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

arstechnica.com

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

#211

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

GeoAtreides wrote: post #28
wantsanagent wrote: post #17

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.

There's a difference between looking into the context around the issue, and filling the article up with endless irrelevant stuff like the weather on the day of the interview or a description of some person's apartment decorations, and often pages of this before you even learn what the point of the article is supposed to be.

This article had a clear subtitle that showed where the story is going: "If you guys don't give me a chance to repair my instrument, I'm not going back." -- this immediately lets you know that this is about a specific incident (not a hypothetical scenario) and why the threat was made. It then proceeds to add new, obviously relevant information with each paragraph.

This felt like a good article, despite its length, but most "long-form" content is trash.

Compare https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-03/the-gambl... (bad) with this or https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/inside-el-faro-the-w... (good).

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

#212

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

oscarfr wrote: 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

Most planes have doors designed in a way that make it impossible to open them while there is significant overpressure in the cabin. Some do have interlocks.

The main risk is the door or the passenger opening it hitting something critical. Otherwise, you can primarily expect some injuries from stuff flying around, barotrauma to the ear, and an emergency descent, but not an "everybody dies" scenario.

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

#213

Post by ajdude »

wantsanagent wrote: post #17

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…

Thank you. I got 1/3 of the way through and started wondering why I was struggling to get to the end. I backed out and checked the comments hoping to find exactly what you posted.

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

#214

Post by bhk »

wantsanagent wrote: post #17

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…

> There are no consequences for letting this kind of person fly ...

Fixed it for you.

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

#216

Post by bhk »

bhk wrote: post #215
ryanmarsh wrote: post #135

Has anyone else read the story of the astronaut onboard ISS who lost it (if I recall it was over a romantic interest) and destroyed the toilet and drilled a hole in the space station?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7nsSoGXzio&t=2s

Also:

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/10366727318095667...

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

#217

Post by keep320909 »

mzs wrote: post #204
keep320909 wrote: post #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!

What archives? I've just done some reading regarding Акияма Тоёхиро but saw no reference to a breakdown.

It was in a book by Karel Pacner, he studied Russian archives after they were declassified. Not sure what book.

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

#218

Post by bhk »

lupire wrote: post #133
gadders wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with mental health while on a mission, but that's the basic plot. See also the woman that (allegedly) tried to drill holes in the ISS so she could return to earth early.

Speculation at best. Russian propaganda at worst. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9897471/NASA... Also what is "the kind of person" who develops a blood clot in orbit"?

One thing TFA hammers home is that NASA is not to be trusted.

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

#219

Post by ffomni »

no-dr-onboard wrote: post #128
mattjaynes wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is not simply "long-form", this is "in medias res" where the story starts at a heightened moment of tension, then abruptly stops and rewinds to go back to fill in details of how they got to this exciting moment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_medias_res Sometimes it's done to great effect, like in Fight Club (film starts with him at the climax with a gun in his mouth, then rewinds and tells the story). How…

"In medias res" vs "longform" is an important distinction, as you've highlighted. As the parent commented, a lot of this has to do with how we frame the article via the title. The title sets the expectation for the article. In this case, it provides a misleading ethos for discerning audiences.

But the title was not "This is what happened to Taylor Wang". It's about a general question. His particular case was just the opener. The rest of the article tells what's promised in the title, not what you maybe expected when hoping to read about the story of a single person.

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

#220

Post by boxed »

BurningFrog wrote: post #79
boxed wrote: post #61

The limited access to space probably contributed to his mental episode. If he could be fairly confident in the experiment being flown again, it wouldn't have caused him this amount of stress. So in a way more access to space might lower the percentage of such episodes.

As far as we know, the "percentage" is just this guy, no?

There's been some other issues with kosmonauts.
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