Comments on: ISS astronaut, upon seeing inside SpaceX Dragon vehicle first time: "It looks sci-fi."

By: Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers — Wed, 30 May 2012 08:09:00 +0000

There’s another rub with this sort of thing in that the old green/amber/red LEDs used to indicate things, like standby, power and so on. Now everything is just this stupid blue which tell you what? Refrigerating?

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:33:00 +0000

Wait… wait… Elon Musk is God? I mean, granted he’s pretty cool, and I’d love to work for him, even if it meant genuflecting occasionally, but… God? He doesn’t strike me as having that big an ego.

By: Brad H.

Brad H. — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:53:00 +0000

Oooh, blue anodised handles; that’s what I’m talking about!

By: SarahKH

SarahKH — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:02:00 +0000

You also have to factor in relative ages of the craft. The space shuttle was very1960′s – 1970′s in terms of it’s onboard technology. Soyouz (sp?) is 1950′s at best and the ISS for all the noise made about it started being designed in the 1980′s and 1990′s.

Dragon is 21st Century from the get go, it’s not bleeding edge but far closer to it than the others so for someone used to craft from earlier eras it might well seem a “little sci-fi” even if you are living on a space station.

By: Frank Diekman

Frank Diekman — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Blue LEDs. Feels a bit like a sci-fi filmset. From 2007.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:53:00 +0000

I suppose it would just try to stop itself from spinning if you flicked it.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:38:00 +0000

I’ve got the Virgin V+ box (UK cable) and it’s covered in the bloody things. Black electric tape over all of them; no functional difference.

HDD’s and computer cases etc., fair enough, but when it’s something that sits immediately below something that’s function is to be looked at, you do wonder who designs this crap.

By: jmcgarry

jmcgarry — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:53:00 +0000

*ugh* I`ve seen enough Brutalist architecture to last me a lifetime!

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:11:00 +0000

I know I’m jabbing wildly at the Obvious button here, but that does make me think of “All things dull and ugly”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPriOQkKd6k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

By: Martijn

Martijn — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:44:00 +0000

Next time someone complains that my desk is a mess, I’ll just say I’m training to become an astronaut.

By: Martijn

Martijn — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:40:00 +0000

For alarm clocks, I’ve got good experiences with a green display. Blue would be just creepy, though.

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:46:00 +0000

It’s a HUGE improvement over the cramped little Soyuz. Just watched Richard Garriott’s “Man on a Mission” and had never realized how damned cramped those little ships were.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:43:00 +0000

I definitely had the impression that Musk wants to make an impression. Thats why he had his people spray the interior with New Car Smell.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:36:00 +0000

Inevitably the boss would say something like Michael stick that frisbee to the port deck and get back to work so the labels help I suppose.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:35:00 +0000

The Lord in His wisdom created the fly. And then forgot to tell us why.

-Ogden Nash.

By: Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:33:00 +0000

Well aware of this. If the device is cheap enough, I open and either clip the little blue bastards out or desolder and replace them. One of my USB wall chargers was bright enough to read by at night. A red marker over the more expensive items does the trick too.

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:15:00 +0000

All right then. Assuming the broadest possible definition of God, because I’m generous that way: I am also thankful for slugs (yay!), and the reproductive cycles of the jewel wasp and various xenomorphs.

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:11:00 +0000

WITCHSPACECRAFT! BURN IT!!!

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:10:00 +0000

Not until I have shares of everything it doesn’t. Also, Lance Henriksen needs to start a company of some kind. Something to do with robotics and the Japanese.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Tue, 29 May 2012 06:07:00 +0000

Pretty cool! Next up… gyro-stabilized mp3 players. :)

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Tue, 29 May 2012 06:01:00 +0000

Quite a few years ago, while visiting the KSC there were a couple mockups of ISS modules you could walk through. As I was going through one I remember asking the docent how astronauts were going to remember which way was up/down, right/left. He wasn’t sure. I guess they found an easy solution. :)

By: C L Charlie Smith

C L Charlie Smith — Tue, 29 May 2012 05:55:00 +0000

To see this come true in my life time is to understand…….” Thru God All Things Are Possible

By: JhmL

JhmL — Tue, 29 May 2012 04:54:00 +0000

But don’t fall behind on your payments, or they leave you there.

By: TWX

TWX — Tue, 29 May 2012 04:23:00 +0000

I’d rather see “hubward” and “rimward”, and “turnwise” and “widdershins”…

By: TWX

TWX — Tue, 29 May 2012 04:19:00 +0000

I can attest to this. I bought a new alarm clock/radio a few years ago and it had a blue display. In the well-lit store I thought it looked cool. I got it home and after two nights went out and bought a used one from a thrift store with a red display instead. I have since put some dark cling film on it and placed it in the kitchen, so we can use its’ CD player.

There’s a really good reason to use red alarm clocks. Every other color seems to be too bright and interferes with sleep.

Since they’re not sleeping in the cargo ship, blue LEDs might actually help to keep the crew awake while working, if that’s a problem.

By: bob murphy

bob murphy — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:00:00 +0000

Well played, Sir! I see what you did with the MST3K reference there…

By: Petzl

Petzl — Tue, 29 May 2012 01:52:00 +0000

And, Rhino isn’t the opposite of Hippo the way Left is of Right.
Better to pick easily recognizable labels like “WINTERFELL” and “HARRENHAL.”

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Tue, 29 May 2012 01:24:00 +0000

Lots of blue light apparently causes sleep disturbance, something to be careful of

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 29 May 2012 00:57:00 +0000

They should use self-unsealing stem bolts.

By: mccrum

mccrum — Tue, 29 May 2012 00:54:00 +0000

Because when things go wrong you probably don’t want to spend that twenty minutes getting a screwdriver to open the access panel…