Posted on 02/27/2006 6:59:28 PM PST by KevinDavis
WASHINGTON - Try sleeping on your head, strapped in with a bungee cord, in a noisy little room with five other people. Oh, and the air's stale, the windows don't open and the world outside cycles from daylight to darkness 15 times a day.
That's what former NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger endured for 143 nights in space, most of it aboard Mir, the old Russian space station. Mars-exploring astronauts would have to put up with the same nasty conditions for more than a year.
Although NASA has almost no money for sleep research these days, a new low-budget study is due to head aloft with the next shuttle launch, tentatively in May. It's a collaboration among two Irish researchers, a California maker of vest-like lightweight shirts that measure vital signs and a German astronaut who's willing to wear one. The European Space Agency is picking up the tab.
(Excerpt) Read more at realcities.com ...
I was just reading Mike Mullanes book. He was very impressed with the shuttles ability to keep the air fresh smelling despite all.
Is the book worth it??
I spent 6 months in jail once. This should be a snap.
Save the budget and send someone who doesn't sleep.
Another day(or night),another study!
-ccm
Why have we not learned from the Russians and their 18 month long missions?
Sir Frederick Gray, Minister of Defence: "My God, what's Bond doing?"Q: "I think he's attempting re-entry, sir..."
I enjoyed it and it gave a unique insiders perspective from a regular kinda guy, he describes other astronauts and what they were like, some surprises, and helps flesh out the people behind the names on all those mission patches back in the eighties.
He does not hold back much! He perspective is that of a military flyer of the era and the self admitted politically incorrect sense of humor that goes with it.
He goes into detail about the whole shuttle experience, launch to landing, and leaves little to the imagination (shuttle toilet fun), he also writes of the ordeal of the Challenger trajedy aftermath and the pressures on astronauts families.
Is he a Story Musgrave? No.
Is he a believer in the dream and brought some of it home for the rest of us? Yep.
Get it used at Amazon for a good price. I bought it at a bookstore and payed premium price as I was going on a trip and wanted it to read.
strapped in with a bungee cord,
Hey - whatever 'floats your boat, consenting adults and all...
in a noisy little room with five other people
Three words: noise cancelling headphones. They DO work.
Oh, and the air's stale, the windows don't open
And you're a whiny former astronaut.
and the world outside cycles from daylight to darkness 15 times a day
One word: eyelids. Two words: eye shades.
How much sleep research was done in the Skylab program?
It's nothing amazing, really. It's called Terminal Tiredness From Working So Freakin' Many Hours Syndrome. (And FReeping in between.)
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