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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!"
...were successful missions. But apparently, I was wrong.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
something to ponder.
Yay! The world's.. err.. galaxy's... first splog!!
(space log)
they still stink
It's nice to see that at $20,000/pound, we're sending gozilla toys into orbit. The true irony would be if he were doing it from the Japanese Experiment Module
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
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
To be sure: Since ed's logs appeared on spaceref , I've been looking out for each new installment, they are good, really. but... since the Colombia 'mishap' (what a stupid word, why don't they call a disaster a disaster, for that what is it, for NASA, at least) NASA seems to do everything to polish up their public image, in a way that's great, but they're sometimes too obvious, and start looking ridiculous. Nasa's newsletter used to be informative, but since Colombia it's just one 'come over to the party' rag; no hard info anymore, only things like kids at nasa, nasa ont tv blablabla. I'm afraid they actually pressed lu to publish these things, because he has a good pen. I can imagine those 2 guys have a hard time up there, and nasa nagging 'hey Lu, when's the next article coming down, you can sleep if you're back on earth! Ok a bit exaggerated, i guess, but still...
To quote Orgazmo:
Movie store clerk: Have you been living in a cardboard box lady??
Joe's Fiance': No..I'm from Utah.
Movie store clerk: Oh...sorry.
Blog == weblog == online journal == 99% of the internet.
More than enough BS
Sending a millionaire into space is IMO the most worthwhile thing the station is doing. The science is probably not worth what they're paying for it, but creating a market for space tourism will be one more source of funding for research that will lower launch costs and indirectly help science. ISS is there not for science but because it's *cool* to have a space station. While I agree it shouldn't have been built, tourism is a more honest use for it, and a good use in the long term I think.
Perhaps sending millionaires up has nothing to do with science - but if the funding cannot be found elsewhere (like the Russian taxpayer) why not let those self same millionaires foot at least part of the bill?
When Kirk would start out with "Captain's log..." he was really making an entry into his weblog. Man, I'd love to see the feedback on that thing:
Captain's log, stardate 1234: Banged the green chick again today - what a wild one!
Feedback:
SpacemanSpiff: Dude! What are you drinking, Romulan Ale? Green means 1 of two things: not ripe or spoiled and either way that's one place you don't want to go where no man has gone before...
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Good job Ed. He has little enough time up there maintaining that thing without having to worry about posting a blog for those of us destined to dig in the dirt our whole lives. I for one am glad he posted these, even if some are a bit bland technically for an engineer.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
Why? Should space be kept only for those of us who are physically perfect, have trained for years and years as pilots, and now as astronauts? Why shouldn't other people be allowed into space? Also, I'm sure Russia could use the money, and it's not exactly hurting anyone, is it? Space belongs to us all. It is for everyone to conquer, not just astronauts and experts. If rich people can go into space, soon the prices will go down, until more and more people can go into space. I think that is worth it.
-Dae
"Alle reden vom wetter. Wir nicht." - SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.
j00 4r3 3n73r1ng l337 w0r1d.
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
April 30: The Commander is a little gruff at times and the payload specialist has been laying some major payloads of flatulence, but overall it's not so bad.
May 5: The crew acts nice and polite when I'm around, but I suspect they don't like me. They always stop whispering when they see me.
May 18: If I catch Yuri with my wife's picture again doing what he was doing, he's going to be doing some unscheduled EVA, suit optional.
May 31: They're up to something alright. They think I can't see their little conspiratorial glances and such, but I can, oh I can.
June 12: The voices are growing louder now. They're telling me the crew's true plan. Act normal, I can't let them know I'm on to them. Not yet.
June 29: I've taken advantage of the short periods I have alone to set up a little surprise for these aliens posing as my human crewmates. Almost ready. Soon, soon I'll be free.
July 7: This is my last blog entry All is prepared. The crew knows I know now. I have only miuntes now to save the world. Just one push of a button and it will be all over for these invaders.
