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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."
Sice when did being able to take a dump become a 'frill'?
At least he didn't get a wine bottle smashed on his face or something. I bet they just tell foreigners the kick-in-the-back is customary. "Get a load of this guy, Vladimir!" Da!
I'm not one for reading articles usually, there are to many things going on in the world to read all about the changelog for SpamAssasin 3.0 or yet another diatribe on free vs. not-so-free vs. user rights vs. privacy... anyways, most of the time it all gets a bit repetitive, but if you are tired of that, read this one, its good, the poster sort of mangled it into a very curt summary but take a look, its worth the time
an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition
What? Kicking ass is a proud American tradition with a long history. This is just an example of the westernization of Russia.
No toilets? Wouldn't that make for a really shitty space program?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Not sure what I think of no toilets
Might explain the need for better oxygen producers!
_______________
Huh?
Foale's suggestions for leaving the comfort zone ring true on several levels. We can't really explore space until we're ready to leave the Garden of Eden behind. So far, we're trying to take it with us -- everything must be 100% safe, from the toilets to the astronauts themselves. We're not going to get past the walls of the garden until there's a flaming sword -- until we must either push forward or die.
I don't neccesarily mean that there will have to be some sort of global catastrophe, just that there will be no real exploration until a group of humans blasts off from Earth with no prospects to return. Ideally, they would be volunteers, but I don't think they can be the perfect psychological and physical specimens we're used to sending into space.
Space simply won't be a "real" place until we have a real human presence, and that means the bad as well as the good. Expanding into the new world takes more than just tilling the land and never moving on. To extend the Eden analogy further: Man didn't really start his journey until Cain's jealousy reached its breaking point. I don't think that's a story of one guy who got mad at his brother -- it's an allegory about mankind's darker side, and how it's an integral part of our experience.
To take a more recent example: when the US lost a dozen-plus troops in Somalia, we left with our tail tucked between our legs. Same thing a few years earlier in Beirut, when a few hundred troops were killed. But now, after losing several thousand lives in 9/11, we're able to bear the loss of hundreds in Iraq and Afghanistan... instead of turning tail, we're actually debating the issue.
We won't reach space in any meaningful way until all of humanity is represented -- both good and bad. That's why we're just spinning our wheels at the moment, playing on the outskirts of Eden. It won't be until Cain shows up -- until someone walks out the airlock in despair, someone fights over resources or a mate, or until there's a war over some metal-rich asteroid -- that humans will truly be able to call themselves citizens of space.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
We had to travel into orbit, UPHILL BOTH WAYS. We didn't have any of this new-fangled technology. We used duct tape and chewing gum, AND WE LIKED IT THAT WAY. Damned young whipper snappers, always wanting comfort.
"As Foale boarded the Soyuz, an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition"
I doubt that this is a Russian tradition. It's what my last boss did when he showed me my cube.
No toilets mean they get where they are going quicker. The hard part is trying not to do the peepee dance the whole way.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
ass kicks YOU!
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Notice the difference between: British-born and British
From the BBC:
The US-flag on his uniform could also be taken as a pointer.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
Pretty good description of where our priorities (especially spending) are isn't it? Personally I would like to see more astronauts and fewer plumes of smoke.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
The US has involved itself in a huge pork project (ISS) that will syphon off most of the money for space in the near future. Talk of Mars is just that, talk. The US is floating a $7 trillion dollar real debt, huge deficits, and (according to the Fed study) a social security future deficit of $50 TRILLION. If you think the govt is going to fund a Mars program or any other new manned program you are deluded.
That is his opinion and he is entitled to it. However, humans like comfort, and humans bitch when comfort does not exist, especially on long trips. In addition, there are cultural differences between Russians and Americans as he pointed out. What might seem comfortable for the Russians might not be comfortable for the Americans, just like he pointed out the folk song. Some people can handle comfortless trips, while others cannot. Those who cannot must be mentally trained to do so. No one wants an astronaut to have some sort of breakdown because his toiled sucked his anus too fast, or that he cannot eat anything else but food from the toothpaste containers. Speaking in terms of weight, not having a toilet or a kitchen will not significantly increase the maneuverability of the International Space Station or a future spaceship. It will not make it lean and mean. The only thing that will do is new propulsion systems. -------------
Based on his philosophy of efficiency rather than comfort, I thought he was Klingon.
