Due to an impact of space debris on their Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, three Chinese astronauts have been stranded on the Tiangong space station indefinitely, instead of going home Wednesday. The Shenzhou-21 crew had already arrived at base to relieve them.
And we can’t even help them ourselves, because of a US law forbidding NASA from cooperating with Chinese astronauts.
I never knew about the:
Do we have the ability to help, because clearly an exception is allowed.
We stranded our own astronauts for a very long time recently thanks to Boeing, so I’m not sure we could do much.
Technically, they are taikonauts.
I wonder, the law aside, do Chinese/Russian manned spacecraft have compatible seals and ports (whatever one calls it) to let an American spacecraft link up with them for assistance?
I believe Shenzhou spacecraft are equipped with docking system compatible with the International Docking System Standard (IDSS) so, maybe?
If they’re not equipped with IDSS compatible docking gear, it’s a colossally stupid move on the Chinese part.
I would imagine that if those guys were going to die, and the option was to get the FBI and Congress to allow it, it might happen.
Beyond that, is there any reason that SpaceX couldn’t launch a Crew Dragon capsule to go retrieve them? They’re not NASA, and presumably not constrained by the Wolf Amendment.
There’s a note at the end of this article about a backup launch vehicle. The Chinese will apparently be able to handle this themselves.
Hopefully all will be resolved positively.
The Guardian article also says:
“Shenzhou-22 and the Long March 2F (launcher) were already on standby. This is our rolling backup mechanism. They are in ‘emergency duty’ mode and ready to bring our astronauts home safely if needed,” Yu told his more than five million followers on Weibo.
I assume they have emergency food and water available for a good period of time - regarding the possibility that their descent could be delayed.
If they do it like the ISS does (and I don’t see why they wouldn’t), food and other essential supplies are sent up on a cheaper rocket that doesn’t need as stringent requirements for safety or reliability. If your supply rocket blows up, you just send another one, and even if it blows up 10% of the time, that’s just an 11% increase in the cost of keeping the station supplied. But even China probably doesn’t accept putting humans on a rocket with a 10% failure rate.
My understanding is the key factor is how many potatoes they can grow.
Of course, my understanding of this issue is based on watching The Martian three times.
The Chinese helped NASA in that film too, so does this rule only work one way? Or did a movie lie to me?
I’m assuming the Chinese space station operates the same as the ISS and recycles water indefinitely with a toilet system that reconverts liquid waste to sterile potable water.
Probably, but I’m sure it’s not perfectly efficient, so they still need to replenish water supplies every so often.
Sheesh, I hope the TP holds out.
They’re back on Earth now.
The three who were there originally, who were the subject of the “stranded” coverage, are now home, but the three who replaced them currently have no obvious way of returning to the surface in the event of an emergency.
The simplified TLDR version: The station has two docking points. Each crew comes up and docks its ship. That ship sits there unused until the next crew rotates in. When the new crew arrives, the old crew takes its original ship home, and the new ship then sits and waits for the next rotation. That ship serves as the “lifeboat” in case the crew needs to leave early. Crew 20’s ship was damaged and could not be safely used to return when Crew 21 arrived. Instead, Crew 20 went home on Crew 21’s ship. Crew 21 is now on the station with the unusable Crew 20 ship.
It’s arguable the degree to which this new crew can be described as “stranded,” considering they’re scheduled to be on the station for a while and there’s time to figure things out, but it’s a messy, unpleasant situation for sure.