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What You Don't Know About Living in Space
Ant writes "There are spectacular moments, as well as the mundane, in space. Over the years, living in space has forced astronauts to make a few concessions to things you would not give a second thought about when staying at a hotel/motel. The article lists a few things that people may not have known about living in space." Your iPod needs to be modified to use Alkaline batteries. And also, did you know... that in space... you only get one spooooon. And some people, are spoon millionaires...
1. Go to space 2. Take spoons and become a spoon baron 3. ???? 4. Profit
The seekers do no need truth, the seekers do find truth and the finding do be painful
Personally, I enjoy people being able to hear me scream at the Holiday Inn. :)
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
Well, you don't need razors, because beards don't grow in space.
[Insert Garfield joke here.]
When I was a kid, I really wanted to be an astronaut. When I was told though that they had a 6 foot tall maximum height requirement, I was devastated. (I'm not sure if this is still true, I've later heard of 6'2" astronauts). Regardless, now I don't feel so bad, as they do not have pizza in space. How do they cope?
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Funnily enough a friend and I were recently discussing the interesting geometric possibilities which would be possible when cooking in zero g, one of the recipies we came up with was the sperical pizza, where the dough gets inflated into a sphere (you need the air because the pizza dough would want to shrink) and the topping get layered around the outside, all of course being stick to the dough using the sticky marinara sauce.
This could then be cooked in an oven with the 'inflation pipe' blowing hot air into the middle to cook the dough, and also acting to keep the 'space pizza' in the middle of the oven.
The result, pizza with no crusts!
"Their T-shirts, socks and underwear have a special silver thread lining that absorbs odor and keeps items wearable longer." "Now this is made from a space-age fabric specially designed for Elvis. Sweat actually cleans this suit!"
So they have laundry that is special treated to go for weeks without being washed. Is it a bad sign that my first thought is "Man, if I had that, I wouldnt' have to do my own laundry so often! Where can I order some?!"
According to the article, "There is also no ice cream in space. No freezer." But besides freeze-dried ice cream, according to this blog, they actually did have frozen ice cream on the ISS.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
A lot of the article isn't accurate, either. For example, they've had freeze dried "astronaut ice cream" for decades! Almost every science museum that I've ever been to sells this stuff. I've heard that they've also tried "space pizza" prototypes as well.
I also find it hard to believe that the standard battery on an iPod is going to suddenly going to turn into an explosive device if they take it into space. That sounds like more of a bureaucratic oversight than anything else.
Carries a lot of implications for traveling to even near by planets, with travel time measured in months instead of days. It's tough enough to manage consumables, but traveling to Mars without a change of clothes or some way to launder them is a huge technical challenge all on its own. Maybe clothing becomes another consumable, dispose after using. And you have to pack enough groceries to sustain the entire trip, grow your own or starve if there's a mishap.
And those are our near neighbors, even living on the moon. Extended life in space is going to involve a lot of research. Let's face it, we're adapted for life on this planet. Trying to carry these living conditions across space is not only a technical challenge, it's a financial one as well. Who's going to pay for all this technology? All the lift capacity to get it into space and...then what? If we set up a moon base, we have to supply it. That's not going to be cheap. A Mars trip...even more expensive.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
When I was posted in Antarctica for a year they gave us all a questionnaire about what foods we liked/disliked, to determine what to put in my food parcel. When I got over there I found they had packed all the foods I didn't like ! It's supposed to stop you scoffing all your food quickly. I was thinking of killing and eating penguin within a week.
Bastards.
I imagine space expeditions such as a manned Mars mission will use a similar methodology - fussy eaters beware when you fill in the form !
Given the huge success of unmanned missions to the planets, it really is very tempting to ask, why don't we just stop doing this stuff. Either we are going to have a planetary energy crisis, and will have to stop wasting vast amounts of fuel on sending people to orbit, or we will find a clever fix, and so be able to do this much more cheaply at some future date. It seems pointless to do something not very useful at the limit of human capability when there are so many more interesting engineering problems to solve - energy efficient housing and vehicles, efficient and cheap solar power, all need the technologies used in manned spaceflight, but on a different scale and in different ways. A ten year moratorium on manned spaceflight with the effort entirely going into solving energy supply and global warming problems could have a huge payback.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
On earth, gravity striates your stomach contents so the heavier stuff is on the bottom and the gas is on the top. So when you burp it's mostly gas which comes up. In space, this doesn't happen, and burping is a lot like throwing up. So foods that make you burp, like carbonated beverages, are a no-no.
