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Astronauts To Install A Parking Space For SpaceX and Boeing At The ISS (popularmechanics.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the handicap-parking dept.

Since Boeing and SpaceX will begin sending NASA astronauts into orbit next year, the International Space Station is going to need a place for them to park. Astronauts Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins will journey outside the ISS on Friday to install a new docking adapter for these two private companies. Popular Mechanics reports: "Installing these adapters is a necessary step in NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which seeks to spur development of commercial crew spacecraft. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:05 a.m. on Friday, and live coverage will start at 6:30. This will be Williams' fourth spacewalk, and Rubins' first." In the meantime, you can watch this video describing exactly what the spacewalk will entail.

42 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Re:EARTHQUAKE! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    As opposed to all the relativity pleasant 7.6 earthquakes.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  2. How many quarters? by EzInKy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't even imagine how much change would be required to feed a meter like that. One would think that would take the bulk of the payload.

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    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    1. Re:How many quarters? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, I hope that this parking space will be outfitted with a electric charging socket, which will pave the way for electric spacecraft. Critics of electric cars point out the lack of public charging opportunities.

      Otherwise, spacecraft emissions will cause outer space warming!

      Think about taking your Tesla XXX out for a Sunday drive, and then zipping up into space to the ISS Shopping Mall Food Court to grab a burger.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:How many quarters? by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 2

      It seems you could cook your burger with your Tesla...

    3. Re:How many quarters? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Serious question, what is the electrical connection? Data, power or both? Does the ISS provide power to the spacecraft while docked, perhaps recharging its batteries?

      --
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    4. Re:How many quarters? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      Data, power or both?

      "Captain, a giant flying USB memory stick would like to dock with our station . . . should we allow it?

      Does the ISS provide power to the spacecraft while docked, perhaps recharging its batteries?

      That was my idea. If you have every had the pleasure of seeing black and white cinema serial episodes of "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon", they were brilliant. The engines sounded like an electric razor and smoked like they had a lit sparkler on their tails. They needed to charge those things up somewhere.

      And where would the ISS Power Station and Convenience Kwik e Mart get its power from?

      Solar and nukes.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    5. Re:How many quarters? by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

      "Captain, a giant flying USB memory stick would like to dock with our station . . . should we allow it?

      ISS > USB spacestick device not recognized: format ? (Y/N)

    6. Re:How many quarters? by David_Hart · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, I hope that this parking space will be outfitted with a electric charging socket, which will pave the way for electric spacecraft. Critics of electric cars point out the lack of public charging opportunities.

      Otherwise, spacecraft emissions will cause outer space warming!

      Think about taking your Tesla XXX out for a Sunday drive, and then zipping up into space to the ISS Shopping Mall Food Court to grab a burger.

      Electric spacecraft sucks because they are no good for towing and you can't land and take off on a planet... At least with combustion spacecraft you can visit Pluto if you want.... (grin)

    7. Re:How many quarters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The new docking adaptor (IDA) will provide 120volt and 28volt power and a modified 100BaseT connection.

      No spacecraft currently uses these connections, they are provided for future expansion.

    8. Re:How many quarters? by CWCheese · · Score: 1

      They can install one of those solar powered CC enabled meters like in LA, so upon docking the commander can scan his Visa/Mastercard and open a tab until he undocks to go home.

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    9. Re:How many quarters? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I eagerly await the electric towing spacecraft. Perhaps we can name one the Planetes?

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      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    10. Re:How many quarters? by no1nose · · Score: 1

      This could be a good use of Bitcoins.

    11. Re:How many quarters? by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Electric spacecraft sucks because they are no good for towing and you can't land and take off on a planet... At least with combustion spacecraft you can visit Pluto if you want.... (grin)

      Hybrids are the way to go.

  3. Fender benders? by AnotherAnonymousUser · · Score: 2

    Maybe someone in the know can answer all of this, but what's responsibility like if a country or now private entity damages the ISS with a botched docking? Are there policies governing these kinds of incidents - a you break it, you buy it kind of thing?

