Living In Space

Things you’re not allowed to do.

a) I find it difficult to believe that no one in the past several decades, especially with women in the mix since the early 80s, has not joined the 150-mile club. They even flew a married couple in the early 90s. Shuttle had very sensitive accelerometers, and I imagine ISS does too. Mission control knows what’s going on.

b) I also find it difficult to believe that anyplace with engineers and scientists and sugar doesn’t have hooch in short order. The free fall might make the fermentation an interesting process, but I’ll bet it’s been happening.

These are things that are against the rules, but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen.

15 thoughts on “Living In Space”

  1. I could believe no Astronaut has joined the 150 mile high club, but I would be shocked to find out no Cosmonaut has.

    1. Be prepared to be shocked. Looking it up I was surprised to see that there were only two (2) female cosmonauts. And only one of them was on a co-ed mission:

      Svetlana Savitskaya.
      Soyuz T-5 (July 19, 1982)
      Soyuz T-12 (Jul. 17, 1984)

    2. My understanding is that on nuclear subs conducting multi-month patrols, especially the missile boats, no one is allowed to join the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Club . . . with each other.

      But solo performances are another matter, and I am told the U.S. Navy doesn’t have rules on that. But maybe such creates a hazard in space, and are astronauts selected for having more self-control than say, the average enlisted Navy personnel?

      1. Well, I’ve heard some sailors claim that “it isn’t gay if you’re underway”, so take that for what it’s worth.

      2. My impression is that a nuclear sub, while roomy compared to past generation boats, is still far too crampt for such a rendezvous to be discrete.

      3. Ace of Spades had a story up a while back about how the worst thing you can do on a sub is disturb someone behind the curtain of their bunk because that is their only private space and that everyone knows what it means when the curtains are billowing.

  2. I doubt yeast would be greatly bothered by microgravity. But distillation in that environment would be an interesting challenge.

  3. I thought the cosmonauts always took alcoholic beverage into space? Are these rules just for the non-Russian parts of the ISS or all of it?

    1. IIRC, the ESA astronauts as well as the cosmonauts from the USSR and Russia have had alcoholic beverages on ISS. The US astronauts are not supposed to partake.

  4. These rules all amount to: Space shall not be colonized. No Humans allowed past the visitors’ lobby.

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