Leakonauts, Stinkonauts,Taikonauts, CAUSEmonauts, TaLkonauts in The Politics Of War Forum

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Leakonauts, Stinkonauts,Taikonauts, CAUSEmonauts, TaLkonauts

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daetaku	Leakonauts, Stinkonauts,Taikonauts, CAUSEmonauts,...	Lead	[-]
Posts: 4105 Mar 28 12 1:05 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A http://www.theregister.co.../china_female_taikonaut/ B http://usa.chinadaily.com.../25/content_14906617.htm ----- A "However, while it was decided in a rare example of sexual equality in the People’s Republic that two out of the seven astronauts, or taikonauts, are to be female, they were picked according to some fairly peculiar rules. The 15 female candidates for the mission which were then whittled down to two had to be married and have given birth naturally, as this reportedly ensures they have the mental and physical fortitude to survive in space. In fact, the women had to have flawless skin, as any scars run the risk of opening and bleeding in space, the report continued. In addition, smelly girls need not apply – because the cramped conditions of the space craft would make the stench unbearable, Pang Zhihao, deputy editor-in-chief of Space International magazine, is quoted as saying. "They even must not have decayed teeth because any small flaw might cause great trouble or a disaster in space," he continued." B "Pang said a scar might open and start bleeding in space and the cramped conditions would intensify body odor. Xu Xianrong, a professor with the General Hospital of the PLA Air Force, said the female astronauts must be married and have given birth naturally because that ensures their body and mental condition are mature enough. Meanwhile, Pang said female astronauts tend to be more "keen and sensitive with better communication skills than their male counterparts."" Hmmm, I wonder whether NASA male astronaut trainees were "scrubbed" (activated charcoal, or charcoal-activated-charcoal, hehehe), or a scrubbed (released) from the program without being told they really stank. I suppose, "In SPACE, everyone can smell you STINK" would cause fear in applicants to the nations' space programs. I wonder if chatty astronauts are a no-no, (hence, my subject: "TaLkonauts", heheheh). Any problems in those departments could lead to trouble, with CAUSE...
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Dcnwilltex		#1	[-]
Posts: 2848 Mar 28 12 5:25 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It actually makes common sense. Oral problems can lead to very serious problems and extreme pain. The pressure exerted on a exposed cavity can cause beaucoup pain when you're scuba diving at or beyond 6 atmospheres (200 feet depth). Military HALO prerequisites used to be strict about dental exams prior to arriving at the school. A tooth fissure is no small problem when you're a couple hundred miles above the nearest dentist. As to smell and gynecological issues, that makes sense if you live with a female who has a heavy menstrual flow. (I imagine they were politely skirting around that subject, but it is very real). The stench is beyond gagging (especially in a confined and warm environment). I don't intend on being sexist in that statement, but it is one of the most nauseating smells you will ever encounter. As to the issue of chattiness. Not only is it annoying, it is a good indicator of unresolved psychological issues. Spending 3 weeks alone with a person who talks when they are stressed is pure Hell magnified. Remember the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona? They had serious interactive problems despite the thorough screening and vetting process. They had much more physical space to operate from. What may appear nit-picky is anything but. Ask any detention officer who has worked a women's prison about when a women gets cabin fever, the stories get really ugly.
Nightwatch2		#2	[-]
Posts: 13072 Mar 28 12 6:37 AM Air Boss Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	our own military flight physical has dental requirements very similar. Try changing atmospheric pressure with a cavity or worse and see how that feels! The odor issue reminds me of one of the Star Trek spin offs (Star Trek Enterprise) when one Vulcan asks the Enterprise Vulcan "how do you stand the smell?" Maybe the problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Last Edited By: Nightwatch2 Mar 28 12 6:09 PM. Edited 1 times.
HMS Pinafore	Could be worse	#3	[-]
Posts: 3552 Mar 28 12 9:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In the USSR the prime criteria for their first woman in space was that she had to have the best possible Communist background. The is why according to the Chief Technical Advisor, the head of their programme, they sent the 'Dumb Blond' into orbit over the back-up (who was better qualified).
HMS Troutbridge	Sergei Korolev	#4	[-]
Posts: 1880 Mar 28 12 12:24 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Sergei Korolev (father of the Soviet Space Programme, and who conned the militray to fund a rocket that was virtually usless as an inter-continental ballistic missile but brilliant as a space rocket) only had a small number of requirements for those going into space. They had to be clever, very brave and above all under a certain size and weight to fit into the space capsules. Few people will have heard of Irina Solovyova, and those who have heard of Valentina Terreshkova probably don't know that much about her mission. As Korolev said afterwards, "blonds and space don't mix!"
