What You Don't Know About Living in Space 298
Ant writes "There are spectacular moments, as well as the mundane, in space. Over the years, living in space has forced astronauts to make a few concessions to things you would not give a second thought about when staying at a hotel/motel. The article lists a few things that people may not have known about living in space." Your iPod needs to be modified to use Alkaline batteries. And also, did you know... that in space... you only get one spooooon. And some people, are spoon millionaires...
No Pizza? (Score:5, Interesting)
This could then be cooked in an oven with the 'inflation pipe' blowing hot air into the middle to cook the dough, and also acting to keep the 'space pizza' in the middle of the oven.
The result, pizza with no crusts!
There IS Icre Cream in Space (Score:5, Interesting)
Food in space/Antarctic (Score:5, Interesting)
Bastards.
I imagine space expeditions such as a manned Mars mission will use a similar methodology - fussy eaters beware when you fill in the form !
Illusion and reality (Score:3, Interesting)
Given the huge success of unmanned missions to the planets, it really is very tempting to ask, why don't we just stop doing this stuff. Either we are going to have a planetary energy crisis, and will have to stop wasting vast amounts of fuel on sending people to orbit, or we will find a clever fix, and so be able to do this much more cheaply at some future date. It seems pointless to do something not very useful at the limit of human capability when there are so many more interesting engineering problems to solve - energy efficient housing and vehicles, efficient and cheap solar power, all need the technologies used in manned spaceflight, but on a different scale and in different ways. A ten year moratorium on manned spaceflight with the effort entirely going into solving energy supply and global warming problems could have a huge payback.
They left off burping (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:No Pizza? (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact... I think I need to file a patent on this method...
Re:There IS Icre Cream in Space (Score:4, Interesting)
In space, no one can hear you scream for ice cream (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's proof they do have iPods (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Illusion and reality (Score:5, Interesting)
They might also want to try out tethered satellites. Instead of a full space elevator right from the start, try suspending the "comms/sensor" bits of the satellite closer to earth, with the counter weight at the other end (solar panels etc), so that the satellite is still in geostationary orbit, but you have much better comms latencies. I suspect some people are willing to pay a premium for lower latency sat comms. If they can't even do such satellites then I think trying for a space elevator is silly.
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Illusion and reality (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you assuming that we get no technological benefit here on earth trying to solve these things at the "limit of human capability"?
You could just as easily flip your arguement around and say that one of the ways we get to develope things like better solar panels is through the efforts of the space program. That sounds like synergy, not wasted effort, to me.
I have a MUCH BETTER idea. How about a ten year moratorium on WAR AGAINST PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T BOMBED US, with all that effort going solely to solve energy/environmental problems? That would have astronomically greater payback without also hacking at the very technological progress you are hoping to achieve.
Seems they forgot a big one ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:From TFA... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:3, Interesting)
Reading the article, it seemed obvious to me what the solution is likely to be. Cook them, let them cool to room temperature, cut into slices, package them airtight, and then use existing technology for food irradiation [isu.edu] to render them shelf-stable at room temperature. Packaging them as separate slices would likely make them easier to handle, albeit at the expense of extra packaging material (although I think that there would be an interesting publicity shot in a group of astronauts around a pizza floating in the middle of the cabin). There might be some issues with arranging how they sit in the launch vehicle to ensure that they're not placed sideways to acceleration -- 3G across the surface of the pizza would rip the toppings right off.
Re:Silver-lining Laundry (Score:3, Interesting)
However, I believe that only the "government contract developed" versions contain precious metals.
This does also beg the question of how the russians, who would frequently stay on Mir for months on end managed to do things. I can't see a tiny washing machine being all that ridiculous of a thing to have on board.
Re:No ice cream? No Freezer? (Score:4, Interesting)
Then again, there is the sliver of possibility of freezing if the water is initially at 0C, but again, that's because the pressure drop brings it through the solid phase (then back into the gaseous phase). Radiative cooling doesn't cause the freeze.
Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:2, Interesting)