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Russian Supply Ship Docks At ISS

Posted by timothy on from the nutella-duct-tape-and-string-cheese dept.

CryptoJoe writes "Space.com and CNN report a successful docking between the Russian-built cargo ship Progress 16 and the International Space Station (ISS). NASA had indicated that a failure of Progress 16 would lead to the evacuation of the ISS because food supplies are critically low."

4 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Man... by Icarus1919 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Man, it's a slow news day. Next headline: Man eats christmas dinner, says it's pretty good.

  2. Not to sound like an ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to sound like an ass but how could food supplies ever get that low.

    Every detail/mission about the ISS is planned from start to finish. Including food stocks. Was there not a red flag somewhere that said "okay, we are going to be there for x days but have y amount of food?" No stays are "overextended" moreso that their food stores should be able to cover them in the event they can't make it back to earth (weather or other prohibiting factors)

    Sure they've remedy'd it now but I'm scared at what could go wrong with something like a Mars mission where you can't just send up a supply ship...

    1. Re:Not to sound like an ass by cyclone96 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Caveat: I work for NASA.

      Actually, you don't sound like an ass at all. It's a good question.

      Yes, things are planned to great detail on ISS. However, the devil is always in the details. Assumptions are made (sometimes over a year in advance)on how much the crew eats, when resupply comes up, when the shuttle is going to fly, and how to parcel out limited upmass between food, water, and spare parts, etc. It's tough when you only have Progress for resupply. This time, we got bit.

      And yeah, we gotta figure this sort of stuff out before we can go to Mars. Which ISS is useful for. Forgetting about the pure science for a moment (which a lot of folks question), ISS is a great engineering platform for how (or how not) to build things and manage humans in space. And we're learning from it.

      As time goes on, NASA is going to try to make ISS more automatic and less dependent on the ground. NASA is going to try to wring out hardware that could be used on the way to Mars in an environment on ISS where a breakdown won't lead to death of the crew. And NASA is going to try to find flaws in logistics and planning (like this) and not allow it to happen where the stakes are higher.

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  3. More accurate headline by Zenmonkeycat · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Russian ICBM Accidentally Fails to Destroy Space Station: Next Attempt Will Carry Live Warhead Instead of Food."

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