Dcnwilltex		#5	[-]
Posts: 2848 Mar 28 12 2:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In the USSR the prime criteria for their first woman in space was that she had to have the best possible Communist background. The is why according to the Chief Technical Advisor, the head of their programme, they sent the 'Dumb Blond' into orbit over the back-up (who was better qualified). Until the Space shuttle program, the humans were, in fact, oversized chimps along for the ride. You had a bunch of test pilots instructed not to touch anything unless instructed by Houston Control. Since Astronauts/Cosmonauts were nothing but window dressing to be displayed to the public, political reliability is a good criteria. It's not like the program sending elementary school science teachers on a mission accomplished anything other than publicity.
HMS Pinafore	Valentina Terreshkova	#6	[-]
Posts: 3552 Mar 28 12 4:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Valentina Terreshkova actually had a whole series of experiments to run during her mission - and failed to complete just about all of them. She then fell asleep so deeply that ground control outside Moscow feared she had slipped into a coma. That is what caused the mission to be scrubbed and the capsule brought back to earth much earlier than originally planned. It was roughly 20 years before the USSR put their next woman into space. However this one was a test pilot in the Soviet Air Force and much better qualified. Britain's first female cosmonaut was a chocolate scientist!
FreshAirSnipe		#7	[-]
Posts: 1893 Mar 28 12 4:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Dcnwilltex wrote: In the USSR the prime criteria for their first woman in space was that she had to have the best possible Communist background. The is why according to the Chief Technical Advisor, the head of their programme, they sent the 'Dumb Blond' into orbit over the back-up (who was better qualified). Until the Space shuttle program, the humans were, in fact, oversized chimps along for the ride. You had a bunch of test pilots instructed not to touch anything unless instructed by Houston Control. Since Astronauts/Cosmonauts were nothing but window dressing to be displayed to the public, political reliability is a good criteria. It's not like the program sending elementary school science teachers on a mission accomplished anything other than publicity. James Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise and the rest of the Apollo astronauts might disagree with that. To some amount correct for the Gemini/Mercury missions though.
sergeante		#8	[-]
Posts: 4254 Mar 28 12 6:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	FreshAirSnipe wrote: James Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise and the rest of the Apollo astronauts might disagree with that. To some amount correct for the Gemini/Mercury missions though. Even on Apollo, there were a lot of things the astronauts didn't do without Mission Control guidance simply because they didn't have the data to make good decisions. The flight data presented to the flight crew was only a small fraction of that telemetered back to Houston. In many ways the crew were given what they as pilots expected to see -- attitude, fluids quantities and pressures, electrical system overall status, etc. The astronauts, for example, could monitor the alignment of their guidance platform using navigational instruments, but their actual position and velocity vector -- known collectively as state vector -- was determined from ground observations and telemetry. The spacecraft in fact could not remain on course unless the state vector was uploaded from the ground preiodically. (Even during the Shuttle era, state vector had to be updated from the ground once every 24 hours.) Probably most famously, when Neil and Buzz were on powered descent to the surface of the Moon, they simply didn't have the knowledge and experience to know what the 12XX series program alarms meant, and whether or not they should abort the landing. Only Mission Control could tell them that. Last Edited By: sergeante Mar 28 12 9:26 PM. Edited 1 times.
sergeante		#9	[-]
Posts: 4254 Mar 28 12 6:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HMS Troutbridge wrote: As Korolev said afterwards, "blonds and space don't mix!" Korolev was probably harder on Tereshkova than she deserved. Even the Hero Gagarin was not in control of his spacecraft, and could only have taken control by unlocking the control system with a code combination radioed up from the ground. (Korolev chickened out on that one, giving Gagarin the combination in a sealed envelope, just in case ground to air radio comms failed.)
