Out For A (First) Stroll From The Space Station

An unnamed correspondent writes: "Since I figure most people on this board are space buffs, just thought I'd send this link about the first space walk at the space station.
2 dollars a day, hehe." They weren't just walking around, though -- they attached antennas and other vital bits. The station isn't yet complete, but it's already getting quite large.

Comments

Re:Yes...but

[markwild]

Hopefully, he'll be in one of the photos.

Re:Yes...but

[Monte]

How does Al Gore fit into this picture?

Didn't you know he invented the space program? Kids today... you probably don't even remember his personally designing the Saturn V booster...

Maybe MIR, but ISS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Already the ISS needs a truss? It's not even that old?!

/. in space?

[Mutok]

When they get back, are the astronauts going to run around here yelling "FW! First Walk!"?

I disagree.

[levik]

I disagree. I think a first spacewalk on a space station that took three years to get to where it is now (and who knows hoe much longer in planning) is an important milestone.

It shows that after all those delays with the russian components, and cost overruns the station's development is still progressing.

Now if you are not interested in such stories, you don't really need to go and read about it. So is it really worth complaining about the fact that your browser had to load a few bytes of HTML that didn't interest you? I'm sure that there's quite a few people on Slashdot who look at ISS's development with sufficient interest to find the link helpful.

Slashdot techsupport

[JurriAlt137n]

Problem description: Random individual is not pleased with a certain story on Slashdot.

Solution: Advised said random individual to either read another thread, go read the site where people refer to Slashdot as "the other site", or to plain right get lost.

Next!!

I can really identify with you, so much.

More continuous updates

[coreman]

In case people might actually BE interested this page gives a running status of what's going on (space walk 4 is in progress)

Aw, c'mon!

[jonfromspace]

Ok, this may be flame bait, but I don't care, tka my Karma...

This is just stupid... /. posts the "First Space Walk" just hours after the THIRD one is complete? Just bloody stupid.

Re:Aw, c'mon!

[Scurrilous Knave]

Actually, that was just the third one of this mission. It's like the 40th or 50th (?) spacewalk of the US space program overall. And they did two or three walks on the mission a few weeks ago. I may be wrong, but I think every shuttle visit to ISS so far has involved at least one EVA.

Excuse me?

[JurriAlt137n]

Women become even more crucial when you want to settle another planet. What has better cahnces of settling Mars, 100 women and a lead box with sperm in liquid nitrogen, or 90 men and 10 (soon to be very tired) women?

Hold on. 90 men and 10 women? And the women are the ones that are supposed to get tired? Better make that 900 men and 10 women.


I can really identify with you, so much.

Re:Excuse me?

[jedi@radio]

No, no, no! You're forgetting the golden ratio of "10 females to every male" from Dr. Strangelove! :-)

Only through hard work and perseverance can one truly suffer

Jet Packs

[Mad Hughagi]

Does anyone have any links or information on the new jet packs that the astronauts will be testing out on the final spacewalk of this mission?

I wonder what type of 'tests' they are going to implement?

Re:Jet Packs

[jonfromspace]

This should be what you are looking for:

JET PACKS

Space Stastion stories

[coaxial]

If we're going to get a blow by blow account of what goes on at the big hunk o' metal in the sky I want it to have a topic so I can turn it off.

I like space stories, I just don't give a damn about the space station.

Re:NASA is willfully inefficient

[gwizah]

Actually not painting the tank shaved about 600 pounds off. That was a shitload of white paint.

The proper term.

[Gridle]

That's called a bukkake party.

Re:A slow day.

[BradleyUffner]

Just because it isn't news to you doesn't mean it's not news to someone. I have a job where I work all day, I don't have cable at home and lsiten to music a lot at night. I havn't heard much, if anything about the space station in ahwile. This was news to me, maby I don't get out enough though... If you really don't like this story then don't read it, it doesn't hurt you at all to download an extra K of data at most, and some people find it helpfull and informative.