In this case (for a body enclosed by the space shuttle in free-fall) you can assume that momentum is conserved. So you you expel gas, the total momentum of you and the gas is 0.
By the same token, the force exerted by you on the gas is the same force extered by the gas on you. That's newton's third law.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Another plus for the ISS.
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]
Green means not ripe or spoiled? What do they teach you young people these days?! You obviously have never met the triple breasted whore of Eroticon Six.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
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
Oh yeah, the Russian guys apparently run Sun and Windows.... making it a mixed systems, for they have separate computers to run their part of the station.
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.
On orbiting: "A good way to imagine our view is to stand up and look down at your feet." He continued, "For some of you this will be an exercise in imagination. If you lack imagination, clown shoes will also do the trick."
What would be a small toot at sea level would be a station shaker at partial pressure.
Plus, the fart/air ratio would be higher, so it might disperse quicker but might be gaggingly worse till it does.
Number 29:
Americans complaining about Russians behaving like capitalists.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
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
Parent is flamebait ;)
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
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
And I didn't read a single entry about using the toilet in the whole blog.
Come on, there's gotta be a humorous story somewhere up there about someone "following through" when farting as they were getting dressed ("one in the eye" for international relations? :).
Zillions of dollars and no toilet humor? Tch, what is the world coming to?
.02
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
did you actually read any of his entries? how do you know they don't provide value if you didn't?
Given that I will probably never have the chance for long-term spaceflight in my physically capable lifetime, I would darn well like to know what it feels like to sit in a capsule, and what it's like to have a few million pounds of highly explosive stuff behind you blast you up at incredible speeds - the moments when the boosters are jettisoned, etc.
I'd like to know what it's like to fly through a space-station, and what particular difficulties are encountered during what's run of the mill on earth (eat, sleep, brush your teech, go to the restroom).
I'd like to know the views, the feelings, the daily life - because even if I cannot make it up there physically, for at least a short while my imagination can.
So, you think tax dollars are better spent to make some astronomers giddy about this nebula or that galaxy they can see? well, those nebulas and galaxies arn't going anywhere for the next few billion years. But there are people who might be interested in what space is like but won't ever have a chance to go up there. They won't last nearly that long.
What's wrong with providing a taste of space for everyone like that? do we not deserve some piece of the rewards for all these achievements in space? human experience should be shared by all, not just a few scientists, methinks.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
The laptops that plug directly into the core flight computers to allow the crew to do command and control of the station itself (critical things like maneuvering, opening valves, etc.) are running Solaris 2.5.
These laptops are currently IBM 760 XDs but they are going to be upgraded next year, at which point the OS will be transitioned to Linux. Some of the payloads in the racks use various flavors of Unix depending on what the investigators put together but I'm not sure how many (if any) of those are Linux.
Space has been named the "final frontier" for a reason.
For any frontier, you send highly skilled folks, and the risk-takers first. They open up the door, and then the settlers come in.
Yes space is for all of us, but it is also very very very dangerous. The idea that at this point in our technology we can afford to send Joe Richguy up in space is ridiculous, and contradictory to the idea that "space is for all of us"
Error 407 - No creative sig found
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'.
Lighter objects? In zero-G? I think he may mean objects with large surface areas compared to their mass,
Powered by onion juice.
The ISS is a symbol of humanities accomplishments. We do it because we can...when has the human race needed any other excuse?
Not only that, but the lessons we learn there (technical as well as psychological) are neccessary for what we need to do; making sure we don't have all our eggs in the same basket (just look at what hit our neighbouring planetoid a while back!).
As for your logic, it sucks; "Sending Millionaires up in space has nothing to do with science !!!! So the ISS is not about science."
WTF?.
Anyway, as others have already said, space tourism is (along with comsats) the only thing that brings commercial money into space development. Therefore, it's hugely important that it is encouraged. Not just for the resulting science which such an influx and cheapening of spaceflight brings, but also because it's fun.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
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!