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Feels more like getting an extended vacation getting to do the coolest thing you can do as a human.

by kelseydh 2y ago

ghfhghg 2y ago
[flagged]
- w-ll 2y ago
  i think the flight up is the scariest part.
  - blooalien 2y ago
    I imagine the return trip is almost as scary. Can you imagine the relief of setting foot on "solid ground" again though? :)
    - kelseydh 2y ago
      Their inner ear balance and coordination is so atrophied they can barely walk. It's at least a two or three month recovery.
jader201 2y ago
I’m not sure it’s considered a vacation if you didn’t plan on staying 34x the number of days you had originally planned, or have a choice to leave. Especially when you’re separated from your family and other loved ones.
- AStonesThrow 2y ago
  What is this about "planning" stuff? They trained and volunteered as astronauts/cosmonauts, and that still typically entails a military career as well, and military families indeed suffer the absence of loved ones, but that is always part of the collective sacrifice that makes America, well, great... and astronauts are public figures, celebrities, smiling for the camera and making prepared statements at each milestone, and that glory they earned this for this crew was simply following orders and being trained/prepared for all eventualities while the rocket scientists worked out the logistics. And if you follow JPL robotic missions that far outlast their mission objectives and keep going like Energizer Bunnies, then is it not sort of amazing that the astronauts really suffered no privations or hardships, in terms of food/shelter/clothing/hygiene, by extending their missions and doing useful things up there? People watch "The Martian" and "Lost in Space" and they can't seem to grasp the careful pre-planning, incident response, resource allocation, and orcestration that goes into everything that's done by space programs. Space missions include sprawling, branching flow-charts of every contingency they imagined, and they inform the press of mission objectives and a proposed timeline, and then life happens and when glitches come up, they roll with them because they prepared for them. Apollo 13, for example, is categorically different than a space habitation in Earth orbit; as a lone vehicle with limited resources and an isolated path, that Apollo mission ran out of planned contingencies to the point of improvising so many things and returning to fundamentals, preserving human life. It's the peril of human life that definitely adds drama for us, and the ISS being influenced by geopolitics is categorically different than the nationalist glories of Mercury-Gemini-Apollo vs. the Soviets. But with ISS in Earth orbit, receiving regular resupply missions, being a habitable outpost, it's far different than sending up a vehicle like the Space Shuttle while everyone speculates whether another Saturn V could be constructed in time to rescue the crew because tiles fell off their heat shield. Speaking of Saturn, I've been peering into Greek/Roman mythology, and learning what Cronus/Saturn did with his children and how Aphrodite/Venus was born, gives new insight into super heavy-lift launch vehicles named after the deity.
  - ranguna 2y ago
    Personally I don't think that's good enough justification. Being stuck in space doesn't make any country look good, if anything, it makes them look bad for their errors. But the only people that can actually say this was bad or good are the astronauts themselves, only they know how much they love their work to turn the word "stranded" into something else positive.
    - troupo 2y ago
      > Being stuck in space doesn't make any country look good They were not stuck in space > But the only people that can actually say this was bad or good are the astronauts themselves Multiple people that actually ran this mission have said multiple times that they were not stuck, and explained all the reasons for the extension. And yet you keep ignoring everything except the narrative of "stuck" and "stranded".
      - ranguna 2y ago
        Do you have sources for what these multiple people have said?
- blitzar 2y ago
  When you are strapping to a rocket the plan is that you explode into lots of little pieces. Getting there and back alive is a bonus.
- ulfw 2y ago
  Erm they didn't plan to go on some 8 days business trip for some work project. This is their life and profession. The job is extremely difficult, dangerous and mega mega expensive. Hence they don't get to do it as much as they love. Now they did.
szundi 2y ago
[dead]
baq 2y ago
They’ll spend their ‘working time’ getting back to being a functional human. Not exactly a good deal if you ask me.
- sterlind 2y ago
  oh I don't know, grueling rehab and moderate health consequences in exchange for getting to spend nine months in space seems like it'd be a deal many would take.
heraldgeezer 2y ago
Destroying your body so cool bro bwahaha "Another astronaut comments on what the Crew-9 people can expect: "The returning astronauts will "struggle to walk, get dizzy easily, and have bad eyesight", because the "build-up of fluid changes the shape of their eyeballs, and weakens their vision". They may need glasses for the rest of their lives.""
- kelseydh 2y ago
  They knew these risks when they signed up, and the queue of people dreaming to be astronauts despite these risks is enormous. Some crew members coming back on this mission had gone multiple times.

