Trouble Ten-fold for Discovery and the ISS—Part II
Part of the focus for the row of catastrophes on the ISS this week is the NASA managers’ decision to lock the rotary joint that orients the left-hand array toward the sun. What this refers to is the inability to use either of the two rotary joints, impairing the solar panels’ power production. The original plan of locking the two rotary joints was not a major issue, as the plan was to be able to track the sun with the left–side array, which is now torn and in trouble.
With power shortages becoming a major issue, it is now necessary to possibly reschedule the December 6th delivery of the European made science module known as the 1E flight, which was to be the next step in the ISS development. Meanwhile, the solar array planning stage is still rather vague, as it is in a difficult position to reach. One plan is to reinforce the array by strapping its torn panel to that of its neighbor in order for it to work well enough to supply power to the station.
The hardest and most complex task of the mission has been completed with no problems, which is attaching the new room—Harmony module—to the ISS station while also moving the solar array and truss. No problems occurred at this stage, thank goodness. But unfortunately, the best laid plans so far is for an astronaut to dangle at the end of the extension boom in order to save the power wing of the ISS. Veteran spacewalker Scott Parazynski is the man-of-the-hour who will be installing a makeshift bracket whose sole purpose is to lighten the load off the hinges which broke Tuesday when the 110-foot solar power panel was being extended. The targeted panel is attached to an 18-ton truss which was moved to the far end of the station’s frame, which tore when it neared the end of the extension.
A 50-foot extension boom was added to the regular cargo division of the space shuttle after the Columbia accident in 2003. Hopefully, this will double the length of the shuttle’s robot arm in order to inspect the heat shield for any damage. It will also be used by NASA to become the primary goal for the rest of the shuttle’s 15-day mission—already planned for the contaminated joint examination which is for a future shuttle mission, and now to repair the array. The stabilization of the broken array is a top priority now before any more modules can be added to the ISS.
As it stands now, Friday’s spacewalk will be done on Saturday, and according to NASA, “Parazynski will ride the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, the shuttle’s robotic arm extension, attached to the station’s robotic arm to access a damaged solar array. Wheelock will provide guidance to the arm operators while they are maneuvering Parazynski.”
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 1:12 am and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
