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Space Stations That Suck
beanerspace writes: "Move over Vincent Flanders. In an article on Ananova.com, it was reported that the International Space Station 'sucks'.
Apparently, someone got their hands on some leaked documents that reveal astronauts having to deal with dozens of irritating problems aboard the International Space Station. Things got so miserable that Bill Shepherd, who commanded the outpost for five months, reportedly told ground controllers that life aboard 'basically sucks.'" I don't see why this would have to be 'leaked' -- 5 months in cramped quarters hurtling through the vacuum of space seems sucky on the face of it.
All the shampoo stuff aside, does anyone find the above statement indiciative of a major screwup? How hard is it to agree on a power socket, and make sure all the stuff that gets sent up there (at a cost of thousands of dollars per kilogram and undoubtedly safety-inspected to the nth degree at a cost of thousands more) has the right friggin' power plugs?
Go you big red fire engine!
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Oh boohoohoo - there's no shampoo, and the DVD screen is too small, and there's all this velcro...Dude! You may have lost sight of the fact that you are LIVING IN SPACE. I would donate my right nut to science to live in space for five months. Unfortunately, the market being what it is, spare nuts just aren't worth what they used to be. But the offer still stands.
Have some perspective.
Well, it cleans YOU out if you eat a lot, doesn't it?
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
If you think life is so bad up there, don't go.
I mean, these guys are supposed to be great explorers? No shampoo? Shave your damn head, whiner.
Too much velcro? Cover it with something.
DVD player not working? God, I'm not even going to start on that one...
I mean, for god's sake, you're in space, not a MiniVan on a ride to the mall.
How about that Dennis Tito guy? (or was it Tito Puente?) That guy paid $20,000,000 of his own money for a short trip to space - I bet he wouldn't be whining that the station doesn't have enough cup holders and doesn't get ESPN2.
How many people here would happily go up and promise never to whine about a little inconvenience?
Whatever...
MMDC Mobile Media
-- My Weblog.
Noisy Machinery? Try working in a factory. Or in a server room...
/.ed...
In another article (tree form), it says that the machinery (carbon filter thingy to provide breathable air) is right next to the sleeping quarters and goes "ka-chunk!" every 10 minutes.
No Shampoo? Aww... I really feel for ya buddy.
They found that the soap was difficult to use in zero-g so they used the shampoo to clean themselves instead, so they ran out quicker. NASA refused to send up fresh supplies in the next cargo shipment.
Velcro pads are supposed to stick to things.
Yeah, but not food.
There's other wonderful things like the detailed instructions for reattaching a panel are printed on the back of the said panel, service nooks that are inaccessable without breaking things, etc.
I assume this extra info is published on New Scientist (who have the uncensored bits), but they've been
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Consultancy: If you're not part of the solution, there's money to be made in prolonging the problem
"5 months in cramped quarters hurtling through the vacuum of space seems sucky on the face of it"
but is not as sucky as having 5 moderator points on slashdot, and only stories like this to moderate
neverfuckingmind
<---[singularity sig]
I'm sorry, but at what point do you suddenly decide that chili sauce would make a great cleaning gel?! Maybe that same logic would explain why the cleaning gel was missing in the first place:
"Damn, we're out of chili sauce. Wait a minute...is that cleaning gel I see over there? Cha-ching!"
We think that life on the ISS might be great, but think about being up there for months with...
The guy that farts all the time.
The one guy that hums only from the soundtrack to Aladdin. All. Day. Long.
The guy whose nose whistles.
The guy who has nightmare fits while he sleeps during the shift you're trying to work in.
The guy who never pees completely in the tube.
The guy who always races down the module with arms extended ahead of him like Superman, rudely bumping everyone else out of the way.
The one who always looks out the port window and yells "Aww gawd! NO! what is that?!? Nevermind."
The one who thinks no one is watching when he masturbates in the dining module.
The guy making rude racial comments every time they pass over the same part of the globe...dozens of times a day.
The guy who mumbles "something something gotta end it something something" while floating near the airlocks.
The guy who never thinks that it gets old to watch Jell-O float out of the pack into his mouth...and misses.
Trying to tell ground controllers what you really think and then realising that school kids across the country might be watching NASA TV.
The other two guys think you can't understand their language and constantly insult you in it.
And, of course, having the guy from the opposite cold-war nationality constantly throwing stares at you.
That might just suck, but the view has got to be killer.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
'a lack of shampoo'
'missing cleaning gel'
What did they expect hotel guests always take the soaps and shampoo? For 20 million bucks, I would have taken a bathrobe and a towel too.
I lost my copy of the green golf ball joke can anyone find it for me?
Ever try Taco Bell hot sauce on metals? It works! It actually cleans tarnish and funk off of silver and such.
rimshot
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"I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"
This article about Dennis Tito points to the same thing. He says that life is pretty mundane and the astronauts get little done outside of all the things they need to do just to keep the space station running.
And if there was going to be an objective eye about life on the space station, a 'non astronaut' is probably one of the best bets. His opinions aren't going to hurt his career.
I doubt anything new was leaked, seeing as how a link to the Alpha Crew's logs were already posted on Slashdot once. NASA has been quite open in posting the logs, and is only removing small portions of the logs that they feel would keep the crew from givng their true feelings if they were to be posted for the public. Having read most of the logs, its very apparent that life aboard the ISS is not luxurious. But I also don't think that any of the astronauts heading up there were expecting maid service either.
The big problem with our present age is that we are too worried about having to do without cleaning gel. We don't want to leave our home network, for fear of the roaming charges. We only want to go places that McDonalds has already collonized. We are afraid to have it suck even a little. And that sucks a lot.
Because when you are really exerting yourself, it often sucks. That's how adventure works. And we need to adventure, since there are a lot of places you can't get to by sitting in your living room, no matter how good your graphics card is.
We know where there are enough resources to make every single person on Earth as rich as Mr. Gates is at this moment, but most of us have gotten fat eating lotus leaves and we're afraid to go get it. I'm glad there are still a few nuts trying to launch themselves into space. And I'm glad there are people with more brains who actually manage to get into space, and go, even though it sucks a little.
-- MarkusQ
I'll bet outside the station probably sucks a whole lot more.
"The general contract of the method run is that it may take any action whatsoever." -- Java 2 API
What's interesting is that the article doesn't investigate the science or engineering or even the economics of the station, but concentrates on the very shallow word of "sucks".
Gee, no wonder why newspapers haven't been replaced by TV and the Web. It's likely because news on TV and the web, well, sucks.