Plymouth Rock Mission Goals: Earth Security or Job Security?

[neutrino78x]

This is all the private space you get on a USN Trident submarine for 90 days (I personally have been underwater for 87 days without coming to the surface or coming into port).

9 men sleep in these bunkrooms. Like other Navy ships, the rack (bed) lifts up to reveal personal storage space, and the lockers in the foreground are each for one person.

On Fast Attack Submarines, it is even worse: 3 men share a bed. At any time, one is working, one is training or doing other things, and the third is actually sleeping in the bed.

Here's sonar on a Trident (this is the older system, in the new boats they have a Commercial Off the Shelf system, based on PCs), this was my rating, my main job on the boat.

The guy who is standing is the sonar supervisor; if he takes a step backward, he will touch his chair, and 3 inches (6 cm) behind that is the back bulkhead (wall). Sonar is about 10 feet (3.5 m) long, and about 4 feet (1.3 meters) wide. In a tactical situation, there would be 12+ people in the room.

I bring all this up to make the point that there is precedent for people going on dangerous missions for long periods of time, in close quarters.

I think they should look at Submarine Officers (and enlisted men...I was enlisted!) as astronauts for Deep Space Missions.

--Brian

 

[neutrino78x]

Although there seems to be some question as to the need of sending humans to an asteroid, if asteroid deflection could be done by an automated probe. My policy is that you don't send humans unless they are either colonizing, preparing a site for colonization, or doing some defense purpose which requires humans.

--Brian

 

[Yuri_Armstrong]

This is all the private space you get on a USN Trident submarine for 90 days (I personally have been underwater for 87 days without coming to the surface or coming into port).

9 men sleep in these bunkrooms. Like other Navy ships, the rack (bed) lifts up to reveal personal storage space, and the lockers in the foreground are each for one person.

On Fast Attack Submarines, it is even worse: 3 men share a bed. At any time, one is working, one is training or doing other things, and the third is actually sleeping in the bed.

Here's sonar on a Trident (this is the older system, in the new boats they have a Commercial Off the Shelf system, based on PCs), this was my rating, my main job on the boat.

The guy who is standing is the sonar supervisor; if he takes a step backward, he will touch his chair, and 3 inches (6 cm) behind that is the back bulkhead (wall). Sonar is about 10 feet (3.5 m) long, and about 4 feet (1.3 meters) wide. In a tactical situation, there would be 12+ people in the room.

I bring all this up to make the point that there is precedent for people going on dangerous missions for long periods of time, in close quarters.

I think they should look at Submarine Officers (and enlisted men...I was enlisted!) as astronauts for Deep Space Missions.

--Brian

Lots of astronauts were already in the military. These guys are hardcore... they will not mind cramped conditions for a few months, especially not when their fortunes as America's heroes when they return are guaranteed. Argue about the point of such a mission if you want, but the ones who explore the asteroid will be the best known astronauts since the days of Apollo.