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What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

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Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#91

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jere wrote: post #36

A similar phenomenon makes it dangerous to sleep without proper ventilation: >It is important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts can wake up oxygen-deprived and gasping for air, because a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide has formed around their heads. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#Cre...

My first thought on reading "crew quarters must be well ventilated" was - like, opening the windows?

Then I remembered.

Luckily I am not on safety critical work for NASA

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#92

Post by hosay123 »

jere wrote: post #83
lallysingh wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's real?

The funny part is fans mix gases and prevent exactly the scenario they're accused of causing in fan death (assuming we're talking about asphyxiation and not hypothermia... the hypothermia concern is beyond ridiculous). I don't think I've ever even heard of fan death, but I checked and the issue I mentioned in the OP is actually discussed on the fan death wikipedia page.

This seems relevant.. old concrete can often emit significant levels of Radon that will tend toward floor level. It's supposedly quite important to properly vent old basements on a semiregular basis for this reason. In such an environment, a fan left running overnight may easily contribute to increased mortality.

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#93

Post by lucb1e »

Bognar wrote: post #68
lucb1e wrote: post #41

Upon opening this page, some Kinja registration appeared, suggesting the username Luc0895. My first name is Luc, so I'm extremely curious as to how it knew this. I'm not logged in to io9 nor another Gawker website as far as I know. Anyone else had this?

Are you logged into facebook?

I don't have Facebook, nor are cookies enabled for FB. Got a cookie killer add-on that only keeps cookies based on a whitelist. And even if I had, how would they obtain my personal data from it without asking my permission?

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#94

Post by lucb1e »

whatshisface wrote: post #63
lucb1e wrote: post #41

Upon opening this page, some Kinja registration appeared, suggesting the username Luc0895. My first name is Luc, so I'm extremely curious as to how it knew this. I'm not logged in to io9 nor another Gawker website as far as I know. Anyone else had this?

Maybe it was your browser? I've had firefox auto-fill forms on websites I have never been to before.

Hmm, that might be it. It sounds weird that Firefox shares personal data, but still they might consider a first name to be non-private. Interesting suggestion, thanks.

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#95

Post by lucb1e »

dspillett wrote: post #43
lucb1e wrote: post #41

Upon opening this page, some Kinja registration appeared, suggesting the username Luc0895. My first name is Luc, so I'm extremely curious as to how it knew this. I'm not logged in to io9 nor another Gawker website as far as I know. Anyone else had this?

Are they using some form of integration API such as that offered by facebook or G+ for the exchange of comments and likes/+1s?

That's what I'm wondering about, I was never asked for permission to share details with io9. Perhaps a few years ago on another Gawker site, but how would they link me? I wasn't using the same IP or browser or anything.

I am logged in to Google+, so that might be it, but it only accepts cookies strictly from accounts.google.com and plus.google.com, for example api.google.com or google.com itself does not work (cookies are removed as soon as all tabs of that website are closed).

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#96

Post by kaybe »

kaybe wrote: post #44
zalew wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, his Google+ feed is amazing. all this expeditions are very expensive and serious, and meanwhile he's like "hey, lets make it fun for everybody down there who's curious. oh hai from space, here's a photo of your city and cool tricks with no gravity".

huh. let me cite a speech I heard recently (celebration of 10 years of columbus module in space).. (approximately, it's from my mind) .. "The ISS hat two mission objectives, (I) to bring the international community together for collaboration and friendship - this has been accomplished very well, and (II) to do some meaningful science up there, which has not been accomplished at all as of yet. Thus, it's your job to i…

(make that 5 years, sorry)

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#97

Post by jfim »

tempestn wrote: post #53
ygra wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess they meant getting the drinking water to the space station in the first place. Water doesn't really compress well (unlike the hockey puck rag) and also weighs quite a bit so sending it up should be pretty costly.

Hydrogen and Oxygen compress though, and are combined into water in the station's fuel cells.

You still need to carry the same mass of hydrogen and oxygen than the resulting mass of water, though.

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#98

Post by josephagoss »

justx1 wrote: post #70

So it's the surface tension of water. Here is what I am wondering: Detergents break the surface tension. What would happen if he'd add some detergent?

The water may not run up his hands? Although I would expect it still to form that water column around the towel thing. Maybe?

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#99

Post by mitchty »

NegativeK wrote: post #85
sksksk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wonder, if you spend a length of time in space, you must get used to being able to leave an object in mid air, go do something, and go back and pick it up later. When astronauts come back to earth, do they have some adjusting period where they keep dropping items on the floor because they forget about gravity?

Every time I watch one of those videos, I imagine how annoying it must be to not be able to release something with zero drift. If I'm ever allowed to be a space tourist, I suspect I'd spend hours just trying to get something to stop drifting relative to the cabin. And then play with water.

My first reaction was similar. I started thinking of all the things in life that would be easier to just go, hmm I'll stick this tool here in mid air, space, whatever, and this can go here, etc... But alas, I'll likely never get to experience it.

Re: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in space [video]

#100

Post by dbbolton »

eridius wrote: post #75
dbbolton wrote: post #65

A bit off topic, but I really feel like this type of "article" adds absolutely nothing to the video. I'd prefer to be linked directly to the video rather than give away a pageview to an entity that isn't even producing its own content.

I disagree. I don't typically watch a video linked on the internet unless I know what it's going to be about. The article let me evaluate the content of the video to determine that I wanted to go ahead and hit play.

With some videos, a bit of context is helpful, but I don't think it was in this case; the text didn't give us much more info than the title. I think Chris Hadfield's videos with the CSA are pretty well-known by now (I have seen several on HN, Reddit, etc.), so I think people would know what they were getting into without the article if the title had been a bit more specific. Granted, with HN's char limit, that isn't always possible.
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