
How many people are in space right now - mgdo
http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/
======
raldi
Is there a long-term graph of this? I believe the number has been nonzero
since 2000, and wanted to see how it's changed over time.

~~~
kristianp
Here's one up to 2014:
[http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/science/spaceflt.htm](http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/science/spaceflt.htm)

Number of living humans who have walked on another world:
[https://xkcd.com/893/](https://xkcd.com/893/)

~~~
zeristor
So the most number of humans in space is 11, which has happened a number of
times.

~~~
princetman
Most number of humans in space is 13 according the graph in the link. You must
be looking at second graph, most numbers of Americans in space at a time is
11.

~~~
yuvalr1
Most number of Americans in space is actually 10 according to second graph :)

------
mattchamb
Hopefully some day this number will be so large that it will be impossible to
track accurately.

~~~
bcjordan
By then it may be quite easy to track accurately!

~~~
maho
You have to take births and deaths into account, which is not straightforward.
Assuming fast interstellar travel, "loss of simultaneity" causes the number of
people in space to depend on your reference frame (your speed and location).

~~~
staticelf
That is only if we still die which I hope we have moved past then. Perhaps we
simply make new humans when we have the need.

~~~
johannes1234321
Would eternal life not be boring? And ever growing population also leads to
issues, even when populating infinite space ...

~~~
Density
I don't understand this argument.

1) Literally infinite permutations of entertainment out there. 2) Birth rates
have been falling steadily for decades. I don't think it'll be a problem in
space unless you think space Catholicism is a thing.

------
perilunar
There's also a 23.0 MB app (iOS only) that you can download and install — just
to display a single number.

(It actually does a little more than that, but still, a perfect example of an
app that should be just a mobile web page.)

~~~
michaelmwangi
Was just thinking the same thing. Its unnecessary

------
paxy
It is currently only possible to be in space on the ISS (or in transit to/from
there) right? Does anyone know when the last human space mission farther than
Low Earth orbit was? And is any country seriously planning another one?

~~~
ilogik
there's also a Chinese space station but it's not currently occupied.

The last mission past low earth orbit was Apollo 17.

As far as I know, SpaceX are the only ones planning on taking crews further
out, first with a mission around the moon, and then possibly Mars

~~~
peteretep

        > Apollo 17
    

Jeez, 45 years since the last person walked on the moon.

~~~
mathiasben
45 years since anyone has been more than 330 miles from earth. totally
pathetic.

------
kwikiel
"You promised me Mars Colonies. Instead, I got Facebook."

~~~
bgdnpn
they promised mars colonies and we got a number that's also available as an
iphone app.

------
sova
Not to nit-pick, but aren't all ~8 billion of us in space all the time?

~~~
oliveshell
“How many people are outside the protective confines of Earth’s atmosphere
right now” doesn’t sound as good.

------
surfsquid
*that we know of

------
silvether
DuckDuckGo does this as well:

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+many+people+are+in+space](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+many+people+are+in+space)

------
sunilkumarc
From where are you getting this data?

~~~
allensallinger
Probably from [http://open-notify.org/](http://open-notify.org/) , it provides
free space data.

~~~
phillc73
Open Notify has an API for this and some other space data.

Here's a few more APIs I've collected into a small R package:

[https://github.com/phillc73/rinspace](https://github.com/phillc73/rinspace)

------
jwr
It's a bit sad, actually. You'd think we have progressed further…

~~~
ekianjo
Well its expensive and there are known deleterious effects associated to
staying in orbit at zero g. Space exploration is at minimum budget for a while
now.

------
cup-of-tea
I would have thought at the very least it might say where they are.

------
return0
spoiler: 6

------
DmitryOlkhovoi
ah, very useful app for astronauts

------
cerealbad
that we know of :)

------
ssttoo
Prior discussions
[https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=howmanypeopleareinspa...](https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com)

------
cube00
It's no
[http://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com](http://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com)

------
dogruck
We are all floating in space. Duh.

------
PikelEmi
All people are in space right now.

