International Space Station (ISS) |
International Space Station (ISS) |
Dec 12 2005, 10:33 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Review of NASA Plans for the International Space Station
Review of NASA Strategic Roadmaps: Space Station Panel, National Research Council 80 pages (approximate), 8 1/2 x 11, 2005 In January 2004, President Bush announced a new space policy directed at human and robotic exploration of space. In June 2004, the President s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy issued a report recommending among other things that NASA ask the National Research Council (NRC) to reevaluate space science priorities to take advantage of the exploration vision. Congress also directed the NRC to conduct a thorough review of the science NASA is proposing to undertake within the initiative. In February 2005, the NRC released Science in NASA s Vision for Space Exploration, the first report of the two studies undertaken to carry out these requests. The second report focuses on NASA s plan for the ISS. This report provides broad advice on programmatic issues that NASA is likely to face as it attempts to develop an updated ISS utilization plan. It also presents an assessment of potentially important research and testbed activities that may have to be performed on the ISS to help ensure success of some exploration objectives. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11512.html -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Dec 2 2007, 08:57 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
In a microgravity environment, your feet and toes dramatically gain usefulness. I read a breakdown somewhere of how various Skylab and early ISS crew adapted to microgravity, and a certain percentage ended up going barefoot a lot, using their toes to grab onto little "toeholds" in their environments and help stabilize their lower bodies when stopping to do some transient activity for which strapping in or down is way too much activity overhead.
One of the more interesting results of the Skylab experience that was actually taken into account in the design of the ISS modules was the breakdown of how people orient themselves within a microgravity environment. Going entirely from memory, I believe it was something like a third who felt comfortable no matter what direction their heads were pointed at any given time, guys who would have happily tossed workstations anywhere on a floor, ceiling or wall. Then there was a third that preferred to have a sense of local vertical congruent to their surroundings, people who liked to keep their feet pointed towards a "floor" and their heads towards a "ceiling", but who could easily work in odd angles if they needed to. And finally, there was a third who really strongly needed the local vertical, people who got physically uncomfortable in locations like the Multiple Docking Adapter, which had no local verticals but literally plastered the interior with equipment and control consoles. Because of this, the third who would be happy hanging any which way were outvoted, and the ISS modules are all built with a pretty strong sense of local vertical. And most of the eventual labs will share the same local vertical, minimizing disorientation going from module to module. So, this is one instance where it would seem lessons were indeed learned and applied to later programs. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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