• chaogomu@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    NASA is obsessed with redundancy, especially when the weight allowance lets them run away with it.

    Add that to the fact that most of the engineers were men, and had literally no clue about how many tampons are needed for a normal woman on earth, and you end up with 100 being sent up for a two-week mission.

      • chaogomu@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Apparently someone did, and then the response was that tampons are low enough weight that the packaging to send them was the majority of the weight, even when sending 100, so they sent 100.

        They also developed a zero-g makeup kit because they thought that female astronauts would want that. It had eyeliner, lip gloss, foundation, and blush. All specially selected to not generate dust.

        The makeup kit never actually flew, likely because someone asked an actual woman if she would ever want that shit in space.

        • kofe@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Has no one ever thought to ask if the men might like it? :(

          • otp@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            That sounds pretty cool regardless. Space pens are cool, even if mine will never write in zero gravity.

          • Gabu@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Considering the kind of person that gets to go to space, I doubt anyone wants it. 10 minutes of prettying up are 10 minutes taken away from research.

            • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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              1 year ago

              Might be worth it if you’re aiming to be part of the first couple to bang in space. I’d certainly want to look my best for that.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I could see a woman, even an astronaut, carrying about what they looked like on the news when they land. I could also see them not caring. Mileage varies

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          NASA actually did a few press events where they did a live broadcast from either a module or the ISS.

          Even if they don’t wear it day to day, I can see an astronaut perhaps using some makeup for that.

        • umbraroze@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Zero-G makeup kit sounds like a feasible thing to research, actually. But to utilise it, we haven’t researched epic space station party technology yet. So, you know, priorities aren’t great.

      • hope@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They did ask. The source for the claim is Sally Ride talking about the time NASA asked if 100 sounds like the right number.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        They did. That’s why they didn’t send that many. It’s not like it took them a long time to figure what the worst case number would be that fit in the budget.