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NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

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Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#11

Post by xingped »

nubg wrote: post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

Yes, but at the same time I think NASA has long earned the trust to decide these things. Regardless of the issue, nobody wants their health issues aired to the entire world. I am personally okay just not knowing the intimate details.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#12

Post by pockybum522 »

okdood64 wrote: post #10
daeken wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The astronaut in question may choose to disclose that they had the medical emergency and possibly its nature, but it seems wholly reasonable to not single them out (when it affects the whole mission) or disclose their medical status.

Disagree; this is completely taxpayer funded and we deserve to know every detail relevant to mission status. In this scenario knowing what illness and why it's grounds for a return is very relevant. That said, I can see NASA delaying information release to figure out a good strategy for it while still respecting any wishes of the sick astronaut with regards to disclosure.

What a strange take. Does this also apply to every soldier in the armed forces? Seems your criteria is equally applicable there.

The relevant people that can do the research and write future policies based on the data obviously will have the information. Not sure what good you think that you personally having it can do.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#13

Post by awestroke »

okdood64 wrote: post #10
daeken wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The astronaut in question may choose to disclose that they had the medical emergency and possibly its nature, but it seems wholly reasonable to not single them out (when it affects the whole mission) or disclose their medical status.

Disagree; this is completely taxpayer funded and we deserve to know every detail relevant to mission status. In this scenario knowing what illness and why it's grounds for a return is very relevant. That said, I can see NASA delaying information release to figure out a good strategy for it while still respecting any wishes of the sick astronaut with regards to disclosure.

The CIA is also taxpayer funded. Do you have similar expectations of transparency into their missions?

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#14

Post by okdood64 »

awestroke wrote: post #13
okdood64 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree; this is completely taxpayer funded and we deserve to know every detail relevant to mission status. In this scenario knowing what illness and why it's grounds for a return is very relevant. That said, I can see NASA delaying information release to figure out a good strategy for it while still respecting any wishes of the sick astronaut with regards to disclosure.

The CIA is also taxpayer funded. Do you have similar expectations of transparency into their missions?

I can respect operational security requirements. Even though they are abused.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#15

Post by candl »

nubg wrote: post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

The only medical condition I can think of which they would not disclose is pregnancy. That would lead to further questions and is controversial despite being very simple. Further evidenced by the fact that the affected crew member is unknown to the public.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#16

Post by bryant »

nubg wrote: post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

> Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency.

We deserve as much transparency as we can get on the science we as taxpayers paid for, not full de-anonymization of the bodily happenings of living crew. There's certainly valuable science here, but the crew member doesn't have to be outed for it.

> You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy.

I don't think this is a healthy mindset, and there's a heck of a slippery slope with this argument. Would we apply this to companies receiving federal grants too? Contractors? Universities? Schools? That's a lot of people who'll lose medical privacy for something probably unrelated to their job, and there'll be a much smaller applicant pool for the jobs themselves if applicants are aware that their own internal issues might be disclosed when the public clamors for it.

> We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

Agree, NASA certainly will, and new science and engineering will come of it that we benefit from. But that doesn't have to involve breaching medical privacy and ethics.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#17

Post by okdood64 »

pockybum522 wrote: post #12
okdood64 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree; this is completely taxpayer funded and we deserve to know every detail relevant to mission status. In this scenario knowing what illness and why it's grounds for a return is very relevant. That said, I can see NASA delaying information release to figure out a good strategy for it while still respecting any wishes of the sick astronaut with regards to disclosure.

What a strange take. Does this also apply to every soldier in the armed forces? Seems your criteria is equally applicable there. The relevant people that can do the research and write future policies based on the data obviously will have the information. Not sure what good you think that you personally having it can do.

A single soldier having a medical issue generally doesn't cancel a multi-month mission costing some X large sum of money, requiring another Y large sum of money to even finish cancelling it (returning their unit home).

Therefore it's not relevant and not needed for the public to know.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#18

Post by hermannj314 »

okdood64 wrote: post #10
daeken wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The astronaut in question may choose to disclose that they had the medical emergency and possibly its nature, but it seems wholly reasonable to not single them out (when it affects the whole mission) or disclose their medical status.

Disagree; this is completely taxpayer funded and we deserve to know every detail relevant to mission status. In this scenario knowing what illness and why it's grounds for a return is very relevant. That said, I can see NASA delaying information release to figure out a good strategy for it while still respecting any wishes of the sick astronaut with regards to disclosure.

The school is tax-payer funded, but I don't get to know why every teacher called out sick.

Government employees, contractors, etc. don't owe your curiousity satiety. We are buying their service, not their soul.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#19

Post by ssl-3 »

nubg wrote: post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

These are free people (who happen to have a job that involves a space program). They have the same rights to [try to] keep their medical concerns private as you and I do.

It does cost a lot of money to keep their jobs going, but: They're not slaves. We do not own these people.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#20

Post by perihelions »

nubg wrote: post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

Without taking a side, I'll share the interesting detail that NASA did not historically grant much medical privacy to astronauts. You can read medical reports of the Apollo-Soyuz crew here (documenting their poisoning by toxic rocket fuel, dinitrogen tetroxide),

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19770023791 ("The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: Medical report" (1977))

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