Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

livescience.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 151 posts

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

#121

Post by StopDisinfo910 »

CheeseFromLidl wrote: post #120
SJC_Hacker wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Astronauts are of a breed apart. They're strapped onto a literally bomb which launches them into a vacuum, and windows where there is no chance of a mission abort. They've pretty much accepted a risk of death that most would simply not tolerate. Ex-military is common for astronauts for a reason.

This is the reason I cringe every time I hear or read statements like “we went to the moon”, “we’ve split the atom”, “we developed antibiotics”, … No, we didn’t. A few who are not like us did.

Not really, no. The point of the "we" is too highlight the incredible collective effort which was required from all these massive endeavors. It goes all the way from the steel cool astronaut to the great machinists which had to build the parts.

I think it's one of the greatest benefits of ever working on a massive industrial project. You quickly realize how incredibly complex these things are and how utterly powerless a person alone is.

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

#122

Post by throwaway2037 »

decimalenough wrote: post #89
almost_usual wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t imagine any other group who would be as calm as NASA astronauts. Maybe SEALs or other special forces. It looks like there are a few astronauts that were SEALs, one returned December 9th from the ISS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim

Jonny Kim was indeed a SEAL, and a few more things as well, with a CV almost as impressive as Johnny Sins: > American NASA astronaut, physician, U.S. Navy officer, dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon, and former Navy SEAL. Note that "physician" here means Harvard MD.

This guy is the Chuck Norris of NASA. His Wiki page is wild.

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

#123

Post by yurishimo »

yesitcan wrote: post #98
ben_w wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per mile, sure. Per launch? I think the "everyone died" rate is about, what, 1.2% of crewed launches?

Not a good sales pitch for commercial space flights

While I’m confident we will probably have large scale commercial spacecraft in my lifetime, I suspect I will be long retired by then. I’m 31.

We need a decade of accident free autonomous launches before humans will line up in mass to visit space like a Carnival Cruise.

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

#124

Post by CheeseFromLidl »

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #121
CheeseFromLidl wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the reason I cringe every time I hear or read statements like “we went to the moon”, “we’ve split the atom”, “we developed antibiotics”, … No, we didn’t. A few who are not like us did.

Not really, no. The point of the "we" is too highlight the incredible collective effort which was required from all these massive endeavors. It goes all the way from the steel cool astronaut to the great machinists which had to build the parts. I think it's one of the greatest benefits of ever working on a massive industrial project. You quickly realize how incredibly complex these things are and how utterly powerles…

ok you have reduced my cringe.

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

#125

Post by londons_explore »

The ISS is a good example of a fully isolated environment. No new bacteria or viruses arrive there apart from spacecraft arrivals.

I've been curious for a while what human health would look like if there was a small group of people isolated for many decades. Would they effectively be disease free after the first few weeks?

As well as removing flu and colds, might it also reduce things like heart disease and Alzheimer's which we have weak evidence are linked to transmissible diseases?

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

#126

Post by poulpy123 »

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.

I don't think taxes being used can justify a breach of medical confidentiality

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

#127

Post by poulpy123 »

ryanmcgarvey wrote: post #21
bryant wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

The full on dystopian take would be to require anyone receiving welfare or other public funds to fully disclose all of their private details. You want Medicaid? Tell everyone about your hemorrhoids first.

The fun part is absolutely everyone is using stuff made with public funds at one point or another

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

#128

Post by poulpy123 »

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.

When you drive on a taxpayer funded road, should you disclose publicly your medical history? When the taxpayer funded US military kidnap a foreign president on your name, should you disclose publicly your medical history ? When you use the taxpayer funded GPS etc...

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

#129

Post by ninkendo »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #103
NooneAtAll3 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whatever is the cause, it is not immediate - or they would've been on the ground couple days ago so no, not appendix

Pregnancy?

This is what I keep thinking.

- Theres a 38 year old woman in the crew

- It’s a medical condition that likely wasn’t present when the mission started 4 months ago

- It’s serious enough to return the crew, but not serious enough that they must do so immediately

I guess we’ll find out in 9 months? (Or not…)

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

#130

Post by patmorgan23 »

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.

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

I'm sure NASA is keeping good records and will take lessons learned from this situation, but they can do that without blasting someone's private medical information out publicly.

Post reply on HN