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Astronauts Pull Off Risky Spacewalk
dylanduck writes "A pair of NASA astronauts overcame an issue with a loose jet pack to make crucial repairs to the International Space Station, according to a story on New Scientist Space. No jet pack means not getting home if you inadvertently push yourself away from the space station and into space. That's a long goodbye that doesn't bear thinking about."
My compliments... I cannot imagine how tough that must of been.
Regards,
MBC1977,
(US Marine, College Student, and Good Guy!)
Regards,
MBC1977,
I'd point out the benefits of tying a piece of rope to the outside of the airlock, and tying the other end around the astronaut's waist.
It's an old, outdated solution, but I'd definitely go for it if the alternative was a slow death by radiation or oxygen starvation - that's just me...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
This kind of thing is part of the job description. I mean, they're in a freefall environment with no air, and very wide temperature ranges. They get up there by strapping themselves to what is really a controlled bomb. I don't think anybody's going to argue that they're working a risky job. Some of them are going to die, and eventually we WILL lose a person to some accident that leaves them drifting away from the ship. It's good to know we have systems in place to try to prevent it, but it will happen eventually.
It's a dangerous job, some are going to die, and that's that. They do it anyway, and a lot of 'em take these sort of risks without a second thought. People need to stop thinking that everyone who gets sent up is going to come back. Sure, we should do our best to make sure that they do, but accidents will happen. The risk involved, and their willingness to go up to open up a new frontier, are two reasons why I have so much respect and admiration for them. I just wish I could be up there too.
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
You're a trained test pilot in that case, so you keep trying things as long as you're conscious, like throwing tools away from you to push you back (and then somehow canceling the spin -- maybe tossing them like a softball is best).
Supposedly there are cockpit tapes from test flights along the lines of "Option A completed, result negative, option B completed, results negative, option C WHAM".
It's mandatory where I work that if you're working at heights, you wear a fall arresting harness.
Working several hundred km above the earth, one would presume that similar precautions would be a good idea. I.e., tether yourself to the shuttle/station/whatever before going space-walking...
Probably a lot easier to carry around than a jet-pack as well - certainly less costly.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Space Travel is "newsworthy" again.
Too bad it took the death of several astronauts to draw peoples' attention to the risks these souls take for the sake of scientific progress.
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Yes I realize that there would probably never be a situation for it to be used "fight to the death" and all. But, if one had to kill themselves in space, personally a pill that slips one into a deep sleep and then death in my opinion would be a lot more respectable in my opinion, more peaceful, and a hell of a lot less violent and painful than simply exposing oneself to a vacuum.
Having my blood boil, my skin shrink, and my lungs explode doesn't sound like a good way to go.
Libertas in infinitum
D. Wait out one orbit and grab the station as you go by.
This is orbital physics we're dealing with. You're in a roughly circular orbit with a fairly high velocity already. That little push off isn't anywhere near enough to reach escape velocity, all it'll do is perturb your orbit slightly. Instead of orbiting with the station, you'll drift inwards a bit and then back outwards and you'll intersect the station's original orbit once every orbit (possibly twice, I'd have to work the math out all the way to be sure). Since the station's orbit's fairly short, I'm betting you'll meet up with it again before your air runs out.
NASA have a marketing department who generate this 'buzz' by aggressively promoting everything they do. This exercise is justified as necessary to keep attention on NASA and thusly secure funding, in an entertainment-driven political environment.
The Russians don't - I'm not entirely sure how their political system works, but it isn't based around soundbites for Fox 'news'.