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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."
It stated in the Article snippet that they have 5 months of oxygen. How is that stressful?
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
With the shuttle nearing obsolescence and this kind of substantial problem on the ISS, it shows just how fragile our space program(s) still are.
We need better, sturdier-designed equipment if we are going to make a serious go at space exploration.
Imagine if something like this happened on the way to Mars... Saturn... HD 2638 b...
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
You're thinking of Mir. Skylab was operated by the US.
More importantly, the only way to have a permanent presence off the planet is for it to be a self-sustaining presence. It needs to be on the moon (or any large solid body) so the inhabitants can expand their own space. Send construction workers, not scientists. Once there is enough there that people don't need to worry about things like food, water, air - then it could become a useful place to send people and do research.
While I agree with the statement to be the best of my knowledge, I would remind you to be caucious in accepting claims from any Soviet Government Department. I'm sure they would not be very forthcoming if they had lost people in space back then, hell if they overstate production of boots by a factor of 8 then they might lie about something really important too.
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
If the ISS is a useful science tool and it is part of the long-term aim of landing a man on Mars, wouldn't it be more interesting to tell the astronauts that there was no replacement on the way and that they would have to solve the problem themselves? This is after all, the situation they would encounter following a similar failure on a Mars mission. This would be one way of finding out which systems on ISS are genuinely essential, and which could be stripped down and the parts re-used for maintaining life-support.
...for doing everything on the cheap, rushing through everything while taking forever to do it, and letting the public's whimisical and capricious nature guide our space program.
We are not now, but someday will be at the point where if we don't get off the planet in a sustainable format, we won't be able to at all after that point due to lack of resources: technological, social, and energy. Imagine an Earth with a planetary population of fifteen billion, schismatic fighting over resources, and no cohesive will to even try to see common ground for the survival of the species.
That day is coming and in that world, how do you expect to do the major housecat herding job it would be to get enough of the wealthiest and advanced nations on the same page for a space colonization effort?
Instead we dilly-dally with the attitude that "it's only moon rocks and photo ops" and "we need to deal with problems right here". We won't have a right here to deal with if we don't make the human race an ongoing proposition. Top down forcing of changes in human behavior have never worked and all the fanatical self-righetousness of the environmental movement isn't catching on and won't ever.
We don't change under pressure very well and need the breathing space and serenity to do it. Try kicking a cigarette habit while simultaneously remodelling your home, refinancing your mortgage, getting two vehicles fixed, having sick family in the hopsital, and having a full desk at work. Now try it when you have three months paid leave and no problems on your plate.
So we need to get off Earth in a meaningful sustainable format right now, make sure that any event down below won't take out the species, and use what we find out there to better our lives, and we need to do it now.
Instead, we're using Russian O2 generators with known issues, and doing things without much more advancement than what we used to go to the moon in 1969. It's 2005 and you'd figure a planet that can make civilian houses nearly air and energy tight could do as well with environmental support on an orbiting tin can.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)