ISS To Get Man Cave

Nancy_A writes "There might be a new favorite hang-out for astronauts aboard the International Space Station later this year. The Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) will become a permanent module on the station, and will be brought up on the STS-133 mission, scheduled for September 2010. The new module might provide a haven for astronauts to get away from it all. '"The thought is, the PMM might become sort of a 'man cave,'" said Mike Kinslow, the Boeing payload manager at the Kennedy Space Center. "It won't have all the background noise of fans, computers and other equipment running like in the laboratories, so it will be a quieter atmosphere that might appeal to the astronauts during their off-duty hours."' Plus, NASA's Robonaut 2, or R2 will be brought up on the same flight. Any chance R2 could be programmed to serve drinks or bring food into the man cave?"

Comments

Come on Slashdot

[Zouden]

I can understand that a mainstream (non-tech) news website would focus on a cutesy term like "man cave" to describe this new module, but would it have killed the Slashdot editors to include something about what the module is actually going to be used for?

(turns out it'll be used as a storeroom. It doesn't have enough radiation shielding to allow it to be used as crew quarters).

No, it's not a "man cave", and no, the R2 robot will not be used to serve drinks. It'll be used to investigate the potential of robots to perform EVA duties.

Re:Come on Slashdot

[Kitkoan]

I can understand that a mainstream (non-tech) news website would focus on a cutesy term like "man cave" to describe this new module, but would it have killed the Slashdot editors to include something about what the module is actually going to be used for?

(turns out it'll be used as a storeroom. It doesn't have enough radiation shielding to allow it to be used as crew quarters).

No, it's not a "man cave", and no, the R2 robot will not be used to serve drinks. It'll be used to investigate the potential of robots to perform EVA duties.

The article states that at the moment it doesn't have enough radiation shielding yet, but it will have it and be ready in 4 months. From the article:

"Turning Leonardo into a permanent module will take some work, said NASA Payload Manager Joe Delai. "Once it returns from this flight we will beef up the external shield and change things internally to become a permanent module. It will be about a four month process to get it ready."

Thats why it will be re-launched in September this year. And when it is relaunched and made a permanent module it will become their 'man cave'.