NASA Task Force Recommends Radical Changes

darrellsilver writes: "As reported at the nytimes (free reg, etc) here and msnbc here, an independant task force initiated in July by the now resigning Dan Goldin concluded this week that "radical changes" need to be put into place if the space station is to continue functioning. The full report in PDF format is available from NASA here." We've reported on this before but we didn't have a link to the report itself. Budgetary woes have already taken their toll on the station and this report is recommending even more cuts.

Comments

Anal Retentive Engineering - New Scientist

[geoffwa]

A little while back New Scientist, 14th July 2001, had a great article on all the little engineering hickups that were plaguing the ISS.

Props go to New Scientist for excellent journalism, and me for subsequently stealing it (subliminal message: subscribe! subscribe!)

Problems with the space station are: <riff>

• Incompatible electrical supplies between the Russian and American modules
• Russian and American water supplies cannot be mixed. Russians used silver ions to preserve water, Americans use iodine, mix and you get silver iodide which clogs any/all filters/valves.
• The crew couldn't get to an air-circulation fan to fix it due to a large piece of "substrucutre". Out comes the impact driver... which solves the problem... sort of.
• Lack of tools. Stuff like vice grips are being used to hold together temporary odds and ends as well as tightening and loosening things.
• "Crew Squawk" program, designed to report when systems aren't working, isn't working. =(
• 3-page procedure for putting a maintenance panel back on is on the back side of said maintenance panel.

Other problems have been:

• Crew are using hair shampoo for all personal hygene, since it's hard to grip bar soap in weightlessness. Supply issues resulted since NASA wouldn't send more shampoo.
• Velcro strips are also food traps, very difficult to clean.
• The US-made Kapton tape has been abandoned in favour of the Russian "gray" tape, which upsets the ground control crew because it leaves a residue.
• The station's inventory manglement system both doesn't function, and doesn't work. Several hours a day is wasted chasing down equipment.
• Printer for said inventory manglement system fails on a regular basis.
  
  Fortunately most of these problems have been ironed out. The whole thing reads like a Dilbert cartoon. Just goes to show that money doesn't solve everything. Said article appeared in the July 14 edition of New Scientist and was written by James Oberg.
  
  Best quote is from ex-ISS Commander Bill Shepherd:

  "We need to get a handle on the anal-retentive engineering approach to everything."

  Fortunately the crew left the station on the 18th of March.
  
  (PS - subscribe to New Scientist - the Women's Weekly for geeks(TM))