PDA

View Full Version : Computer crash hits space station



RAV TUX
June 15th, 2007, 05:15 AM
Computer crash hits space station
Russian computers controlling the International Space Station's (ISS) orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, Nasa officials say.

The station's three crew and seven visiting shuttle astronauts are not at any immediate risk; the ISS has not lost all vital systems.

But it could force Nasa to extend the current shuttle mission by one day.

Engineers are unsure why the computers stopped working as a failure of this type has not occurred before.

The US space shuttle Atlantis docked with the orbiting outpost at the weekend to begin its latest mission.

Nasa's space station chief said he expected the problem to be fixed within the next few days.

"We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out," said Mike Suffredini, ISS programme manager for the US space agency.

Without the Russian oxygen machine running, the space station has a 56-day supply of oxygen left. "If we are in that position, we have an option to depart," Mr Suffredini said.

Different scenarios

The station's Russian segment has a network of six computers, but on Wednesday, only two were functioning.

The computers have experienced problems before, but a system-wide re-boot usually solved the problem.

This time, the system has been unable to re-boot.

Under a worst-case scenario, where the computer problem persists beyond the shuttle's stay, and attempts to resolve it come to no avail, the station's three crew members could be forced to return to Earth early, the website Space.com reported.

The ISS is currently relying on its four gyroscopes to maintain its orientation in space, then shifting to using thrusters aboard the shuttle Atlantis when the gyroscopes are overwhelmed.

This dependency on the shuttle has caused Nasa managers to consider an extension of one day to Atlantis' 13-day mission.

If this goes ahead, the crew will have to conserve supplies - the shuttle mission has already been extended by two days in order to carry out repairs on a torn thermal blanket.

The crew of space shuttle Atlantis were originally due to spend 11 days at the ISS.

The mission was extended to 13 days in order to carry out repairs on a 10cm (4in) section of thermal blanket which peeled back as the shuttle blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Friday.

The blanket protects the shuttle from the intense heat of re-entering the atmosphere.

The repairs could be made during a planned third spacewalk or a fourth, extra one, Nasa managers have said.

Engineers think the blanket was loosened by aerodynamic forces during lift-off, and was not hit by debris.

Damage to the shuttle Columbia in 2003 during its launch led to the vehicle's disintegration as it returned to Earth, killing all seven crew.

This was supposed to be the second shuttle mission of 2007, but a freak storm over the Florida launch site in late February caused hail damage to the shuttle and delayed the mid-March flight.

Despite the delays, managers are confident they will be able to complete the ISS before the shuttles' 2010 retirement date.

Nasa plans to fly 15 more missions to the station to deliver large components, spare parts and other supplies. In addition, one final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope is planned for September 2008.Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6752459.stm

Published: 2007/06/14 13:12:34 GMT

ThinkBuntu
June 15th, 2007, 05:17 AM
I once read that NASA ran Debian with a 1997 mission. Wonder if this is Linux-related?

RAV TUX
June 15th, 2007, 05:18 AM
I once read that NASA ran Debian with a 1997 mission. Wonder if this is Linux-related?
thats my big question the article seemed to skip which OS.

It appears to be Russian computers, I have no idea what the Russians are using.

NeoLithium
June 15th, 2007, 05:19 AM
They must have upgraded to Vista.

iisan00b
June 15th, 2007, 05:20 AM
They must have upgraded to Vista.
Time to Windows joke - 3 minutes.

Not bad, but we gotta keep pushing the envelope people. 2 minutes or better is what I'm after! :popcorn:

NeoLithium
June 15th, 2007, 05:21 AM
Time to Windows joke - 3 minutes.

Not bad, but we gotta keep pushing the envelope people. 2 minutes or better is what I'm after! :popcorn:

I must be slipping in my old age. LOL.

whayong
June 15th, 2007, 05:22 AM
They must have upgraded to Vista.

I guess somene didn't get the memo on the minimum hardware requirements, lol!

Spr0k3t
June 15th, 2007, 05:22 AM
Nasa rolls their own OSs. Last time I checked with a friend of mine who works in the telemetry labs at Nasa they had roughly 30+ mission critical RTOS systems (including a very modified QNX). Now, Atlantis may be a different story.

RAV TUX
June 15th, 2007, 05:24 AM
Heres another article, still no clue about which OS.