Feels more like getting an extended vacation getting to do the coolest thing you can do as a human.

ghfhghg 2y ago

[flagged]

w-ll 2y ago
i think the flight up is the scariest part.
- blooalien 2y ago
  I imagine the return trip is almost as scary. Can you imagine the relief of setting foot on "solid ground" again though? :)
  - kelseydh 2y ago
    Their inner ear balance and coordination is so atrophied they can barely walk. It's at least a two or three month recovery.

jader201 2y ago

I’m not sure it’s considered a vacation if you didn’t plan on staying 34x the number of days you had originally planned, or have a choice to leave. Especially when you’re separated from your family and other loved ones.

AStonesThrow 2y ago
What is this about "planning" stuff? They trained and volunteered as astronauts/cosmonauts, and that still typically entails a military career as well, and military families indeed suffer the absence of loved ones, but that is always part of the collective sacrifice that makes America, well, great... and astronauts are public figures, celebrities, smiling for the camera and making prepared statements at each milestone, and that glory they earned this for this crew was simply following orders and being trained/prepared for all eventualities while the rocket scientists worked out the logistics. And if you follow JPL robotic missions that far outlast their mission objectives and keep going like Energizer Bunnies, then is it not sort of amazing that the astronauts really suffered no privations or hardships, in terms of food/shelter/clothing/hygiene, by extending their missions and doing useful things up there? People watch "The Martian" and "Lost in Space" and they can't seem to grasp the careful pre-planning, incident response, resource allocation, and orcestration that goes into everything that's done by space programs. Space missions include sprawling, branching flow-charts of every contingency they imagined, and they inform the press of mission objectives and a proposed timeline, and then life happens and when glitches come up, they roll with them because they prepared for them. Apollo 13, for example, is categorically different than a space habitation in Earth orbit; as a lone vehicle with limited resources and an isolated path, that Apollo mission ran out of planned contingencies to the point of improvising so many things and returning to fundamentals, preserving human life. It's the peril of human life that definitely adds drama for us, and the ISS being influenced by geopolitics is categorically different than the nationalist glories of Mercury-Gemini-Apollo vs. the Soviets. But with ISS in Earth orbit, receiving regular resupply missions, being a habitable outpost, it's far different than sending up a vehicle like the Space Shuttle while everyone speculates whether another Saturn V could be constructed in time to rescue the crew because tiles fell off their heat shield. Speaking of Saturn, I've been peering into Greek/Roman mythology, and learning what Cronus/Saturn did with his children and how Aphrodite/Venus was born, gives new insight into super heavy-lift launch vehicles named after the deity.
- ranguna 2y ago
  Personally I don't think that's good enough justification. Being stuck in space doesn't make any country look good, if anything, it makes them look bad for their errors. But the only people that can actually say this was bad or good are the astronauts themselves, only they know how much they love their work to turn the word "stranded" into something else positive.
  - troupo 2y ago
    > Being stuck in space doesn't make any country look good They were not stuck in space > But the only people that can actually say this was bad or good are the astronauts themselves Multiple people that actually ran this mission have said multiple times that they were not stuck, and explained all the reasons for the extension. And yet you keep ignoring everything except the narrative of "stuck" and "stranded".
    - ranguna 2y ago
      Do you have sources for what these multiple people have said?
blitzar 2y ago
When you are strapping to a rocket the plan is that you explode into lots of little pieces. Getting there and back alive is a bonus.
ulfw 2y ago
Erm they didn't plan to go on some 8 days business trip for some work project. This is their life and profession. The job is extremely difficult, dangerous and mega mega expensive. Hence they don't get to do it as much as they love. Now they did.

szundi 2y ago

[dead]

baq 2y ago

They’ll spend their ‘working time’ getting back to being a functional human. Not exactly a good deal if you ask me.

sterlind 2y ago
oh I don't know, grueling rehab and moderate health consequences in exchange for getting to spend nine months in space seems like it'd be a deal many would take.

heraldgeezer 2y ago

Destroying your body so cool bro bwahaha "Another astronaut comments on what the Crew-9 people can expect: "The returning astronauts will "struggle to walk, get dizzy easily, and have bad eyesight", because the "build-up of fluid changes the shape of their eyeballs, and weakens their vision". They may need glasses for the rest of their lives.""

kelseydh 2y ago
They knew these risks when they signed up, and the queue of people dreaming to be astronauts despite these risks is enormous. Some crew members coming back on this mission had gone multiple times.