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...
New business model (Score:4, Funny)
spoon millionaires? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:4, Informative)
This documentary [youtube.com]
Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:5, Informative)
The astronauts are issued one set of silverware per mission. It's not just a spoon. But because they cannot do dishes, they wipe them down with a disinfectant towlette at the end of each meal.
And since there is no money, as they approach the end of the mission whoever has squirreled away enough m&m's or tortillas has the most "bargaining power" to trade for whatever else is left.
Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:4, Insightful)
Never mind that - the largest problem is to cut down on the amount of items that you may bring with you. I think that the best way to figure out what you REALLY need is to during several years going for extended hikes and holidays on bicycle. Note every item that you use and next year only pack those items. After a few years you know what you really can't do without.
From what I can understand most problems arises around hygiene handling in space. It can be a smelly situation...
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Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:spoon millionaires? (Score:5, Funny)
There is no spoon.
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Well, maybe not.
No one can hear you scream? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No one can hear you scream? (Score:5, Funny)
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I'm not concerned whether YOU enjoyed it... it's all about you you you, isn't it?
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Anyways, did you get the part?
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Hey, quit complaining. Just imagine what it would have cost to take her into space for a little privacy!
> Anyways, did you get the part?
Ask your hotel girl.
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Gov. Spitzer, is that you??
From TFA... (Score:5, Funny)
[Insert Garfield joke here.]
Re:From TFA... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:From TFA... (Score:5, Funny)
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Oi. Garfield is still hilarious - if you remove the eponymous cat...
Encyclopedia Dramatica's page on Garfield [encycloped...matica.com] (especially the gallery of Garfield reworkings [encycloped...matica.com]) has more stuff in that vein. Some of it is crap (Jon f****s his cat, yawn), some of it is good.... much of it is very strange. (Oddly, some of the strangest stuff is also the funniest- or maybe that's just my sense of humour. Especially the running gag about the "eyes".... WTF?!)
It says a lot that this stuff is more interesting than the actual cartoon strip has been for at least 15 years.
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Actually, after lasagna for 6 days, I probably be the only astronaut who hadn't gone!
Re:From TFA... (Score:4, Interesting)
No pizza? (Score:5, Funny)
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http://www.iltaco.com/fsp/if.html [iltaco.com]
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Regardless, now I don't feel so bad, as they do not have pizza in space. How do they cope?
I know you are joking, but you should read the word pizza from a more symbolical point of view. The point is that if you are on a long mission in space and deprived from eating whatever you want (such as pizza), you will end up dealing with issues you had no idea you could be having. I don't like eating pizza and I rarely eat any, but if I was forbidden to eat it, it would definitely make me want one more.
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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!
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Dibs on the pentagonal pieces!
Re:No Pizza? (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact... I think I need to file a patent on this method...
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Space, (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Space, (Score:5, Funny)
No laundry (Score:5, Funny)
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Silver-lining Laundry (Score:5, Funny)
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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.
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There IS Icre Cream in Space (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:There IS Icre Cream in Space (Score:5, Informative)
Also lots of the other items are off. the ISS has regular garbage runs, Progress supply ships turn into garbage containers for the return trip/burnup. you finish all your food because you are on an incredibly scripted and designed diet for you. The portion you were given was designed for you and it is incredibly important to your health to eat your diet plan. Ipods may have been banned but other mp3 players that use a approved battery design (AA cell size) have been welcome for a long time now and the ISS crew is allowed several personal items.
Besides, a year ago the sent up a mp3 player loaded with songs that some Norwegian girl chose as music for people in space, that mp3 player model was certified for use and is in use by ISS personnel. Just because they cant have a Trendy Ipod means nothing to them.
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Re:There IS Icre Cream in Space (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:There IS Icre Cream in Space (Score:5, Informative)
Things don't need to be heated in space, they need to be cooled. Radiation is generally not a very efficient way to get rid of waste heat, so it's usually quite warm in any enclosed space. So no, you can't really keep stuff cool without active refrigeration, which generates heat of its own that has to be radiated, so you don't want to do any more than necessary.
