collision detection: I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that. No, I mean, like, seriously dude, you <i>really </i>shouldn't do that

February 24, 2004

I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that. No, I mean, like, seriously dude, you really shouldn't do that

Oh man. There are only two guys aboard the International Space Station, and on Monday they will be going on a space walk simultaneously. So the Station -- a leaky Edsel in bad need of servicing -- will be screaming through the howling aether on autopilot, while these poor saps bounce around outside and pray to god nothing breaks.

This sounds completely deranged to me, but apparently the Russians talked NASA into it. According to today's New York Times:

At first, some NASA officials were uneasy about leaving the station unmanned for spacewalks, but Russia said the walk to be done this week was necessary to maintain some outside scientific experiments and to examine the exterior of the station. Russian officials also noted that they had made 50 spacewalks from their previous space station, Mir, with no one left inside.

I have to admit, I'm impressed. They did 50 spacewalks while Mir -- which was basically an empty can of Lysol with retrorockets -- flew unmanned? Say whatever you want about Russia, but their scientists have nerves of steel. How the hell did the U.S. win the cold war, anyway?

Posted by Clive Thompson at February 24, 2004 02:49 AM

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Comments

Ah, Mir. I miss Mir. Those were the days.

Posted by: june at February 24, 2004 11:43 AM

I know, Mir rocked! It was an engineering marvel, really; not because of how high-tech it was, but because they proved you could build a functioning space station out of, like, Meccano pieces.

Posted by: Clive at February 24, 2004 1:06 PM

Mir made me proud to be human. The thing shouldn't have survived so long, but it did. Kinda like the Millennium Falcon. It embodied that seat-f-your pants ingenuity upon which we have relied for any great undertaking.

Posted by: andy obuoforibo at February 24, 2004 9:36 PM

I guess the best response I can come up with is to relate to everyone something that was sent to me about a month ago....."When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered
that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this
problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen
that writes in zero gravity, upside down, on almost any surface including
glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil.

Enjoy paying your taxes--they're due again".

Posted by: Len Kutchma at February 25, 2004 2:36 PM

The feelings about MIR that you described are also the ones that made me love that "apollo 13" movie, the feeling of a long and dangerous journey upon a very delicate and rudimentary vehicle.

Clive, you also posted something about the weird sense of precariousness you got seeing the first orbiting capsules in a NASA exhibit. Right?

Posted by: Mario at February 26, 2004 11:32 AM

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