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Space

Astronaut Wants Space Program With No Frills 360

Posted by michael from the invest-in-extra-oxygen dept.
colonist writes "A veteran astronaut wants less comfort and more exploration for future missions. British-born astrophysicist Michael Foale has clocked up 374 days in space, more than any other American astronaut. Foale said, 'We need lean and mean spaceships with no frills', such as toilets or kitchen. However, he would like better oxygen-producing systems for the space station. Foale also talked about the Russians: they played 'some sort of Russian folk song. I'm not so sure it calmed me a lot.' As Foale boarded the Soyuz, an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition. From space, Foale saw a large black cloud over the Middle East: smoke from a bombed oil pipeline in Iraq."
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Astronaut Wants Space Program With No Frills

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  • unsure (Score:4, Funny)

    by networkBoy ( 774728 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:43AM (#10329644) Journal
    Not sure what I think of no toilets :-|
    -nB

  • Well? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:43AM (#10329649)
    Sice when did being able to take a dump become a 'frill'?

  • A kick in the back? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:44AM (#10329659)
    At least he didn't get a wine bottle smashed on his face or something. I bet they just tell foreigners the kick-in-the-back is customary. "Get a load of this guy, Vladimir!" Da!

    • Re:A kick in the back? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:58AM (#10329847)
      A "kick of luck" is a figure of speech in both Finland and Sweden, when you get really lucky you've had a kick of luck ('onnenpotku' or 'lyckospark', respectively). And I think wishing for luck by giving a kick in the ass is a semi-humorous thradition which one sometimes sees here. I don't know which came first, the act or the linguistic concept, though.

  • Except he is British (Score:3, Informative)

    by brejc8 ( 223089 ) * on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:44AM (#10329666) Homepage Journal
    Michael Foale is actually British and not American.
    e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3298031.stm

  • a very intresting article! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Emugamer ( 143719 ) * on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:44AM (#10329674) Homepage Journal
    I'm not one for reading articles usually, there are to many things going on in the world to read all about the changelog for SpamAssasin 3.0 or yet another diatribe on free vs. not-so-free vs. user rights vs. privacy... anyways, most of the time it all gets a bit repetitive, but if you are tired of that, read this one, its good, the poster sort of mangled it into a very curt summary but take a look, its worth the time

  • Russian traditions? (Score:5, Funny)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:45AM (#10329677) Journal
    an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition

    What? Kicking ass is a proud American tradition with a long history. This is just an example of the westernization of Russia.

    No toilets? Wouldn't that make for a really shitty space program?
    • No toilets? Wouldn't that make for a really shitty space program?

      After seeing public restrooms in back-woods russia, I'd say they're just trying to make the place feel like home.

  • Future thinking (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Damn, Easy Jet and the other low cost airlines haven't been around long, and this guy is already talking about low cost space travel, that boy sure has some business potential.

  • Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:47AM (#10329700) Homepage Journal
    Foale's suggestions for leaving the comfort zone ring true on several levels. We can't really explore space until we're ready to leave the Garden of Eden behind. So far, we're trying to take it with us -- everything must be 100% safe, from the toilets to the astronauts themselves. We're not going to get past the walls of the garden until there's a flaming sword -- until we must either push forward or die.

    I don't neccesarily mean that there will have to be some sort of global catastrophe, just that there will be no real exploration until a group of humans blasts off from Earth with no prospects to return. Ideally, they would be volunteers, but I don't think they can be the perfect psychological and physical specimens we're used to sending into space.

    Space simply won't be a "real" place until we have a real human presence, and that means the bad as well as the good. Expanding into the new world takes more than just tilling the land and never moving on. To extend the Eden analogy further: Man didn't really start his journey until Cain's jealousy reached its breaking point. I don't think that's a story of one guy who got mad at his brother -- it's an allegory about mankind's darker side, and how it's an integral part of our experience.

    To take a more recent example: when the US lost a dozen-plus troops in Somalia, we left with our tail tucked between our legs. Same thing a few years earlier in Beirut, when a few hundred troops were killed. But now, after losing several thousand lives in 9/11, we're able to bear the loss of hundreds in Iraq and Afghanistan... instead of turning tail, we're actually debating the issue.

    We won't reach space in any meaningful way until all of humanity is represented -- both good and bad. That's why we're just spinning our wheels at the moment, playing on the outskirts of Eden. It won't be until Cain shows up -- until someone walks out the airlock in despair, someone fights over resources or a mate, or until there's a war over some metal-rich asteroid -- that humans will truly be able to call themselves citizens of space.

    • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:4, Funny)

      by bhsurfer ( 539137 ) <bhsurfer&gmail,com> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:51AM (#10329756)
      Alright, that's it. I've had it with you people. I'm going back to Tralfamador. And I'm taking your wife with me...
    • Wholly excellent.
      I wish you were not right about the "flaiming sword" point, but you are.

      It's just that this (not so) perfect psychological and physical specimen really would like some basics if I "ain't comin back".

      As to the article: I really liked the concept of using the space station as a base for Lunar exploration and, in turn using the Moon as a base of operations for a Mars expidition.
      -nB
    • Foale's suggestions for leaving the comfort zone ring true on several levels. We can't really explore space until we're ready to leave the Garden of Eden behind. So far, we're trying to take it with us -- everything must be 100% safe, from the toilets to the astronauts themselves. We're not going to get past the walls of the garden until there's a flaming sword -- until we must either push forward or die.

      Well you can't throwing money and people at space either. If certain safty procautions aren't met you'

    • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:5, Interesting)

      by RWerp ( 798951 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:01PM (#10329885)
      I hope you are wrong and that humanity could make a 'new start' in space, without taking everything which is wrong with it to space.

    • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:5, Insightful)

      by moonbender ( 547943 ) <moonbenderNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:08PM (#10329957)
      I wanted to write an insightful rebuttal, except I don't seem to understand what exactly to rebut. A bit too much metaphor, too little substance maybe. To reach space in a "meaningful way"? "Citizens of space"? Very elaborate, though...

      If there was some sort of actual incentive to go to space, like Earth being growingly uninhabitable or some sort of extremely rare material only available on an asteroid, then yes, space "exploration" would increase. That's what you seem to be saying - but that's really quite obvious, isn't it? But for now the only incentive is academic, and most of the actual exploring is better done from Earth itself.
    • What a sad comment.

      Space exploration is about man reaching out and wonderment, not about man being nagged to get off the couch and get the groceries from the car.

      >Space simply won't be a "real" place until we have a real human presence

      And why do we need to have space become "real" as opposed to what it is now. ("non-real"?)

    • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:5, Interesting)

      by SunPin ( 596554 ) <slashspam@cyberT ... com minus author> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:32PM (#10330273) Homepage
      People must die to succeed. Americans don't have a tolerance for death to match the amount of people they end up killing. The score in Mogadishu was 4000 dead Somalis to 12 dead U.S. soldiers. The media called that a defeat and the military wasn't sophisticated enough to set it straight. I think the Chinese will _completely_ change the rules of space exploration and make failure/death a necessary part of progress in space. It's no coincidence in my opinion that Americans have no real heroes because nobody lays their life on the line for big ideas. You don't see Foale or Benjamin Harris saying "Fuck it all. Today is a good day to die." That's the kind of attitude _a_ space program needs. Athletes make poor heroes. This space exploration problem runs deep.

      • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:5, Insightful)

        by VanillaCoke420 ( 662576 ) <.vanillacoke420. .at. .hotmail.com.> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:52PM (#10330504)
        We're all going to die. If it happens while I'm exploring a crater on the Moon, or standing on Phobos while watching Mars below me, or flying through the rings of Saturn, or standing to close to a geyser on Triton, then at least it happens while I'm doing something so marvellous and beautiful as actually travelling through space, exploring its wonders. It beats the prospect of dying by the hands of a murderer, or in a natural disaster, or in a car accident on my way to my boring workplace, just because I wanted to stay on Earth because I thought it was safer than travelling through the Solar System. Safer, perhaps. More exciting? Hmmm.

      • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:4, Insightful)

        by GoofyBoy ( 44399 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @01:11PM (#10330708) Journal
        I'm all for mindless American bashing (Their beer is weak!) but having a low tolerence for death isn't solely an American thing.

        I recall one South Asian country pulled from Iraq after a few of their hostages were killed, but America still are there after over a thousand military deaths.

        >It's no coincidence in my opinion that Americans have no real heroes because nobody lays their life on the line for big ideas.

        When did a hero become someone who throws their life away like yesterday's newspaper? A life-long dedication I can see, but not if the life isn't that long.

        >You don't see Foale or Benjamin Harris saying "Fuck it all. Today is a good day to die."

        Maybe because its a dumb thing to say except when you are showing-off?

        • Re:Leaving the Garden of Eden (Score:4, Insightful)

          by SunPin ( 596554 ) <slashspam@cyberT ... com minus author> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @01:53PM (#10331245) Homepage

          >You don't see Foale or Benjamin Harris saying "Fuck it all. Today is a good day to die."

          Maybe because its a dumb thing to say except when you are showing-off?


