Primary data relay electronics unit on ISS truss fails
ISS managers are meeting to make a plan to deal with the failure on Saturday of the #1 data relay electronics box on the S0 truss of the station.
The unit, called an MDM, has an identical backup in place so no station operations have so far been effected. However, that backup had failed back in 2014 and required a spacewalk to replace it, so it is not clear to me as yet whether the station has any additional spares available to replace the newly failed unit. If so, it will still require a spacewalk to make the switch.
If there is no spare, they will likely have to ship one up on the next cargo flight, as the MDM is essential for operating the solar panels and radiators as well as the robot arms.
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ISS managers are meeting to make a plan to deal with the failure on Saturday of the #1 data relay electronics box on the S0 truss of the station.
The unit, called an MDM, has an identical backup in place so no station operations have so far been effected. However, that backup had failed back in 2014 and required a spacewalk to replace it, so it is not clear to me as yet whether the station has any additional spares available to replace the newly failed unit. If so, it will still require a spacewalk to make the switch.
If there is no spare, they will likely have to ship one up on the next cargo flight, as the MDM is essential for operating the solar panels and radiators as well as the robot arms.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Looks like the CRS-11 trunk is going to get an extra piece of payload. Hope the Dragon isn’t too near it’s mass or volume limit to overly complicate a sudden addition to its manifest, but if anything has to get bumped, that’s life.
Convenient that this failure happens just before a scheduled resupply mission and not just afterwards.
Mmmm, I seem to remember commenting about the startling lack of spare parts back when the 2014 failure occurred. Seems nothing’s changed.
Gealon: It appears you did not notice the more recent post on BtB, noting that they have the spare part and are doing a spacewalk today to install it.
It would appear you are correct good sir, I had not refreshed the page since the day before I believe. Though I think my original comment still stands, they only have the one spare aboard yes? If this were the true interplanetary spacecraft testbed it’s supposed to be, the station should have a more generalized construction where, as it was stated in the later topic, boards can just be swapped out. At the very least have more then a single spare part if it’s so critical. Perhaps, as it was mentioned in the other topic, having a chip fab aboard would assist in the replacement of malfunctioning hardware. As I recall there is a 3D printer aboard the station but that is for strictly mechanical parts, and ones made out of plastic at that.
Spare parts is an interesting topic. There is not a lot of space to store spare parts, and they are expensive to deliver, taking up, on the resupply ships, space and weight that could be used for productive items. So a question is: what parts are important enough, urgent enough, and subject to failure enough so that one or more spares are needed on board?
ISS logistics must be quite an interesting job to have.