Space station cabbage: To boldly grow where no veg has grown before Weather permitting, SpaceX will imminently fire off its seventh resupply mission to the International Space Station, and NASA has detailed some of the science experiments the Dragon capsule will be carrying in its hold. The rocket will loft nearly 4,000lbs (1,814kg) of supplies and science kit when it takes off at 1021 ET ( …
Ah, but the view. There are a lot of people willing to give that 'hell' a try for a few weeks or months, even if the cabbage is 56 million US$ a head. Just keep curated streaming music out of it;)
Benefits: gardens in space will tick off the we're-out-of-food-all-going-to-die lot, and necessitate a PARIS IPO.
Yup. Read "Packing for Mars" - probably the most balanced description of life in space I've ever read.
"It's kinda like backpacking... there's mosquitoes, a lot of walking, you have to sleep on the ground, it's either freezing cold or roasting hot, there are bears and snakes... but most people think the view and the experience are priceless" - Mary Roach interviewed by Adam Savage
I wish pounds and ounces meant something to me, if it's not in kilos etc. then I can't really grasp the weight of it (thanks for the conversion in the article). I can sort of appreciate what a metric tonne of something is. On the other hand, I struggle to know how tall someone/something is if it's in meters instead of feet & inches. I hate being a young(ish) Brit... or just dumb :<
On a side note 4000lbs is just over 432 jubs, because you need to know.
I googled "unit converter" and got About 12,700,000 results (0.26 seconds)
I had to learn both growing up in the states in the 1970's because the US was going to convert. They only got as far as soft drinks. You can get your favorite fizzy in 1l, 2l or even 3l if you are thirsty.
Sorry for the dumb question, but I would actually love an answer from those that know...
But what would actually happen if the capsule collided with the Space Station?
Would it send the Space Station spiralling uncontrollably out of orbit and down to Earth? Would it breach all the air / supplies / etc and render it unusable?
Or is the Space Station just so much bigger and more massive that a capsule collision could cause no noticeable damage or change in trajectory that couldn't easily be compensated for?
I've read that the space station is 450 tons, but have no idea how delicately it sits in its orbit, or what the risks are when doing this sort of docking mission.
The answer is "it depends" I think. A real slow 'bump' probably wouldn't do much. Something harder might damage the hull integrity and result in air loss or serious damage that irreversible. (for some value of "harder:) As for knocking it out of orbit.. I have no idea what it would take.
This actually happened this month[1] where a Soyuz malfunctioned and fired it's rockets while docked with the station. While not a collision, so no damage, it did shift the orbit of the ISS and they had to re-orient it.
I think a collision would be similar, docking speeds are relative, so the relative impact speed should be quite low despite them both traveling at ~5 miles/sec. I imagine in a collision situation the docking mechanisms would be damaged but the ISS could recover it's orbit. The mission would surely be a bust though.
[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/09/iss_engine_misfire_orbit_change/
See Mir, cheapskate[1] Russians, manual docking and remote control for a real world[2] example here. According to Mike Foale, who was onboard at the time, it's quite nasty.
[1] They had an automated docking system, but it was made in the Ukraine. When the Soviet Union went titsup, the Ukrainians decided that they were not going to provide this for free. The Russians decided that fitting a TV screen and rudimentary remote controls in Mir itself would allow manual docking of unmanned resupply craft and What Could Possibly Go Wrong promptly did.
[2] Okay, offworld then.
It can't deorbit the ISS with a collision. The required speed to do that would result in ISS getting a capsule sized hole through it. All the pieces would still be in orbit.
Spacecraft in general are optimized for the smallest possible mass, and tend to be "flimsy". You could probably kick or punch a hole in the ISS hull. A collision at any speed faster than a turtle is going to cause damage.
Once docked, if Dragon fired its thrusters for an hour or so it would make a significant impact on the ISS orbit.
"The camera is tuned to identify traces of iron, calcium, magnesium, and sodium from the disintegrating space rock, so that scientists can get a better idea of meteors' chemical composition."
I suppose the camera will tell them that the space rock is composed of iron, calcium, magnesium, and sodium...
"The camera is tuned to identify traces of Tribbles from disintegrating space rock, so that scientists can get a better idea of meteors' Tribble composition."
Oh... perhaps I fixed it for myself. I'll get me hat.
Both the "salad box" experiment and attempted 1st stage landing.
Seriously is it a good idea to plan to explore the universe by leaving a trail of ready meals behind you?
Veggies turn CO2 and water into food.
On a space station that's better than trying to chomp through the cardboard on a take out pizza (although those packing some hardware comes in aren't too bad).
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