NASA Eyes Potential Fix for ISS Computer Glitch
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 14 June
9:42 p.m. ET

HOUSTON -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will physically unplug a pair of cables feeding power from new solar arrays to the outpost's Russian segment late Thursday in hopes that it might aid the recovery of critical computer systems, mission managers said.

"The leading theory today is, we've introduced some noise at a level that, now, these computers are tripping themselves off," NASA ISS program manager Mike Suffredini said.

The German-built computers used in the station's Russian segment are known to be susceptible radiant or conductive "noise" in power feeds, which led ISS engineers to suspect that a similar phenomenon may be at work in cables ferrying power from the station's new solar arrays at the tip of the Starboard 4 power truss installed earlier this week.

"It seems that shortly after we made those connections our Russian colleagues started having problems," Suffredini said, adding that, if proven, it would hint at some anomaly in the new solar wings. "The power source coming from the solar arrays that have been on orbit has been very clean, if you will. We've been well within our power quality specs."

The theory is by no means final, but will be tested along with others to determine exactly what prompted a major shutdown of the station's Russian computer systems Wednesday. The shutdown left the ISS dependent on U.S. attitude control systems and thrusters aboard the visiting Atlantis shuttle.

NASA officials expect the troubleshooting efforts to run several days, and hope to recovery the computer systems before Atlantis leaves the ISS on June 21.

"We do these things one step at a time," Suffredini said. "We try not to shotgun these fixes."

To test the possible fix, astronauts will open up access panels in the station's Unity node, then manually disconnect cables that feed S4 solar array power into converters that, in turn, route it into the Russian modules. The modules will rely on a previous power configuration to draw electricity generated by solar arrays at the portside end of the ISS, Suffredini said.

"This sounds like a good plan," said Atlantis mission specialist Sunita Wiliams, who until recently served as an ISS crewmember, after Mission Control relayed it to the station crew today. "We're looking forward to trying to get these computers back online."

Some of the station's Expedition 15 crew will have to wake up overnight to aid Russian flight controllers in troubleshooting the computer glitch. The work has affected the crew's sleep schedule since it can only be done when the ISS passes over Russian ground stations early in the day, NASA said.

Meanwhile, Atlantis shuttle astronauts spent much of today preparing for a Friday spacewalk and continuing efforts to furl an old solar array reaching out to starboard from the space station's mast-like Port 6 (P6) truss.

Atlantis' STS-117 mission specialists Jim Reilly II and Danny Olivas will step outside the ISS Friday to repair a torn heat shield blanket on the orbiter's aft, install a vent valve for a new ISS oxygen system and help coax a stubborn solar array into its storage boxes atop the space station's mast-like Port 6 truss.

Efforts to retract the solar array, which was partly furled during a Wednesday spacewalk, met some additional success today as astronauts remotely guided a few more sections into storage boxes. About half of the array's 115-foot (35-meter) length remains to be packed away during Friday's spacewalk.

"That's good news," said NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, serving as spacecraft communicator in Mission Control. "We're halfway there."

NASA is broadcasting the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for mission updates and SPACE.com's video feed.

* SPACE.com Video Interplayer: Space Station Power Up with STS-117
* STS-117 Power Play: Atlantis Shuttle Crew to Deliver ISS Solar Wings
* Complete Shuttle Mission Coveragehttp://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070614_iss_computer_theory.html

Again I don't think these are NASA's computers but Russian computers

tgalati4
June 15th, 2007, 05:25 AM
I think the Russians were using a pirated copy of Windows, and it shut it self down after 30 days. And now they don't have internet!

iisan00b
June 15th, 2007, 05:26 AM
"We do these things one step at a time," Suffredini said. "We try not to shotgun these fixes."
Blasphemy!

A shotgun is one of the best ways to fix any stubborn computer problem.

RAV TUX
June 15th, 2007, 05:27 AM
Sounds like they are trying to blame the hardware?


The German-built computers used in the station's Russian segment are known to be susceptible radiant or conductive "noise" in power feeds, which led ISS engineers to suspect that a similar phenomenon may be at work in cables ferrying power from the station's new solar arrays at the tip of the Starboard 4 power truss installed earlier this week.http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070614_iss_computer_theory.html

FuturePilot
June 15th, 2007, 05:30 AM
It appears to be Russian computers, I have no idea what the Russians are using.
Perhaps an unactivated copy of Windows which has over run it's grace period and shut down?
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/06/6-9-07-russian_atm.jpg
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/09/russian-atm-runs-on-unactivated-copy-of-windows/

All joking aside, I hope everyone will be ok.