Soyuz rescue mission underway for Discovery astronauts?

[georgeniebling]

why would the astronaut not (wow, redundent sounds!) be able to get back into the hatch? Do the bay doors have to be open for the hatch to work?<br /><br />It's not like the astronaut would be able to grab hold of an opening door if one of the bay doors started to reopen during reentry ....

 

[mrmorris]

<font color="yellow">" not stationing two Soyuz at the ISS is purely political."</font><br /><br />Well -- it's true that there are political problems to NASA paying Russia $40-60 million a year to add two more Soyuz flights to the rotation to keep two up there at all times. There are a few other issues you're ignoring that sorta trump the political aspects though.<br /><br />The only reason to have two 'permanent' Soyuz docked is to have />3 crew on multi-month rotations.<br /><br />1. Where you going to put them? The 'hab module' got nixed. There's insufficient ECLSS/space/bunks for more than 3 people. Four maybe, five unlikely, six impossible. What's worse is that I don't see a place in the ISS construction schedule where this is going to change... even with what is being called 'core completion'.<br /><br />2. What are they going to do? The only lab up there is Destiny. Columbus, JEM, etc. won't be there for some time. We can have astronauts twiddle their thumbs just fine here on Earth. Zero-G is not a requirement for this activity.<br /><br />3. How are they going to be resupplied? It's strained Progress to the ragged edge keeping <b>two</b> astronauts eating and breathing. Until the shuttle flights are regular -- this won't change. After shuttle flights stop... logistics become a very big grey area.<br /><br />Once the ISS has habitation for six crewmembers, a reason for them to be there, and a way to keep them supplied -- *and* if at that time there's still no means to bring six crew back to Earth in an emergency, then you can talk about how this is a purely political problem.

 

[mrmorris]

<font color="yellow">"It all comes down to the STS"</font><br /><br />And <b>time</b>. You can't say that not having two Soyuz craft on station is a purely political issue 'right now'. You can only make that statement several years from now *if* the situation has changed such that having six people on-board would make sense <b>and</b> *if* at that time there's still an issue with emergency evacs. <br /><br />The thing is, by the time there's a possibility for six crew on-board, other factors may have changed the evac situation. Kliper might be available. The CEV might be available. An ASP winner might be available. Aliens might have visited Earth and provided us with a handy teleporation device by then*.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />*I see this as no more unlikely than the ISS being completed by 2010 or the CEV being usable by then or someone winning the ASP given the restrictive rules. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />