1) Astronauts have repaired the tear in the insulation blanket on the Orbiter using staples, duct tape, and, presumably, old reruns of MacGyver.
2) A computer glitch on the International Space Station is causing major trouble. Installation of the new solar panels evidently set off some sort of software or hardware bug, and the guidance gyros (among other utilities) on the station aren’t working. Atlantis is being used for attitude control. NASA says this is fixable, and they’re working on it.
3) A woman in Palatine, Illinois is picking up Shuttle video transmissions on her baby monitor. This is a funny story and all, but my main interest is that when I first saw it, I thought she lived in Palpatine. Oh well.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
1: As I mentioned on the SoSF Blog, I’d be willing to bet that the bug first appeared when the computer played the Firefly DVDs out of order, but they misdiagnosed the problem by thinking they were watching FOX.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Hey. I live in Palpatine er Palatine.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I know the ISS’s attitude needs to be controlled as much as anything, but I’m pretty sure you meant to say altitude control.
Or maybe you did mean attitude and I’m just a douche.
Only time will tell.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
FYI, the repair has not been made yet. It will be made on EVA-3 tomorrow afternoon.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Altitude is how high the thing is off the earth. That needs to be controlled, but not nearly as much as you might think.
Attitude is the orientation of the thing in space. That needs to be controlled a lot, lest the solar panels get pointed away from the sun or the thing starts to tumble or whatever.
if you already knew that and I’m being pedantic, chalk it up to my being short on coffee at the moment
June 14th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I actually did not know that. I was a douche.
Fancy that.
June 14th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Honey, what’s the baby doing on the Zarya Modulae?
June 14th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Ah, the old duct tape and staple solution. Works for guitars as well. Maybe they could ride their exercise bikes to keep the ISS properly oriented???
How can a construct that doesn’t even rotate be so dang difficult to keep pointing at the sun? Sheesh! I still remember Mir. Didn’t it have to use rockets to keep its solar cells properly oriented? Maybe we’ve found a new crud job for Mexicans to do.
Wanted: One illegal immigrant to stay outside the ISS and keep the solar cells pointed at the sun. Hazard pay will be given for sterility incurred by hard radiation.
OK, maybe I’ve been watching too much Steven Colbert,,,
GAry 7
June 14th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Palpatine, Illinois? How…insidious!
June 15th, 2007 at 12:00 am
3) That is so cool! There must be something funky about their exact location or the build of their house. Wish I had one that did that :o)
June 15th, 2007 at 12:52 am
Re: baby monitor picking up NASA video.
No one’s pointed out the obvious yet? All the clues were in the article (only worked at her house - not when the monitor was taken to work; same signal that NASA is broadcasting via Internet; etc.)
Baby wireless video monitors are usually in the 2.4GHz range and work within a few hundred feet. Many TV wireless transmitters work in the same frequency range (example listed below). Someone in her neighborhood is probably transmitting their Internet feed to their TV in the same frequency range, and she picks it up on her baby video monitor. The signals are NOT coming from outer space…
http://www.shoptronics.com/2wiauvisesyw.html
Ironically, in another article on this, the mother’s occupation was listed as “science teacher”.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Gary Ansorge: “How can a construct that doesn’t even rotate be so dang difficult to keep pointing at the sun?”
The ISS *does* rotate. One per every time it revolves, if things are working properly.
But in any case, it’s not a fixed platform. Keeping rotation at exactly zero (or exactly any figure) in free space is quite challenging.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:56 am
The gyros are working fine. The problem is they have a maximum RPM (about 6000 RPM, IIRC) and when they exceed that, they need to dump some angular momentum to slow down. But the only way to do that is to couple them to the station (elementary physics) which causes the station to spin up, which they don’t want. So they counteract the force of the gyroscopes by firing small rocket engines in the opposite direction. Normally, they use the rockets on the Zarya module for this, but those thrusters are controlled by the broken computers. While the shuttle is docked to the station, they can use its thrusters (and its guidence computers) for the same thing, so there really isn’t an issue until it leaves. Except they don’t currently have a backup system. (All the manuevering of the new truss segment, extending the new solar panels, retracting the old ones, etc. puts lots of asymetric forces on the station, so having the Zarya thrusters available to help stabalize the station is particularly important right now.)
What I think they are most worried about is when the shuttle undocks next week, it will give a little shove back to the station, and it may be more then the gyros can cope with without the help of the Zarya thrusters. They are looking at a bunch of alternatives, such as using the thrusters on the Progress supply ship (currently docked to the station) if they can’t fix the computers.
I think they have one or two of the computers back up, but not working completely or maybe it keeps crashing, or something, and they suspect its a power supply problem or maybe ground loops. The problems seemed to start when they attacthed the new truss segment, but before they actually connected the power cables from the new solar arrays. They’re supposed to look at it with an oscilloscope. (Glad to know they’ve got one on board, some EE must have insisted!)
June 15th, 2007 at 5:53 am
So in regards to this Shuttle story, a NASA spokeperson mentioned duct tape doesn’t work in space - is sticky not so sticky in a vacuum?
June 15th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Hmmm, ground loops. Possibly from eddy currents induced by the ISS motion thru the magnetosphere. Maybe the new truss is at just the wrong angle to the field???
Ah well, I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon. Nice to know they actually have some trouble shooting equipment aboard. Probably wouldn’t be there if there were no humans aboard(positive comment for live folk in space,,,).
Gary 7
June 15th, 2007 at 6:04 am
[…] “Shuttle, ISS and…babies“, no Bad Astronomy; […]
June 15th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Breniir,
It’s not a question of ’stickiness’ per se. The adhesives found in duct tape are made from aromatic hydrocarbon compounds, and tend to boil off rather quickly in zero pressure.
The tape might go on sticky, but it would not last more than an hour or so. What would be needed would probably a 2-part epoxy, I would want one with glass or carbon fibers as an additional stiffener.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:01 am
“Windows has detected your new hardware and is now installing the drivers for it.”
June 15th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Sign on the freeway outside “Palpatine”, IL.
“Next Exit - Palpatine. If you do not turn, you will be destroyed.”
June 15th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
So when did NASA hire Chevy Chase? (Check out the picture in the first link.)
June 15th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I can’t imagine how hard it must be to operate that tiny little stapler with your hands stuck in a pair of pressurized space suit gloves.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:16 am
tsg Says:
“Windows has detected your new hardware, and is now installing the drivers for it.â€
LOL, I was hoping someone would come up with a good Windoze joke.
Steve, good thinking on the baby monitor mystery. I wonder if they’ll do a follow up when they figure it out.
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