Those astronauts must be slightly insane.

Helmets are worn for at least part of the time. Whatever the ins and outs, I would suggest that washing her hair isn't Koch's priority. I could be wrong.

The toilet in the image on the BBC looked like was in the middle of the capsule ? Must be below the floor ? That’s a lot better - considering the lack of space.
Still wouldn’t be for me.

They don’t wear their helmets all the time!

Astronauts can wash their hair on the ISS, using special no rinse shampoo, but I’m not sure whether they would on a short mission like this one.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uIjNfZbUYu8

They're not defecating in front of colleagues.
Koch's hair will be in a helmet, I can't think how it would get very dirty.

Has anyone seem the tiny tiny capsule they will be spending 10 days in ? Fuck me I couldn’t even get in it.

And the space toilet in the middle ? Taking a shit right in front of your colleagues ? Nice.

And I know it’s so trivial but the female astronaut and her hair - god it will be disgusting by the time she gets back. Mine would be.

Still I am all for scientific progression. Assume they will gain something from using a manned mission rather than a probe.

Despite what I think of their paymasters/investors I think there is something to be admired in the Astronauts themselves. Going somewhere no one has ever been before.

@ChangePrivacyQuestion it’s not a rogue asteroid we need to worry about, it’s accelerating climate breakdown and nuclear weapons in an unstable world. We’re not going to find a planet similar enough to Earth to be habitable that’s close enough for a small handful of human refugees to get to. That’s science fiction stuff.
Personally I’m also concerned about the amazingly complex beautiful ecosystems on Earth with millions of species and feel like we should dedicate efforts to saving them and ourselves. Here on Earth. And with absolute clarity that there is no alternative. We’ve already pretty much doomed coral reefs to extinction by making the oceans too warm for them.

Just to be clear, I admire the astronauts and NASA. I despise those like Musk who claims that we don’t have to worry if this planet burns up as we can colonise Mars, and who’s cut funding for those in desperate need, killing hundreds of thousands / millions, while splurging on vanity space travel.

Well, if everyone was of this stance, we'd still be living in caves. Bear in mind, as the Earth is the only known place in the universe to support life, eschewing attempts to get off the planet - in the name of health and safety - leaves us as sitting ducks, at the mercy of any rogue asteroid, for a swift return to amoeba stage for the next few million years. I say good for them.

About 10 years ago, at every climate protest you’d see signs that said “there is no Planet B”. That is the literal truth. While I can admire the dedication to scientific discovery, we don’t have a fall back if we make this planet uninhabitable for humans. I read last year a very detailed scientific takedown of Elon Musk’s idea that colonising Mars might be feasible. While there might be Earth comparable planets out there somewhere, there is no science fiction magic travel mechanism that will take humans to the other side of the galaxy.
It makes me sad and angry to realise how many people don’t realise just how precious and irreplaceable what we have is.
The dream of space is enticing but hard-headed thought says the money could be spent on better things right now. Western countries led by the US are causing millions of deaths by cutting vital humanitarian aid, not to mention the consequences of war. Cutting edge medical research is also being defunded by the Trump administration, and climate research is being absolutely decimated because the aim is to deny that climate change exists.

My DF is a scientist who does a lot of work with esa/nasa and whilst he doesn't know this crew, he knew others, including peake, hadfield the columbia crew...

NASA are very much a family, they look after everyone, as attested by the columbia families, so if anything happened to the single dad, his kids would be surrounded by love and support. I had to babysit some of the children for a few hours a few months after Columbia and I'll never forget the day I did so, their trauma was still so real.

not a word of a lie btw

Also as a launch point for going to Mars. It would be a lot easier to launch from the moon.

er, try $100 billion

You could stay that about many jobs, so YABU.

Absolutely this.
Think of how we benefit from satellites, alone.

😂

I've now got Matt Damon explaining the colonisation of Mars in my head.

Humans aren't very good at preventitive measures, but we are very good at reacting and adapting.

Nothing about the space race caused the problems we have now - and it has given us quite a few tools to better understand and even be able to deal with some of them.

Expecting anything to bring all of humanity to a better place full stop, let alone in an historically tiny period of time, is foolish and doomed to failure. No exploration has ever achieved that.

Has space exploration transformed our understanding of the world and the universe? Has it brought us many discoveries or developments that would have been vastly less likely without space exploration?

The answer to both these, so far, is yes.

Quite

Exactly, It is a strategic asset. Why else would the US and China be racing to control it.

What are these 'vast resources' you speak of? All the oil, flora, and fauna waiting to be exploited? Maybe a few rare metals.

If it wasn't for space exploration we wouldn't have satellites, which provide global communication and enhance our understanding of climate change, which has surely benefitted humanity. See also many developments in science and astronomy that have been enabled.

I often wonder what would happen if (heaven forbid) a nuclear war broke out or a huge meteorite hit the earth while the astronauts are in space, they will have no where to go back to and no way of surviving long term in their space craft.

Once Trump is out Musk or Bezos will still personally own the key elements of space travel. It will be Elon or Jeffs lander that takes people to the moon.

Maybe we are all happy for Musk to take ownership of the moon.

Don't you ever consider the absolutely VAST undertaking it would be to establish even a small base on the Moon? It will be years and years before anything like that could happen - every single building block for the base would have to be transported from Earth. Then consider how people could live and work there whilst constructing any base! It is truly mind-boggling but I am so glad some people/countries have the aspiration to do so.