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ISS Oxygen Generator Fails for Good
billyj4 writes "A balky Russian oxygen generator broke down on the International Space Station, but its two-man crew has a reserve air supply that would last about five months, NASA officials said Friday.
The station's primary generator, which has been operating in an on-again, off-again fashion for months, stopped working last week and the station's crew has not been able to fix it.
Mission managers say the unit has failed for good. Consequently, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and U.S. astronaut John Phillips will be relying on reserves until replacement parts arrive at the station in late August."
A balky Russian oxygen generator broke down
I thought Balky was from Meepos?
riiiidiculus!
Sure NASA says the parts are coming, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Oh No He Didn't!
Oh Yes He Did!
Ha ha ha, but seriously, I hope they don't die.
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
with Mega-Maid.
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First they ran out of supply line(2003), then they ran out of food(2004), and now they are running out of oxygen. What will the next thing be? Will they run out of orbit?
Elektron is a standard unit on Russian space stations, Mir and Salyuts (iirc) used them as well. They break all the time. Krikalev and the crew before his (Ciao and Sharipov) all have spent tons of time working on both the Elektrons onboard. One broke, they put in the other, it has broken again. It seems that they spend a lot of time stripping and repairing Elektron units.
Definitely time for a new, more robust O2 generator. Not enough time in the interim to build a new style of generator, but there is a mid-term opportunity for one.
The Russians will be sending either parts or a new unit with the next Progress supply craft.
josh
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
`_
/ \
O O
|||/
|\/|
\__/
Hey there, partner! It looks like you're running out of oxygen!
What would you like to do?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Here... I'll fill in the rest of the obligatory unfunny stupid jokes so that we can get on with our lives and have an intelligent discussion on the subject of the ISS:
Obligatory old Korean joke: Only old Koreans get stuck with no oxygen on ISS.
Obligatory underpants gnome joke:
1. Run out of oxygen.
2. ???
3. Profit!
Obligatory beowulf cluster joke: The oxygen generators: If only they'd had a beowulf cluster of these.
Obligatory MS joke: The oxygen generator must have been powered by Microsoft.
Obligatory Apple joke: The oxygen generator was useless because it only had one button.
Obligatory all-your-base joke: All your oxygen are belong to us! Someone sent us up the parts!
Obligatory Strong Bad joke: SUFFOCAT'D!!!
Obligatory everything else joke: The thought of Natalie Portman, petrified and naked, while they eat hot grits poured down each others' pants should help them to stave off suffocation, or at least be happy about it.
ISS orbits well within the region protected by the Earth's magnetic fields, so they won't have any problem. Geosynchronous satellites are going to be impacted pretty hard, but they're designed to withstand flares (although they may shut down temporarily).
The crew of a lunar or interplanetary mission would want to take shelter, though -- most mission designs include some sheltered space for that purpose. The shielding usually consists of a water tank that surrounds most of the shielded volume -- water is an excellent material for the sort of ionized particles thrown off by the sun in these events.