back to article Albert Einstein brings cheese and clean pyjamas to space station

The European Space Agency has launched another heavy-hauling ATV robot cargo podule on a mission to bring supplies of cheese and fresh pyjamas to the International Space Station. A mighty Ariane-5 rocket stack blasted the 20,190 kg Automated Transfer Vehicle on a trajectory toward the ISS just before 11 pm BST last night, …

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  1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    "...treats such as peanut butter..."

    Never understood how this vomit-inducing peanut butter can be regarded as edible. (Let the down votes begin!)

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

      They probably send non-vomit inducing peanut butter. It's rocket science, after all...

    2. WonkoTheSane
      Boffin

      Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

      How else will they fix air leaks from micrometeorite damage?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

      Never mind the peanut butter - much as I love Parmesan, do you really want that smell wafting around a small, sealed space station? Next up - some nice fresh mackerel...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

        When is Sweden sending up its next astronaut - zero G surströmming anyone?

        From the dawn of YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcnfEVqNdoA

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

        ... or asparagus.

      3. JDX Gold badge

        do you really want that smell wafting around a small, sealed space station

        Surely the air is scrubbed continuously.

        1. Parax

          Re: do you really want that smell wafting around a small, sealed space station

          Yes, but what is scrubbing? the ISS scrubbers are CDRA units. which is a 'Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly'

          Converting Carbon Dioxide to Oxygen does not really do much to complex aromatic hydrocarbons (or non-complex ones either!).

    4. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

      Never understood how this vomit-inducing peanut butter can be regarded as edible.

      Evil Auditor,

      Next you're going to tell us that you're one of those sick perverts who enjoy Marmite.

      1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

        Re: "...treats such as peanut butter..."

        I ain't Spartacus,

        Isn't Marmite that all-purpose glue? Or was that Nutella?

  2. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Boffin

    cheese, yes...

    but will there be toast?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

    1. Tel Starr
      Linux

      Re: cheese, yes...

      If not they'll have to send Gromit up with some crackers.

      <-- icon = master criminal

  3. Esskay
    Boffin

    Serious boffinry angle

    Does peanut butter still stick to the roof of your mouth in zero gravity?

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: Serious boffinry angle

      Also, can we presume that if you drop your toast, neither the peanut butter nor the unbuttered side will hit the ground.

      1. Martin Budden Silver badge

        Re: Serious boffinry angle

        Now I have an amusing image in my head of a "dropped" cat floating in the ISS, paws and tail flailing....

        1. Elmer Phud

          Re: Serious boffinry angle

          "Now I have an amusing image in my head of a "dropped" cat floating in the ISS, paws and tail flailing...."

          It has to be done, space is the best place for it -- toast tied the the cat's back and butter on the paws.

          What better use for the ISS than that?

  4. Lee D Silver badge

    20 tonnes of basic supplies, to an established space station only in Earth's orbit, and it'll last a year for a skeleton crew and be more useful as a bin for getting rid of the stuff they've already churned through.

    Kinda puts a Mars mission in perspective, unless we want to just start making dumping grounds throughout the route to Mars and the planet itself. That's a heck of a lot of weight and thrust and it doesn't even need to do much to "fall" back to Earth. And that's not even TRYING to be self-sustaining and putting longer-term equipment up there. God knows how many tonnes of soil and equipment you need to start a decent farm that probably won't produce enough food to be self-sustaining.

    20 tonnes. 1 year. That's over a tonne a month, on average. Any sort of long-term mission, including heavy equipment and the initial carvings of a base, and getting rid of junk en-route, etc. is going to need a heck of a lot of fuel back here to support it.

    1. Mostly_Harmless Silver badge
      Boffin

      <20 tonnes

      I suspect that tonne-age includes the ATV itself, so not strictly true to say that the crew are consuming 20 tonnes of consumables per year

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Payload

      ATV-4 is carrying a record payload of 2480 kg dry cargo

      Anyone know how this compares with the Dragon , both in terms of capacity and cost per mission?

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: Payload

        "The ATV is the space station's largest resupply vehicle after the retirement of the space shuttle, hauling three times more cargo as Russia's Progress spacecraft and twice as much as SpaceX's commercial Dragon spaceship" - "Each ATV mission costs 450 million euros, or about $600 million, according to ESA"

        http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/va213/130604preview/

      2. Beachrider

        Payload...

        The Ariane 5 rocket payload is 24,000 Kg. The ATV payload is 6590 Kg. 2500Kg is ATV propellant for boosting ISS. 860 is to refuel ISS propellant tanks. 2500 Kg is 'Dry Cargo'. 570 Kg is water (for the Russians?).

        Falcon 9 lifts 60% of this payload. Falcon Heavy lifts 205% of this payload.

        Dragon payload is 3300 Kg, but can return 2500 Kg to the ground.

        Cygnus payload is 2700 Kg with no return (launch vehicle, Antares, was just tested)

        MPCV loaded is a 21,000 Kg payload, that can be lifted on F9 or Atlas or Delta.

        Just some numbers for comparison...

        1. ian 22
          Unhappy

          Re: Payload...

          So much payload, but no Nutella? Damn.

          1. Daniel B.
            Meh

            Gah!

            Nutella *is* vomit-inducing, unlike Peanut Butter.

            1. ian 22
              Coat

              Re: Gah!

              Load the crew with Nutella, face them in the appropriate direction and let fly! With true projectile vomiting it should provide a bit of reaction mass. Projectile vomiters will need to be strapped down though.

              Mine's the one with the back-of-the-napkin calculations.

        2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Payload...

          Thanks. Together with the other numbers it sounds like it's reasonably cost-effective.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    The plural of spacecraft is spacecraft, not spacecrafts ... right?

    1. Don Jefe

      That's what I thought as well...

      1. Khaptain Silver badge
        Headmaster

        After a little bit of Google I found that the following was apparently true :

        Because the word "craft" is both singular and plural then spacecraft should follow suit.

        Craft in this context refers to the floating, flying kind and not the hobby variety.

        Airplanes and boats are collectively known as kinds of craft.

        Knitting and woodwork are collectively known as crafts.

      2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
        Happy

        That's just because you follow the grammar-nazis like sheeps...

        1. Simon Buttress
          Trollface

          Woolly sentence

          So you're saying we follow the grammar, and that nazis like sheep? Cool.

        2. Khaptain Silver badge
          Happy

          It's quite normal for someone that was brought up on a farm with lots of fishs, geeses and mooses.

  6. Spoonsinger
    Coat

    You can make effective micrometeorite shielding from cheese?

    You'd of thunk.

  7. JDX Gold badge

    Parmesan

    I'd imagine grating cheese in zero-g is interesting.

  8. Mephistro
    Coat

    Sorry, guys, but there was a small typo in the article

    It should have been "...threats such as peanut butter..."

    You are welcome.

    Yes, I'm leaving already.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    whilst taking the dog for a late night whizz......

    Just seen Albert fly overhead. Never fails to amaze me the way they arrive right on time. They never seem to get stuck in traffic.

    1. mIRCat
      Boffin

      Re: whilst taking the dog for a late night whizz......

      We'll assume they've paid their congestion tax.

      Even boffins can't out untax like Google et all can untax.

  10. weevil

    They're gonna stink out the entire space station with feet cheese?!

  11. cortland
    Joke

    In other news

    In other news, NASA announced overnight it is sending a rescue mission to the International Space Station for a crew member who mistook a tube of epoxy patching material for peanut butter. The unnamed crew member is temporarily being fed through a drinking straw, but will require surgery to remove internal adhesions.

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