HOUSTON -- Russian and U.S. engineers are drawing up plans to work around the failure of critical computers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in time for the departure of the shuttle Atlantis next week. NASA's ISS program manager Mike Suffredini said engineers are studying alternatives to help maintain control of the space station's orientation, including using rockets aboard docked Russian spacecraft, once Atlantis' STS-117 crew casts off from the orbital laboratory on June 19.
"The highest priority would be maintaining attitude once the shuttle has departed," Suffredini said Friday.
The space station's six Russian computers governing control and navigation systems went offline Wednesday, leaving the outpost unable to use Russian-built thrusters to maintain its orientation as it flies through space.
The station is currently relying on U.S.-built control moment gyroscopes, with thrusters aboard NASA's visiting shuttle Atlantis as backup. After the shuttle undocks, however, the station's gyroscopes are expected to be overwhelmed, or saturated, and have typically used Russian-built rockets to compensate.
Poster Comment:
The PC element of different systems doesn't appear to be compatible, redundant or viable. How many ecosystems could have been saved and how many polluted sites could have been cleaned up with all of these Billions????? Our money at work on what appears to be an evidently UNsound scientific accomplishment.