I weigh the same': NASA astronaut Suni Williams refutes tabloid health claims (video)

[Admin]

NASA astronaut Suni Williams says her weight is stable aboard the International Space Station, rebutting tabloid claims that her orbital stay has made her emaciated.

I weigh the same': NASA astronaut Suni Williams refutes tabloid health claims (video) : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Glad to hear that she is doing well.

But, I had to chuckle when she said she "weighs the same as when she got to the ISS", because, in zero gravity, everything weighs nothing. So, her "weight" is and always was zero up there.

So, logical question: How does NASA assess astronaut body mass during missions? I guess you could apply a know force, such as a spring compressed by a certain amount, and measure how fast that ended up pushing somebody with some sort of speed measuring device as the astronaut floated down the ISS tube.

Does anybody here know how they actually do it?

 

[Classical Motion]

Attach WiFi accelerometers tabs at various points on body. A dozen or so. One month before launch. And record continuously till one month after touchdown.

What better record could one have? One could probably detect moods with it. Might detect drinking, eating, urination and defecation too. These traces might show mental states.

And of course an acceleration “mission hologram”. For every astronaut.

A very rich and virgin data field.

This might be a great diagnostic tool here too. No need to ask what you doing or have you been active.

Kinda 1984 isn’t it. I wonder if a large catalog could spot instability.

Imagine if marketers could get this info. There would be no doubt what people do and what people want.

But only for network and service provider diagnostics.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

An accelerometer could measure body mass, if you know what force is being applied to the body. But, you still need a calibrated force to replace gravity in order to get a measurement that can be equated to weight when on Earth.

 

[billslugg]

I would make a sack they could sit inside, hook it by a long cable to a pulley mounted to a scale. Have a motor turn the pulley at 9.8 m/s^2 and read the scale.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I would make a sack they could sit inside, hook it by a long cable to a pulley mounted to a scale. Have a motor turn the pulley at 9.8 m/s^2 and read the scale.

That sounds somewhat dangerous!!! I would not want to be the astronaut flying through the space station in a sack at even 9.8 m/s, from 1 second of that, much less any faster.

And, turning a motor at an accelerating rate is harder to calibrate than the compressed spring concept I initially posted.

I am thinking an accelerometer on the astronaut, who tries to imitate a ball, getting pushed by a calibrated spring would be easily feasible.

But, it would be nice to know what NASA really does. Assuming it does something. Otherwise, the astronauts really would not know how much the weigh until they are back on Earth's surface.