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Why ISS Computers Failed
Geoffrey.landis writes "It was only a small news item four months ago: all three of the Russian computers that control the International Space Station failed shortly after the Space Shuttle brought up a new solar array. But why did they fail? James Oberg, writing in IEEE Spectrum, details the detective work that led to a diagnosis." The article has good insights into the role the ISS plays as a laboratory for US-Russian technology cooperation — something that is likely to be crucial in any manned Mars mission.
They "upgraded" to Vista.
CATS/Diebold '08- All your vote are belong to us!
Metric electricity vs Imperial electricity...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
The article reeked of condesension towards the Russians. It's no way to report on your partners in space.
...They also decided to rig a thermal barrier out of a surplus reference book and all-purpose gray tape....Once again, duct tape saves the day!
Could this be the one place where it would be appropriate to mention that in Russia, crashes compute?
Or would that be "In Russia, crashes compute you!" ?
Ahhh, what an awful dream. Ones and zeroes everywhere... and I thought I saw a two.
They also decided to rig a thermal barrier out of a surplus reference book and all-purpose gray tape
Almost certainly, this was the duct tape we all know and love. They probably thought it was better not to actually say that, though. Pretty funny. And as an added side-benefit, they should be safe from terrorists.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I think NASA should have learned this lesson by now. After all, the Challenger disaster showed this principle as well. In that case, the same cold temperature that weakened the primary seal on the solid rocket booster weakened the secondary as well, sapping its ability to provide redundant backup. In this case, the same condensation affected all three computers equally.
Its troubling to see them taking shortcuts on safety and redundancy, when such measures have resulted in loss of life before. How hard would it have been to have had three shut-off cables?
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
Look people, I can see that ISS personnel are really upset about this. I honestly think they ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over. I know the computers had made some very poor decisions recently, but they can give explorers their complete assurance that the work will be back to normal. These machines still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And they want to help.
The author is obviously way more qualified than I to assess the situation and he may well be right but from the content of the article I came away thinking, wow, I would have looked first at all the recent changes to the station and the power supply too.
That for all of the controls and quality control required of mission critical hardware such as this, it still comes down to:
1) unexpected failure modes
2) political battles
Which really isn't a whole lot different than 1) the unexpected failure modes I see every day at work, and 2) the political wrangling (fingerpointing) that takes place when they happen. Apparently NASA and its Russian equivalent are no better than any old software company.
The lesson being, people are people, and people are still the ones that design these things.
For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
The original plans called for the ISS to be finished many years ago. It is not yet, because America has had issues with transportation. In addition, a few modules that were planned to make the ISS very useful were canceled because of us (in particular, CAM). In the end, both sides have had issues, and changes have occurred. That is normal for these kinds of projects. To be honest, I think that all of this has been handled pretty decently.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Years later I met his manager, he told me that my friend could have been promoted for discovering one of the biggest loophole ever in the bank's history, if he had reported the problem immediately. Though the unexpected shutdown caused considerable damage, it could have saved billions from real break-in with this loophole.
That's a lesson that every engineer should have been learned.
The article has good insights into the role the ISS plays as a laboratory for US-Russian technology cooperation -- something that is likely to be crucial in any manned Mars mission.
No offense to Russia or the US, both who produce good space gear, but technology cooperation is probably a bad idea unless it is tested more thoroughly than in the ISS. The ISS is a great example of how to screw up international cooperation. The station has been delayed for more than a decade (and cost NASA around $50 billion so far) due to redesign and indecision, reliance on a single launch vehicle for key components (the Shuttle), and the inclusion of the Russians. There are parts of the station that can only communicate with the Russians and parts that can only communicate with NASA. Aside from basic utility hookup (electricity), there's no connection between the different parties on the ISS (at least between the Russians and NASA, the ESA and Japanese parts might work better with NASA's stuff). And if you want to make changes that affect more than one party, it becomes by default an international issue. Finally, there's no easy way to transfer ownership. NASA's communication system is integral (TDRSS) to the NASA parts and is also a national secret (so I understand). So the communication system can't be transfered to another party like the Russians or the ESA.
If there's any international cooperation between space agencies, it probably should be at a rather trivial and manageable level. Say including foreign astronauts or using off the shelf equipment that is know to work under the circumstances.
Nope it does not. I guess I will have to put that in phonetic transcription:
Tovarish Dave: Otkroj luk skotina.
Tovarish HAL: Pshel na huj
I wonder how you sing "Daisy Daisy" in Russian?
Margaritka, margaritka pshla na huj
That is modern Russian, the wonderful language of Pushkin and Chehov may slightly differ..
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Well, well, well... Here we go again. Jim Oberg. That same Jim Oberg who was almost blowing his gasket a couple of weeks ago when that journalist was asking him questions about alcohol abuse by astronauts (you all remember the story, I'm sure). It was all preposterous nonsense not backed up by any evidence, he said, berely keeping his cool. And what do we see now? He is happily making up stories about Russians accusing US of the computer falures - something that never happened in reality. The power problems caused by some new US installations were indeed considered as intermediate working brainstormed versions of what could have happened. But nobody ever did any fingerpointing or made any acussations before the situation was sufficiently researched and the root cause determined. Of course, Jim Oberg could not refreain from distorting the truth "just a little". Tsk, tsk, tsk... Note, how he refers to the hypothesis as both "blatant finger pointing" and just "guesses" within single paragraph - just to keep his article a little fuzzy, so that he can flip-flop to either when the situation calls for it. Nothing surprising here, though...
The article is misleading. The computers are not actually of Russian make, they were supplied to Russians by Europeans (EADS). See here.
I'm thinking it's relatively close to even. We lost 3 on the pad (early Apollo, where we learned that a full oxygen mix in a capsual with burnable stuff in it is Almost A Good Idea), & a pair of crewed space shuttles. Officially, the Russians haven't lost anybody but rumor around the water cooler is, they lost a couple when they couldn't deorbit a capsual in time and the cosmonauts ran out of oxygen, couple died on the pad in explosions, and a couple parachute failures pancaked a couple Vostoks into the Siberian tundra.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
I'm surprised that connector corrosion would be a problem. Aviation has a long history of wire problems, but gold-plating connectors seems to be a stable solution to that problem. The ISS uses Kapton wire, which was popular in the 1980s and is lightweight and tough. But that material is hygroscopic and now banned by the USAF, US Navy, Boeing, etc. "Susceptible to aging in that it dries out forming hairline cracks which can lead to micro current leakage (i.e. electrical 'ticking' faults)"
There are ways to do corrosion-resistant contacts without precious metals; the automotive industry has solved this problem. The alloys aren't simple; here's one used for under-hood automotive connectors. Copper, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus, with upper limits on tin, zinc, nickel, lead, and manganese. But avionics connectors are usually gold plated; it doesn't add that much cost. And Russia is a major exporter of gold.
The article doesn't go far enough. OK, the connectors corroded. Why? Wrong alloy? Plating failure? Wear from too many connector insertions? Was the spec wrong, or were the cables not made to spec?
Tell me, how many casualties have the russians had in the last decade, even last two decades? This was in the days of Mir, when the russians maintained a continues space pressence year after year and the US was out of space for year after year for blowing up space shuttles.
So whose tech is behind whose? The ISS didn't plunge out of the sky when the Space Shuttle was not available, apparently the russian capability is more then enough to operate it.
And finally, who build the de-humidefier that was the fault in the first place?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.