Anthill art
An evening pause:
Tag: engineering
The coolant systems failure on ISS might delay next week’s Cygnus cargo mission.
The coolant systems failure on ISS might delay next week’s Cygnus cargo mission.
[T]he reduced cooling capability means there’s less of a safety margin on the station. Todd said mission managers don’t want to risk having the Cygnus come in for a hookup under such conditions. “While we’re sitting at one loop, we’re somewhat vulnerable,” he said.
The logic here escapes me. It suggests they will stop all cargo missions to ISS until the coolant problem is solved. However, what if they can’t solve it without a spacewalk? To do that spacewalk they have to deliver an upgraded spacesuit to the station to replace the suit that had water leak problems in July, and that delivery is not scheduled until late February when the next Dragon cargo launch is scheduled.
Maybe they are considering putting that replacement suit on the Cygnus capsule so it can arrive quickly. If so, that would justify delaying the Cygnus launch for a few days.
More details about the situation here.
China’s Chang’e 3 lunar orbiter has lowered its orbit around the Moon.
China’s Chang’e 3 lunar orbiter has lowered its orbit around the Moon.
This is in preparation for the planned landing of its rover on December 14.
If a US spacewalk on ISS is necessary to repair its cooling system, the spare parts are there, but the spacesuits are not.
If a US spacewalk on ISS is necessary to repair its cooling system, the spare parts are there, but the spacesuits are not.
Prior to retiring the shuttle NASA, aware that cargo supply would be limited once the shuttle was gone, shipped up to the station as many spare parts as possible. Thus, there are three spare pump modules on ISS that could be installed during a spacewalk to replace the module that has the valve problem.
However, because of the water leak problem that occurred in one American spacesuit during a July spacewalk, NASA has halted all American spacewalks until replacement suits can be shipped up to the station.
Since then, NASA has been conducting extensive investigations into the water leak issue, with… “the crew performed a series of tests on EMU 3011 [the faulty spacesuit] as part of an ongoing effort for returning the suit back to service. The tests included water leak checks, communication checks, and suit pressure leak checks. EMU 3011 passed all tests.”
However, NASA had been planning to wait to return another EMU, serial number 3015, to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon vehicle and deliver a new EMU in its place before clearing EVAs to resume. However the next Dragon vehicle is not scheduled to arrive at the ISS until at least late February next year.
The Russians might be able to do this spacewalk, but they are going to demand payment for the work. And they won’t come cheap, considering the circumstances.
One of ISS’s cooling system pumps failed today.
One of ISS’s cooling system pumps failed today.
The failure has caused the crew to shut down certain systems, but at the moment no one is in any danger. They have also switched to a secondary cooling system as they consider their options, one of which might require a spacewalk to do repairs.
SpaceShipTwo flew another glide test today.
SpaceShipTwo flew another glide test today.
Not a powered flight however. See Doug Messier’s comments here about the slow pace of these powered tests, and how it raises questions about the company’s claim that it will be flying commercially next year.
India’s Mangalyaan Mars probe successfully completed its first midcourse correction maneuver today.
India’s Mangalyaan Mars probe successfully completed its first midcourse correction maneuver today.
As with the images the probe took of Earth, the success of this maneuver demonstrates the ability of the probe’s engineers to control, operate, and precisely point the spacecraft’s engine. It also proves that engine works as designed.
Here’s an interesting cultural tidbit: Of the 200,000 people who have applied to Mars One (see my previous post below) to go on its proposed one-way mission to Mars, India has the second most applicants after the U.S.
Mars One applicants come from over 140 countries; the largest numbers are from the US (24 per cent), India (10 per cent), China (6 per cent), Brazil (5 per cent), UK, Canada, Russia and Mexico (4 per cent), Philippines, Spain, Colombia and Argentina (2 per cent), and Australia, France, Turkey, Chile, Ukraine, Peru, Germany, Italy and Poland (1 per cent).
A private unmanned mission to Mars by 2018?
A private unmanned mission to Mars by 2018?
Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, Mars One founder and CEO, told reporters the foundation has signed contracts with two major aerospace firms, Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology, to develop mission concept studies, a first step toward eventual construction and launch.
The lander will be based on the design of the 2007 Phoenix Mars lander that Lockheed Martin developed for NASA. The communications satellite — the first such “geostationary” comsat in orbit around the red planet — will incorporate technologies developed by Surrey and used in a variety of operational spacecraft.
Mission concept studies are of course essential before you begin construction, but they are also a far cry from actual construction. I’ve seen literally hundreds of similar concept studies about someone’s big space plans with no subsequent follow up. Thus, I will only begin to take Mars One serious when they actually start cutting metal.
The failure of a Chinese Long March rocket to put a commercial satellite into orbit earlier this week was caused by a malfunction in the rocket’s third stage.
The failure of a Chinese Long March rocket to put a commercial satellite into orbit earlier this week was caused by a malfunction in the rocket’s third stage.
Orbital Sciences, having delayed the launch of its first operational Cygnus cargo mission to ISS by one day, has named the spacecraft after the late astronaut Gordon Fullerton.
Orbital Sciences, having delayed the launch of its first operational Cygnus cargo mission to ISS by one day, has named the spacecraft after the late astronaut Gordon Fullerton.
Scientists have published the first 300 days of radiation data from Curiosity on Mars.
Scientists have published the first 300 days of radiation data from Curiosity on Mars.
The results suggest that while the radiation on Mars requires some shielding, most of the worst radiation a traveler would be exposed to would occur during the journey in space to and from Earth. The graph below illustrates this.
Curiosity has succeeded in dating the age of one of its rock samples, the first time this has ever been done remotely on another planet.
Curiosity has succeeded in dating the age of one of its rock samples, the first time this has ever been done remotely on another planet.
The second rock Curiosity drilled for a sample on Mars, which scientists nicknamed “Cumberland,” is the first ever to be dated from an analysis of its mineral ingredients while it sits on another planet. A report by Kenneth Farley of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and co-authors, estimates the age of Cumberland at 3.86 billion to 4.56 billion years old. This is in the range of earlier estimates for rocks in Gale Crater, where Curiosity is working.
This is significant engineering and scientific news. In the past the only way to date the rocks on another world was to bring them back to Earth. This was how the moon’s geology was dated. On Mars, dating has only been done by crater counting, comparing those counts with those on the Moon, and then making a vague guess. To have the ability to date rocks remotely means that geologists can begin to sort out the timeline of Mars’s geology without having to bring back samples.