          I say it every day. It has nothing to do with "showing off." In has to do with attitude. Fear tends to find it's way into everything in the U.S. We have a culture of fear. We buy stuff to fight fear and we declare War on whatever we fear when we can't just throw money at it so it goes away.


          Accepting death is the only way to make sure you live without regret.


        • "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." -- George Patton
    • I don't neccesarily mean that there will have to be some sort of global catastrophe, just that there will be no real exploration until a group of humans blasts off from Earth with no prospects to return. Ideally, they would be volunteers . . .

      . . . but if you relax that constraint, think of the possibilities! Example: isn't it an election year in the U.S.? I can think of several candidates (so to speak) for a one-way trip into space.

  • Cost cutting (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mateito ( 746185 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:48AM (#10329713) Homepage
    'We need lean and mean spaceships with no frills', such as toilets or kitchen.

    3 1/2' of 3/4 PVC tubing could replace both of them.

    That will stop all those people joining the space program just for the free feed, right!

  • When *I* was your age (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:50AM (#10329744)
    We had to travel into orbit, UPHILL BOTH WAYS. We didn't have any of this new-fangled technology. We used duct tape and chewing gum, AND WE LIKED IT THAT WAY. Damned young whipper snappers, always wanting comfort.

  • strange imagery (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dj42 ( 765300 )
    It's a strange time we live in when astronauts are flying into space and note large plumes of smoke from ongoing wars.

  • A Russian Tradition? (Score:5, Funny)

    by rbanzai ( 596355 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:51AM (#10329759)
    "As Foale boarded the Soyuz, an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition"

    I doubt that this is a Russian tradition. It's what my last boss did when he showed me my cube.

  • In Soviet Russia... (Score:4, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:52AM (#10329766) Homepage Journal
    As Foale boarded the Soyuz, an official kicked him in the back: a Russian launch tradition.

    ass kicks YOU!

  • The truth about our near term space future (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ars-Fartsica ( 166957 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:54AM (#10329793)
    The US has involved itself in a huge pork project (ISS) that will syphon off most of the money for space in the near future. Talk of Mars is just that, talk. The US is floating a $7 trillion dollar real debt, huge deficits, and (according to the Fed study) a social security future deficit of $50 TRILLION. If you think the govt is going to fund a Mars program or any other new manned program you are deluded.

    • The money is already there (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kippy ( 416183 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:19PM (#10330082)
      Again with the "how the hell can we fund Mars" argument.

      NASA gets around $16 billion a year. With the new plan of scrapping the shuttle and abandoning the ISS, that' frees up about $6 billion. If we have a timescale of say 20 years to get a presence on Mars, that's $120 billion. If you're a member of the church of the $1 trillion mars mission, that's not enough. However, if you use Mars Direct or the NASA Mars reference mission plan, that's plenty of money.

      As long as the American people are willing to pay 1 cent on the dollar for NASA as they currently do, the money to get to Mars will be there. It's just a matter of maintaining the political will to do it.
      • With the new plan of scrapping the shuttle and abandoning the ISS

        Where is there a plan to abandon ISS?

        • here [whitehouse.gov]

          in a nutshell: get shuttles flying again, finish building ISS to fulfill commitments, ground shuttles, stop burning money on building/maintaining ISS.
          • Quote from the article:

            Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010

            another quote:

            To meet this goal, we will return the Space Shuttle to flight as soon as possible

            This doesn't tell me anything is changing in the next decade. ISS will take until 2015. 2010 is a pipe dream. Add another five years of maintainence. The shuttle replacements have apparently been right around the corner for a decade or more. I will believe it when I see Congress pass funding for a specific design.

            Unt

            • Also from the article.

              Retire the Space Shuttle as soon as assembly of the International Space Station is completed, planned for the end of this decade;

              If you want to talk about quagmires, the Shuttle and ISS are poster children. Planning to disengage from it ASAP is the best thing that NASA could do.
      • If you're a member of the church of the $1 trillion mars mission, that's not enough.

        I'm a proud, card-carrying member of the church of the $1T mars mission.

        It cost almost $1B to put two measly 200kg robots on mars. No matter how you slice it, it's going to easily cost 1000X that to design, test, certify and launch enough infrastructure to Mars to support humans for ~2 years and then bring them back with reasonable margins of safety.

        I don't care how many authors and futurists claim that it's only goi

        • I don't care how many authors and futurists claim that it's only going to cost 79 cents to pull off the mission.

          How about NASA and the ESA saying that it will cost tens of billions [marssociety.org]? Do the analyses of rocket scientists and nuclear physicists carry any sway with you?