    1. Re:Fender benders? by Zandamesh · · Score: 4, Informative

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

      "the activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty"

      The country is responsible

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    2. Re:Fender benders? by EndlessNameless · · Score: 1

      There's usually a pretty straight line from "authorized the activity" to "liable for the outcome of the activity". So the US government would be on the hook for correcting any harm done to the ISS or its crew.

      Whether the government has indemnity through its agreements with SpaceX or ULA is an issue between those two entities. By treaty, the injured parties must contact the US government for compensation or redress.

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      According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
    3. Re:Fender benders? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      My expectation is that these craft will dock the way other automated docking happens, by use of the Canadarm. Otherwise, it is being piloted by an astronaut, which means that the US itself would be responsible, as it would be their person doing the docking, and not SpaceX or Boeing.

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      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    4. Re:Fender benders? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      No once IDA is in and the Dragon V2.0 capsule is available it will auto-dock with the ISS by itself (with optional manual astronaut controlled docking) just like the Soyuz capsule. No Canadarm required as for the current berthing procedure.

    5. Re:Fender benders? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Interesting, thank you for the correction. I thought that was one of the things brought up in the Martian (I know...science fiction) that it is not usual for a manned craft to be piloted by robot (or remotely in that case) as if you have the pilots there, they can perform the piloting. It never hurts to be corrected when I am wrong though.

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      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    6. Re:Fender benders? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      As a Hillary supporter, I support backing up one's claims about ignoring rule of law. I haven't seen where the Clintons got special treatment from the courts. I have seen a lot of cases where people spoke magic words like "whitewater" as if they constituted jurisprudence.

      The last time I asked a guy for some sort of support for what he said about Clinton, he got vague and then annoyed with me. All I asked for was one specific example of wrongdoing, but could he find one? Nope.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    7. Re:Fender benders? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Um, she emailed classified information. With or without knowledge or intent, many people in the intelligence community have been charged with felonies for that.

      The fact that the FBI declined to have her charged is because they are being partisan, not because she failed to break the law. The director of the FBI admitted that she broke the law, but said that there isn't a prosecutor which would take the case...because she is the anointed one and has money to fight it.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    8. Re:Fender benders? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      https://www.fbi.gov/news/press...

      The link to the FBI director's statement so that you don't try to claim you didn't know about it.

      Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.

      From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.

      The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional e-mails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government e-mail accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including high-ranking officials at other agencies, people with whom a Secretary of State might naturally correspond.

      (this breaks records retention laws https://www.archives.gov/about... )

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    9. Re:Fender benders? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Actually, it is piloted by a robot: the on-board computer. Astronauts have had very little say in how space thingies flew, historically. We're not coping well with nine degrees of freedom.

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      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:Fender benders? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      No, the FBI director didn't recommend prosecution because, as a matter of rule, violations like Clinton's have not been criminally prosecuted. Nobody's shown me a counterexample, and people have been naming some cases. In most of these cases, the violator deliberately transferred classified information where it should not have been, instead of being somewhat negligent in keeping it out of systems not cleared for such information, and that justified the criminal prosecution. In at least one, the person in question did pretty much what Clinton did, and was punished for it administratively.

      I'd be real interested in a case of someone who did something like what Clinton did and did wind up facing criminal charges in court or pleading guilty. (In the case of the person mentioned above who was negligent, there was a misdemeanor charge involved, but it was dropped.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    11. Re:Fender benders? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I linked to you the information about exactly where she broke the law, and what the laws entail. No, she didn't do it intentionally, she did it because she was careless with classified information, and didn't actually watch the training videos about how classified information is supposed to be marked. However, the law is pretty clear, and gross incompetence instead of malice is still covered by the law.

      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      She forwarded information that was Top Secret at the time she sent it to people who were not authorized to view classified information. I am not sure how much more careless one can get with the national security of the country. Since Top Secret information is defined as: "Such material would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if made publicly available.", being careless with information that you have been informed would cause serious national security issues is pretty damn scary.

