Slashdot Mirror
Space Station Suffers Power Glitch
TheSexican writes "As if the MRO's vision problems weren't enough, it seems that NASA has another problem on their hands as of late.
" The problem itself has been solved; one of the solar power array went off line, and had to be repaired, but is back up and working.
Keep in mind that the station was designed for a crew complement of seven. Right now it has three. Keeping the station running is requiring most of the attention of those three. This is not a surprise. What has been a surprise has been how long the construction has taken, which has (in part) prevented the other four crew members, who would be doing the bulk of the science work, from going up. Other hangups that have held things up: redirected funding, the grounding of the shuttle fleet, and the not-yet-complete crew escape vehicle.
Why yes, I am glad you asked. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/ index.html will get you to the weekly science overview and the current expedition science overview. You get all this while the place is still under construction. Just think when a crew of six is available with full laboratory environments in the next few years. By the way, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structur e/iss_manifest.html gives a summary run down on when to expect new capabilities to be in place.