I was watching two of the astronauts connecting the Canadian work arm to the space station on Sunday. One of them was having a problem with one of his eyes, it was stinging and watering and hurt. It got worse. What could he do? After all he was in his space suit outside of the space station. He had a job to do, they were in the middle of a 6 hour "job", a lot of money had been spent and the sceduling was tight for them to get the job done. I wondered if they would stop and let him go back inside to clear his eyes. This could cause the schedule for the entire mission to be upset, potentially even the landing time.
He was told to turn on something that shot oxygen into the helmet. It caused the problem to pass over to his other eye. Eventually the problem eased.

Just one of many different things that can happen that you can not "fix" when in a space suit. Do they allow for time consuming situations when they scedule these missions?

The amazing thing is, he was in space~~~ working on a space station, the subject of science fiction pulp magazine stories.
If you think about it, getting mad at a driver who cuts you off is rather insignificant in the scheme of things.

They should consider the little things that can happen to an astronaut while in the suits, an itch could drive one of them insane.

I also listened to a movie this weekend about the beginning of the astronaut program. I think it was Buzz Aldren(sp) who had to pee during one of the first tests. He had to hold it (He drank numerous cups of coffee before leaving home), he was told if he went while in the craft he could cause an electrical short or trigger an explosion. When he finally walked out of the craft he peed in his suit. So much advanced technology and it is the little "human" things that get overlooked and can cause big problems. I guess they should take everything into consideration. Make sure you don't eat cabbage before going out on a space walk, you could probably kill yourself *grin*.

Another problem that arose while I was watching was the digital reading of the ratchet they were using failed to correctly measure the the turns correctly so they had to guesstamate the number of turns that were made while connecting a part of the arm. The ratchet looked pretty high tech, I wonder how much they paid for it and which company make it? Was the contract for making it given to the lowest bidder? What is the product ethic of the manufacturer, quality or making money as highest priority? If not tightened down correctly, the Billion dollar arm could concievably disconnect and float away. Or just break and/or end up being unusable. The mentality these days that puts the stockholders profit ahead of everything else is becoming costly and dangerous, I think we are in for a period of time where product quality is suffering from the greed of people who believe they have a "right" to profit when they invest in stock.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), April 23, 2001

Answers

Cherri, good post! I started itching while I read it. 8-)

I agree with you. The problem, I think, is that some engineers design these schedules and equipment for conditions that have nothing to do with their actual use. The problem with having to pee while wearing a space suit is a good example.

I know a programmer from overseas who consumes very little food or liquids and claims to only use the bathroom twice a day. I've never seen him scratch (and I've worked with him during 12-hour projects, before.) He seems like the sort of guy who would design a space suit that doesn't work well with a human body in it.

To some extent, we design in our image, which is certain a problem for women. Another example here are those dumb kitchen designs of the 50s and 60s. They looked cool, but cooking in them was a nightmare! They were designed by men who didn't cook on a daily basis and didn't understand the importance of counter surface and easy-to-reach and organize cupboards. Today, there is the problem of areas that can't be reached by those in wheelchairs. Certainly, I couldn't use my kitchen with its present layout if that were the case.

I think you're right about there being greed in profits, Cherri, but I also think that ignorance about the end user is also a factor.

-- kb8 (kb8um8@yahoo.com), April 23, 2001.

Did your balls ever itch while you had your hands cuffed behind your back?? Now thats distracting!!

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), April 23, 2001.