Attention: NASA
If the Space Station gets evacuated and then crispy anytime soon, I will be on the bandwagon with all of the people shouting :"Conspiracy!"
It is no secret that NASA wants out of that ridiculously expensive installation of dubious scientific value that whizzes around the Earth. NASA wants out of it because 1) it's expensive, 2) it's of little real value and 3) the only reason NASA is keeping the Space Shuttle in Service is to continue construction of the orbital lab. If there was no space station, for some reason or the random spiked computer, then NASA could immediately mothball the three remaining Orbiters (Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor) and save itself mucho dinero.
I mean there is more computational power in the laptops that the Astronauts all carry than in the stations computer systems, you mean to tell me there isn't a way to "patch" a laptop in the station's network?!? If not, why not? That pretty f-cking stupid, to put it plainly.
I find that, in a word, disgusting. First of all, it will drive an even bigger wedge between us and Russia (who have spent a lot of money on the continued construction), and also, it will effectively shoot American Space Exploration in the foot. America will not have (until the much vaunted Orion CEV's come on line - IF they are on time [big IF]), the ability to have a manned presence in space for YEARS. Second of all, it will lend credence to those people who believe in Conspiracy theories. Third, it sends yet another message that when the going gets tough, America takes its toys, and crying, goes home. I would understand if pulled out and left the Russkies holding the bag, and then Ivan decides to cluster bomb Johnson Space Center (late at night after the janitors have all gone home). That sounds fair to me.
If we want out of the ISS so damn bad that we are willing to spike the Russian computers to back handedly get out of it, it speaks ill of our country. Why not just say - "we're getting out of it - Space Shuttles and launch facilities are up for sale - if anyone wants 'em, pay us some dough and they're yours - and we'll throw in our keys to the ISS."
So to sum up, the Russians built a crappy computer and then the Americans, knowing it was sensitive to EM interference (read the below abcnews.go.com story) ran some high power, high interference solar panels into it. Conspiracy? Or sheer numb-nuts stupidity? One or the other. If NASA hadn't "lawn- darted" that multi billion Mars Probe by having one design team use metric and the other English measurements in programming, I'd say it was conspiracy - so part of me wants it to be conspiracy because I hope that NASA isn't that f-cking stupid.
Here's hoping that the Russian and American Techs and Scientists and engineers are able to fix this issue and they can get that damn thing finished...
I'm not saying that this is definitely what is happening, but with the Space Shuttles falling apart, and the costs of the ISS are continuing to spiral up, and then all of a sudden power surges from solar panels cause Russians to freak out, I am saying something doesn't quite smell right. So notice is hereby given.
Sources for this rant:
Google: NASA wants out of the ISS
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3281714&page=1
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