Risky Spacewalk Fixes Station

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-07-02 07:30am

CBC wrote:CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. - Two astronauts were back aboard the international space station Thursday following a risky six-hour spacewalk to replace a faulty circuit breaker.

American Mike Fincke and Russian Gennady Padalka finished the repair job ahead of schedule, 360 kilometres above the Earth.

The work required the two astronauts to travel about 30 metres along the outside of the station to get at the part.

Then they had to pry the lid off a row of circuit breakers. It was stuck and hard to move.

It was the second attempt at repairing the circuit breaker, which interrupted power to one of the gyroscopes that keep the space station pointed in the right direction.

Earlier mission aborted

Last Thursday, flight controllers aborted a repair mission barely 14 minutes after it began, when an oxygen-control switch on Fincke's suit failed to lock into place and oxygen gushed out of his tank.

The gyroscope, a spinning wheel that reacts to changes in the station's position, stopped working when the circuit breaker failed in April.

That left the space station with two good gyroscopes, the minimum needed for the mission.

A fourth gyroscope has been broken for two years, but it can't be replaced until a space shuttle flight brings the necessary parts.

Why the hell would you put circuit breakers on the outside of a space station? Who designed this thing, apes?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-07-02 11:24am

Almost makes you wonder if we wouldn't have been better off just putting another Skylab into orbit.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-07-02 11:25am

Two astronauts were back aboard the international space station Thursday following a risky six-hour spacewalk to replace a faulty circuit breaker.

American Mike Fincke and Russian Gennady Padalka finished the repair job ahead of schedule, 360 kilometres above the Earth.

One astronaut and one cosmonaut, you mean, you ignorant Americo-centric asswipes.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-02 11:28am

Vympel wrote:
Two astronauts were back aboard the international space station Thursday following a risky six-hour spacewalk to replace a faulty circuit breaker.

American Mike Fincke and Russian Gennady Padalka finished the repair job ahead of schedule, 360 kilometres above the Earth.
One astronaut and one cosmonaut, you mean, you ignorant Americo-centric asswipes.

the assimilation would be much eaiser if you just sat back and watched more American television. Here, drink this Coke.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-07-02 11:47am

Cpl Kendall wrote:Why the hell would you put circuit breakers on the outside of a space station? Who designed this thing, apes?

I don't know, but I'll bet you 10 bucks that they're Trekkies.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-07-02 11:58am

Pfft, no, Trekkies would have put them in Jeffries Tubes.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-07-02 12:10pm

A fourth gyroscope has been broken for two years, but it can't be replaced until a space shuttle flight brings the necessary parts.

Shuttles have visited the station in the last two years. NASA shuld have sent the parts along.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-07-02 02:57pm

Why the hell does each country get its own english name for a guy who works in space? It was bad enough during the cold war, but now we've got other countries proposing to send people into space with their own damn name for it. Standardize, bitches!

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-07-02 04:20pm

Cpl Kendall wrote:
Why the hell would you put circuit breakers on the outside of a space station? Who designed this thing, apes?

Have you ever seen the inside of that white elephant, they've already got every last bit of surface area covered in controls and gauges. Wiring the thing through the crew areas would also probably add a bunch of weight. Anyway, I'm all for it being designed as badly as possibul, the sooner something major breaks the sooner we can stop wasting money on this useless hunk of orbital junk

evilcat4000 wrote:
Shuttles have visited the station in the last two years. NASA shuld have sent the parts along.

You love saying shit like they should have done such and such, but you never think of the implications. We can only send so many pounds into orbit on each mission, and they make use of every one of them they can. Bringing up spare parts means not bringing up something else. A gyroscope isn't something you just throw into your bag before getting in the thing.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-07-02 05:24pm

Sea Skimmer wrote: Have you ever seen the inside of that white elephant, they've already got every last bit of surface area covered in controls and gauges. Wiring the thing through the crew areas would also probably add a bunch of weight. Anyway, I'm all for it being designed as badly as possibul, the sooner something major breaks the sooner we can stop wasting money on this useless hunk of orbital junk

I haven't seen any pictures of the inside of the station but I'm not surprised. What exactly are we supposed to get out of this multi-billion dollar boondogle anyways. I'm just thankful that Canada isn't spending anymore of my tax money on this thing. Seriously, the ISS better help cure cancer or AIDS so we can at least get our money's worth out of it.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-07-03 02:27am

You love saying shit like they should have done such and such, but you never think of the implications. We can only send so many pounds into orbit on each mission, and they make use of every one of them they can. Bringing up spare parts means not bringing up something else. A gyroscope isn't something you just throw into your bag before getting in the thing.