ATTENTION NASA!

[Anonymous Coward]

Will spacewalk for free. Please contact me at...

Right, the tank saved 600 pounds

[Hairy_Potter]

and my suggestion might save 300 pounds.

Makes sense, right?

An extra 300 pounds is a satellite or two.

Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buying

[cr0sh]

Can anyone point me to a site that shows an actual picture of this piece of metal, as it currently looks? Not a computer rendition, but an actual image (color, b&w - doesn't matter).

I want to know if I am getting my money's worth (something tells me, picture or not, I am not)...

I support the EFF - do you?

Three Stooges Eh?

[Ribo99]

Are they a Mathematician, a different kind of Mathematician, and a Statistician?

Come on you Simpsons fans, I know you're out there! :)


---

Re:Three Stooges Eh?

[Ribo99]

Actually, now that I think about it, it was "Three Musketeers", not "Three Stoogies". Ah well, it works just the same.... ;)
---

A First Troll From The Space Station ? ;-)

[Poligraf]

Speaking on the topic, does it matter ?
If I understand correctly, it is just a routine; nothing new and exciting for the humankind.

Re:Important! Please Read!

[DebtAngel]

Are you wearing any space shuttle parts? Do you have any in your house? Of course not.

I certainly hope not! Having parts of the ISS fall 37000 million miles*, through my roof, and into my living room would make me less than impressed with the space program.

* may be off by an order of magnitude or seven.

Re:NASA is willfully inefficient

[A Bugg]

hate to break it to you but the female astronauts going up there couldn't weight 100 lbs, now while i don't have any info just think about it, take a girl you know that weights 100 lbs and look her over does she even remotely look like one of the female astronauts, does she look like she could handle the rigors of space flight. but i do see what you are saying. but the reason we don't send men is because we send women, equality, albeit a kind of lopsided one, still better than it used to be. come on if all they sent up were men the women would be outraged and vice versa. so thats why.

a bugg

Re:NASA is willfully inefficient

[HeghmoH]

You do not understand the situation.

Yes, launching stuff into space costs on the order of ten thousand dollars per pound. That cost is found by taking the total weight of payload launched and dividing it by the total cost of the launch. It does not then equate to sending up one fewer pound costing ten thousand dollars less. A lighter payload will result in less fuel needed, and fuel is one of the smallest costs in the launch. The costs for assembly, training, and staff (hundreds of people work for months on each luanch) far outweigh the paltry costs for fuel on your typical shuttle launch.

Even if your figure were correct at three million saved, the typical shuttle launch costs between four and seven hundred million, depending on who you listen to. That's less than a one-percent cost savings.

Re:Antenna?

[B00yah]

It's a Mitch Hedberg paraphrase...he was writing a letter and ended it with "P.S. what part of the alphabet would look like if q and r were eliminated. It's getting changed this week anyway...

question

[xhypertensionx]

I've been interested in NASA stuff for a long time, and heard about space station development a long time ago. Its cool to see that its finally going up there.

However, I was kind of disappointed by the design. Why didn't they design the station with some kind of rotating circular piece... like in 2001 and (shudder) Mission to Mars?

Having a piece like this would allow astronauts to go inside of it and have some gravity, so they don't have to float around all the time.

Re:question

[silicon_synapse]

I think having two rotating cylinders might be more efficient. The torque from one would counter act the other and not waste any spin. Still would take a good bit of doing. Especially getting those cylinders into space.

Re:question

[torpor]

It's an incredibly difficult thing to engineer rotating structures in space and *still* maintain the correct position in space in order to keep orbit.

There *are* rotating structures in the space station - they're called gyro's, and in fact they're used by the station to move around. There are gyro's all over the ISS - spin one up, and the station starts to move in that direction, slowly due to centrifugal force.

They're an efficient means of maintaining position, because they're run by electric (solar) power, and thus don't require expendable fuel like the retro rockets do...

