What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he’s not coming back? “Hey, if you guys don’t give me a chance to repair my instrument, I’m not going back.”
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Discussion 3 comments
Kelly and Zach Wienersmith talk about this exact story in their book, A City On Mars . I recommend reading this book if you're interested in learning about the real problems we'd have to solve with setting up space settlements. That includes the social problems that Taylor Wang here (kinda) posed. He was basically bluffing since there was no safe way for him to space himself without endangering the entire crew, which likely would have brought more shame to his family than just letting the experiment fail. Bringing shame to his family was his motivation for saying that quote.
I wouldn't be surprised if the writer of this article has read this book. His article goes over everything this book covered when it brought this story up. If you enjoyed this article you'll likely enjoy the book too.
One thing the article didn't mention: Taylor Wang was able to get his experiment working. The rest of the crew helped cover his workload while he fixed his module.
I bet this kind of thing happens way more often than we realize. The demands are incredible, the environment is completely foreign. How do you anchor yourself to reality when you literally can't even stand or sit on the ground?
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