Outsourcing in space at its best...
NASA is in the line of fire once ag
ain. Having lost the ever-famous video of man’s first step on the moon, causing speculations about the theory of the moon landing hoax last year, guess what they’ve done now! They have purchased a Russian built toilet system for a whopping $19 million for the International Space Station (ISS), claiming that it was cheaper than building their own from scratch. The expensive toilet will be installed on the American side of the ISS in 2008, while the Russian half will have to make-do with the old system only. This is part of a larger $46 million deal that NASA signed with Russia’s RSC Energia. The space station toilet physically resembles those used on Earth, except it has leg restraints and thigh bars to hold astronauts down. A NASA spokeswoman claims, “It’s like a miniature municipal water treatment system.” The system is similar to the one used at the space station currently, except that new one will be able to recycle urine into safe drinking water. Eeks! About $16 billion of the American taxpayers’ money goes to NASA’s funds each year and hey... here’s how NASA has chosen to spend it. And if the Russian built space toilet is similar to the one already in use on the space station, they could just as well have improved upon the design they already had in use, isn’t it? Why buy a whole new system anyway? They surely wouldn’t be designing it from scratch if they already have one in service for sure! Well, the $19 millions are already spent, so no sense in arguing. NASA is NASA and NASA puts its funds in things they want. That much money for a highly engineered toilet, but one that 99.9% of the world population will possibly never ever use! Welcome to planet Earth...
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
NASA is in the line of fire once ag
ain. Having lost the ever-famous video of man’s first step on the moon, causing speculations about the theory of the moon landing hoax last year, guess what they’ve done now! They have purchased a Russian built toilet system for a whopping $19 million for the International Space Station (ISS), claiming that it was cheaper than building their own from scratch. The expensive toilet will be installed on the American side of the ISS in 2008, while the Russian half will have to make-do with the old system only. This is part of a larger $46 million deal that NASA signed with Russia’s RSC Energia. The space station toilet physically resembles those used on Earth, except it has leg restraints and thigh bars to hold astronauts down. A NASA spokeswoman claims, “It’s like a miniature municipal water treatment system.” The system is similar to the one used at the space station currently, except that new one will be able to recycle urine into safe drinking water. Eeks! About $16 billion of the American taxpayers’ money goes to NASA’s funds each year and hey... here’s how NASA has chosen to spend it. And if the Russian built space toilet is similar to the one already in use on the space station, they could just as well have improved upon the design they already had in use, isn’t it? Why buy a whole new system anyway? They surely wouldn’t be designing it from scratch if they already have one in service for sure! Well, the $19 millions are already spent, so no sense in arguing. NASA is NASA and NASA puts its funds in things they want. That much money for a highly engineered toilet, but one that 99.9% of the world population will possibly never ever use! Welcome to planet Earth...For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
