Computer problems persist on Space Station, NASA says it’s solvable

William Atkins
Friday, 15 June 2007 20:09

Science - Space

Microsoft Office 365

NASA officials are confident that the problem—which has never occurred before on the Space Station—will be resolved over the next several days. They state that progress is being made.

However, power is still being conserved in case the STS-117 crew of Atlantis needs to stay an additional day on top of the two extra day extension to fix the defective thermal blanket on top of the OMS pod of Atlantis.

The latest theory on what went wrong with the Russian computers is that newly installed wiring from the new solar arrays caused excessive or unusual noise in the lines of the electrical system. (The magnetic field surrounding a power line can affect other external systems.) However, when connectors were disconnected to isolate the computers, the problem did not resolve itself.

The two cosmonauts onboard the Space Station, Expedition 15 commander/Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov, have been shifted from their normal duties to work on the problem. They are looking into a possible bad power feed, among other possible problems.

U.S. astronauts are also helping. Among other duties, they have been monitoring the electrical lines with oscilloscopes, looking for “noise” in the system that could be causing the problem.

NASA associate administrator for space operations William Gerstenmaier sums up the situation: “I don’t see this as critical in my world. The station is complex and challenging, and solving problems is what engineers do. This is space station operations.” [New York Times (free subscription required) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/science/15cnd-shuttle.html?_r=5&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1181909032-FQLXrTUr8m+P1uag8bP10Q]