How do you imagine life up on a space station / in a shuttle?

[Ecthy]

With a German now part of the long term team on the ISS I was reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion the universe is a good thing. Beyond that, I read a bit on the biographies of astronauts, and it appears most of them were fighter pilots before, often test pilots.

3%-4% of people who have been on space missions have died etc, many more ground personnel. But the really interesting questions are not answered on Wiki: how does a handful of people or even less work together or such a long time in such limited space with no chance of taking a walk to straighten your thoughts, without killing each other or going mad? Being in space for several weeks must be a pain on your psyche, let alone several months or more than a year.

I suppose they get psychological testing / training, and are selected by compatibility, what do you reckon? When I was in China for 3 weeks I had a fight with one guy from our group on the second day, we were travelling in a small group and several of us didn't know each other before the travel. So do astronaust get to know each other well before they work together? Do they ever have sex up there?

Are there any records about this, any books written by astronauts or something? Some secret NASA files revelations about bloodletting among aggressive males? I reckon the first combined missions of Americans and Russians must have been interesting...

What are your thoughts about life and work in space? Just how much do astronauts rule?

[Ecthy]

I hear that during Olympic games they hand out loads of condoms to all participants because those young sports people are quite sexually active with each other. Similar on the ISS? Yuri and Jim?

[Ecthy]

Obviously they have a huge workload so there might not be much time for having fun, but working hard is also a social situation. Any reports of catfights during a spacewalk?

[Lodi]

Ah, just hack the US war department's computers and try to find files on and pertaining to the real space program. Just like that hacker over in Britain did.

By the way, did you know the the US Space Military Command has preeminence over the other US military brances?

[Ecthy]

No ideas?

[Qilue]

I imagine there have been incidents which were glossed over. Did you do any research on astronauts who quit or retired early?

[Ecthy]

Only glanced through Wiki, which didn't have much detail on that kind of info.

[Kontiki]

I would imagine life in a space station would have a brief novelty period, after which it would be mind-numbingly dull and ****ty beyond belief.

[Zkribbler]

There is a wonderful line in the movie Capricorn One, when the astronauts discovered they had only enough oxygen to permit two out of the three of them to return to Earth:

We should approach this problem scientifically. The two big guys should throw the little guy out of the capsule.

[FrostyBoy]

Send prisoners up, they're used to it.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: How do you imagine life up on a space station / in a shuttle?

Originally posted by Ecthy
With a German now part of the long term team on the ISS I was reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion the universe is a good thing. Beyond that, I read a bit on the biographies of astronauts, and it appears most of them were fighter pilots before, often test pilots.

3%-4% of people who have been on space missions have died etc, many more ground personnel. But the really interesting questions are not answered on Wiki: how does a handful of people or even less work together or such a long time in such limited space with no chance of taking a walk to straighten your thoughts, without killing each other or going mad? Being in space for several weeks must be a pain on your psyche, let alone several months or more than a year.

I suppose they get psychological testing / training, and are selected by compatibility, what do you reckon? When I was in China for 3 weeks I had a fight with one guy from our group on the second day, we were travelling in a small group and several of us didn't know each other before the travel. So do astronaust get to know each other well before they work together? Do they ever have sex up there?

Are there any records about this, any books written by astronauts or something? Some secret NASA files revelations about bloodletting among aggressive males? I reckon the first combined missions of Americans and Russians must have been interesting...

What are your thoughts about life and work in space? Just how much do astronauts rule?

They rule. I've been lucky enough to meet and talk with two (Charles Bolden and Sally Ride), who are both extremely well informed, articulate, super highly intelligent,have a wide range of interests, and they come across as rock solid stable.

Long training periods, long times in simulated work environments, constant physical, psych and performance evaluations are standard. I'd expect anyone who would lose the slightest degree of control in any way that could vaguely have a chance of affecting the mission would get weeded out. It's tough to get selected for the astronaut corps, and there are quite a few selected who may never fly - now, you can probably expect at least 3-5 year selection, evaluation and training period before you actually fly a mission on a shuttle flight deck, and at least 2-3 years before you fly a mission as a mission specialist.

As for life - I imagine you're probably a combination of too tired to get squirrely most of the time (other than science and/or flight operations, there's a huge amount of routine maintenance - system checks, etc., all the time), and too excited by what you're doing during the high points of the mission.

[Ecthy]

Mike, that sounds amazing, where did you meet those people?

Interesting theory there. I've now seen a pic of one of those labs and it appears they have no windows to the outside. So it probably feels like normal lab work just without gravitation.

[Addled Platypus]

How do you imagine life up on a space station / in a shuttle?

awfull if you cant post here

[Cort Haus]

I've seen a TV program that portrayed life in space as unbelievably difficult. It's hard enough for humans to coexist in confined spaces, without the extra isolation, fear, danger, discomfort and remoteness of space.

There have been major interpersonel problems, especially on the space station with people from different cultures and social norms.

Just thinking about it makes me feel glad to have my feet on the ground.

[Cort Haus]

- and then there's the health thing. If you don't cycle and excercise near-constantly your muscles whither away.