I thought the gyroscope was a lightweight equipment.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-07-03 03:08am

I read.. that the gyros.. were used to stabilize the station.. and if they went offline.. the station.. would have to use fuel.. to keep pointed toward the sun..

WHAT?!

let me repeat that..

WHAT?!

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-07-04 11:39am

How else are they going to stay aligned so that the solar panels are facing the sun?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-07-04 02:58pm

......................................................................................

That's a very good question. A very very good question. There are two possibilities. The first is that they would always have had to use fuel. I highly doubt that some gyros were what kept the thing pointed towards the sun in the first place, I think they were what automatically guided the station towards the sun. The second possibility is, depending on orbit, a 'tidally locked' rotation rate for the station would have been able to keep one face pointing towards the sun, much like how the moon has one face pointing towards earth all the time without using fuel to keep it that way.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-07-04 06:37pm

What's so difficult about believing that the ISS normally uses gyroscopes to keep itself pointed at the sun?

As for tidally locking the ISS, uh, no.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-07-04 06:48pm

phong.. gyroscopes are not stabilizers, they're guidance systems. i noted that i read that they would have to use fuel to keep the iss pointed towards the sun, which doesn't make any sens because they would always have to do that.

as for tidal locking, i didnt mean it literally, i was just saying they might be able to have the station rotate just right so that the same side is always facing the sun.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-07-04 07:44pm

kojikun wrote:phong.. gyroscopes are not stabilizers, they're guidance systems. i noted that i read that they would have to use fuel to keep the iss pointed towards the sun, which doesn't make any sens because they would always have to do that.

You can use gyroscopes for stabilization.

as for tidal locking, i didnt mean it literally, i was just saying they might be able to have the station rotate just right so that the same side is always facing the sun.

Have fun trying that. Oh, there's also the issue of aerodynamic drag at that altitude which will probably play merry hell with that idea.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-07-04 08:34pm

Cpl Kendall wrote:
I haven't seen any pictures of the inside of the station but I'm not surprised. What exactly are we supposed to get out of this multi-billion dollar boondogle anyways. I'm just thankful that Canada isn't spending anymore of my tax money on this thing. Seriously, the ISS better help cure cancer or AIDS so we can at least get our money's worth out of it.

Currently the ISS is an utterly useless waste of billions of dollars. The Seven-man escape pod was canacled, and the three-man pod they currently have only allows for of course three men. However it takes three people just to keep the station running and they have almost no time for any sort of research or experimentation work. There is a proposal to dock a second three man pod to the station which might begin to make it useful. However even that is unlikely and in any case there little humans can do that can't also be done by unmanned systems.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-07-04 10:31pm

phong, gryos cant be used for stabilization of an object that big. You'd need massive gyroscopes for the angular momentum to make a difference. There are no such gyros on the station, and even if there WERE, they would rotate for a damned long time, so it wouldn't be much of a problem.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-07-04 10:42pm

kojikun wrote:phong, gryos cant be used for stabilization of an object that big. You'd need massive gyroscopes for the angular momentum to make a difference. There are no such gyros on the station, and even if there WERE, they would rotate for a damned long time, so it wouldn't be much of a problem.

That is why those gyroscopes mass 600 lbs and spin at 6600 rpm.

But don't just take my word for it:

NASA wrote:Flight controllers put Control Moment Gyro (CMG) 2 back into full operation Friday morning, two days after a spacewalk restored its power supply.

The International Space Station now has three of the 600-pound gyroscopes controlling its attitude, or orientation in space. The two other operating CMGs handled Station attitude control after a circuit breaker in CMG 2's power supply failed April 21.

On Thursday CMG 2 was spun up to its operational rate of 6,600 rpm as part of a series of tests. It was added to the attitude control mix at about 7:30 a.m. EDT Friday.

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