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Comment by nullfield | Hacker News Reader

I admit I didn’t think of this, but… without another science mission or something, what do they do up there?

This said, yeah, I wouldn’t want to come back on Boeing hardware with Dragon available.

According to the audio: https://www.youtube.com/live/DYPL6bx87yM they are helping with standard ISS tasks, like operational maintenance and it is greatly appreciated.

I don't follow Space Stuff as much as I'd like to, but one impression that I have always had is that there is _never_ a lack of stuff for astronauts to do up there. An astronaut's time and resources are just too damn expensive to have them up there just hanging out. Outside of their fairly limited personal leisure time, they have a strict down-to-the-minute schedule handed down to them by mission planners that they must follow if they want to keep their jobs past the next landing. Including when to sleep and when to eat.

(Of course, I assume the astronauts are allowed to request a change to their schedule if it's for a good reason.)

Common tasks include running tests and maintenance on the station itself and monitoring/performing various science experiments. Perhaps doing a few NASA PR bits, media interviews and short chats with school children over the radio.

I once read an article that said the vast majority of the actual work NASA does is "contingency" work that is never actually ends up being used. The problem is that while a mission is under development (or even well underway), you don't always know how things are going to shake out. So you hedge your bets by doing as much preparation and exploration of alternatives as you can, and try to pick the right one at the right time, or as the situation evolves.

I guarantee there are entire teams on the ground working _right this second_ on a draft schedule for keeping the two "extra" astronauts gainfully contributing to ISS activities, even though it's not certain that they will be there.

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