Re:question

[tftp]

It's an incredibly difficult thing to engineer rotating structures in space and *still* maintain the correct position in space in order to keep orbit.

The orbit of your center of mass will stay the same regardless of what you do with the station. You need an engine to change the orbit.

If the station has rotating parts then it becomes more stable because gyros tend to keep their axis of rotation. However when a force is applied they generate precession effect which might be unwelcomed.

A correct design of a rotating station will require a lot of innovative thinking. We don't have bearings, for one, that work in vacuum, don't need lubricants, don't need maintenance and can hold segments as heavy as hundreds of tons. The segment with antennas, telescopes etc. has to be mechanically insulated from the rotating part (anyone has an idea of an airlock?) because you want to keep your telescopes fixed, not spinning. Furthermore, the joint may need to allow 3-D rotation (pretty much as a ball joint). This is not as easy as launching few tin cans and tying them together with a rope.

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[andyh1978]

Can anyone point me to a site that shows an actual picture of this piece of metal, as it currently looks?

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/
The latest picture on the NASA STS-92 site of the Station itself seems to be , which shows the entire station and the new antenna on the truss.

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[friedo]

here: is an oldish image from space.com. You can find more if you look around a bit.

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[friedo]

Oops. Try this link.

Further information on the ISS...

[Mindwarp]

...and manned space-flight missions can be mailed straight to your in-box by e-mailing majordomo@listserver.jsc.nasa.gov any typing "subscribe hsfnews" in the body of your message.

The news bulletins keep you informed of the progress of the various human space flight projects underway, and are certainly a lot more timely than this slashdot posting ;-)

Enjoy...

--

Interesting remakrs want to prove them

[sips]

Particularly interesting about the dietetic requirements of the average man/woman. The differences in nutritinion aren't that great.

NASA knows this, and the male patriarchy knows this, which is why there aren't very many female astronauts. If there were enough female astronauts, they could flee earth and start their own amazon empire (not the on
click kind) on Mars.

Yeah sure, and pigs fly.

Nasa tax dollars

[xhypertensionx]

I want to know if I am getting my money's worth (something tells me, picture or not, I am not)...

A few years back I got the chance to speak with a NASA engineer, and got to hear what he had to say about this issue.

According to him, the NASA gets 1% of the federal budget... but every dollar we invest there is returned SEVEN fold!

Do you know how many breakthroughs have happened because of NASA? Teflon, kevlar, and velcro are just some of the examples off the top of my head.

These developments happen rather quickly too. In fact, that engineer showed me what looked to be like a black square made of plastic. He said, "NASA develops things so quickly, we don't even have a name for this type of material yet. If made in large sheets, its very brittle, but if in small squares like this, its unbreakable." He proceeded to try to smash it and he couldn't. He then said, "This will probably be used somewhere on the space station."

I think that most government agencies and functions are wastes of money, but NASA ironically seems to be the exception to this rule.

Re:Nasa tax dollars

[Sloppy]

According to him, the NASA gets 1% of the federal budget... but every dollar we invest there is returned SEVEN fold!

Maybe NASA should get together with some Make Money Fast spammers and mass-email some fund solicitations.

Subject: *** ONE DOLLAR GETS YOU SEVEN! ***
From: nasaxxx@hotmail.com

Space is BIG, according to Douglas Adams, and now you can be part of the BIG profits...

---

Re:Nasa tax dollars

[anticypher]

Teflon, kevlar, and velcro are just some of the examples off the top of my head

All of those breakthroughs preceded NASA by years.

Teflon (PTFE) was invented and classified by American scientists at the Oak Ridge nuclear fuel processing plant during WWII. They were looking for a gasket material that could withstand enriched uranium, and they puzzled out what an ideal molecular structure should be and then went experimenting. A few years later it was re-discovered by a French materials scientist, who had the great idea of coating cooking pans with it, known as Tefal in Europe. For a number of years, it was illegal to import teflon coated pans into the US, but nobody really knew why.

