ISS Oxygen Generator Fails for Good
billyj4 writes "A balky Russian oxygen generator broke down on the International Space Station, but its two-man crew has a reserve air supply that would last about five months, NASA officials said Friday.
The station's primary generator, which has been operating in an on-again, off-again fashion for months, stopped working last week and the station's crew has not been able to fix it.
Mission managers say the unit has failed for good. Consequently, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and U.S. astronaut John Phillips will be relying on reserves until replacement parts arrive at the station in late August."
Wanna bet that if their Vodka generator would brake they could fix it ? Anyway I wouldn't wanna be left in space knowing I have X days of oxigen left ... very stressfull ...
Hapiness is a state of mind, I'm happy. I think.
A balky Russian oxygen generator broke down
I thought Balky was from Meepos?
riiiidiculus!
Sure NASA says the parts are coming, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Oh No He Didn't!
Oh Yes He Did!
Ha ha ha, but seriously, I hope they don't die.
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
.. I guess they ran out of duct tape
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
Its a good place to try out tech that might be
used in a more exciting mision.
with Mega-Maid.
Best Slashdot Co
... the last food supplies only contained chili beans. Poor guys.
And I guess we had the Mir?
"Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"
...but I would be sleeping in my spacesuit!
If the reserve oxygen supply starts running low, I'm sure they'll send up the space cowboys. Those guys can do ANYTHING.
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
or is this just a "lowest price contractor-oh you wanted it to work" type of failure?
All I know based on all the sci-fi horror flicks is Don't open the oxygen generator door.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
In Soviet Russia, Oxygen generates YOU!
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
Oh, I dunno... Maybe the remote possibility of RUNNING OUT OF OXYGEN AND DYING?
What if the mission to send replacement parts fails? What if the escape vehicle doesn't work?
I get a little stressed when we run out of coffee at work, to each their own I guess.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
First they ran out of supply line(2003), then they ran out of food(2004), and now they are running out of oxygen. What will the next thing be? Will they run out of orbit?
In Russian Soviet, lame are so jokes!
I drank what? -- Socrates
There's the problem. They should have operated it in an off-again, on-again fashion. Then when it finally got stuck it would be on.
But was it a rectangular thing daubed with Rastafarian symbols?
Napa doesn't deliver?
I drank what? -- Socrates
Russian parts, American parts, all made in Taiwan!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Somebody Send Us Up The Parts!
... why can we not send up a replacement machine?
The good news: it's still under warranty
The bad news: the manufacturer won't send out a replacement until they've received the broken unit
The really bad news: Sergei threw the crate out after they unpacked it, so they've go nothing to ship it in
The really, really bad news: When they do finally find something to ship it in, they're just going to kick it out of an airlock with a note attached: "If found, please return to We Scrub Air, Inc. P.S., sorry for landing on your grandmother"
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
`_
/ \
O O
|||/
|\/|
\__/
Hey there, partner! It looks like you're running out of oxygen!
What would you like to do?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Here... I'll fill in the rest of the obligatory unfunny stupid jokes so that we can get on with our lives and have an intelligent discussion on the subject of the ISS:
Obligatory old Korean joke: Only old Koreans get stuck with no oxygen on ISS.
Obligatory underpants gnome joke:
1. Run out of oxygen.
2. ???
3. Profit!
Obligatory beowulf cluster joke: The oxygen generators: If only they'd had a beowulf cluster of these.
Obligatory MS joke: The oxygen generator must have been powered by Microsoft.
Obligatory Apple joke: The oxygen generator was useless because it only had one button.
Obligatory all-your-base joke: All your oxygen are belong to us! Someone sent us up the parts!
Obligatory Strong Bad joke: SUFFOCAT'D!!!
Obligatory everything else joke: The thought of Natalie Portman, petrified and naked, while they eat hot grits poured down each others' pants should help them to stave off suffocation, or at least be happy about it.
Wouldn't it be better to say that it fails for BAD?
Don't be such a cheap ass, and buy the extended warranty!
Cohaagen, you got what you wanted; you must give those people air!
The FedEx tracking number?
What if the escape vehicle doesn't work?
That would be a good time to start worrying. Until then, I think they are probably OK.
I get a little stressed when we run out of coffee at work, to each their own I guess.
You didn't say they were running out of coffee. That's completely different, if the coffee is getting low they should jump into that escape pod IMMEDIATELY, just in case.
Find coupons in Greeley
A month down the road:
...
"Hey, guys--bad news. Turns out we were using the consumption rates in gallons of oxygen per minute, when we thought we were using liters! Heh, sorry about that."
"Guys? Hello?"
--Ribald
Best description of Slashdot. Ever.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I fear outer space is not ready to take Pauly Shore back from whence he came.
"If you don't like that, there's always the option of never venturing outside."
WHAT IF MY HOUSE BURNS DOWN THEN?! HUH?!
MABASPLOOM!
One thing that always bugged me on Star Trek was that if any alien started draining the power supply, life support system would always be the first things to go. The ISS is a tin can compared to the Enterprise, yet they somehow manage to have a 5 month supply of air just floating around. Meanwhile, the Enterprise still has more than enough power to run phasers (which must use unbelievable amounts of power to disintegrate stuff), shields (which must use as much power to absorb that energy), impulse engines, warp drive, etc.
I know, I know, "suspension of disbelief." It just seems like it would be more plausible if life support was always the LAST thing to start failing, instead of the first.
And then a tiny flec of paint punches throught he plastic biome the whole thing deflates, pushes the station out of orbit, and some crappy Starbase 2009! Tv Series starts.
Hmm relaxing by gardening plants, I can see where this is going, surely the astronauts are high enough?
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game
Didn't think so.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
Chewy! Replace the negative power coupling!
Please, please mod the parent way up.
..."? We can not let that happen!
A news item like this without "In Soviet Russia
Alex
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
LOL and of course it got mod'd offtopic to make sure nobody sees it anyhow. Mods have little to no sense of humor these days. :)
The world according to SComps
Its a fancy name for a "Tree".