MSNBC: "Space station mission opposed"

James Oberg wrote:


We just had a telephone press conference with NASA medical folks and Bill
Gerstenmeier. I started sympathetic to the decision to go, with the
proviso of heightened alertness to potential contamination. By the end of
the hour, when I asked a tough question about when do they decide to pack
it in and come home, based on what criteria indicating contamination
approaching dangerous levels, I got blah-blah about 'experienced
astronauts' who could judge for themselves how safe the station was -- as
if it was going to be left up to the flight crew to decide. A doctor said
they would watch for "the level of symptomology when it begins to impact
performance" -- that is, when it's so bad the crew can't stand it any
more. I was appalled and dismayed. There doesn't appear to be ANY real
medical plan of how to detect contamination levels based on crew medical
symptoms (sense of smell/taste, headache, itchiness, vision problems,
breathing difficulties, etc. -- they just rely on the 'medical judgment'
of the Flight Surgeon -- who is often a future astronaut-wannabe) or use
such detection to make the choice to shut down the station. I am a lot
more worried about the decision now, than I was an hour ago.

JimO


Calm down, I've got a bag of charcoal, who do I send it to for launch on
the next resupply mission. If they only have a very limited payload that
can be sent to ISS right now, what should they send? A bunch of repair
sensors so the Doctors on the ground can watch thing degrade? Or, a bunch
of spare charcoal filters, so when the astronauts start to notice a smell,
they can change the filters?

For most things, it should be up to the flight crew, God gave them a
wonderful sensor to detect odors, it's called a nose.

Another thing I notice on the NASA Watch web site, is that they are worried
about resupply water contaminating the potable water supply. This begs the
question: What, they have no water treatment facilities onboard?

The make these wonderful ozonators for the home use. O3 is wonderful stuff,
if used properly.

http://www.braintuner.com/ozonators.htm

Maybe they should give these Doctors 20 or 30 lbs of payload on the next
resupply flight and we can all see what they decide to send. Sensors, or
ozonators and filters?

Craig Fink