May 22, 2005

International Space Station oxygen problems This is how bad our space program is. The article is depressing for fans of space exploration. MSNBC article print version may ask your browser to print the page - just cancel it.
posted by Scary Corn Imp 18 years ago
  • This is scary. Reading stories like this always sends me into sympathetic mode. I started to feel like I needed to breath deeper.
  • Hal, switch to manual hibernation control. ... Hey, Dave. I've got ten years of service experience and an irreplaceable amount of time and effort has gone into making me what I am.
  • /hard stare You're drubk.
  • So, they didn't take any plants with them?
  • aha! there you go, they should have watched Silent Running.
  • Well, if it gets worse they'll just start sending up big scuba tanks of oxygen under 300 million psi. Don't bump the regulator valve!
  • I see a big news headliner to take attention away from the invasion of Iran. Stay tuned folks, June is almost here.
  • I notice that nowhere in this article they point to the real reason why this is happening: the grounding of the space shuttle. The reason for that is that another shuttle disaster would be such bad PR for NASA that they would lose even more funding then they already have. This is rocket science, and sometimes it goes wrong. Those astronauts are perfectly aware of that.
  • Is there anything in the ISS to protect the astronauts from radiation sickness? I imagine they're out in space far enough to take them outside the protective magnetic fields of the earth.
  • If you got anything to post on that, retank, post FPP.
  • Maybe they can land on the moon and make their oxygen themselves... Oh, wait, that technology is not ready yet.
  • I just watched a documentary yesterday about efforts to get the shuttle back up and running. Here's NASA's page for "Return to Flight", as they're calling it. A scary thing is, though, that in the event that the shuttle gets damaged on takeoff again, one plan of action is for the astronauts to hang out on the space station until another shuttle can come rescue them. I guess that plan's out for now.
  • We have those oxygen candles on submarines. You are in one shitty, scary situation when you are forced to rely on them.
  • Alex, though they're in a higher radiation environment than we landlubbers, they're well within the Van Allen radiation belts, and are fairly well protected.