daetaku		#10	[-]
Posts: 4105 Mar 28 12 6:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nightwatch2 wrote: our own military flight physical has dental requirements very similar. Try changing atmospheric pressure with a cavity or worse and see how that feels! The odor issue reminds me of one of the Star Trek spin offs (Star Trek Enterprise) when one Vulcan asks the Enterprise Vulcan "how do you stand the smell?" NW, speaking of Star Trek: Enterprise, Recall Voyager's Crewman Lon Suder (a professional, but psychopath, with no outlet): http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Lon_Suder I wonder if such people will someday make it into or "piggy back onto" a space program or deep travel mission, even though it might be 100 years before a steady stream of non-astronaut workers is in play... I imagine, though, a stinky chatter (male "flatcher" or female, flatulence or menstrual cycles gone wonky, natural birthing or not) penetrated the program -- homicide might arrive long before serial killers or psychos are up/out there. But, they might have to be creative, like muck around with a suit, or jam an airlock that is leaking life support, or fuse someone with a sparking console putting out the right amount of current/amps (if such things are in the circuitry). "was an effective member of the Maquis although he did not engender much affection from his colleagues. They regarded him as too efficient when killing Cardassians and this made them uncomfortable around him. In fact, Suder was using the Maquis as a release valve for his unnaturally violent nature. Once aboard Voyager, his violent tendencies did not have an outlet and eventually he lost control, killing Crewman Frank Darwin in 2372." But, in reality, deaths in space might be mostly due to accident or design glitches. Some, still, might result from overconfident flight controllers/mission controllers at the controls. Being cooped up in a cylinder, in space (or in a watery habitat), however much training, will take its toll on some people, eventually. A piece of terrestrial tech from Terra Firma that the space programs could use, though, would be the Japanese "Voice Jammer", so ground control can talk to the other mission specialists and pilots. Or, maybe they could just adjust the temperature to force everyone into suits and helmets, then electrically mute the Talkonaut's mic, hehehe... (and tell the others to nod in agreement or appropriately, to avert the Talkonaught going into rage over losing a captive audience...)
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Throd	Long space flights damage eyesight	#11	[-]
Posts: 4333 Mar 28 12 9:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Examination of nearly 30 astronauts has revealed that many of them suffered changes to the eyes and brain www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17354304
FreshAirSnipe		#12	[-]
Posts: 1893 Mar 28 12 10:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	sergeante wrote: FreshAirSnipe wrote: James Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise and the rest of the Apollo astronauts might disagree with that. To some amount correct for the Gemini/Mercury missions though. Even on Apollo, there were a lot of things the astronauts didn't do without Mission Control guidance simply because they didn't have the data to make good decisions. The flight data presented to the flight crew was only a small fraction of that telemetered back to Houston. In many ways the crew were given what they as pilots expected to see -- attitude, fluids quantities and pressures, electrical system overall status, etc. The astronauts, for example, could monitor the alignment of their guidance platform using navigational instruments, but their actual position and velocity vector -- known collectively as state vector -- was determined from ground observations and telemetry. The spacecraft in fact could not remain on course unless the state vector was uploaded from the ground preiodically. (Even during the Shuttle era, state vector had to be updated from the ground once every 24 hours.) Probably most famously, when Neil and Buzz were on powered descent to the surface of the Moon, they simply didn't have the knowledge and experience to know what the 12XX series program alarms meant, and whether or not they should abort the landing. Only Mission Control could tell them that. They couldn't do it completely without Mission Control, but they weren't entirely 'Spam in a can' as implied in the original post I replied to. Apollo 13 being the obvious example: knowing enough to manage a crisis situation when many of your automated systems go down. Kinda difficult for MC to walk on the moon and conduct the experiments also. Moreso for the shuttle drivers, since (from what I've read) they had local control when docking/undocking with the ISS or conducting satellite rendezvous. So yes: they couldn't conduct an entire mission themselves but they were far more than 'chimps along for the ride', otherwise why the stringent qualification/training process, even for mission specialists? Another example being that modern military relies to a great extent on communication/input/intelligence from the central chain of command (Air Force/Navy, somewhat the Army/Marines) but the commander/staff on scene needs to know enough about the situation and the strategy to carry on when the refuse hits the rotation air moving device.
