NASA once asked astronaut Sally Ride if 100 tampons would be enough for her week-long mission in space, but she later clarified that this number was excessive. While the engineers were concerned about potential needs, Ride humorously noted that a much smaller amount would suffice.
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025
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NASA, with the tampons.
Tbh, this is not quite as dumb as it sounds. Tampons weigh nothing and if there's no way to resupply, it's not quite as dumb to take more than you need. What if, for example, there's a series defect on these things and a large portion of them are defective?
In fact, when they asked her said it's excessive, to which they told her they wanted to be on the safe side, so she said to cut it in half and bring 50pcs (which is still excessive for most periods, but on the safe side).
In fact, in the same mission they also brought jelly beans, which were entirely irrelevant to the mission, because Reagan insisted on his favourite snack to go to orbit. They were likely heavier than 100 tampons and also much less necessary up there.
I get the impression they were also preparing for a potential freak discovery where it turns out zero G has an extreme effect on the menstrual cycle, and they suddenly need a lot of them.
If you have a sample size of 0 and a backup plan of "crash and burn", it does make sense to be extra careful with the preparation.
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On NASA defence is not the first time that due problems with vehicles an astronaut have to stay up there for much much much longer than their planed stance.
At the end I think the astronaut said that 50 would be enough. So the NASA estimate wasn't really that far off. As it's totally normal for a woman to use half or double the tampons than other woman during period.
But it is a funny story indeed.
Still a pretty dumb approach by the NASA guys. Didn't it occur to them to ask a woman - any woman - before coming up with the initial estimate? Like "hey Sally, how many tampons do you normally need during your period? OK we'll triple that for a safety margin." There. Done.
They did ask her. Sure, they could have asked how many instead, but it probably came in a 100 count well within any significant mass margins, so they just asked if 100 would be enough.
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One of my favorite things about Lemmy ~ Star Trek references can occur anywhere, at any given moment.
I have a personal metric system for rating social networking platforms based on the percentage of Trekkies/Trekkers.
One of us! One of us!
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It's quite simple really.
Are you planning on a sensible night with a few tinnies? 4.
Are you wanting to get wankered but still make sense by lunchtime tomorrow? 14.
Are you wanting to get utterly trashed and wake up the morning after the morning after? 24.
Are you part of a suicide cult? Yeah go with 104, sure whatever.
I think it depends on the strength of the beers too. Are we drinking lagers or quads?
It does. I'm in the UK so 90% of the lagers or beers are between 4 and 5%.
If you get on the Special Brew then going into double figures will probably ruin you the following day. That said, start hooning a couple of slabs of Carling C2 and you'll spend most of your time sobering up pissing in the bog/up the neighbours fence/in your mate's wardrobe in the middle of a dream.
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She didn't say night, she said weekend. There's so many more variables. Maybe they're going to stay in and watch movies until 3AM, maybe they're going around town and not drinking a lot at home, maybe they get really drunk early on, found love, and stayed in for the rest of the weekend?
It's almost as if we're weaving a whole narrative from a meme post.
Either way, I hope they had a lovely time.
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I just don't feel like a real man if I don't have my 125 daily lagers. I would surmise astronauts are the same. Maybe that's why nothing gets done up there,... they're being rationed !
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I don't need 100 beers but I would like 100 beers
Plus like what if the mission lasts for a long time. If I plan on spending a week at a friend's house but end up being there for much longer it won't hurt to have more beers.
If we're using NASA as a reference Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were in space for 286 days instead of a planned week long mission. I definitely would rather have 100 beers in that situation over 12 beers
If we're using NASA as a reference Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were in space for 286 days instead of a planned week long mission.
They did get resupplied with additional clothing and personal effects after a few weeks.
Coincidentally, there is no laundry or shower on the international space station.
True, but just in case, would still rather have the 100 beers. Plus if I know more beers are coming I can worry less about rationing the beers
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I'm not sure whether that's a hot take, and I know there are different levels of tolerance, but I think you might have a problem if you drink 20 beers in 2-3 days (assuming 4-6% alcohol). Or at least you will probably have, starting day 2 :D
I mean, if you’re doing a full weekend of activities with friends those beers could be spaced out far enough that you’re never more than slightly buzzed (small cans, <5%ABV). But yeah, if it’s a regular thing, it’s not a great look.
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Really depends on whether we're talking 0.33l oder 0.5l.
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if he likes shit beer, get a 12 pack, good beer, 6 pack
I remember watching the X-files sometimes in the noughties and Mulder came up with a deduction; "it must've been two men...nobody drinks two six-packs alone" and I just cracked up.
12-pack was like a medium for the night, 24 a heavier. Plus bars usually. (Finn here.)
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Brutal
Oh we got that in Finland btw
(it was a marketing campaign, not a default size)
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Get a 12 pack of beer and a medium sized nice liquor bottle as backup
At 27, i would have put down 12 light beers before dinner while on a trip with no real responsibilities.
18 if there were responsibilities.
A full 30 if I thought I might be inconvenienced in those responsibilities.
I only upvoted for the Darmok reference and the actual photo still hasn’t loaded to see if the reference is valid.
Edit: Why would people downvote this? I actually want to know if anyone has an idea
What in the ever-loving AI is wrong with that guys skin?
The first generation terminators had rubber skin, and were pretty easy to spot.
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If he's my friend, I'd tell him to pick up the beer on the way over. Let him deal with it.
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