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ISS Spacewalk Cut Short
RobertB-DC writes "The spacewalk that was intended to replace a balky power supply ended almost before it started, according to Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center play-by-play. The Russian Orlan spacesuit worn by US astronaut Mike Fincke developed a problem with its oxygen supply (!), forcing both spacewalkers back to the airlock after less than 15 minutes. Mission control and the ISS crew are still debating what to do next."
too bad, I was really looking foward to this, especially after delay upon delay. Guess they need to doublecheck their equipment next time.
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I betcha that they had Taco Bell the previous night. That always wreaks havok with my oxygen supply.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Just patch the leak with putty!
NASA: Astronauts to get putty for small holes
Though I have to question these NASA budgetcuts.. AstroPutty
but the moonwalk will live on forever!
-ninjaneer
FWIW, I thought it was kind of interesting that these spcesuits are not able to carry jetpacks, like the US ones, should the tether break. Pretty risky if you know you don't have a back up if it breaks. Although it's even more risky not having air.
Hmmm.
Are widely regarded as rugged, tough suits. However, I understand they lack many of the safeguards that their American counterparts have. Anyone know if this is true or my bad recollection? I saw a show on the Discovery channel some time ago that compared the Russian and American space programs. It spoke of how the American program uses multiple redundant systems, while the russians favor rugged, proven gear. It also spoke of how the russians bettered their space program by launching many rockets, knowing their failure rate would be high, but learning from those failures. In comparison the American program launched fewer and did lots of R&D between them.
;)
Personally I would want to be on the rocket that had a lower percentage of failure and thus would want the American space suit, but perhaps I'm biased.
In soviet russia, spacewalks cut YOU short!
Mission control and the ISS crew are still debating what to do next.
Mission control: Go back out there!
ISS crew: No!
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
IIS had problems, now it is ISS, I just hope that SSI are okay.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Not before you return into the station, of course.
Maybe these guys could help.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Uh, space walks you?
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
The Russian Orlan spacesuit worn by US astronaut Mike Fincke developed a problem with its oxygen supply (!), forcing both spacewalkers back to the airlock after less than 15 minutes.
Well, thank God for that parenthetical exclamation point to let me know it was a problem.
I thought NASA called them extra vehicular activities or EVAs (which is my term for pulling in at the side of the road to releave myself).
They just moved indoors to avoid being hit by David Beckham's penalty kick.
ya think they'd a been smart enough to take some friggin DUCT TAPE with 'em up there!... astronauts... indeeeeeed....
It's a good thing they caught the oxygen problem before things got worse. Good job, guys.
...But, as long as folks are brave enough to go Out There, I'll still be rooting for them.
This sort of thing demonstrates the need for advances in robotics. An remote-controlled machine could potentially do spacewalk jobs somewhat more easily and far more safely than sending out a human in what boils down to a ziploc bag tied to the station.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
I'm betting on a better than 50% chance they have to abandon the station within 2 years. I'm also betting if NASA says next spring on the Shuttle that that translates to 3 years away.
They're having problems designing a universal robotic foot for providing on-site kinetic impacts to solve minor unanticipated problems that would otherwise result in mission failure.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
They weren't out to fix the AE-35 unit by any chance I hope.
as has been discussed on /. often, manned spaceflights do jobs which unmanned flights cant. (real time experiments, fixing stuff in orbit etc.)
Space station usage could be hugely beneficial (and has already given a better understanding of various subjects in fields like medicine and chemistry, like ostereoposis (med.) and crystal formation (chem.)
However, due to budget cuts, the ISS cant fulfill its role as well as it should.
Regarding the dangers, we humans have a need to explore and push boundaries. This urge has driven almost all advances since the stone age, it is fundamental to our being.
Some people are willing to risk their lives for this, others arent.
This station cost millions of dollars and months of construction to assemble. Every flight costs between $400 million and $1 billion depending on the load of the shuttle. It is VERY unlikely that they would ever abandon the station before it started to crash into the upper atmostphere from orbit disentigration.
or shit yourself when you realize that you have 30 seconds until you explode inside your suit.
What of the effects of the malfunctioning power supply? From what I gather it powers the gyroscopes/stabilizers for the lab module. That sounds pretty important, not just for the "keep it in space" effect but also the tendency for malfunctioning electronics to drain on the sources. Is waiting for a fixed suit going to complicate things more than a quick "duct tape" fix?
Perhaps a Breakdown and Recovery service instead of space tourism ?
Though Intergalactic Pizza Delivery gets my vote. I wonder if ISS would refuse to pay if it turned up a few minutes late?
Where is our own space suits that should be checked prior to the flight ?
This again begs the question: Do we really need manned spaceflights where unmanned, robotic spaceflights can do the job just as well and at a much lower cost?
Do we really have any need to go down a concrete path at 60 miles per hour in a tin box just to see the latest Adam Sandler film? Perhaps we should hide away in our homes for all except the most urgent business.
