Space Station Has Power System Damage

[IDemo]

Source: New York Times

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: October 28, 2007

Spacewalking astronauts found evidence of damage to a key part of the International Space Station’s power system today.

It was the second of five scheduled spacewalks during the shuttle mission. More than six hours of outdoor activities were originally to be devoted to unbuckling an solar array atop the International Space Station so it could be moved to the side of the station, and also doing some work on the new “Harmony” module that astronauts had installed earlier in the week and first entered on Saturday.

Those tasks proceeded well, as has virtually everything else in this otherwise exceptionally smooth mission. But those successes could well be overshadowed by the discovery of iron shavings in one of the shuttle’s enormous rotating joint assemblies.

The part, known as the Solar Array Rotating Joint, or SARJ, is 10 feet across and one sits toward each end of the station’s long truss. The motorized joint allows solar panels to rotate and constantly face the sun during the sunny part of each orbit.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/science/space/28cnd-shuttle.html?hp

[Trajan]

1. ACK ! .... Metal shavings ?

The worst of contaminants in an electromechanical assembly ...

It is presumed :

1) It was not present when packaged and delivered to ISS

2) It was not present, or not observed, during the last EVA/Inspection

Metal shavings are like coarse sandpaper in a mechanism ... It will damage the contact surfaces quickly ....

This will require major work to rectify ... perhaps ISS disassembly and subsystem replacement .... This is big ....

[IDemo]

2. Where were the mechanical engineers?

I'd be curious as to how much less solar energy will be gathered during a single orbit, versus with a functioning assembly.

[tomreedtoon]

4. Most likely, they forgot a "gratuity" to Guido or Ivan.

Or whichever representative of whichever Mafia was involved in the construction of the component. You learn quickly in Jersey that if you put up a building, if you don't pay Tony Soprano his due, there might be a little too much sand in the concrete. I'm sure the same thing happens in Russia these days as well. I presume that the Yakuza aren't that subtle; they simply kill you.

[Trajan]

7. I worked on some ISS components ....

And worked on all the Shuttles (Downey-Palmdale)

Furthermore: my nickname is Guido ....

I can vouch for most all the employees involved in Shuttle Production: Integrity is absolutely paramount .... In all the problems associated with these various technical programs .... Such criminal activity is extremely rare, and history bears that out ....

I suppose it would make a nice story though .....

[tomreedtoon]

8. Criminality? I think Morton-Thiokol (sp?) could qualify.

Those O-rings in the Challenger, y'know. Maybe they demanded a payoff and didn't get it.

Look, the Mafia has been in decline for decades. Ever since Abe Reles ratted out Murder, Incorporated, the Mafia has been fumbling for something new. They may have found it in the space program. Where else could they get payoffs and chalk it up to cost overruns?

Meanwhile, other criminal organizations - the Russians, the Yakuza, the Republican Party - haven't been standing still.

I remember in Gordon R. Dickinson's novel The Pritcher Mass that an idealistic scientist thought that when man went to space, he'd leave corruption and greed behind. When I read it, I thought, "Fat chance."

[Kokonoe]

9. WOW , thanks for your work Guido

It's nice to see a person choose early enough in there life the direction to make the world better.their

[Al Federfer]

11. Did you use "shop rags"? n/t

[krispos42]

3. Something is wearing very quickly

Sharp enough and strong enough to actually make steel chips. Gears chipping or shearing, probably.

Not good at all.

[Wilms]

5. NASA split over noise on space station

---April 2, 2004

"Other engineers suspect one of the gearboxes for the module’s rotating solar panels may have had a temporary “hang” and then jerked free."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3660508

[Trajan]

6. So this element has an established history ....

Oh well ..... does this fall into the 'Shit Happens' column ? ..... Even with the best planning, shit DOES happen .... metallic component failure is likely ....

[Javaman]

10. Caught shaving while working in the clean room, bob the robot froze. nt

[MGKrebs]

12. Unfortunate typo..

"in one of the shuttle’s enormous rotating joint assemblies."

I think they mean the space station.

[SpiralHawk]

13. "But of course, Mercury is retrograde." - Ronald Reagan's Dead Astrologer

"As any good republicon occultist (excepting Skull & Boners) could have told the scientists, Mercury is retrograde. D'oh. Electrical Malfunction is, like, a Total No Brainer."

- This message channeled verbatim by Ye Olde Spirale Hawke from Republicon Ronald Regan's Dead Astrologer