Kevlar was a material created during WWII as well, but it remained classified, and no work was done with it until the 1960's when it was declassified. The military had no idea what the material could do, and they kept it away from commercial sight until about 1969.

Velcro is another French invention, dating back to the 1920's. The name comes from the two materials, Velvet and Crochet hooks.

There were some cool materials that came out of NASA. Kapton is one, its used as a fireproof electrical insulator.

If you ever can afford it, get a subscription to NASA Technical Briefs, a magazine that highlights all the inventions and patents NASA is making public. Since the US taxpayers are paying for all that research, all the patents are available for cheap, non-exclusive licensing. Because of the "Open Source" nature of NASA's R&D, they get tons of money just from licensing patents, and lots of companies can get cool tech without a huge R&D budget. But any company developing for NASA automatically signs over all rights to discoveries, so they can't jack up the prices later if something becomes key to space exploration.

the AC

Re:Nasa tax dollars

[xhypertensionx]

All of those breakthroughs preceded NASA by years.

I thought I might be flamed for this..

I think NASA took them and used them to develop new things, or improved them, or something else. But thanks for pointing that out and giving more info

Re:NASA is willfully inefficient

[RadioTV]

Is it just me, or is there an error in these calculations?

(150 - 100) * 6 = 150?

And how do you get another 150 pounds in savings from food, water and oxygen. The requirements for a healthy active adult are very close to the same for males and females.

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[b1t r0t]

Can anyone point me to a site that shows an actual picture of this piece of metal, as it currently looks?

The NASA space flight site has on its space station page a picture of the space station with the Z1 truss attached.

Space Station Creation

[The Living Fractal]

Temptation for acceleration of the station actualization, integration and operation is causation for sensation of congratulation.

The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him.

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[BugMaster ChuckyD]

I want to know if I am getting my money's worth (something tells me, picture or not, I am not)...

Unless you are Bill Gates, the amount of your money spent on the ISS is miniscule. NASA gets less than 1% of the Federal Budget. Even if the ISS takes up half of NASA's budget thats 0.5% of the (roughly) 66% of the budget that comes from income tax. So maybe 0.33% of the total amount of what you have paid in Federal Income tax is up there. Most of your money has gone to pay the interest on Reagan's debt and for $90 hammers.

This story says as much about geeks ...

[torpor]

... and the divide between them, as it does about NASA.

Sure, it's not *new* news (heck, I was watching this space walk on NASA TV on Sunday...), but it is news for nerds. My generation (I'm 30) of nerds grew up with the space program, and I still have a fondness for it.

Perhaps some of the posters that exhibit anti-NASA sentiment are a new generation of nerds who just don't care ... in which case, this story is not just about a space walk, but the ripping divide between those who still have Space as a goal in their hearts, vs. those who don't give a damn.

Space is useful. We're using it. It's a good thing to be exploring it and building in it...

Re:This story says as much about geeks ...

[spiral]

>the ripping divide between those who still have Space as a goal in their hearts, vs. those who don't give a damn.

It might be a bit hasty to declare that those with anti-NASA sentiments as not caring about space exploration as a whole. I think that many /.ers are just fed up with the bumbling government bureaucracy running (and funding) the show.

Rare is the geek who doesn't think space itself is cool.

Re:This story says as much about geeks ...

[torpor]

Fair enough, I do agree with you. Anti-NASA doesn't mean anti-SPACE.

But I often find the anti-NASA sentiment to be completely lacking any fundamental basis in reality, other than membership in the popular lynching culture that so many diletanttes seem to adhere to.

NASA has done a *hell* of a lot for space exploration... and if you take the time to actually peek behind the mud slung on NASA, you'll find an incredible amount of actual, real, hard-core scientific value.

Don't come to me with anti-NASA sentiments unless you've got a pile of NASA Tech Briefs sitting in your basement (like I do), and can refer to articles from 3 years back. Don't come to me with anti-NASA sentiments unless you know your way around the NASA web sites well enough to know how to get the full Apollo manuscripts and audio archives, unless you know the details of STS-33 and the significance it had on space exploration, unless you can tell me what the NBL is.

