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Why Astronauts Are Banned From Getting Drunk in Space (bbc.com)

Bryan Lufkin, writing for BBC: "Alcohol is not permitted onboard the International Space Station for consumption," says Daniel G Huot, spokesperson for Nasa's Johnson Space Center. "Use of alcohol and other volatile compounds are controlled on ISS due to impacts their compounds can have on the station's water recovery system." For this reason, astronauts on the space station are not even provided with products that contain alcohol, like mouthwash, perfume, or aftershave. Spilling beer during some drunken orbital hijinks could also risk damaging equipment. [...] There could be another reason to avoid frothy drinks like beer -- without the assistance of gravity, liquid and gases can tumble around in an astronaut's stomach, causing them to produce rather soggy burps.

11 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes! by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Read the headline carefully, Cosmonauts are not banned from drinking in space, only Astronauts.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  2. Re:Volatile Compounds by davester666 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are doing it wrong, if having sex makes you vomit.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  3. Artificial Gravity by djinn6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Spilling beer during some drunken orbital hijinks could also risk damaging equipment ... without the assistance of gravity, liquid and gases can tumble around in an astronaut's stomach, causing them to produce rather soggy burps.

    Isn't it about time they started doing the whole artificial gravity thing? From what I've read, it can be done cheaply with a long tether and a counter weight at the other end.

    A lot of special considerations are necessary for space living. Think showers, where you not only need a pump for the water, you also need one sucking the water down the drain. Sleeping? You need straps to keep you in place. Using a laptop? You need external fans to cycle hot air away from it. Even your body starts deteriorating because it's not exercising as much, and you need to devote many hours to physical fitness just to stay healthy. Zero G living is just to foreign to us.

    1. Re:Artificial Gravity by FeelGood314 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except 99% of the work on the international space station is experiments in zero gravity. The ISS isn't very good for astronomy or taking any kind of cosmic readings and it's not a good platform for making earth observations either. We go to the ISS for zero G.

    2. Re:Artificial Gravity by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Insightful

      From what I've read, it can be done cheaply with a long tether and a counter weight at the other end.

      It can be done cheaply in theory... In practice, there's all sort of complications with tether deployment, spin up, and stability. Plus you can't dock with a station spinning like that, so now you encounter the practical problems with spinning down. (All these problems are caused by the fact that tethers aren't rigid.) Any time you need to maneuver the station (for re boost or to avoid debris), you also encounter the spin-up/spin-down problems. Then there are the problems the spin causes in keeping your solar panels aligned with the sun, and your radiators aligned away from the sun. Any directional antennas also suffer from the same problems. Etc... etc...

      Easy in theory, difficult in practice.

    3. Re:Artificial Gravity by ledow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Showers aren't practical in space anyway... forming gravity just for them is ridiculous, and no you don't "need two pumps" (that would be easy!) - you just need air flow. Imagine showering in a wind tunnel - it works just fine and is probably more efficient. The real problem is that you need to seal the entire shower all around as the water will escape from ANY direction.

      Sleeping - some of the best reported sleeps are in space, no weight makes for better comfort. But you don't need to be "strapped down", you just need to be lightly tethered so you don't wander off at any speed. Two bungee cords attached to a harness in space will give you the best sleep you ever had.

      Laptop fans operate just fine in space. Like the shower, airflow is still present even in the absence of gravity. You're not living in a vacuum.

      Body muscles, yes, they deteriorate. Which is why they exercise. But they only deteriorate relative to Earth - for space use they are just fine. Long-term space living, your body adapts to its surroundings rather than building muscle mass that would be wasted anywhere but on Earth.

  4. Re:Yes! by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

    Old joke: How do you get a Russian to the legal alcohol limit?

    Sober him up for a week or two.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Re:Soggy Burps by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here on Earth, a burp is loud or smelly, but in space, it's a form of THRUST.

  6. Re:Yes! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Funny

    Russians typically get disoriented if there is too much blood in their vodka system.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  7. The USA hasn't recovered from prohibition. by Gonoff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The attitudes towards alcohol in the USA are quite bizarre to most of the rest of the planet but we didn't have prohibition.

    When I went to the USA with the British Army, I found that although I was old enough to be an ally with a rifle, I was not old enough to have a beer at 20! I was old enough to go in harms way but not old enough for Budweiser! Your troop transport aircraft was supposed to be dry. I have heard that your naval vessels are dry.

    I have heard that your prohibition was brought about by a, misnamed, temperance movement. Certainly, there are some people who can only be teetotal or drunk. In most cases, this is a matter of education. The best way is to demystify it. I remember at college, you could tell the students who had never been allowed even a glass of shandy. They were the ones who propped up bars every night. They "didn't do morning lectures"! Your country is treating you the same...

    --
    I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
  8. Re:mouthwash, perfume, or aftershave by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's not like they can open a window, and air out the fumes.

    Sure they can. In fact it'd do the job really well.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.