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The Lactose-tolerant astronauts were jealous!
Implications for exploring other planets (Score:4, Informative)
Carries a lot of implications for traveling to even near by planets, with travel time measured in months instead of days. It's tough enough to manage consumables, but traveling to Mars without a change of clothes or some way to launder them is a huge technical challenge all on its own. Maybe clothing becomes another consumable, dispose after using. And you have to pack enough groceries to sustain the entire trip, grow your own or starve if there's a mishap.
And those are our near neighbors, even living on the moon. Extended life in space is going to involve a lot of research. Let's face it, we're adapted for life on this planet. Trying to carry these living conditions across space is not only a technical challenge, it's a financial one as well. Who's going to pay for all this technology? All the lift capacity to get it into space and...then what? If we set up a moon base, we have to supply it. That's not going to be cheap. A Mars trip...even more expensive.
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Oh No ... It's going to be a bit tricky!
Who's going to pay for all this technology?
Well, if we don't get off this rock we ALL are, and the sooner we get started the cheaper it is likely to be! At some point the World is going to need all the money it generates just to try and keep the ever expanding population alive - at that point
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Re:Implications for exploring other planets (Score:4, Insightful)
But somehow, they figured it out, and we will, too.
Re:Implications for exploring other planets (Score:4, Insightful)
Ocean going ships are traveling in an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere at 1 G. All you need are sufficient provisions, and if you want a change in diet, throw a net or line over the side for some fish. Space ships are in Space (near vacuum, no gravity, nothing).
Grow up, future space cadets. Space travel is not Star Trek.
Re:Implications for exploring other planets (Score:4, Insightful)
My point was not that space travel will be easy -- it won't. My point was that the early explorers of the New World faced very serious problems that pushed the limit of their science and technology, and space travelers in our age will also have to face problems that challenge the limits of our science and technology. But mankind has always risen to the challenge; we will do so again.
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 !
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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.
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: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.
I kind of agree with that too (Score:2)
They left off burping (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They left off burping (Score:4, Funny)
No ice cream? No Freezer? (Score:2)
(Imperfect analogy warning) Back when I was in college, which was before the days of affordable small refrigerators, we used to take stuff we wanted kept cool and hang it in a plastic sack outside our dorm window. For a good part of the Seattle school year, it's cool enough outside for that to work.
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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.
There are reasons for no Pizza in space (Score:4, Funny)
I do like to say it though... heh... flying sausage...
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We can carry equip the ISS with carpeting of various values, but measuring the frequency of bread falling butter side down will be impossible.
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Modifie your iPod?! (Score:2, Funny)
ObMST3K (Score:2)
if you're wondering how they eat and breathe,
And other science facts.
Then repeat to yourself, "It's just a shuttle,
I should really just relax."
Here's proof they do have iPods (Score:5, Interesting)
The question is... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The question is... (Score:4, Funny)
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Sounds like what is what like to live... (Score:2)
iPods are Battery Burners? (Score:2)
``But now the people who figure out just where to stow everyone on the space shuttle have to find space for spare double-A batteries, because the iPods tend to be battery burners!''
Compared to CD players? (mentioned earlier in the article) That surprises me.
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Seems they forgot a big one ... (Score:4, Interesting)
No security (Score:3)
Local currency develops ... (Score:3, Insightful)
People in an isolated environment, with restricted access to status goods use a lower status material of restricted availability as a proxy for other items of value. Look in any prison at the trade in "contraband" tobacco. Look also at the submariner's tale (up-thread, look for a typo of "submarien", IIRC) of tobacco rations being treated similarly. Look back to the rationing in the war (any war), and what a GI could get for a pair of nylons. Come out to an oil rig with my colleagues and I for a couple of weeks and notice how the "can of coke and a Mars bar" becomes a local variant of a gold standard.
To be honest, I'd suspect that the mission planners DELIBERATELY included the sweeties etc. - in a "stashable" form - so that people would develop this sort of economy. It then naturally provides a (seemingly) self-developed social lubricant to minor awkward moments. Good psychology.
