Most astronauts are envious of them because most missions are pretty short and they know they are only going to get a small number of flights, perhaps just one and often not even that. Astronauts want to be in space, so getting stuck up there for eight months is like a dream come true for most of them. Plus, they aren't really stuck, in terms of having no way to get down in the event of an emergency. There are presently, as of yesterday, six spacecraft docked at the ISS.

Hi,

That's an interesting view and I could see that. Experts want to make use of their education and pursue their interests.

As for the other spacecrafts, I guess the mainstream news forgets to report about that making an even bigger issue out of it, as usual, and every time.

 

Just think of the hazard pay and overtime.

Haha, yeah good one.

Maybe they bonkered the little craft themselves so they could get more pay.
"Sorry ground control, it failed all the tests. Welp, too bad, we'll just have to stay longer and get lots more pay."

I also read that costs are going to be way too high to go to mars.

 

Plus, they aren't really stuck...

Nope. They're moving at about 17.5K mph.

 

I agree with you, they are loving it at the ISS but will get pretty bored if NASA can't find some real work for them to pass the time.

Heck, I'd design my own experiments to pass the time.

 

Heck, I'd design my own experiments to pass the time.

Did they bring any jacks with them
How about rock, paper scissors?

 

How about rock, paper scissors?

In zero gravity, does paper actually cover rock?

 

In zero gravity, does paper actually cover rock?

Depends what group you are listening to, and then you just MAY want to use some acoustical material rather than just paper (ha ha).
But, I am pretty sure paper has less zero gravity than a rock does

 

Depends what group you are listening to, and then you just MAY want to use some acoustical material rather than just paper (ha ha).
But, I am pretty sure paper has less zero gravity than a rock does

Rolling Stone magazine quit covering rock decades ago, zero gravity not withstanding.

 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024...as-voyager-1-communicating-with-mission-team/
After Pause, NASA’s Voyager 1 Communicating With Mission Team

Then, on Oct. 19, communication appeared to stop entirely. The flight team suspected that Voyager 1’s fault protection system was triggered twice more and that it turned off the X-band transmitter and switched to a second radio transmitter called the S-band. While the S-band uses less power, Voyager 1 had not used it to communicate with Earth since 1981. It uses a different frequency than the X-band transmitters signal is significantly fainter. The flight team was not certain the S-band could be detected at Earth due to the spacecraft’s distance, but engineers with the Deep Space Network were able to find it.

Rather than risk turning the X-band back on before determining what triggered the fault protection system, the team sent a command on Oct. 22 to confirm the S-band transmitter is working. The team is now working to gather information that will help them figure out what happened and return Voyager 1 to normal operations.

https://www.extremetech.com/science...low-power-radio-that-was-dormant-for-43-years
Voyager 1 Stuck Using Low-Power Radio That Was Dormant for 43 Years

Unfortunately, any relief the team felt at contacting the decades-old spacecraft was short-lived. Just a day later, the fault protection system triggered twice more, shutting down the X-band antenna entirely. Voyager 1 fell back to another communication system, the S-band transmitter, which it has not used since 1981. This signal is lower power and much harder to detect, and the team wasn't even certain they'd be able to detect it. However, sending more commands through the X-band antenna was deemed too risky.

S-band (2 GHz), X-band (8 GHz), and Ka-band (32 GHz)
https://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedias/deep-space-network

 

https://www.theverge.com/news/625182/nasa-voyager-mission-instruments-shut-down-power

The Voyagers’ radioisotope power system loses around 4 watts each year, so to preserve power, NASA engineers have been shutting down some of the science instruments carried by each probe. Voyager 1’s cosmic ray subsystem experiment was turned off on February 25th. When the low-energy charged particle instrument aboard Voyager 2 is shut down on March 24th, both spacecraft will have three out of the ten identical science instruments they launched with remaining operational.
“Electrical power is running low,” said Voyager project manager, Suzanne Dodd. “If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission. The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible.”