Astronaut Wants Space Program With No Frills

colonist writes "A veteran astronaut wants less comfort and more exploration for future missions. British-born astrophysicist Michael Foale has clocked up 374 days in space, more than any other American astronaut. Foale said, 'We need lean and mean spaceships with no frills', such as toilets or kitchen. However, he would like better oxygen-producing systems for the space station. Foale also talked about the Russians: they played 'some sort of Russian folk song. I'm not so sure it calmed me a lot.' As Foale boarded the Soyuz, an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition. From space, Foale saw a large black cloud over the Middle East: smoke from a bombed oil pipeline in Iraq."

Comments

Re:A kick in the back?

[Anonymous Coward]

A "kick of luck" is a figure of speech in both Finland and Sweden, when you get really lucky you've had a kick of luck ('onnenpotku' or 'lyckospark', respectively). And I think wishing for luck by giving a kick in the ass is a semi-humorous thradition which one sometimes sees here. I don't know which came first, the act or the linguistic concept, though.

Re:unsure

[Ayaress]

I read Deke Slaton's book about the Apollo missions, and the way they described the bathroom situation on the early missions was downright scary. Basically, you have a tube that you clamp on your dong, and a plastic baggie that you flypaper to your ass. And you don't even want to know what they had to do to disinfect the bags. For a good six weeks after reading Moon Shot, I couldn't put my sandwitches in plastic bags.

Re:Well?

[Mr. Slippery]

we simply had to hold it until we got back to Earth.

Alan Shepard didn't... Here is an interesting page about "creature comforts" in space.