatory in the station’s vote.