Posted on 08/30/2011 7:47:13 PM PDT by Nachum
WASHINGTON — The risk of an unprecedented evacuation of the International Space Station will spike if Russian craft cannot resume their missions and return by November, a senior NASA official has warned.
"There is a greater risk of losing the ISS when it's unmanned than if it were manned," Michael Suffredini, the ISS program manager for the US space agency, said in a conference call with Russian officials.
"The risk increase is not insignificant," he added.
Russia on Monday delayed its next manned mission to the ISS by at least a month after an unmanned cargo vessel crashed into Siberia instead of reaching orbit on August 24. The head of Russia's manned spaceflight programme also warned that a significantly longer delay would force the six people on board the station to abandon the orbiter due to fatigue and supply problems.
The station crew normally consists of six -- currently three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese -- working six-month rotations.
Staff safety and the "very big investment" that the Russian and US governments have made in the ISS would guide future decisions, Suffredini said during the call on Monday.
"We prefer not to operate in that condition without crew on board for an extended period of time just to make sure we end up in that situation.
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Take it to the religion forum. Lots of Luddites and “the world is 6000 years old” types there.
That was the golden age, the boom age (of western, technological civilization).
There is this thing called the Kondratieff curve (or wave). We are now on the downside of that, the bust. It is now the rust age.
Yes that comment has no place here!
If so, it won't last forever.
Thank you for allowing me to correct your misapprehension. Scientific progress will come. It will not come from a Federal Bureaucracy like NASA. In fact NASA sucks up capital that could be used to make real progress.
Is your name Admin Moderator or Jim Robinson?
Private efforts are going strong, but as a nation we have interests in space...the military being the strongest.
Call me Ishmael !
Okay, I’m confused. Do you object to my comment or his? If I misunderstood you, I apologize.
Hey man if you can get there go for it! I’ll be your biggest fan if you can pull it off right now.
See my post #109. I’m confused.
If the governing periods are the long waves or supercycles the next turn would be generations from now.
His sorry!
Thanks! I apologize for misunderstanding.
Not true. There are several good ideas that could get us to the nearest stars in the foreseeable future, one of which could get a probe there 40 years from launch; namely, laser assisted sail technology.
Is that from Art Bell or the soundtrack of “Hair?” ;-)
Thanks. We need reasonable goals. Exploring the universe is not a reasonable goal. At this time.
We could always look at a reboot of the original Project Orion from the 1950’s.
ECOMCON a specific military group in the Movie “Seven Days In May” Located in the Desert North of El Paso, TX
But what has that to do with the space station? If that’s our goal why are we pumping billions into this dead end.
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