Among them are that pizza is a gravity sensitive food. There is an up side and a down side. The crust may be flaky or crumbly at times and that's a big problem in 0-G environments. But more than that is the possibility of liberated ingredients. I know it might seem funny to say it, but no one needs a "flying sausage in space."
I do like to say it though... heh... flying sausage...
Lithium metal is prohibited, if the batteries are mistreated lithium metal can form, hence it is banned.
I am just wondering, why not use nickel metal hydride chemistry, the laptops on the ISS use it, it would save the annoyance of disposable alkalines.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Won't that void the warrantie?
What?
Actually I'm not sure they use spoons at all, anything you're allowed to eat that would be spoonable is sucked out of a sealed bag so it won't break up and jam equipment. I think you only get a knife and fork. And I'm pretty sure there's no crispy food, crumbs and all.
As the Endeavor approached the space station this week, crew members on board the station snapped this shot.
Saddle up: Riding with Robots
So what you're saying is..
There is no spoon.
Source: :)
This documentary
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The astronauts are issued one set of silverware per mission. It's not just a spoon. But because they cannot do dishes, they wipe them down with a disinfectant towlette at the end of each meal.
And since there is no money, as they approach the end of the mission whoever has squirreled away enough m&m's or tortillas has the most "bargaining power" to trade for whatever else is left.
John
John
They've caught fire here on Earth. I expect the effect of such a fire in space would range anywhere from serious to catastrophic.
I was going to post asking about the ice cream before. I've heard of freeze dried ice cream on several occasions, there are even places you can buy it here on earth. I have no idea how the process works, but it makes ice cream that does not need to be frozen.
As for the iPods, I'm sure that's a technicality. They are a bit paranoid about safety up there since you can't just dial 911 in an emergency and get help on the way in 9 minutes. They probably remove the batteries and then attach them to the external packs you can buy around here, that take four AA batteries.
It's also very likely they have an alternate adapter to jack into the ISS's grid to power it, a bit like a cigarette lighter jack but something smaller I'm sure. The batteries are probably only needed when they are inconveniently away from an outlet, or say out on a space walk.
I bet they have even more stringent requirements though for what you can take on your person when on a space walk. It would not surprise me if ipods are barred. And for some of those 8 and 11 hour marathon walks we hear about from time to time, that's gotta be a bummer.
I'm surprised this article gave so few details though - I've heard offhand of numerous other issues I was expecting to read about in this article. It had all of what, five interesting factoids? Lets hear about
- toilets
- showers
- drinking liquids
- anything to reduce weight on liftoff, like hair cutting
- I wonder if there's an "in case of emergency" bean-o pack on board? heh... y'know, one recirculating air system and all...
- the sorrid details of a long space walk. how do you drink? anything for food in 8-11 hr walks? yes, you get to wear a diaper and WILL be using it, etc
- stories of what happens when an astronaut gets sick - flu etc. I recall someone on Appolo getting appendicitis in mission.
- do astronauts sign an agreement not to have sex while up there? or how was that addressed? you know they had something to say about it.
- personal limitations? we saw max height mentioned, but is there a minimum? how about weight? (of course!) are implants ok? glasses barred am guessing? are contacts ok? medical history? I assume the same rules of being a pilot apply, plus more, as far as medical are concerned. Minimum strength requirements?
- what is their contingency plan for if an astronaut dies while up there? (aneurism, accident, whatever) Again you KNOW they have an action plan for this because they HAVE TO. Do they keep body bag(s) on board or just gonna wrap the body in a lot of duct tape?
- cross training? I have to assume all astronauts have at least basic knowledge of 100% of the critical systems?
That article is soooo lacking.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
It's not a "bureaucratic oversight".
NASA hasn't certified (those) lithium batteries for space.
And NASA hasn't certified iPods for use on the space station.
If it isn't tested, it doesn't fly.
It may seem like bureaucratic red tape, but that kind of meticulousness is what keeps the space program so safe.