That's probably why the submariners had a "smokes" ration too. This isn't exactly a novel situation.
Which would you prefer - chocolates, smokes, or a good dose of Rum, Sodomy and The Lash [winstonchurchill.org] (allegedly Winston Churchill's list of the traditions of the Royal Navy).
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:5, Insightful)
I also find it hard to believe that the standard battery on an iPod is going to suddenly going to turn into an explosive device if they take it into space. That sounds like more of a bureaucratic oversight than anything else.
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It's true that in general, when an iPod goes into freefall, it stops working very quickly. Maybe some idiot has just taken that rule of thumb, true on Earth, and applied it to space?
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I am just wondering, why not use nickel metal hydride chemistry, the laptops on the ISS use it, it would save the annoyance of disposable alkalines.
In space, no one can hear you scream for ice cream (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:5, Insightful)
They've caught fire [wsbtv.com] here on Earth. I expect the effect of such a fire in space would range anywhere from serious to catastrophic.
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:4, Insightful)
As for the iPods, I'm sure that's a technicality. They are a bit paranoid about safety up there since you can't just dial 911 in an emergency and get help on the way in 9 minutes. They probably remove the batteries and then attach them to the external packs you can buy around here, that take four AA batteries.
It's also very likely they have an alternate adapter to jack into the ISS's grid to power it, a bit like a cigarette lighter jack but something smaller I'm sure. The batteries are probably only needed when they are inconveniently away from an outlet, or say out on a space walk.
I bet they have even more stringent requirements though for what you can take on your person when on a space walk. It would not surprise me if ipods are barred. And for some of those 8 and 11 hour marathon walks we hear about from time to time, that's gotta be a bummer.
I'm surprised this article gave so few details though - I've heard offhand of numerous other issues I was expecting to read about in this article. It had all of what, five interesting factoids? Lets hear about
- toilets
- showers
- drinking liquids
- anything to reduce weight on liftoff, like hair cutting
- I wonder if there's an "in case of emergency" bean-o pack on board? heh... y'know, one recirculating air system and all...
- the sorrid details of a long space walk. how do you drink? anything for food in 8-11 hr walks? yes, you get to wear a diaper and WILL be using it, etc
- stories of what happens when an astronaut gets sick - flu etc. I recall someone on Appolo getting appendicitis in mission.
- do astronauts sign an agreement not to have sex while up there? or how was that addressed? you know they had something to say about it.
- personal limitations? we saw max height mentioned, but is there a minimum? how about weight? (of course!) are implants ok? glasses barred am guessing? are contacts ok? medical history? I assume the same rules of being a pilot apply, plus more, as far as medical are concerned. Minimum strength requirements?
- what is their contingency plan for if an astronaut dies while up there? (aneurism, accident, whatever) Again you KNOW they have an action plan for this because they HAVE TO. Do they keep body bag(s) on board or just gonna wrap the body in a lot of duct tape?
- cross training? I have to assume all astronauts have at least basic knowledge of 100% of the critical systems?
That article is soooo lacking.
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They sell it at the Smithsonian National Air & Space museum. I've eaten it. Three flavors, Vanilla Strawberry and Chocolate, all in one cosmopolitan package. It doesn't taste very good and it doesn't 'feel' like regular ice cream. If you want to try some, go here: http://www.thespaceshop.com/neopi [thespaceshop.com]
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I weep for national news services (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not a "bureaucratic oversight".
NASA hasn't certified (those) lithium batteries for space.
And NASA hasn't certified iPods for use on the space station.
If it isn't tested, it doesn't fly.
It may seem like bureaucratic red tape, but that kind of meticulousness is what keeps the space program so safe.
On the upside, at least astronauts get to have iPods with replaceable batteries.
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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 intere
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I would think they'd use metal-hydride or something.
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Gravity has little do do with the batteries, but the a possible fire in space is a huge no-no.
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Even ignoring whether a given lithium
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rj