NASA, with the tampons.

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NASA, with the tampons.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/39279251

Beers

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Nasa, when the tampons fall.

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Menses, with timing abrupt.

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he/him

Tf did NASA do with tampons?

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Nasa engineers asked the first American female astronaut, Sally Ride, back in 1983, if 100 tampons would be enough for her 1-week mission.

Apparently the engineers may have had an understanding of menstruation…but they didn’t have an understanding of how menstruation works in zero-gravity. So, in true NASA fashion, they wanted to have redundancies on redundancies. It’s not like they are that heavy (the tampons, not the menses. Mass is an important consideration in leaving Earth’s gravity)

Sally informed them that 100 would be more than enough and she could do with far fewer.

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In a 2002 oral history interview with Rebecca Wright, then coordinator for the NASA Johnson Space Center History Office, Ride was asked what items NASA had added to her flight kit, including the tampons in question.

“I remember the engineers trying to decide how many tampons should fly on a one-week flight; they asked, ‘Is 100 the right number?’” Ride recalled, according to the transcript. She replied that, “No, that would not be the right number.”

“They said, ‘Well, we want to be safe,’” continued Ride. “I said, ‘Well, you can cut that in half with no problem at all.’”

NASA engineers apparently had a history of sending women to space with inadequate supplies. In that same interview, Ride noted that the engineers had also decided that women astronauts would want makeup. So, they designed a makeup kit.

“The engineers at NASA, in their infinite wisdom, decided that women astronauts would want makeup — so they designed a makeup kit,” Ride was quoted as saying in a January 2018 tweet shared by the NASA History Office.

It is not uncommon for astronauts to head to space with their own personal hygiene kits, which have been issued as standard equipment for astronauts since the 1960s. These kits typically contain items like a toothbrush, lotion, deodorant, comb, and razor. But in a predominantly male field in the 1980s, experts apparently had limited knowledge in the types of hygiene items that would be necessary for a woman.

The optional — and unused — makeup kit included eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, eye makeup remover, blusher, and lip gloss. It went on display in the Human Spaceflight at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, in 2002.

What a fascinating little piece of history! They even designed a makeup kit smh. Thanks for the rabbit hole!

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Zero-g makeup that wouldn’t send particles floating around, with minimal weight… Interesting little project.

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Yeah right. Like I am a man and I don’t wear makeup but that actually sounds fascinating. I would fly to space and wear it for science. These are the types of gimmicks Bezos should be bankrolling.

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“I said, ‘Well, you can cut that in half with no problem at all.’”

Next meeting, the engineering team showed up with 200 half tampons.

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he/him

Lmao, thats a very silly story. That’s like 14 tampons a day 😅

Thanks for filling me in!

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That’s like 14 tampons a day…

…Thanks for filling me in!

Phrasing!

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he/him

Hmmmmm, I could have considered that a little more before I chose to post 😅

Look, I’m very lonely okay, sometimes you’ll take what you can get 🥲

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Comments in Microblog Memes@lemmy.world

Wait what happened with nasa with the tampons?

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I get to repost my top Lemmy comment:

NASA is a very safety conscious organization. So they want to overestimate everything and include way more than they need. So when she said a couple per day you can round that to 5 for safety, then considering it’s a 6 day mission they want to include triple the amount of needed supplies which means 18 days worth. 18*5=90 which is pretty close to 100 so let’s round up again. Plus tampons are a useful first aid tool, especially in zero gravity. You shove some into an open wound and it’ll prevent blood from spilling all over the very sensitive equipment. Does a woman need 100 tampons for 6 days? Of course not, but she wasn’t going to spend a week in the mountains, she was going to space, so the safety precautions were much more stringent

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With those astronauts going to the ISS for a week and ending up being there for 9 months, packing too much was the right thing to do.

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They also don’t want to be caught unprepared if it turned out that microgravity messed with menstruation, and made it worse than it would be on earth.

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On top of all that, they didn’t even send that many, they simply asked her if it was reasonable. She said to half it.

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I’ve had enough shit go wrong that I’d probably take that as a jinx and double it.

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“I’m not gonna need this thing” / every person who will desperately need thing tomorrow

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HOW MUCH SHE PLANNING ON BLEEDIN UP THARR?!!

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Good comment overall, but tampons should not be used instead of gauze for open wounds. They don’t have nearly enough packing capacity to actually stop the bleeding. They only soak up the blood while the wound stays open and dangerous

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it’s probably US way of thinking, they expect bullet wounds

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NASA provided Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, an absurd 100 tampons for a 6-day mission.

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This story always drives me insane. I’m a woman with endometriosis. When I was younger and was being dismissed as “dramatic” and “attention seeking”, I absolutely had times where I went through a tampon an hour for 6 days straight (even overnight, had to set an alarm every hour to go swap), so 100 tampons for 6 days isn’t actually ridiculous.

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always drives me insane that people think that they should have packed less. imagine running out of something in space that is cheap, light, necessary for lots of reasons and in a situation where things can go wrong, yes it was a week trip, but, sometimes that week trip can get extended because things can go wrong.

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Also like 100 tampons don’t take up that much room, afaik they don’t expire if stored properly either.

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Yeah only thing is that they start to taste stale after a week or so, otherwise fine.

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You can just mask that taste with more sauce

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and in a situation where things can go wrong

This is a really good point. Never thought of that. There’s really no limit to how adaptable a tampon can be in an environment where a leak can be catastrophic.

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OP

You poor fucking thing. Just reading that made my guts churn

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I pray for you 🙏

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Better safe than sorry.

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It’s ridiculous that they didn’t ask the woman, you’re obviously an edge case.

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The story comes from a stand-up comedian’s set. It is not a true story or a real thing that happened. The real story that the comedian’s joke is based on was NASA did ask Sally Ride if 100 tampons would be enough, but they did not actually send her with 100 tampons. So yes, they did ask the woman.

The first sentence of the article:

Forty-six years ago, NASA engineers asked *Sally Ride* if 100 tampons was the right amount to send with her for a six-day spaceflight.

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Sure, I’m an edge case, but I’m just saying that this isn’t entirely ridiculous. Are most women going to need 100 tampons for 6 days? No. But it’s not like it’s some absolutely absurd amount that no women would ever need, it’s actually realistic for a very small percentage of us, and it’s always told like hur hur this is so dumb. It’s really not. It’s worth asking.

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They actually just asked her if it was reasonable. She said to half it.

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To me itd be easy, 0. Do bring 27 cokes

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If your buddy is 27, you can just ask “would you like bourbon or vodka with this pile of coke?“ because, if you’re 27 and hanging out with your buddy, obviously neither of you are married or have kids….

You should be good to go from there

Darmok and Jelad at Bogeta

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