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International Space Station Gyroscope Fails
b00m3rang writes "Reuters reports that one of the three working gyroscopes that keep the international space station stable and in the right position stopped working, just hours after a new two-man crew moved in for a half-year stay."
Reuters reports that the gyroscope that keeps the international space station stable and in the right position stopped working, just hours after a new two-man crew moved in for a half-year stay."
Did you phrase it that way because you're a professional reporter and are used to getting paid to scare people into buying the crap you write, or are you just being a troll?
The article (and common sense) state that there's redundant functionalirty involved, i.e., there are two gyroscopes left that can handle the load and if that fails they can still keep it going with thrusters for over 6 months.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
"No but it is following the media trend of making the ISS out to be a money pit that is plagued with problems"
ISS _is_ a money pit that is plagued with problems, and serves no useful purpose that can justify its cost. It should have been scrapped years ago, before it was even launched.
Remember how we all pointed and laughed when Mir got into trouble? Accident after accident befell the Russians and we made fun of their rickety old obsolete hardware.
This isn't schadenfreude. It's karma.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
That kind of thinking is along the lines of the old joke about the airplane that had it's engines fail one by one, with the captain announcing that they're going to be delayed by another hour with each failure, and somebody saying when they're down to 1 engine "I hope that the last one doesn't fail or we're gonna be up here forever"
Fail-over and redundant systems are neccessary in a situation like this where any mistake can result in impressive accident. To limp on on 3 gyros for so long is faulty thinking, and goes to show just how badly the cutbacks are affecting space exploration.
Unfortunately it's very difficult to drum up support for what looks like a purely scientific venture when unemployment is rising and so many other projects urgently demand resources.
What we need is a proper international effort, free of political grandstanding and nationalism.
Like that's ever gonna happen. Maybe humanity needs to grow up a bit first before trying to climb out of it's crib.
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'