• Buffaloaf@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Wasn’t the 100 tampons thing because they didn’t know how weightlessness would affect bleeding?

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
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      10 months 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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          10 months 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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            10 months ago

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

            • otp@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months 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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              10 months 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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                10 months 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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            10 months 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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            10 months 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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            10 months 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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          10 months 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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          10 months 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.