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Trouble on the International Space Station
lewiz writes "The BBC News website has an article that explains the International Space Station has run into troubles due to one of four gyroscopes breaking down. They say while this is a serious problem it will not have any massive effect but it will have to be replaced quickly as the gyroscopes stabilise and control the flight."
NASA tries to spin the lack of spin. There's just something wrong about this...
The In Space, No One Knows You Read Vogue story, just two posts ago, had the supermodel report which seemed to already cover this.:
They also reported a loud, growling noise inside the space station. It turned out to be a broken gyroscope that was commanded to spin down and then shut down. One of the bearings apparently seized up.
NASA said the other gyroscopes were working fine and that the failure would not affect the station's navigation and control. But the bad unit will need to be replaced, and the soonest that can happen is early next year.
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I wonder if they'll have the Russians fly up the replacement if their rockets can handle something so big and heavy. They didn't seem to indicate that they even have spares ready, but I would assume they do.
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We know that it took them 5 tries to build the Babylon space station, so really, still being on the first one here is pretty good. As long as the first few aren't sabotaged, and the fourth one isn't taken back in time, we're all good.
Of course, maybe it would help if we had some of that fancy Vorlon technology, but I suppose Canadians are kinda mysterious and frozen like them, so that's close enough.
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At this point they would be a class one security hazard.
If you're going to allow supermodels into a space station full of extremely horny astronouts, you'd better have five fully functioning gyroscopes.
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I would hope they would be able to get by on at least 2 :) not a place you want a critical system to go down when a replacement is about half a year away!
They seem to be having quite a few "critical" problems (control computers going offline and onto backup) That in the news are reported as being so bad but no real big deal.. I would like to see what the designers of ISS modules and the astronauts/cosmonauts have to say off the record about these problems.
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
As usual, spaceflightnow.com and space.com have better articles with more detail. These sites usually have space/shuttle/station information up very quickly so I tend to rely on them more.
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I bet that if a few super models - I think two could fit into a seat, now that is redundancy!
We could get that replacement to them in the next shuttle.
Then again Swedish Ski Team?
failing gyroscope
nasa transmits dance lessons
breakdancing spacemen spin
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From this article on Yahoo! News: Link
"The loss of one gyro will not impact operations. In fact, the station can function with two. Even if three failed, the station can use thrusters for stability, but that means using up precious propellant that has to be flown up from Earth. The gyroscopes work on solar power.
"To lose a CMG is a big deal; this is a major component, but from a risk perspective right now we're in good shape," flight director Paul Hill told reporters. "The next CMG we lose, there is going to be a gut check."
I'd say they're not super-concerned at this point, but if one failed, another could fail quite easily...
design a space station using the doughnut shape? That way, they could kill two birds with one stone; spin the station to create artificial gravity and achieve gyroscopic stability. (That way, you don't really need discreet gyros)
It's a nice staion but should be used to build a better station. Put manufacturing capabilities on it and let's move forward.
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I understand hardware will fail which is fine if wasn't due to negligence; what isn't fine though is the apparent lack of preparedness in handling the resolution of this situation.
First, why did such a critical device fail so soon on the space station? I only ask that because it just seems like the more expensive a device is for the space shuttle or the space station the more easily it will fail. Does the level of criticality coincide with the level of fragility?
Second, doesn't it bother anyone else that it may take up to a year to replace the one failed gyroscope? NASA has to make room on a future space shuttle mission in order to fly the replacement gyroscope up, fine I say, but I don't think that's the whole story as to why I will take so long to replace. NASA shouldn't be using the excuse that it would delay experiments or completion of the space station. The safety of the ISS crew is more important than getting some experiements completed.
I think the issue should be why is NASA classifying this problem as low priority? Maybe NASA has done its risk analysis on the problem which would be fine except that there seems to be no oversight of the decision process.
When I was an intern in a company building satellites and rockets, local gurus told me that gyroscopes, with all their complex pieces moving fast, are the most failure-prone part of most satellites, and that's the reason why they usually have 4 gyros while only 3 are needed for normal operation, and 2 are enough for "degraded mode".
Now one gyroscope of the ISS is out: granted, it's a bit early, but it is also a bit early to worry about the ISS's future. Remember Hubble: at the beginning, it sounded like the mission would be a complete failure... In the end, Hubble could be repaired, and it is now considered a complete success. Don't be too hasty when bashing space missions: this IS rocket science after all.
But it wouldn't be very interesting to report this story factually, since it literally has no effect on the station's operation, except requiring that another gyroscope be installed before not the next one, but the one after that fails.