ISS Spacewalk Cut Short

RobertB-DC writes "The spacewalk that was intended to replace a balky power supply ended almost before it started, according to Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center play-by-play. The Russian Orlan spacesuit worn by US astronaut Mike Fincke developed a problem with its oxygen supply (!), forcing both spacewalkers back to the airlock after less than 15 minutes. Mission control and the ISS crew are still debating what to do next."

Comments

Re:Another argument against manned spaceflight

[east coast]

This again begs the question: Do we really need manned spaceflights where unmanned, robotic spaceflights can do the job just as well and at a much lower cost?

Do we really have any need to go down a concrete path at 60 miles per hour in a tin box just to see the latest Adam Sandler film? Perhaps we should hide away in our homes for all except the most urgent business.

I know someone is going to mod that down as flamebait or mod me as a troll but the bottom line is that we risk lives everyday for much much less. These guys and gals know the risks and except them willingly. Frankly I'd do it, and if I were to die you can sleep well at night knowing that I'd rather have given my life for a decent contribution than dying at the age of 90 after a lifetime of pandering to idiots who are too lazy to try to reboot their PCs before calling the help desk over what are often non-issues.

And besides, perhaps the robot aspect is cheaper but what about the time in development? Tell me to use a screwdriver, it'll take you 3 seconds and I'll get the job done and be able to work my way thru most unexpected problems. Do that to a robot and it takes hours if not days to tell it the task and when it encounters a problem it takes more time to figure out how to tell the stupid thing to overcome the issue. And good luck getting any input back from the machine that may help explain the problem.