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NASA Considers Abandoning ISS
mbstone writes "MSNBC is reporting that NASA is threatening to mothball the International Space Station unless Russia coughs up its share of the money for maintenance and support missions. NASA is now making "contingency plans" to leave the station unoccupied for as long as a year. What I want to know is, why a contingency plan? Didn't NASA already have a plan in place? Are U.S. taxpayers going to pay millions extra to develop new mothballing equipment and procedures that could have been designed-in at far less cost?? Also, I would be glad to house-sit, I use very little oxygen."
If NASA is serious then some of us are going to get very tired hearing about how the Russians are sending every boy band member into space.
I hope none of those space-moths make it down here, they sound like nasty little blighters.
I recently watched the IMAX Space Station 3D move and not only did it convice me that the entire space program is a hoax, but that this so-called "Russia" place is too.
Did they really think Russia had any cash to piss away on the space station in the first place?
I mean, buying or creating the technology is one thing, but maintaining and supporting it is another.
That's why russian submarines end up at the bottom of the ocean (or sold to a cocaine smuggler), and their nuclear plants meltdown and irradiate hundreds of square miles.
They may as well ask Eithiopia to cough up their share.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If they abandon the station for a year all of the vegitables will die!
Someone you trust is one of us.
ISS abandons NASA!!!
"How can you judge something if you've never been there, that's what they do in Russia." --Bart Simpson
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
I too would be willing to housesit, but only if there is a broadband connection. And no limit on traffic!!!
Better living through elasticity.
Even heroes have the right to dream
If you ever read classic science fiction from the 1950's, you can feel America's pulse, we were going to conquer space, we were going to colonize orbit, the Moon, Mars, we were going to spread humanity through the Solar System, and eventually the galay. Somehow, in the last 30 years this changed.
Nowadays, Americans want comfort and safety, real heroism is lacking. We'll spend millions on designing a better recliner, with built in cat5 ports and a refrigerator. We'll spend millions on keeping people from smoking cigarettes, ignoring the fact that God gave people free will to decide for themselves. And then, because the budget has been spent on frivolous mandates like family-destroying welfare, we'll give up on space.
I, for one, blame the permissive 60's. Too many baby boomers ruined their mind on hallucinogens, and lost the courage and faith of their forefathers. Now, unless they're guaranteed 100 percent safety and comfort, these boomers won't have anything to do with it. Take NASA's money and spend it on Social Security so I can still rock to the Doors and drive my SUV when I'm 80. Greedy bastards.
What can we do to reclaim America's spirit? I don't think it's a coincidence that America's only Catholic president got us to the Moon. Yes, when you're involved in the True Church, you know that despite all your efforts, Death will get you, so it's better to be in orbit and die in a meteor shower, or die of a pressure suit leak on the Moon, than cravenly hiding in a planned retirement home.
America, let's get back to the Moon, let's go to Mars, and let's bring the Jesuits!
A. Rightmann
Two guys are sitting in a bar, and one says "you know, I kind of like the smell of mothballs."
The other guy replies "How to you get their little legs apart?"
I hate when nouns are turned into verbs.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Well, ok...
In Soviet Russia, SpaceStation abandons You!
-- I am become sig, destroyer of posts.
You can't take 1000 people there at $10000 a head. NASA would need to find, say, 10 people willing to pay $1000000, and they're a much more rare.
If they'll take a cheque from me and promise not to try cashing it until after I land, can I go?
Trolling is a art,
... boost it to a 36000km orbit, and sell it to SES Astra as a replacement for their failed 1K satellite!
They should just let that stupid special olympics in space come crashing down. It's been a camel from day one, kowtowing to every country to get them to "contribute" and the politicians stuffed it with as much useless pork as possible.
The great American empire should have an orbital battlestation ^H^H^H^H solar power satellite worthy of its might. If we had actually heeded our great NAZI leaders like von Braun and Reagan, Mars wouldn't be the red planet today.
It's just so darned expensive that probably only giant companies could even consider the whole field. Companies like... Oh, God. I just had a horrible thought:
Microsoft Space Station.
Just imagine it in that insidiously friendly font they always use... *Shudder*
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
You've got Microsoft on the brain. It's not the IIS, its the ISS. There is a huge difference. One crashes and is susceptible to worms. The other can't crash and the worms are experimental. Can't remember which is which.
Do you want to remove linux?
Sorry. I usually avoid cliches like the plague. :)
Open the windows and the moths will die.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
James gets angry as Kara's juice is always floating towards him due to his large gravitational effect. Rick and Julio's ongoing power struggle leads to the inevitable...taking it outside.
It seems the primary factor that caused Lance Bass not to go to space was the $20 million he couldn't raise. I say, don't worry about the return trip. Let's raise $10 and send him on his way. It's a win/win.
for a very special episode of Junkyard Wars, when an American and a Russian team will be tasked with converting disused space stations, space debris , and old computers into nuclear powered mopeds.
Sigs are bad for your health.
long term... is that two quarters or three?
Yes, but all boy band members wear shiny clothes, which reflect the emitted heat radiation. Problem solved.
Seriously, though, radiation leakage for a human at 305 K isn't quite as bad as one might think.
Hmmm - Lance Bass was willing to pay $20 million just for a couple weeks on it. Imagine how much rent they could charge all of N'Sync for an entire year!!
Just think - Earth could be N'Sync free for a whole year and NASA would have somebody to water the plants.