Other than some routine maintenance and housecleaning, space station crew will have a chance to relax
The six astronauts aboard the International Space Station will enjoy a long Labor Day weekend — the last extended break for three of them before they head back to Earth on Sept. 15.
The space station will do a bit of routine maintenance and housecleaning work on Saturday (Sept. 3), NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said. But other than that, the astronauts will have a chance to put their feet up for a spell, or catch up on some science work if need be.
"If they're aching to do something they haven't had time to do, they can go off and do that experiment," Humphries told SPACE.com. "They pretty much manage that on their own when they have these days off." [ Photos: Building the International Space Station ]
Saying goodbye to the station
Three astronauts — American Ron Garan and Russians Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev — are slated to leave the space station on Sept. 15. The three days off may be especially sweet for them, giving the spaceflyers a chance to say goodbye to the orbiting lab.
"Ron and his colleagues are going to get a three-day weekend to enjoy being in space one last time, before they do the final preparations and pack up to come home," Humphries said.
Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev arrived at the station on April 6. They were originally slated to leave on Sept. 8, but last week's crash of Russia's unmanned Progress 44 cargo ship delayed their departure.
The Progress was doomed by a problem with its Soyuz rocket, which is very similar to the rocket the Russians use to launch crews to the space station. No astronauts will launch on a Soyuz until the issue is identified and fixed, NASA officials have said.
Russian engineers are making progress in their investigation. They've traced the source of the failure to a malfunction in the gas generator in the Soyuz’s third-stage engine, Russian officials announced earlier this week.
An unmanned space station?
The station's other three astronauts — American Mike Fossum, Russian Sergei Volkov and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa — are scheduled to come home in mid-November.
After the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in July, the Soyuz is the only way to take astronauts to orbit. If it's not back up and running by mid-November, the space station could be unmanned for the first time in more than 10 years.
And that's part of the reason NASA decided to delay the departure of Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev.
Keeping them around for even one additional week will allow the crew to get more science work done, which could be invaluable if the station goes to a skeleton crew of three or is unmanned altogether for a spell, NASA officials have said.
The space station could survive just fine without a crew for a while, officials have said. Controllers on the ground can move it out of the way of potentially dangerous space debris, and its propellant can be topped up by robotic spacecraft.
However, having no crew aboard means any problems that crop up aboard the station would likely not get fixed, making flying a more risky proposition. And having anything less than a full crew of six astronauts would cut back on the scientific research that can be done on the orbiting lab.
Showing posts with label Astronauts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astronauts. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Off to a Rocky Start: 'Apollo 18' Is a Crash-and-Burn Flick
The space film has an original premise with relatively decent acting, yet its intensity is overpowered by the ridiculousness of its plot.
Those looking for jumps, shrieks, and a lunar horror show, look no further. Apollo 18, is a Blair Witch-reminiscent film that showed early promise with its solid trailer and its new take on the outer space movie.
The premise is definitely original: a first person narration of a top secret NASA mission to the moon in the early 1970s. With the bad lighting and wavering screen shots, it certainly feels like a home video. Despite the cheaply manufactured intensity, the weak plot of the film made it too difficult for the audience to suspend disbelief.
The film opens with shots of two astronauts Nate (Lloyd Owen) and Ben (Warren Christie) at home spending time with their families. They receive a phone call, summoning them to NASA headquarters for a secret mission. They are given little information, as it is confidential, and the astronauts take off in a nighttime shuttle launch. Their mission: to go to the moon.
The trip through space is quick. It gives us just enough time for a bit of character development, as we see that the relationship between the three astronauts is good and the mood is jovial (John, played by Ryan Robbins, is stuck hovering around the moon for most of the film). Before long, Lloyd Owen and Warren Christie get into the lunar capsule and touch down on the Moon’s South Pole. They set up cameras, rove around, and collect samples. But their mission takes on an unprecedented twist when astronauts Lloyd and Warren discover footprints near a crater.