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

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    12. Re:Fender benders? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I'm not interested in what the law says for this purpose. I'm interested in what prosecutors have done. My claim is that people who did more or less what Clinton did were not criminally prosecuted. Find me a counterexample if you disagree with me.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    13. Re:Fender benders? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us...
      No intent, kept records in house, but with knowledge (which Hillary should have had...she went through the briefs).

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
      Tried to bring attention to a perceived illegal activity, prosecuted anyways.

      http://www.politico.com/story/...
      Sailor took some photos for posterity of his workplace, he seems to have had no clue it was even an issue until he was charged with holding classified information.

      http://pilotonline.com/news/mi...
      No intent to distribute.

      http://usuncut.com/politics/cl...

      Of course, there is no case like Clinton's, even Powel never sent or received classified information. It is however gross negligence, and all of these above were the same.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  4. Re: Isn't Boeing a public company? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Private in this case means private sector, not privately owned. Boeing is private sector. Boeing is indeed also a publicly listed company (NYSE), but a publicly listed company is something different from a public company. You can google the details.

  5. Are there signs? by sabbede · · Score: 1

    Like, "This space reserved for Elon Musk"?

  6. The great thing about standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why do they need a new adapter? Surely that sort of thing is standardized?

  7. Re:The great thing about standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from.

  8. Solution: Pay-by-phone by davidwr · · Score: 2

    I can't even imagine how much change would be required to feed a meter like that. One would think that would take the bulk of the payload.

    Solution: Pay-by-phone.

    New problem: No cell signal.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  9. Why not stick with the current docking system? by hnjjz · · Score: 2

    IIRC, all current human manned space programs (ISS, Russia, and China) use the Russian docking system, making them all compatible with each other. The US space shuttles also used the Russian docking system before they were retired. Are there any significant benefits to the new docking system that makes it worth the design and installation expenses as well as the loss of compatibility?

    1. Re:Why not stick with the current docking system? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      It may be a quantity thing, they want to have the ability to have both the Russians and Commercial be able to dock at the same time, rather than waiting for one spaceship to leave before the next can dock. I don't believe though that the Shuttles used the Russian dock, I thought they had their own as well that is going unused currently.

      http://www.airspacemag.com/spa...

      It appears that (at least in 2011) there were 5 docking points on the ISS, one being specifically for the shuttle.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    2. Re:Why not stick with the current docking system? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Shuttle used APAS-95, these were designed and built by Energia (Russians). Currently nobody uses the APAS-95, its the CMB or the other type of Russian dock that Soyuz and Progress use.

    3. Re:Why not stick with the current docking system? by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      APAS (what you call the Russian docking system) is just a docking system - it mechanically attaches two units. NDS (the new system) in addition to the mechanical attachment includes power, data, and communications interfaces.

      And it's not like all docking and berthing ports on ISS are APAS - there's also CBM. Which is used for the MPLM cargo containers, the Japanese HTV vehichles, the Cygnus cargo vehicles, and the Dragon cargo vehicles.

    4. Re:Why not stick with the current docking system? by twosat · · Score: 1

      My understanding of the docking systems is that the old APAS system relied on a heavy vehicle like the approximately 100-ton space shuttle using its momentum to force the docking mechanism to function. The new spacecraft being planned are much smaller and lighter and it would put a big strain on them to apply so much force, plus their docking system would have to be made more robust and hence heavier.

  10. Re:The great thing about standards? by CWCheese · · Score: 1

    mod +100

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  11. Re:Recharge Station by CWCheese · · Score: 1

    perhaps they need to bring some of their SolarCity panels to ensure they offset their energy usage, perhaps even get a few dollars back each month from ISS

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    Have a Day!
  12. Re:Isn't Boeing a public company? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't Liberalisation be better described as legislated jealousy?

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  13. Re:Recharge Station by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Apparently, yes, but it is only 120V, not 240V, so it will be a slow charge.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  14. Live coverage from nasaspaceflight.com by twosat · · Score: 1

    LIVE: US EVA-36 - August 19, 2016 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.c...