What Drugs Do Astronauts Take? 132
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Soulskill
from the just-boosterspice-for-me-thanks dept.
from the just-boosterspice-for-me-thanks dept.
astroengine writes "Science fiction is stuffed full of examples of pill-popping space explorers and aliens enjoying psychedelic highs. After all, space is big; it can get boring/scary/crazy up there. It's little wonder, then, that our current space explorers consume a cocktail of uppers, downers, tranquilizers and alcohol to get the job done. Robert Lamb on tranquilizers in the space station: 'Sure, it hardly makes for a civilized evening aboard ISS, but it beats someone blowing the hatch because they think they saw something crawling on one of the solar panels.'"
Re:fox news (Score:1, Insightful)
It could always be worse [msnbc.com].
Re:Let's see how... (correction) (Score:1, Insightful)
Fox News ? (Score:3, Insightful)
WTF is slashdot doing linking to an article from Fox News?
It's bad enough linking to UK stories from the Daily Mail, but Faux News is taking the piss.
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Lies, Damn Lies and "Science" Articles (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps it's my limited understanding of the word "do" at fault. I can only think of it in the present tense, rather than the future conditionals attached to such as "might". This leads me to have all kinds of misunderstandings, like wondering why they're taking pills to counteract a dust (!) that nobody's been closer than 230,000 miles to in the last 40 years. Or why the articles blathers on about zombies and CIA truth serum when talking about a sleeping/motion sickness pill that's been OTC for longer than NASA has been chartered. Or why NASA is having them take a "cocktail" to "get the job done" which would, if the description is accurate, prevent the job from getting done if not kill them (alcohol + uppers + downers + tranqs? Anyone remember Karen Ann Quinlan?). Quoting details from the equally unqualified and/or wrong doesn't dilute the article's idiocy. The content could have made a perfectly good article. Too bad the writer felt unequal to the job of writing a real article as you'd expect in a science magazine.
This article should be in "Entertainment". Or, if we're to keep such trash under science, we should have some subclasses that apply, like 'bullshit', 'lies', and 'science? what's that?'. Or maybe we just need to change the "news for nerds, stuff that matters" to "stuff that might fit into the popular subjects here, and might be real, or not; we're not sure, we don't read it".
Is this the result of voting on suitability of submissions? If so, maybe we ought to look into having editors that actually know something about the area they cover and approve articles based on content rather than side effects. It appears that ironically 'games' is getting more serious treatment than 'science'. Part of the problem is the 'science' articles being written, such as TFA. But the fix for that is the same fix for including decent science articles.
Re:One drug is certain (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm hoping they also take some diarrhoea tablets too ...
Re:New technical problems on the ISS . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
High school kids fabricate bongs out of the oddest bits and pieces, often from what's available wherever they happen to be. I would hope our astronauts are at least as talented and resourceful.
Re:Twilight ZONE episode "Nightmare_at_20,000_Feet (Score:3, Insightful)
More like:
"Spock.....there's.....a man....on.....the wing!
If you want to do Shatner right, you've got to include both the unnecessary pauses and the emphasis on the wrong words.
That was a great old Twilight Zone episode, though.
Re:Lies, Damn Lies and "Science" Articles (Score:3, Insightful)
Astronauts overwhelmingly have military backgrounds [spaceref.com]. The US Military has been using drugs well beyond the specifications allowed for "the rest of us" since forever. I guess what we need is a video game titled WWII Pilots: BENZEDRINE VS. METHEDRINE to really bring the point home to the pixels-and-keyboards crowd. The drug cocktail should surprise no one.
Re:New technical problems on the ISS . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
The only problem I can foresee with bongs in space: no gravity!
Re:Lies, Damn Lies and "Science" Articles (Score:3, Insightful)
No need to worry about that, once they're in orbit it's all weightless (although still massive).