          Of course, I could always trust estimates that work like this: "It costs $X to do something easy. Therefore, it will cost 1000 times that to do something harder".

      • eXtreme space exploration (Score:3, Interesting)

        by hey! ( 33014 )
        Well, there's huge risk in sending a man to Mars and bringing him back. Mars is hard. It's easily one or more orders of magnitude harder than the Moon. It's much farther away; equipment and supplies have to last much longer. It's got a much bigger gravity well -- you have two major launches to deal with. Mars actually has an environment to deal with, including an atmosphere with sand storms and temperature fluctuations to deal with. Given that it takes so long to get there, you're going to want to d
    • This is why someone needs to convince Bush there's oil on Mars, shouldn't be too hard.

  • Humans Need Confort (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Space_Soldier ( 628825 ) <not4_u@hotmail.com> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:54AM (#10329796)
    That is his opinion and he is entitled to it. However, humans like comfort, and humans bitch when comfort does not exist, especially on long trips. In addition, there are cultural differences between Russians and Americans as he pointed out. What might seem comfortable for the Russians might not be comfortable for the Americans, just like he pointed out the folk song. Some people can handle comfortless trips, while others cannot. Those who cannot must be mentally trained to do so. No one wants an astronaut to have some sort of breakdown because his toiled sucked his anus too fast, or that he cannot eat anything else but food from the toothpaste containers. Speaking in terms of weight, not having a toilet or a kitchen will not significantly increase the maneuverability of the International Space Station or a future spaceship. It will not make it lean and mean. The only thing that will do is new propulsion systems. -------------

    • Re:Humans Need Confort (Score:5, Funny)

      by Klowner ( 145731 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:39PM (#10330356) Homepage
      No one wants an astronaut to have some sort of breakdown because his toiled sucked his anus too fast


      Speak for yourself, but I'd pay to hear Dan Rather open a show with "The recent space exploration project has been called off, after one of the austronauts had his anus sucked too fast"

    • Re:Humans Need Confort (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Paulrothrock ( 685079 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:47PM (#10330445) Homepage Journal
      That is his opinion and he is entitled to it. However, humans like comfort, and humans bitch when comfort does not exist, especially on long trips.

      What history class did you sit through? It took about 60 days for the pilgrims to get to America. Imagine 102 people on a 90 foot boat [rr.com] with no shower facilities, rampant seasickness, scurvy and dysentery, and the only toilet facilities being the open sea. And when they get to where they're going, they have to start by building their friggin' houses so they don't freeze to death.

      Now imagine walking 2,000 miles across harsh wilderness populated by people who will kill you as soon as trade with you, knowing that 10% of your party will die along the way. Surely nobody will want to go, right?

      As for food, any long-term space trip will involve growing food, particularly a Mars mission. You *do* know that we grow food out of the dirt. It doesn't just appear on supermarket shelves. People will have to learn how to grow their food or they will *die.*

      Also, any human presence in space will require that all people have a working knowledge of almost every system as well as how to make tools from local materials.

      So, yeah, people now are lazy pigs who want to sit around all day and complain. But I, and I'm sure many other people, are willing to go and face the hardships. Some want to get away from people, others want religious freedom.

      Sidenote: I don't think Al Qaeda would be trying to kill people if they had a way to move away from the influences they dislike.

  • splat (Score:3, Funny)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:57AM (#10329828) Homepage Journal
    "kicked him in the back"

    Ah, the nature-loving Russians, simulating the snap of surface tension felt by a raindrop departing its childhood cloud, precipitating away from its teeming comrades, hurtling towards the planet it could before have only stared at in wonder.

  • No frills eh? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gentlewhisper ( 759800 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @11:59AM (#10329851)
    Well, it's about time to get rid of those fancy space shuttles!

    I'd say we attach a big bucket (made of a potato chip) to a hot air ballon, and float the astronauts into space!

    They can also eat the bucket when they are going up too. By the time they reach the zero gravity zone they won't need the bucket anyway! Then for reentry they just use the ballon as a parachute!

    The ultimate no-frills space travel!
  • they played 'some sort of Russian folk song. I'm not so sure it calmed me a lot.'

    Well, sure. He forgot to eat plain yogurt while listening to it.

  • Mountain of madness (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nonetheless, the prospect of a Christmas feast for two was depressing until the two astronauts found a solution: Invite some guests. The memorable feast was captured in a photograph showing the two men with their guests, two empty spacesuits carefully propped in dining position.

    Lincoln would like some more dehydrated yams, and tell Hitler over there to stop staring at me.

  • But does he have the right stuff? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tibor the Hun ( 143056 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:07PM (#10329949)
    Did he kick back?

