Two Space Station Computers Back On Line
Two out of three of the computers that control the International Space Station's orientation are back on line after Russian cosmonauts managed to re-route power to them.
The progress came after days of frustrating effort and, for the time being, removed a set of troubling options lying ahead for NASA and the Russian space agency if the computers continued to fail.
"They're up and operational and this is good news for all," said Lynette Madison, a NASA spokeswoman in Houston.
Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov pulled off the feat by bypassing a power switch with a cable to get two out of three computer connections running. They planned to watch the computers for the next several hours to make sure they were functioning properly.
Had the machines continued to malfunction, the three-member space station crew could still have remained on board, but other steps would have been taken to maintain the power and oxygen supplies. Russia had already begun to move up plans for a cargo ship to deliver supplies, including new computers, next month.
And ominous questions were raised about the possibility of eventually needing to bail out of the space station — something a top NASA official rejected earlier in the say.
Maintaining the correct position in orbit is key for the space station. It must point its solar arrays at the sun for power and be able to shift orientation to avoid occasional large debris that comes flying through space.
The computer crash came as astronauts from space shuttle Atlantis were resuming work on the long-running construction of the station. Atlantis' seven astronauts arrived last weekend, NASA's first visit to the space station this year.
American astronauts have also repaired the damaged thermal blanket on space shuttle Atlantis using a medical stapler of all things. (Which is a pretty good idea when you think about it. How else would they do it?)
By JMay, Saturday, 16 June , 2007 @ 8:53 pm
The medical stapler part was probably the greatest tidbit I’ve read in a while. Good thinking, astronauts! Watching Reuters coverage, though, of the CPU problems really made me nervous: http://thenewsroom.com/details/411616/Science+and+Technology?c_id=wom-bc-je. Good to hear things are looking up. I’ve since heard that four comps are up and running now.
- Jennifer from The Science Desk at TheNewsRoom.com