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What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 230 posts

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#21

If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…

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Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#22

If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…

And “They added a lock to the exit hatch”

For a good portion of this article I thought the answer was “We don’t know”. It ambles around so leisurely and stop-start that it feels like reading ChatGPT output.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#23
Mental issues are not uncommon. First japanese astronaut on Mir (Russian commercial passenger on Mir) had mental break down, and had to be restrained on the way back. It was in some Russian archives...

Skylab and Sojuz had astronauts on strike...

EDIT: it was not ISS, but Mir!

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#24
post #11

Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m

No, there aren't. > Passenger arrested after plane door opened mid-flight explains he felt 'uncomfortable' https://news.sky.com/story/passenger-arrested-after-plane-do...

"He allegedly opened the door of the Asiana Airlines plane when it was 700 feet (213 metres) above the ground."

That's a key point - at cruising altitude you'd need to push an equivalent of 2 tonnes of weight to open it - it's just not happening. Obviously even at 200 metres up in the air I bet it was incredibly scary.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#25
post #11

Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m

An airliner's external doors are designed such that they're held closed by internal pressure. Thus opening a door on the ground is pretty easy, which is convenient because that's the only place you should open them. But opening at cruise is extremely difficult. Now - a strong person can do it when the plane is far enough up that it's very scary, after all some normal passenger airports are a few thousand feet above s…

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Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#26
The article was interesting, but wow, reading that page used up 20% of my battery and required a reboot stop whatever it was causing excessive lag throughout the OS. I’ve noticed news sites are basically unusable on mobile. Sure I’m using an iPhone 7, but it’s fine for every other use except news site. If even Ars is this user hostile, I think I have to consider news sites as fundamentally user-antogonistic, and not to be used without an ad blocker. (Unlike what iOS allows)

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#27
post #11

Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m

Unlike the hatch on the space shuttle, airplane doors open in, and cabins are pressurized at ~10psi, so it's not likely that a person would succeed at doing it before getting tackled by crew and passengers.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#28

If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…

> If you hate the format of these kinds of article

You mean long-form articles? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism

I don't think the problem is with the format, but with your expectations. Somehow you were expecting a straight answer to the question in the title; instead, it's a detailed look into the incident and the context around it.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#29
post #11

Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m

An airliner's external doors are designed such that they're held closed by internal pressure. Thus opening a door on the ground is pretty easy, which is convenient because that's the only place you should open them. But opening at cruise is extremely difficult. Now - a strong person can do it when the plane is far enough up that it's very scary, after all some normal passenger airports are a few thousand feet above s…

  > after all some normal passenger airports are a few thousand feet above sea level and we want the doors to work there
That doesn't make sense.

Regardless of airport altitude, when the pilot shuts off the cabin pressurization and opens the cabin vent[s] there will be zero pressure across the door.

The cabin doesn't "remember" the pressure at the last airport, because it's not a sealed volume. The air is constantly being replaced from outside, and the pressure is constantly being regulated.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#30
post #11

Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m

Unlike the hatch on the space shuttle, airplane doors open in, and cabins are pressurized at ~10psi, so it's not likely that a person would succeed at doing it before getting tackled by crew and passengers.

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