  • Nothing will further space exploration more than.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DigitalRaptor ( 815681 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:11PM (#10329993)
    Nothing will further space exploration more than a space elevator [thingsdreamed.com].

    Even a simple one, little more than a winch that can lower payloads to space and back safely, would bring cheap solar power and a station on the moon within easy reach.

    Anyone in the white house listening?

  • Interesting contrast (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:13PM (#10330013)
    Foale was the visiting Western astronaut (as opposed to regular Russian cosmonauts)on Mir during the period of time when there was a fairly serious fire, as well as a depressurization (contained to one module) and a collision with a supply rocket. He was very vocal about his criticisms of the joint NASA/Russian space program (largely that it being pushed through for political reasons, to the detriment of the safety of the astonauts and the spaceprogram as a whole). His arguments had some merits, but they did not make him too popular with the administrators.

    So obviously this is a guy who knows about the dangers and travails of space exploration, but at the same time it's interesting to contrast how this new opinion conflicts -in some ways- with his earlier statements.

  • Mental health (Score:5, Funny)

    by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:20PM (#10330100) Homepage Journal
    NASA planners "correctly worry a lot about loneliness."
    [...] the prospect of a Christmas feast for two was depressing until the two astronauts found a solution: Invite some guests. The memorable feast was captured in a photograph showing the two men with their guests, two empty spacesuits carefully propped in dining position.

    Yeah, they were a few weeks away from dressing up as their mothers.
    Maybe they need a few more people up there.
  • "We won't ever get out of Earth's orbit if we worry about being comfortable."

    RP

  • Speaking of comforts (Score:3, Funny)

    by Schemat1c ( 464768 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @12:32PM (#10330270) Homepage
    Something I've always wondered but have never heard mentioned either way. Has anyone had sex in space yet? The Russians and US have both been sending up women for awhile. I'm sure someone must have joined the 100 mile(or however high it is) club by now.

    I bet it's NASA dirty little secret:)

    • Re:Speaking of comforts (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AeroIllini ( 726211 ) <aeroillini@NOSpam.gmail.com> on Thursday September 23, 2004 @01:20PM (#10330823)
      Has anyone had sex in space yet? The Russians and US have both been sending up women for awhile. I'm sure someone must have joined the 100 mile(or however high it is) club by now.

      Actually, it would be the 200 Mile High Club (station orbits at about 350 km [nasa.gov]).

      I highly doubt that the astronauts have. The only time it would be likely is during a long-term Space Station stay, since shuttle missions are too short. And considering the psychology of three people crammed into a tiny space for months at a time, I seriously doubt that anybody would be feeling particularly excited. Astronauts by nature are not very impulsive people (at least the ones we have now; not true for the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo crews) and would understand the impact of such an encounter on their ability to work together professionally.

      Although, I think I feel a reality series coming on...

      Coming this Fall to Fox:
      We took 8 people and stranded them 200 hundred miles above the ground. Watch as they struggle with life, love and the vaccuum of outer space on...
      SPACE STATION SURVIVOR.
      The losers get the airlock...

      • I'd pay money... (Score:4, Funny)

        by jellisky ( 211018 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @01:52PM (#10331238) Journal
        ... to see the "Celebrity" version of that. Particularly if they REALLY do the airlock part. :)

        "Oh, I'm sorry, Carrottop. You've been voted off the station. The crew has spoken."

        Oh... I salivate at the very thought. :-D

        -Jellisky
        -enjoying morbidly fun thoughts since 1978.

    • Re:Speaking of comforts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mercuryresearch ( 680293 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @01:30PM (#10330955) Journal
      On one of the old soviet space missions (I think it was the Salyut 7 space stations in the early 80s) one of the mix-gender crews requested privacy curtains, and the implication of sex was there though the women claimed their behavior was stictly professional.

      NASA pretty much has said it's never happened on one of their missions, even with the best possibility being a 1992 shuttle mission with a husband and wife on the same crew, but they had opposite shifts and reports were also that nothing happened.

      Anyway, I'd bet the answer is yes, and that it was the old-era Soviets who did it first.

  • Space is really lonely (Score:5, Funny)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Thursday September 23, 2004 @01:56PM (#10331300) Homepage Journal
    [i]Nonetheless, the prospect of a Christmas feast for two was depressing until the two astronauts found a solution: Invite some guests. The memorable feast was captured in a photograph showing the two men with their guests, two empty spacesuits carefully propped in dining position.

    "Hey, we wanted company," Foale deadpanned. [/i]
    - Some of our unnamed sources also report that on the sound records from the space station they could heard the following:
    -Wilson. WILSON! Don't go, Wilson, don't go.

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