Akiyama was not a trained astronaut..
Okay.
During training..
I guess that training was unrelated to astronaut activities.
Comment on Toyohiro Akiyama deserved better
Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Akiyama was not a trained astronaut, scientist nor engineer. During his time aboard Mir, Akiyama gave live reports each day documenting life aboard the station, but his apparent discomfort led to him being described as the first “antihero in space”. He described his struggles such as space sickness and craving for cigarettes: During training, he quit smoking cigarettes, having previously smoked four packs a day. Before liftoff, when asked what he looked forward to most upon his return to Earth, he said “I can’t wait to have a smoke”.
Pulled from Wikipedia.
espentan@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
akwd169@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
Just because he was given training on what and what not to do, does not make him an astronaut…
Astronauts have way more training than just a crash course in how to not fuck everything up
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 13 hours ago
Why was he chosen?
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
It was a publicity stunt by his employer, a news network, to pay for a Japanese person to go to Mir.
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 48 minutes ago
Aaah…
stoy@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
He was the backup, the primary reporter was a young woman, but she had a medical emergency shortly before launch.
If you want to know more, Failure To Launch podcast has an excellent episode on this
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 49 minutes ago
Thank you, but that still doesn’t explain why he was even considered.
The_v@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Ryoko Kikuchi had appendicitis a week before launch.
She did eventually make it into space however.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 14 hours ago
How often do you have to light up to smoke 4 packs a day? Holy shit, at my heaviest I smoked a pack and a half. Space sick sounds fucking miserable. Of course he wanted a fucking smoke.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 14 hours ago
Answering myself, I did the math and I think I did it right, you’d have to light one every 18 minutes if you didn’t sleep. I’m assuming this guy sleeps sometime so he had to be a straight up chain smoker.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 hours ago
Chain smokers can smoke at a faster rate too though, there’s a technique where you basically smoke the whole thing in a single breath, then go on to the next
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 8 hours ago
Wild
Zombie@feddit.uk 14 hours ago
The standard cigarettes in the UK are 20 packs of Super King size. Assuming it’s the same in Japan:
At 24 hours in a day, 8 hours of sleep, that leaves 16 hours awake.
20 x 4 = 80 cigarettes
80 cigarettes in 16 hours is one every 12 minutes. Considering a cigarette takes about 5 minutes to smoke, that’s almost as much time with a cigarette as without. The entire time he’s awake.
And he thought he could just give that up for a jaunt in space? No wonder he hated it!
DrBob@lemmy.ca 11 hours ago
I used to smoke two packs a day sometimes - usually when I was out drinking in which case I was constantly smoking and up late.
I knew a 3 pack a day smoker. He managed it by always having a lit cigarette. But sometimes he’d forget about one in the ashtray and light another one. I saw him a few times forget about the second one in the ashtray and light a third.
It honestly seemed like a compulsive lighting habit, if he didn’t have one in his hand he’d light one without thinking about it before looking in the ashtray. You could get a carton (10 packs of 20) for $25 and I made around $8 an hour then.
Lumisal@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
You didn’t count eating times or something like a shower. So he either also smoked while eating or while showering, or never went without a cigarette
Akasazh@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
What is the cost of a pack in Japan? When I quit I was at a pack a day, choosing me around 300 euro.
edit. The cost is around 5 dollar, so that’s 20 dollars a day just on smokes. Holy cow
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
If that sounds like a lot, it’s 12 euros in the Netherlands.
Akasazh@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Weet ik gozer ;)
That’s why kicking my pack a day habit three years ago was a wise financial decision.
9point6@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I definitely saw 500 yen packs on sale when I was there a couple of years ago, which would be about £2.30/$3.10
Given I think a 20 deck of cigs in the UK is about £12 now, it’s still crazy cheap to smoke out there comparatively, so I can only imagine it was even cheaper then
Akasazh@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Yeah it said 500-600 yen, but it converted it to 3-4 / 5-6 dollar. I just took the middle price.
Turns out it’s not like 4 dollars. It’s very cheap in comparison, however if you smoke that much it’s still costly.
errer@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
After consideration, I think it’s fair he’s remembered for getting space sick and wanting a cigarette…