I know someone is going to mod that down as flamebait or mod me as a troll but the bottom line is that we risk lives everyday for much much less. These guys and gals know the risks and except them willingly. Frankly I'd do it, and if I were to die you can sleep well at night knowing that I'd rather have given my life for a decent contribution than dying at the age of 90 after a lifetime of pandering to idiots who are too lazy to try to reboot their PCs before calling the help desk over what are often non-issues.
And besides, perhaps the robot aspect is cheaper but what about the time in development? Tell me to use a screwdriver, it'll take you 3 seconds and I'll get the job done and be able to work my way thru most unexpected problems. Do that to a robot and it takes hours if not days to tell it the task and when it encounters a problem it takes more time to figure out how to tell the stupid thing to overcome the issue. And good luck getting any input back from the machine that may help explain the problem.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
2001! dolts.
I also reply below your current threshold.
1. What the difference betwen Capitalism asn Socialism: Captalism it's when one group of people exploits another group of people, in Socialism it's another way around.
2. Whats the diff between UA and USSR? In US the machines harvest potatoes and men harvest lunar rock manually. In USSR the men harvest potatoes manually and machines harvest lunar rock.
3. When designing equipement for astronauts NASA encountered a problem: The normal ball pens wouldn't write in space because of lack of gravity. They've spend 1M$ to design a SpacePen where the die is kept under pressure to keep it flowing in weightless environment. When Russian encounetered the same problem, their solution was to USE PENCILS...#3 there is an urban legend. Fisher spent their own money developing the "space pen". And the US did use pencils for a while. But the problem with pencils is that breathing graphite dust isn't the healthiest thing in the world.
Mix the failings of Usenet with the shortcomings of the World Wide Web and the result is slashdot.
This stupid white elephant needs to be put down. It was a stupid idea in the first place.....Why? Because it is in the hands of two (or more) governments who know nothing about how to run a business. Put the space program in the hands of private businesses and watch how well it works. How much did it cost NASA to put the first American in space versus how much it costs the Rutan group to put the first private human in space? With cost overruns, stupidity, etc.....it's no wonder NASA can't hardly do anything right anymore. I use to be a big fan of NASA in the "golden age" but not anymore. They don't have a goal....in the old days it was beat the Soviets to the moon, since then it's been stumbling to find something to do to keep the gravy train of money funneling to it's doors. A lot of good scientific research has been funneled from NASA to the private sector, but that has pretty much stopped, since they can't do anything right anymore. The shuttle was for building the space station, and the space station was for the shuttle to bring people to it. Hardly a worthy goal if you ask me.
The snopes website has an excellent recap of this issue...Space pen. One really interesting addition is ... "Fisher pen was eventually used by both American and Soviet astronauts"
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
Broken link? This is the image i meant... the first one
they are to fix some circuit breaker and the earliest possible next space walk is no earlier than next tuesday.
I was reading some Russian news about this, here is what they say:
:-)
Transl:
This is not the first problem with the space suit - earlier it was found that 2 out of 3 American spacesuits had prroblems, It was decided to use Soviet suit.
This looks like BS to me, also at the very end of that story there is a small detail that completely brakes the whole logick of the story
Transl.:
It was found, that the problem in Mike Fincke's suit most likely was caused by an astronaut, injectors handle should be switched in to off poosition before the spacewalk, as it's says in the manual. This was a comment from "Zvezda" Russian manufacturer of spacesuits.
So they did in fact used soviet made casket
USofA uses *obsolete technologies from the 60 and the engineers don't redesign all the system.
I just love blanket statements like this, they are so generalized it is easy to refute....
If you mean the shuttle, it was actually 1970's technology and several of the subsystems (main engines, cockpit, etc...) have been updated since then.
If you mean the fact that components NASA uses are usually based on older technologies, there are reasons for that. First older technologies have failure modes that are better understood. Second, older electronics tend to be more radiation tolerant than the modern stuff because they are bulkier, lower-frequency, and operate higher voltage.
Regarding the whole redesigning systems matter, all the systems on the ISS were designed specifically for it. They did use information from earlier space craft, but they didn't just drop-in modified shuttle systems!
I won't comment on your grammar because english might not be your primary language.
They are clearly in need of Duct Tape for those mission critical repairs!!
You sound like a really enlightened individual who has travelled the world and truly understands many diverse cultures.
Is that why you're posting AC?
Have you ever seen the working jetpack? It's huge and bulky. That's why climbers don't wear them, not because the tether can't break. SHeesh.
Blar.
Is the correct term for what happened a "Wardrobe malfunction"
You can't just sit there watching TV, you have to go to work.
So swallow your pride, find a big garbage bag, cut a hole for your head, and get back outside.