I don't want to hear your anti-NASA sentiments if you don't even know what NASA is, and what it's been all about all along...

Re:This story says as much about geeks ...

[Ig0r]

I'm of the newer generation of nerds and I'm still awestruck at the amazing-ness of space exploration, and feel lucky to be alive at a time like this.
I might be a minority though, because I don't know of many others my age who really care about space exploration and habitation.

--

This is good stuff

[gabbarsingh]

This is good news. I couldn't help notice that the astronauts are not doing the stiff upper lip business up there - "everything is A-OK", imagine the words that'll make into history - "woohoo".

I wonder what are the specs for computing on the ISS. What kind of OSes and h/w they are using.

Re:This is good stuff

[cbcanb]

They're basically using IBM ThinkPads, running a mixture of custom software (like things to control bolts and radars and stuff, and Caution and Warning alarms) and normal stuff (Word, etc), on a mix of Windows 95 (for bolts and stuff - I'm sure they've had to reboot) and Solaris (for the really important stuff).

The laptops themselves have lotsa hardware mods, see SpaceRef for more info (look under mission guides).

Re:This is good stuff

[NeonACR]

Well, I work in Space Station training and can fill you in on some of the stuff. Laptops will be IBM Thinkpad 760XDs (166 Pentiums w/ 64 MB ram)running Solaris 2.5 on the command/control computers(PCS) and Win9x on the support computers(SSC). PCSs will be on a hardwired 1553 bus, SSCs on a RF Ethernet network with a NT server. PCSs have custom written software for commanding and controlling the vehicle. SSCs are used to look up procedures, do email, and "crew support"(entertainment). The "computers" that these will interact with (MDMs) that are the brains of the station are even less powerful. They're based off of 386 processors.

Dorks in space

[Earlybird]

And these are supposed to be astronauts?

• McArthur and Chiao clearly had fun cruising around the planet at 25 times the speed of sound, taking a moment every once in awhile to do a bit of extraterrestrial sightseeing. [...]
  "Look at the moon up there! Is that the moon?" an awed McArthur said at one point.

These guys sure know the area -- like the back of their hand!

• "You guys should see the sunrise coming -- pretty awesome," crewmate Jeff Wisoff told the spacewalkers midway through the 6-hour, 28-minute foray.
  "Ah, yes indeedy!" McArthur exclaimed.
  Added Chaio: "Wow, this is really cool."

I dig it, man. Maybe the next time, they could shoot somebody funny and interesting up there, like Denis Leary or Nicholas Negroponte, just to avoid more embarrassing dialogue.

Re:Dorks in space

[Earlybird]

Well, No Cure For Cancer sure was.

Somehow, this reminds me of Keanu

[florin]

"Woo-hoo! This is too cool," McArthur, a rookie spacewalker, said as he drifted into open space for the first time. "It's huge."

Said Chaio: "Wow, this is really cool."

The last to leave the cargo bay was Keanu, who added: "Woah. Dude."

Re:Rename station

[Erbo]

Actually, in my mind, I think of the ISS as being kind of like "Babylon 0.5"...the international cooperation that's required to get it functioning can be thought of as a parallel to the interspecies cooperation required to build B5 and keep it running.

Of course, in terms of the technology involved, it's probably closer to "Babylon 0.05"...

Eric
--

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[andyh1978]

Right, let's try that again. Damn thing mangling the post.

There are lots of high-res photos at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/, but it's not updated yet to include the new parts fitted by STS-92.

There are some pictures on the STS-92 site. This one shows the entire station, and the new antenna on the truss they just fitted.

Re:Rename station

[Mindwarp]

Actually, in my mind, I think of the ISS as being kind of like "Babylon 0.5"

Woohoo! I bet you'd get WAY more congressional funding if NASA whacked a couple of those massive rail-gun things onto the ISS!

