Space-Time: Scott Kelly Breaks Time-Aloft Record For US Astronauts (usatoday.com)

NASA astronaut -- and Commander of the International Space Station -- Scott Kelly on Friday broke the record for time in space -- for U.S. astronauts, at least; the overall longest flight of 437.7 days belongs to Valeri Polyakov, and the Washington Post points out that Russia’s Gennady Padalka has spent a total of 879 days aloft. Kelly brings a unique asset to the long-term study of health for spacefarers, because his twin brother Mark, here on Earth, serves as close to a perfect control subject as NASA could hope to have. Kelly is a prolific tweeter about the progress of his year-long mission aboard the ISS; on the occasion of beating the time-aloft record, his modest acknowledgement read only, "Records are meant to be broken. Look fwd to one of my colleagues surpassing my end 500+ days on our #JourneyToMars!"

Comments

Well Done

[rmdingler]

These self-sacrificing extended stays in zero gravity are important for studying, and eventually overcoming, human physical deterioration in space.

Thank you for every barrier penetrated, every obstacle overcome, and every sacrifice made.

Re:Well Done

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats what SHE said.

Re:Well Done

[Noah Haders]

These self-sacrificing extended stays in zero gravity are important for studying, and eventually overcoming, human physical deterioration in space.

Thank you for every barrier penetrated, every obstacle overcome, and every sacrifice made.

America, Fuck Yeah!

Re:Well Done

[CanadianMacFan]

Yes, I'm sure that they are only going up only for studying the effects of zero gravity and not because it's a trip of a lifetime.

Re:Well Done

[CanadianMacFan]

I don't think she'd be thanking you if the barrier was penetrated.

Re:Well Done

[Anonymous Coward]

My friend Buster Hyman disagrees.

A shill for Obama

[Anonymous Coward]

The US space program is a complete bore. ISS is a waste of money. Scott Kelly is a shill for Obama and a big part of the problem.

Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being American

[mutantSushi]

So I take it that Pedro Duquet's record for Longest Time in Space While Being Spanish is still unbroken?

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[Iamthecheese]

I'm looking forward to the even more important "longest time in space while being female" award.

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the daily "We should be going to Mars" slashdot story.

You just need to stop at the Moon to pick up some fuel for the final boost, stop in the Asteroid Belt to snag a block of ice, then just turn on your ion engine to travel to Mars and just parachute to the surface so you can find a convenient cave which can be finished inside and used to grow potatoes. Nothing to it as long as you just ignore what you should have learned in Physics 101.

Deluded

[Anonymous Coward]

If he thinks journey to Mars is remotely doable. Space sickness is what he 'as.

Space Age Reenactment Society

[Anonymous Coward]

This space stuff in 2015 looks like Civil War reenactments or live-action role playing. It has the same impact on our lives. Great theater, gets some people worked up, the rest of us really care very little.

Re:Space Age Reenactment Society

[Anonymous Coward]

See Cargo Cults

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Research into Gender-Reassignment Surgery in Space (GRSS) should significantly boost human technology. This requires dedication of transgender astronauts of all possible sexes, who must tolerate confinement in a space station while physically being a particular incorrect sex, before GRSS technology matures.

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[Anonymous Coward]

What's that called, the "Vaggy" or similar?

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[Anonymous Coward]

http://i.imgur.com/melqEZf.png

500 days to Mars is a good thing?

[fustakrakich]

Let's work on getting there in a week. In the meantime, you know, there's the moon to experiment with...

Re:500 days to Mars is a good thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares if we can get to a dead hostile rock in a week? We can get to the bottom of the ocean in 6 hours, you see any big lineups for that hostile environment? How about Venus?

Re:500 days to Mars is a good thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you have any idea how much further Mars is than the Moon? If you accelerate and decelerate at a fairly constant rate, you're talking about getting up to 0.1% c in the middle there.

Re:500 days to Mars is a good thing?

[delt0r]

Lets run numbers. Assume 1g~10m/s2 the whole way and ignore the sun and orbital mechanics (turns out for many cases this is not so bad, max V will still be accurate to first order anyway). We turn around in the middle of course so max speed is in the middle. The max distance is 401 million km. So that is a top speed of 2000km/s or about 0.07% the speed of light. In practice it would be slightly higher by about 50km/s. Of course most of the time mars is much closer and you would be going much slower. Also this trip would take 112 hours.

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[fustakrakich]

Well, Audrey Meadows has been to the moon several times...

Slow news day...

[timbudtwo]

Looks like the submitter was 442 days late in stating this record being broken.

will there be a post for every country record?

[sittingnut]

in this age of glottalization and world wide web(heard of that?),only record that counts is the world record.
btw is this really an american record if he is carried and kept there by russians?

i would be voted down by people who can't face facts.

and I think its gonna be a long long time

[rossdee]

Is he paid hourly or just salary?

He should get paid more than someone who just does "my job 5 days a week"

and thats a LOT of money

Re:and I think its gonna be a long long time

[delt0r]

Why should he get paid more? Many people would be happy to do it for free. Some others would pay for the privilege.

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[murdocj]

If you really knew your Physics 101, you'd include the stop at Venus to pick up some atmosphere.

Scott Kelly on Friday

[wonkey_monkey]

Scott Kelly on Friday

Did he change his name in hope of getting a talk show when he comes back down?

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[delt0r]

Longest time is space while being black and female? What about midgets, or jews? They have records as well right. How about a black female midget jew, who is also president of something.

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[delt0r]

na, do a flyby of the sun to get some hydrogen that you can then combine with mars atmosphere to make rocket fuel. And there is probably lots of He3 in the sun as well. We all know we need to be mining He3. Cus, reasons.

glottalization?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not convinced this is the age of glottalization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottalization

Congrats to brother Mark Kelly

[anyGould]

For being the brother who lost the coin toss, and thus had to stay home and be a NASA lab monkey to compare against his famous brother.

Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ

[sconeu]

She's already been there? I thought she was just going one of these days....