After some exploring, they find a Russian lunar capsule, largely ransacked and topped off with smears of blood throughout the inside. When they find a dead Russian astronaut in a dramatic flash of light, they come to discover they’re not alone on the Moon. The tension builds as their equipment gets moved while they are sleeping, and there are eerie noises interfering with their radio.
The film delves deeper into the psychology of the two astronauts at this point. The style of the filming puts you in the place of the astronauts experiencing the mission—the heavy breathing and the anxiety feel almost contagious as they produce jumps with the first-person camera. As the action starts heating up, the lighting and the noises begin to take hold on your psychology. For better or for worse, you will probably find yourself holding your breath and jumping sky-high throughout parts of the movie.
For me, this was where the movie was able to succeed—in its ability to transmit anxiety to the audience that mirrored the astronauts’ experience. Still, I found the second half of the film startlingly unimpressive. The cheesy plotline attempted to straddle too many genres and topics, and fell flat. Where there was potential for intrigue invoked by government conspiracy and the space race, or a solid sci-fi horror film, it came across as little more than artificial intensity compensating for a very weak plot.
Lloyd Owen’s solid acting performance was the highlight of the film, as he does incredibly well with the script’s limited plot and character development. Warren Christie does a fair job as well, although his role becomes a bit cliché as he replays a tape of his proud son pretending to be an astronaut just like him. And because the stars were still able to shine in outer space, I give this film 2 out of 5 Patches.
Those looking for jumps, shrieks, and a lunar horror show, look no further. Apollo 18, is a Blair Witch-reminiscent film that showed early promise with its solid trailer and its new take on the outer space movie.
The premise is definitely original: a first person narration of a top secret NASA mission to the moon in the early 1970s. With the bad lighting and wavering screen shots, it certainly feels like a home video. Despite the cheaply manufactured intensity, the weak plot of the film made it too difficult for the audience to suspend disbelief.
The film opens with shots of two astronauts Nate (Lloyd Owen) and Ben (Warren Christie) at home spending time with their families. They receive a phone call, summoning them to NASA headquarters for a secret mission. They are given little information, as it is confidential, and the astronauts take off in a nighttime shuttle launch. Their mission: to go to the moon.
The trip through space is quick. It gives us just enough time for a bit of character development, as we see that the relationship between the three astronauts is good and the mood is jovial (John, played by Ryan Robbins, is stuck hovering around the moon for most of the film). Before long, Lloyd Owen and Warren Christie get into the lunar capsule and touch down on the Moon’s South Pole. They set up cameras, rove around, and collect samples. But their mission takes on an unprecedented twist when astronauts Lloyd and Warren discover footprints near a crater.
After some exploring, they find a Russian lunar capsule, largely ransacked and topped off with smears of blood throughout the inside. When they find a dead Russian astronaut in a dramatic flash of light, they come to discover they’re not alone on the Moon. The tension builds as their equipment gets moved while they are sleeping, and there are eerie noises interfering with their radio.
The film delves deeper into the psychology of the two astronauts at this point. The style of the filming puts you in the place of the astronauts experiencing the mission—the heavy breathing and the anxiety feel almost contagious as they produce jumps with the first-person camera. As the action starts heating up, the lighting and the noises begin to take hold on your psychology. For better or for worse, you will probably find yourself holding your breath and jumping sky-high throughout parts of the movie.
For me, this was where the movie was able to succeed—in its ability to transmit anxiety to the audience that mirrored the astronauts’ experience. Still, I found the second half of the film startlingly unimpressive. The cheesy plotline attempted to straddle too many genres and topics, and fell flat. Where there was potential for intrigue invoked by government conspiracy and the space race, or a solid sci-fi horror film, it came across as little more than artificial intensity compensating for a very weak plot.
Lloyd Owen’s solid acting performance was the highlight of the film, as he does incredibly well with the script’s limited plot and character development. Warren Christie does a fair job as well, although his role becomes a bit cliché as he replays a tape of his proud son pretending to be an astronaut just like him. And because the stars were still able to shine in outer space, I give this film 2 out of 5 Patches.
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