Can astronauts feel the variation in temperatures as they pass through the different atmospheric layers?
On Earth, humans are attached to the Earth by gravity, at the bottom of a sea of air that we call the atmosphere. This atmospheric ‘shell’ is very thin (about 2% of the Earth’s radius) and is considered to be composed of many layers (Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere and Exosphere). These layers are determined primarily by the changes in the atmospheric temperature. The warmest area of the atmosphere is near the surface of the Earth (at the bottom of the Troposphere) where we can feel the daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations. The coldest area of the atmosphere is in the Mesosphere at around an altitude of 80-90 km, where the temperature drops to around -80oC. Very, very cold. So do astronauts feel these temperatures variations as they travel through the atmospheric layers on launch day? Fortunately not. Certainly the exterior surface of the shuttle is exposed to these atmospheric temperatures, but the Flight Deck and Mid Deck of the shuttle (where the astronaut
