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Space Station Gyro Problem Dangerous?

mysterystevenson writes "After bringing more mass than ever before up to the ISS, one of the gyros has failed. Gyros help maintain attitude position in space; the more mass needed to be controlled, the more force that is exerted on the gyros. Now there is the danger that the Shuttle may be bringing yet more mass and starting construction while turning off another gyro, which could cause a need for thrusters to maintain attitude. The assemblies are not all constructed to be able to withstand such force and in a bad situation there could be a collapse which could affect the Shuttle and the ISS as well. Worse case could be total loss; a wise idea might be to alter the construction schedule and address the Gyro and Gyro design problems, before going forward with the introduction of more mass."

6 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. AAAGH by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 4, Funny

    STOP MAKING ME HUNGRY!

    It's only 11:00, the gyro cart won't be out for another hour!

    1. Re:AAAGH by PFI_Optix · · Score: 2, Funny

      And yet they seem to be quite plentiful in space.

      --
      120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
  2. What "gyro" ? by yvesdandoy · · Score: 0, Funny

    This is unclear ...

    Are they talking about "pita gyro" or something ??? :)))))
    So it would be normal that they have got a excess of mass ... it's so full of fat !!! :)))))

    Sorry, I couldn't resist.

  3. MysteryStevenson to the rescue! by patrixmyth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thank goodness they have such a renowned inertial theoritician to alert them to this problem. It's just lucky for all of us that he took time away from work adapting massage devices for use as space propulsion devices. When will NASA learn to stop relying on those empty pieces of paper that their engineers call PhD's and start listening to people who've been interviewed by their local media at some indeterminate point in the past and now maintain a wiki.

    --
    "Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
  4. Withstanding attack by krell · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Okay, who thought it was a good idea to put solar arrays so fragile that they can't "withstand small rockets firing on a station" that is equipped with those rockets?"

    But if the attacking ships use phasers instead of rockets, the solar arrays can take it.

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  5. OB Trek Quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or mis-quote???

    "I canna change the laws of physics!"