sergeante		#13	[-]
Posts: 4254 Mar 28 12 11:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	FreshAirSnipe wrote: They couldn't do it completely without Mission Control, but they weren't entirely 'Spam in a can' as implied in the original post I replied to. Apollo 13 being the obvious example: knowing enough to manage a crisis situation when many of your automated systems go down. Kinda difficult for MC to walk on the moon and conduct the experiments also. Moreso for the shuttle drivers, since (from what I've read) they had local control when docking/undocking with the ISS or conducting satellite rendezvous. So yes: they couldn't conduct an entire mission themselves but they were far more than 'chimps along for the ride', otherwise why the stringent qualification/training process, even for mission specialists? They couldn't do it at all without Mission Control. Yes, there were things that astronauts could only do, but they wouldn't have been there to do them without Mission Control. The spacecraft and mission parameters were too complex for the astronauts to manage them from the cockpit. And Apollo 13 is in fact the primary example of how much the astronauts relied on mission control. The astronauts had to do a lot of stuff not on the flight plan, the vast majority of which couldn't have been done by remote control systems. But all of the self-rescue activities had to be planned on the ground and directed from there. Mission Control told the astroanuts which propulsion burns to do, when, and in what directions. Mission control told the astronauts which systems to shut down to conserve power, and how to configure the spacecraft systems safely. Mission Control designed and tested the field expedient device for integrating command module air scrubber cartridges into the lunar module air conditioning system. Mission Control designed and tested the minimal battery drain command module power procedures. Mission Control developed and tested the procedure to top up the command module batteries from the lunar module. Yes, the astronauts had to do all the work, and much of that work required skilled hands directed by accute minds. But that's a far cry from saying that the astronauts could have saved themselves. They simply didn't know enough themselves or have the resources to figure out and test procedures in the time available. WRT Shuttle, yes, the astronauts could maneuver the spacecraft within a small volume on orbit. That capability went all the way back to Gemini rendezvous experiments. However, it still took Mission Control to and a carefully thought out flight plan to guide them to that volume.
FreshAirSnipe		#14	[-]
Posts: 1893 Mar 29 12 12:45 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Not arguing that, I never said the Apollo 13 guys could have done it alone. I was pointing out that you can't just throw any old individuals into the spacecraft and expect good results, as the other poster implied.
sergeante		#15	[-]
Posts: 4254 Mar 29 12 5:09 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	FreshAirSnipe wrote: Not arguing that, I never said the Apollo 13 guys could have done it alone. I was pointing out that you can't just throw any old individuals into the spacecraft and expect good results, as the other poster implied. Yes, he went too far in one direction. You appeared to have been going too far in the other.
Beastro of Nektulos		#16	[-]
Posts: 1062 Mar 29 12 11:29 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nightwatch2 wrote: The odor issue reminds me of one of the Star Trek spin offs (Star Trek Enterprise) when one Vulcan asks the Enterprise Vulcan "how do you stand the smell?" Sinus drainage relies on gravity to work. Microgravity - stuffed noses. It's the reason why astronauts love really spicy food when they're up there, they can't taste anything else.
HMS Troutbridge	Jupiter Mining Corporation	#17	[-]
Posts: 1880 Mar 29 12 12:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Beastro of Nektulos wrote: Nightwatch2 wrote: The odor issue reminds me of one of the Star Trek spin offs (Star Trek Enterprise) when one Vulcan asks the Enterprise Vulcan "how do you stand the smell?" Sinus drainage relies on gravity to work. Microgravity - stuffed noses. It's the reason why astronauts love really spicy food when they're up there, they can't taste anything else. Quite agree Beastro of Nektulos, in fact the last crewman on board the Jupiter Mining Corporation space-vessel Red Dwarf can only eat very spicy curries, on account he only has three working taste-buds, so unless the food is flavoured on the Richter-scale he wouldn't taste anything! On a more serious note, NASA and the Russians have been looking at some sort of low-gravity system for a Mars mission because even a small amount of gravity would solve many medical problems. PS - there was a plot-line about a smelly leaking pipe on board the star-ship Excalibur.
Throd	Acclimatisation	#18	[-]
Posts: 4333 Mar 29 12 1:21 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Would the astronauts know there was a smell? Often people blank out a continuous sensory trigger and only respond to sudden new ones. Perhaps the first they know is when the ground crew who unbatten the hatches back away spluttering. I always thought that the first ground crew to reach the Shuttles on landing wore respirators because of rocket fuel - now I'm not so sure.
sergeante		#19	[-]
Posts: 4254 Mar 29 12 6:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Throd wrote: Would the astronauts know there was a smell? Often people blank out a continuous sensory trigger and only respond to sudden new ones. Perhaps the first they know is when the ground crew who unbatten the hatches back away spluttering. I always thought that the first ground crew to reach the Shuttles on landing wore respirators because of rocket fuel - now I'm not so sure. The Shuttle was nowhere near as bad as Apollo or the longer duration Gemini missions. Shuttle actually had a decent waste disposal system. Astronauts had said it's no worse than camping. Apollo and Gemini, on the other hand, required defecating into baggies and there was little provision made for cleaning up after. Astronauts have equated it to living in a telephone booth for the duration.
FreshAirSnipe		#20	[-]
Posts: 1893 Mar 29 12 8:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The invention of the zero-G toilet must have been a great relief for the astronauts!
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Leakonauts, Stinkonauts,Taikonauts, CAUSEmonauts, TaLkonauts

Leakonauts, Stinkonauts,Taikonauts, CAUSEmonauts,...