Slashdot Mirror
Space Blog
LooseChanj writes "Ed Lu, a member of
the Expedition 7 crew of the ISS has been sending back some extremely
well written and interesting commentary
about his mission, and some of the things one has to deal with in
space. This is exactly the kind of stuff we need to see more of
out of NASA!"
The same principle that makes the shuttle go forward (conservation of momentum -- gas goes backward and you go forward) would propel you forward too. Because of air resistance, however, you would gradually slow down.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
They run Windows. Actually; the first crew, under command of Bill Shepherd had some problems with it initially, what didn't help was the fact that shepherd was a Mac user, some funny entries in his -extensive and really interesting- mission log on that topic. like, he being very proud to have installed a harddisk on a windowssystem, being a Mac head. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp1/ex1l ogs.html
I understand in space, they don't pressure the vessel to atmospheric 14.7 psi, so if the pressure is lower, the diffusion should take place at a much faster rate. Not to say it won't be noticed, though.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Given the high risks inherent in each mission, I wonder what NASA really feels about astronauts blogging from space. NASA probably has mixed feelings about "personalizing" these high risk individuals. Did you all catch that recent story of the speech Nixon had ready had the Apollo 11 crew been unable to return from the moon. Compelling stuff.
Nixon's unused speech
They have a Godzilla toy onboard the ISS.
:)
The desks of geeks are all very similar... even in space. I'm glad they're allowed to keep a sense of humor even though they're in space - despite what it would have cost to loft that toy into orbit.
I understand in space, they don't pressure the vessel to atmospheric 14.7 psi, so if the pressure is lower, the diffusion should take place at a much faster rate. Not to say it won't be noticed, though.
Actually, ISS, the space shuttle and soyuz all run at near sea level pressure. This allows a more direct comparison to ground based medical studies, eliminates the health problems associated with long term exposure to low pressure, as well as the fire risk from higher oxygen concentration which would be required. OTOH, it means that you need an extensive pre-breath bends before EVAs, and requires a more massive pressure vessel.
With no shower, no laundry facilities and 2+ hours of exercise required every day, ISS is most likely a smelly place, with or without farts.
This is exactly the kind of stuff we need to see more of out of NASA!
Count me out. Manned space flight is very expensive and risky. I'd rather see NASA explore Venus or Io or put more budget into their space telescopes a la Hubble.
My karma ran over your dogma
It will be cool, too, if we can read the weblog of the astronauts that will go to mars in n years.
Right now I'm reading Mars, by Ben Bova. This is a really great novel if space exploration and/or Mars exploration interrests you. BTW Ben Bova work[ed?] for the NASA so he knows what he talk about, from the technical point of view.
If China succeed with its space ambition to go to the moon one day (they are still very far from that goal, see various Slashdot articles in the last few weeks), it can be cool to read the weblog of this mission, too. This one maybe of less interrests because the Appolo mission was very well documented but the detail, expectation and goal of the mission will likely be somewhat different.
but I know about the problems of accounting in Russia. I would want very much that the bulk of the money goes to the space program and doesn't get diverted via miscellaneous off-shore companies and swiss-bank accounts.
See my journal, I write things there
As a longtime fan of NasaWatch (which is a weblog), I'd loooove to see a real ISS weblog, which would be updated continually with all the tidbits passing thru the crewman's interest, and addressed to his peers.
But what Lu is doing isn't even a Web journal-- he's writing long essays on set topics that are targeted for a popular audience by 'talking down'.
In their suits I think they wear catheters (spel?) for urinal excretions and I found this link after a little insert-verb-that-means-same-as-Googling-but-withou t-using-trademark.
Space Toilet Picture
Space Toilet Description.
Powered by onion juice.
So, you think tax dollars are better spent to make some astronomers giddy about this nebula or that galaxy they can see?
I implied that it would be better to explore Venus or Io (or other objects within reach), instead of doing expensive manned spaceflights. There might be lifeforms elsewhere in our solar system, for instance. A bigger Hubble could discover planets around other stars. I find that much more interesting than reading the blog of an astronaut getting giddy about floating around in space. NASA has a tight budget, why waste it on manned missions? So we can read blogs from space? Get real.
My karma ran over your dogma
Each spaceflight has a number of fun events and ceremonies that never go to official press releases. For instance, I hoped that Ed wouldn't be a hypocrite and will clearly state that he had to piss on a Russian bus as a part of the 'piss ceremony' (scroll down to the Baikonur piece), but no, he shamefully tosses that fact and tells us the dull story of leaving signature at the apartment's wall. He didn't even mention that every single Soyuz spacecraft carrier gets 'Tatiana' name hand-painted on it shortly before launch.
I think if NASA wants to popularize space exploration among the youth, it should openly declare that antisocial behaviour and graffiti are mandatory parts of space travel.
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
The blogs are extremely informative..Its nice to see Lu mentioning in intricate detail about orbits,the ride to the station in the Soyuz, the mating of Progress with the ISS (about the lag in response of the Progress to impulses provided by Yuri and Ed's joystick and compensation & patience results thereof).
Nice to see him talking about trivial things like what they have for dinner and how. While not getting into the larger debate of the ISS being this huge waste of money, I must admit this is pretty interesting stuff, and I'm sure it will help in ensuring sustained interest of the common man in the space program.
I'm sure Ed will get into more interesting sermons like experiments aboard the ISS, EVA's, LOS/AOS and TDRS satellites and probably with the shuttle mission coming up in December or January,and since I think the Columbia commission's recommendations call on all future Shuttle missions making it to the ISS, there will be some interesting observations on that,if and when it happens.
Nice work Ed! Keep up the good work!Well see, there's thing thing here in the US known as "Congress", which is mostly a bunch of rich white guys who spend all the government's money. They like to spend it on stuff that will get them re-elected to said congress. What this generally means is spending the money on stuff people think is important. The problem NASA has is pushing all this boring (to the average person) science stuff. Ed Lu's letters show an enthusiasm and desire to entertain and educate the average joe. It's fun stuff to read (if space happens to be your bag), and hopefully if we could get more of this stuff out of NASA more people would get interested, say they'd like to see it have a higher priority to some focus group weasel, congress would send more $$$ NASA's way (they're getting about $14,000,000,000.02 this year, of which $5,000,000,000.02 is manned spaceflight), and I better end this runon sentence now. Compare those numbers with what the military gets, which is I think around $400,000,000,000.02, plus/minus $50,000,000,000.02. More money means more missions, and more successes.
Mix the failings of Usenet with the shortcomings of the World Wide Web and the result is slashdot.