Real Live Battle in Space

Image via Wikipedia

I guess it is a sign of the times when the cosmonauts in the International Space Station (ISS) are fighting over who can or cannot use the toilet and the exercise bike. Money is getting to be a scare commodity and this is even affecting those in space.
Both the BBC and Space.com are reporting on the complaints by the Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka about the conditions on the ISS.

"A Russian cosmonaut has complained he is no longer allowed to use a US toilet as well as a US exercise bike."

OMG! I hope, then, there is more than one toilet on the station and that should eliminate another battle over who cleans the toilet.

"What is going on has an adverse effect on our work," said Mr Padalka, 50, a veteran of two space missions who is to be the station's next commander."

That sure would affect my work if I had to run clear across a station to use the bathroom!

"Worse still, the regulations now required US and Russian cosmonauts to eat their own rations, he added."They also recommend us to only use national toilets," the newspaper quoted him as saying."Cosmonauts are above the ongoing squabble, no matter what officials decide," he told the newspaper. "It's politicians and bureaucrats who can't reach agreement, not us."The situation may be exacerbated by an increase in the number of astronauts living on the ISS."

I hope they can work all this out now because if money is going to be tight, then I don't see how a shared venture can work now or in the future.

Here is the complete article on BBC and Space.

It feels like an episode of Stargate SG1 when the Russians and the Americans disagreed over gate use and technology rights! When I hear stories like these I tend to think we are headed more towards a dystopian future (if not already there) than a more harmonious one.
It seems that the more things change the more they stay the same.