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.
No, the waste is all the money we spend on britney spears and sports players. It's the money we spend on luxury items, it's the money we spend on pointless worship of mythical beings.
Space exploration gives us knowledge. War is unfortunate, but sometimes necessary. I wish we didn't have to spend money on war. But humans are vile creatures when it comes down to it, and so we need to spend money to kill and prevent being killed.
Nothing will further space exploration more than a space elevator.
Even a simple one, little more than a winch that can lower payloads to space and back safely, would bring cheap solar power and a station on the moon within easy reach.
Anyone in the white house listening?
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Can I get one for my computer chair?
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Foale was the visiting Western astronaut (as opposed to regular Russian cosmonauts)on Mir during the period of time when there was a fairly serious fire, as well as a depressurization (contained to one module) and a collision with a supply rocket. He was very vocal about his criticisms of the joint NASA/Russian space program (largely that it being pushed through for political reasons, to the detriment of the safety of the astonauts and the spaceprogram as a whole). His arguments had some merits, but they did not make him too popular with the administrators.
So obviously this is a guy who knows about the dangers and travails of space exploration, but at the same time it's interesting to contrast how this new opinion conflicts -in some ways- with his earlier statements.
So was Benjamin Franklin, and look how that turned out...
Again with the "how the hell can we fund Mars" argument.
NASA gets around $16 billion a year. With the new plan of scrapping the shuttle and abandoning the ISS, that' frees up about $6 billion. If we have a timescale of say 20 years to get a presence on Mars, that's $120 billion. If you're a member of the church of the $1 trillion mars mission, that's not enough. However, if you use Mars Direct or the NASA Mars reference mission plan, that's plenty of money.
As long as the American people are willing to pay 1 cent on the dollar for NASA as they currently do, the money to get to Mars will be there. It's just a matter of maintaining the political will to do it.
Blaze a trail to the New World
NASA planners "correctly worry a lot about loneliness."
[...] the prospect of a Christmas feast for two was depressing until the two astronauts found a solution: Invite some guests. The memorable feast was captured in a photograph showing the two men with their guests, two empty spacesuits carefully propped in dining position.
Yeah, they were a few weeks away from dressing up as their mothers.
Maybe they need a few more people up there.
You can't take the sky from me...
"I think we are already good enough on ISS, even for a crew of six," Foale said
"The line for the toilet is never that bad," he laughed.
I assume he isn't against toilets in general!
On one of the old soviet space missions (I think it was the Salyut 7 space stations in the early 80s) one of the mix-gender crews requested privacy curtains, and the implication of sex was there though the women claimed their behavior was stictly professional.
NASA pretty much has said it's never happened on one of their missions, even with the best possibility being a 1992 shuttle mission with a husband and wife on the same crew, but they had opposite shifts and reports were also that nothing happened.
Anyway, I'd bet the answer is yes, and that it was the old-era Soviets who did it first.
Quicker? Not if they have to keep stopping at gas stations along the way!
I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.
-RenderHead
[i]Nonetheless, the prospect of a Christmas feast for two was depressing until the two astronauts found a solution: Invite some guests. The memorable feast was captured in a photograph showing the two men with their guests, two empty spacesuits carefully propped in dining position.
"Hey, we wanted company," Foale deadpanned. [/i]
- Some of our unnamed sources also report that on the sound records from the space station they could heard the following:
-Wilson. WILSON! Don't go, Wilson, don't go.
You can't handle the truth.
Don't we have enough Americans that want to be astronauts? Next thing all our spacemen will be from India and mission control will be a call center in Bangalore.
.....Hello, Hello....
CC: Hello, this is Sri. How are you this evening?
SM: Not too good. The oxygen generator has stopped working.
CC:Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I see you have a Acme SpaceOx Mk IV oxygen generator. Let's try a few things. Are you by the unit? I'm going to ask you to turn the power off and back on again? The power switch is the red one in the lower left corner. Can you see it?
SM:I got it.
CC:Now push down on it. The unit should be off now. Is it off?