On the upside, at least astronauts get to have iPods with replaceable batteries.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Do they use an FM transmitter, cassette adapter or did somebody modify the console with an Aux-in...
People seem to think outer space is cold. It isn't, it just has no temperature because there's nothing there. If you dump water in outer space it isn't going to just instantly freeze because the only way it loses heat is through radiating it out - nothing pulls the heat out of it.
Never mind that - the largest problem is to cut down on the amount of items that you may bring with you. I think that the best way to figure out what you REALLY need is to during several years going for extended hikes and holidays on bicycle. Note every item that you use and next year only pack those items. After a few years you know what you really can't do without.
From what I can understand most problems arises around hygiene handling in space. It can be a smelly situation...
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
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More importantly, is there a severe penalty if you brought along a fake face-hugger from "Alien"?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
My god, you quoted the article! Mods, quick! +5 Informative!
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
The way I heard it, in microgravity, fluids accumulate in your respiratory tract. Being in space is like having a head cold, not exactly the best condition for getting good work done.
BEARDS. IN. SPACCCCE!
Reading the article, it seemed obvious to me what the solution is likely to be. Cook them, let them cool to room temperature, cut into slices, package them airtight, and then use existing technology for food irradiation to render them shelf-stable at room temperature. Packaging them as separate slices would likely make them easier to handle, albeit at the expense of extra packaging material (although I think that there would be an interesting publicity shot in a group of astronauts around a pizza floating in the middle of the cabin). There might be some issues with arranging how they sit in the launch vehicle to ensure that they're not placed sideways to acceleration -- 3G across the surface of the pizza would rip the toppings right off.
In space, no one can hear your ice cream.
You are correct, sir. Instead of freezing, the water would actually vaporize. The near-instantaneous drop in pressure trumps the comparatively slow radiative cooling process. If you remember your phase chart for water (you know, the one with the regions for solid, liquid, and gas and a triple point joining all three), the state would fall from the liquid region into the gas region before moving left into the solid region.
Then again, there is the sliver of possibility of freezing if the water is initially at 0C, but again, that's because the pressure drop brings it through the solid phase (then back into the gaseous phase). Radiative cooling doesn't cause the freeze.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
The bit about no padlocks reminds me of a head-thumping bit from an episode of ST:TNG (one written during the previous writers strike, in defense of the show's regular writers). The Enterprise has picked up a 20th century business executive, who in the middle of a tense military confrontation with the Romlulans is able to nag Picard using the ship's intercomm, because the Federation assumes that everyone on board will use the comm system responsibly, so it has no authentication or usage restrictions.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Beards do grow in space, why they wouldn't... A common misconception is that astronauts are 'beyond earth' gravity', but that is not the case (the moon is pretty much attracted by earth)... A very simplistic explanation is that at a given altitude, astronauts are flying so fast that they are 'flying - just barely - over the horizon and missing earth', so they seem to be 'falling forever', in consequence they don't feel the effect of earth's gravity upon them. Anyway, astronauts do shave (using razor and foam to prevent facial hair from getting all over the place)
Having broken the Prime Directive of /. by RTFAing, I wonder why they're surprised that astronaut's "goody stash" become a source of "trade goods" towards the end of a mission.
People in an isolated environment, with restricted access to status goods use a lower status material of restricted availability as a proxy for other items of value. Look in any prison at the trade in "contraband" tobacco. Look also at the submariner's tale (up-thread, look for a typo of "submarien", IIRC) of tobacco rations being treated similarly. Look back to the rationing in the war (any war), and what a GI could get for a pair of nylons. Come out to an oil rig with my colleagues and I for a couple of weeks and notice how the "can of coke and a Mars bar" becomes a local variant of a gold standard.
To be honest, I'd suspect that the mission planners DELIBERATELY included the sweeties etc. - in a "stashable" form - so that people would develop this sort of economy. It then naturally provides a (seemingly) self-developed social lubricant to minor awkward moments. Good psychology.
That's probably why the submariners had a "smokes" ration too. This isn't exactly a novel situation.
Which would you prefer - chocolates, smokes, or a good dose of Rum, Sodomy and The Lash (allegedly Winston Churchill's list of the traditions of the Royal Navy).
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
My god! You just betrayed that you also read TFA! Mods! Ask this man to leave his /. card at the door!
Huh?