--

Re:NASA is willfully inefficient

[HeghmoH]

Erm, yeah, I did. Thanks.

Re:Ok, I want to see what my tax dollars are buyin

[torpor]

On the last picture that shows the station with Z1 truss... keep in mind that the entire station is *13* stories tall from one end to the other right now.

That might give you a better idea of the scale of the thing.

In other news (nothing personal)

[Denor]

Slashdot implements 'everything' category

HOLLAND - Slashdot founder Rob Malda announced today that his newest addition to the topics, "everything".
Malda stated that the new category was an answer to "the endless bunch of people whining about how they hate an extremely specific type of story that doesn't come up all that often normally, but has recently. Now they can just filter everything out."
"It's wonderful," proclaimed one slashdot reader. "Now I don't have to put up with boring ISS, CueCat, or CPHack stories! I don't have to listen to Jon Katz, I don't have to see duplicate stories, It's as though I'm not reading slashdot at all!"
The reader was unavailable for comment after being informed he didn't have to read slashdot in the first place.

antiNASA doesn't mean antiSpace(out of USA anyway)

[fantomas]

... Perhaps some of the posters that exhibit anti-NASA sentiment are a new generation of nerds who just don't care...

anti- NASA doesn't necessarily mean anti-space programs. Certainly speaking from Europe I think a lot of people have a wider perception of space flight. Space flight isn't exclusive to NASA.

Big respect and all to NASA and the US programs but also a lot of praise to the Soviet/ Russian program, the European Space Agency, Japan, China, Canada, and everybody else who is up there or wants to be. And let's not forget the very professional 'amateurs' who are trying to be there (i.e. individuals and organisations who aren't nation states).

I'm only anti-NASA insofar as the idea of any one nation's military-industrial organisation having complete monopoly over access to the rest of the entire Universe is a bit worrying, eh?

But for the most part, yup, I'm biased, I'd like to see humanity out there in the stars.

3d Printers in Space...

[Bandwidth_]

Well, I know it's a slight bit off topic, but I'd just like to bring this topic up.

Wouldn't one of the new, relatively cheap 3d plastic objects printers be perfect for the spacestation? Some vitally important part is broked? "Oh that's fine, I'll go print out another one". Instead of hauling all the 'stuff' up on the space shuttle you could use the raw materials to make needed parts in space.

Just my $.02

-----------------------------

oops

[geekoid]

I really got to remember that when I post a story, doesn't automatically put my user name with the submision.
hehe.

Re:Moderation system needs for story posting

[geekoid]

for the record ,I submited that story.
I thought that artical was worth submitting for a few reasons:
1: It shows how common place and realativly easy a spacewald has become. When you consider all the variables, this is pretty damn amazing
2: It was the first walk outside spacehab. As big as the first space walk ever? no, but worth a note. where not writting history here, just commenting on it as it happens.
3: It seems to me about 45-60% of the people on this board enjoy this kind of space stories, it's not like it will prevent them from posting other stories as they come in, this is a web site that can handle stories on the fly, not a newspaper.

Hey!

[Xzzy]

Dammit, if it only costs 2 bucks a day to get someone on a spacewalk, how come *I* can't do it yet?!

Heck, I'll even double the payment to assure they get a profit and pay FOUR bucks a day for a spacewalk.

Dangitall anyways.

Re:What the HELL is this?

[geekoid]

LOL, I can't believe you weren't moderated +1funny

Re:you are a

[SuperCujo]

He is honest tho :)

Does space buff mean naked in space?

[thedude60]

I
believe
most people
on this forum
are
a little bit
spacey,

true!!!!!

He does'nt

[animallogic]

You guys must be such morons if you believe he said that. Even here in Australia we know that he said he had helped its development in the commercial aspect. I am sick of hearing lame jokes about a non existant line...

Re:Rename station

[H*rus]

I've got a good idea: Lets call it The Freedom.

Or else at least something out of star trek.

Mark


Mark