NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck in space for months longer than expected, and will not return to Earth until at least March 2025 at the earliest, NASA indicated.
I know people have spent longer on the ISS but at some point, I’d come back in a Home Depot bucket wearing a spacesuit with some scuba gear.
And for those who want to argue about the heat shielding on a Home Depot bucket, I’d be responsible about it. I’d glue all kinds of shit to it. Steal a parachute from the Roscosmos side. I’d be fine.
“You’d land in the Indian Ocean."
This isn’t rocket science. It’s the opposite. I’ll land where I want. I’d aim for your mom’s house and land in her bedroom. Injuries would include a crushed pelvis and not from the fall. That’s just what happens when I visit your mom.
An excellent idea, with each season finale being another failed return trip that gets delayed, and then the next season all their conditions are significantly worse until they resort to canabalism
fwiw, they both may never go back to space again so their time in space has been extended much beyond what they thought they could do and have repeatedly said they are trying to make the most of it. The real problem is just the scheduling bumps and resource allocations.
I don't think the radiation should be too big of a problem, they are in a very low earth orbit, well inside of the Earth's magnetosphere. Not to say there are no health risks, they lose a lot of bone and muscle mass, but radiation shouldn't be a big concern
What does the privatization of space flight, and it's subsequent technical failures resulting in a 2-week expedition turning into a 10-month expedition have to do with capitalism? Is that a serious question?
I'm new to lemmy world. I'm noticing every top comment is something negative about capitalism. Either the clueless reddit communists came over or it's just Russian trolls. It could be a stubbed toe, "CAPITALISM FOR YA!!" I picked to post here because this is 8 out of 10 posts now. It's pretty much equivalent to "THANKS OBAMA!"
It feels like we're just watching them slowly die up there. Maybe one of the billionaires is trying to discredit public space programs for good and their deaths are intended to be that final bell.
Edit: Thanks for the down votes guys! I guess my concerns are unfounded.
They're astronauts, they're loving this, they've said so in Interviews and it's pretty obvious they've not just been told to say that. That's not to mention that Starliner is a private spacecraft (just as much as Dragon is) and that's the only thing being discredited here.
I love a gym or a sauna but I’m not gonna love it after 20x my normal planned time has passed and I can’t leave.
Also: we’ve got NO idea what they REALLY think or feel privately, of COURSE they’d be forced to pretend it’s what they want in a public interview (I mean, cmon.)
The ISS still gets regular deliveries and even some replacement astronauts from SpaceX but the Boeing and SpaceX suits aren't inter-compatible so they can't hitch a ride back afaik.
the Boeing and SpaceX suits aren't inter-compatible so they can't hitch a ride back
They are indeed hitching a ride back. The SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon launched with two empty seats for this reason. Two extra Dragon IVA suits were sent up as well.
When your government is so afraid of socialism that they won't even mandate that the two companies they contract out share some compatibility for the sake of convenience.
"Should we tell them that part of the deal is that they have to both work with the others technology?"
I wonder what the defining amount of bone density loss marks the onset of osteoporosis. A cursory google search suggests that they are losing between 1-2% per month in space.
Oof. Upvoted as hell. That is EXACTLY how capitalism works. Except that said billionaire would have to be planning on profiting from their own private space program instead…