Space Station Crew Forced to Cut Calories 434
gollum123 writes "CNN and others are reporting that food is running so low aboard the international space station that both the crew members have been asked to cut their calories, at least until a Russian supply ship arrives in a little over two weeks. The situation is so bad that if a Russian cargo vessel scheduled to arrive on Dec. 25 has a mishap or is significantly delayed, the astronauts, one American and one Russian, will have to abandon the station and return home months ahead of schedule. An independent team is looking into how the food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly and how it can be improved in the future."
Re:Weightless Weight Loss (Score:2, Insightful)
Only 2 astronauts (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't bother with the Russian food jokes. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't bother with the Russian food jokes. (Score:3, Insightful)
You do know that we Brits are the culinary laughing stock of the world? That's why I'm glad to be Scottish. Who else would think of the deep fried mars bar / deep fried pizza?
Re:Great (Score:1, Insightful)
That's a fundamental result of Einstein's strong equivalence principle.
The mass can affect the orbit if the orbit is low enough to interact with the atmosphere.
Sick Sick Nasa (Score:2, Insightful)
How many astronauts? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't bother with the Russian food jokes. (Score:2, Insightful)
Tell me this isn't serious... (Score:3, Insightful)
``NASA and the Russian Space Agency were stunned to learn last week that the astronauts had begun digging into the 45-day food reserve -- which exists to protect against a delayed supply shipment -- in mid-November.''
Do they seriously mean that:
1. The astronauts weren't supplied with enough food
2. The situation was so bad they had to dig into the reserves
3. They didn't tell Earth about this?
If this is how seriously the people involved take their mission, I say we cut the funding right here, right now.
I've never been able to see space flight as anything but a waste of time, energy and money, but I've been okay with it; other people have lives and opinions too. But time and time again it turns out they don't do it properly. Exploding rockets and space shuttles, confusing metric and imperial units, failed Mars missions, and now this.
Re:This project needs to be put out of its misery. (Score:4, Insightful)
Whether it is a sucess depends on what you consider it's purpose to have been. In so far it has a purpose it is to exist and be manned, nothing more, and at that it has suceeded. The problems, beyond the expeted small technical ones, have all been due to America not having a worthwhile launch system to do their end of the job.
All of the other supposed purposes which it has not suceeded against were bogus anyway. No one had a real scientific mission for it for instance. These purposes were just made up to get the budget past politicians who had no interest in space projets per-se. So, except for the politics, there is no reason to worry that it hasn't achieved them.
Re:This is really bad (Score:2, Insightful)
Like regular shuttle flights...
Re:This is really bad (Score:1, Insightful)
it's bullshit, they can fix what caused the accident easily, why are they so farking afraid to launch the shuttles again?
the country formerly known as the USSR did not jolin this expecting ther big player to bail on them because they are fucking pussies.
I GUARENTEE there is a line of astronauts willing to go up on the shuttle RIGHT NOW.
Re:Weightless Weight Loss (Score:3, Insightful)
Exercising like mad. They have to - if they don't they lose muscle mass because of the lack of gravity. The Soviets learned this the hard way. When the cosmonauts who went on the first long-term missions returned to earth, they were practically crippled and had to go through months of rehab.
Re:This is really bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, you do realize, don't you, that the effects you're talking about here were documented by Soviet cosmonauts after long-term missions aboard Mir? Sounds to me like they did their jobs pretty damn well.
Oh, and in case you missed it, the Russians aren't coming up short when it comes to ISS flights - NASA is. The Russians are stepping up to the plate and getting both US and Russian crew into orbit.
Re:This is really bad (Score:3, Insightful)
And the only reason that it's the Russians who are supplying the station is because of the Columbia disaster:
But he said it is no more critical than previous supply runs, which have been conducted exclusively by the Russians ever since last year's Columbia disaster.
Before moaning about other countries, perhaps you should look to the problems in your own...
Re:This is really bad (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, it's a shame that the Russians are almost two years behind with their planned space shuttle flights to ISS. Oh, wait
Re:Don't bother with the Russian food jokes. (Score:4, Insightful)
Fried arteries?
I've seen and heard this story... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is uniformly described as a "diet" or "cutback".
Will someone please explain to me why no one is willing to use the term "forced rationing"? As that certainly seems to be the most accurate description from the high peak of reason and sensibility where I reside...
Or maybe the "news" is not about presenting "accurate description"s.
Re:Sick joke... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I wonder how long you could survive on 3000 C (Score:1, Insightful)
The astronauts are being asked to cut back 10% from their 3000 Calorie / day food intake. Now, remember, these people are weightless, so they are burning *less* Calories than they would on earth. So I wouldn't say they are in danger of starving or anything....
If anything, they are in danger of becoming lard-asses.
Re:Great (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh my god! Space exploration is doomed!