KOROLYOV, RUSSIA--U.S. and Russian scientists are increasingly excited about the Mir space station project, which promises to reveal more than has ever been known about the scientific relationship between weightlessness and mortal terror.
"By stranding our scientists on a dilapidated space station with faulty wiring, loose hardware, and malfunctioning air systems," NASA head Daniel Goldin said, "we have created extremely favorable conditions for learning about spaceborne panic."
The two Russians and one American on board the station are reportedly terrified beyond lucidity.
Among the groundbreaking experiments conducted on board Mir: a June 25 collision with a cargo craft that depressurized the Spektr module; last week's emergency power shortage, caused by a disconnected cable; and the periodic release of "dry ice" steam that simulates a shipboard fire. All have been deemed a huge success by agency heads.
"They are in a constant state of what aerospace scientists term 'mind-shattering terror,' frightened for their very lives," Russian mission director Vladimir Solovyov said. "And we have not even used the hull-mounted Alien puppet that taps on the window yet."
"We have also taken huge leaps in our understanding of the patterns created when one wets his pants in the weightlessness of space," Solovyov said. "The urine spreads out in an expanding sphere, something we did not expect."
Taking a break from his busy schedule, astronaut Michael Foale told ABC News reporters: "Where's my mommy?"
"Please tell me the access code to the Soyuz capsule," Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Lazutkin said. "I would like to return to the chaotic government and widespread hunger of my homeland."
Scientists expect to gain even more useful data during an experiment at 3 a.m. tomorrow. As the astronauts sleep, whirling red siren lights will flood the cabin while an ear-splitting klaxon alarm jolts them awake.
Detailed scientific data will then be collected on such variables as open weeping, uncontrollable spontaneous defecation and unusual hair loss.
In all seriousness:
Why the language and Mission Control switching when they cross "the line"? Is that what is meant by "international"? I guess bureaucracy hasn't killed enough atronauts, yet.
Goals for 2011: 1. Stop plate tectonics. 2. Prevent animal predation. 3. End supernovae now. 4. Rid the world of evil.
While #3 is an urban legend, there is some truth to it. A friend of mine used to be a translator for the US Army, because she spoke fluent Russian. In the 80s, she was selected to take part in one of those disarmament missions in which both sides agree to destroy so many of their missiles, and send inspectors over to ensure that they were destroyed. Of course, both sides destroy their old missiles that they didn't particularly want anyway, so it was really just a PR scheme, but that's besides the point.
;) It was a piece of wood cut to the right length. If the stick fit, they could inspect.
:)
The US teams were sent over with a (relatively) sophisticated laser measuring device. You affix it to a surface or mount it on a stand, aim it, and it will give you a digital readout of the distance to the target. They used this to determine if an area was large enough to contain a treaty-limited item, which meant that they were allowed to inspect there.
The Russians were very impressed with this. They sent their teams over with a different device. It was called a stick.
She gave another example of this. Say you're pulled over in the US. They take your license, and bring it back to their car. There, they enter it into a computerized system that keeps track of the ticket, and then bring your license back to you.
In the USSR, they took your license. They punched a hole in it. If your license had too many holes, they arrested you. That was their system.
We often accused them of underengineering their products. They often accused us of overengineering our products. Both are probably quite true, and as someone who worked at a defense contractor in the past, I can personally vouch for the latter.
I'm an owl exterminator!
Reverse the polarity!
Trust me on this...
[o]_O
that makes sense if you never plan to send anyone into space, but a lot of us kind of like that idea. and something that complex isn't something you do all at once.
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
Given the current state one has to wonder it there are even enough people on board to keep it running....seems to be more problems cropping up then getting fixed......
But when we talk about a "balky power supply"... isn't Balky that crazy guy from the TV show Perfect Strangers?
You make an argument about risk, but look at it in terms of money
How many unmanned space flights fail due to hardware/software failures? How many manned space flights fail due to hardware/software failures?
The bottom line in the man vs. robot debate is that humans, even the dumb ones, are a thousand times more able to deal with problem situations. They don't need to be re-engineered nor re-programmed at the slightest variant. This simply isn't true of robotics. Yeah, the mars rovers are kicking much ass, but consider what a single human could have done in contrast on the surface of mars in a couple of days. Fully functional. Full feedback.
I say send lots of cheap expendable million dollar unmanned missions to Mars
This really isn't about Mars. As much as I feel a human could do better I do agree that landing a ship on Mars, and more importantly getting back off, is cost ineffective now. But this is about a space station. The main objective of this experiment is about humans in space. This is another rung in the ladder that will lead to permanent space occupations. This goal can not be fulfilled by robots.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
American components....Russian components...all made in Taiwan!
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
You're right, sometimes there is a simple solution to a problem, but just because it's simple doesn't make it the best answer, or even right for any situation. The Russians are an intelligent and inventive people, and have done the best that they can with a limited budget, often with good success, however I would not like to be in that position.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.