The International Space Station has a potentialy very serious problem.

I did not see the press conference Live but managed to see all but the first six minutes on a NASA TV repeat.
Journalists being Journalists they pressed for the worst case scenario.
It is grim and the Spacewalks hazardous.
Since the Press Conference NASA have changed the day of the first of at least two needed to Friday.
usually their training and ingenuity Do see NASA through.
They mentioned this is the first time whats now become the famous 14 must do repairs that could never have waited for a Shuttle Launch and both Spacewalkers trained for this specific task last autumn.
They did not get round when asked what the other 13 are,but admitted that any of them before a sucessfull repair although highly unlikely would really bring them to the brink.
In the meantime life is surprisingly normal onboard the ISS,with only small amounts of units powered down and some experiments stopped.

The Russian section is not affected by this current problem and could if the American section failed take control of the entire ISS but not for long and Crew would have to be reduced and the Station abandoned in the worst case Scenario.
Good luck to the Spacewalkers,They are going to need it!


The first Spacewalk begins shortly before midday Irish time [GMT+1~UTC+1] with NASA TV Coverage beginning at eleven AM[still subject to change as they are running tests in the buoyancy chambers on the ground]

jumpguy wrote: »

I'm wondering, could the current solar activity and the failure of the pump being linking? Could it's electronics have been damaged by the solar flare? It's quite exposed, isn't it?

Very coincidental this incident has occured the same time as the solar activity.

Hi jumpguy always good to see You here:)

The press conference did not consider it an issue[but a much larger flare could in theory frizzle all electronic devices in space,no satellite TV:eek:,and force any person in Space to be ordered back to Earth.]

The Pump that needs replacing was expected to function for 100,000 hours give or take.Its electronics had been running 800,000 hours and the actual pump only about 40,000 hours.
The worrying thing is for whatever reason the back up that is currently keeping the system going was started up at the same time.

a lot of the language used during the briefing was far above all but an engineers understanding.

It was obvious though just how hard the ISS main man had been working[He could hardly remember his own name at times,not even the name of the particulor Shuttle due to fly next]

The troubleshooting team have been working 24/7 since the failure occured.

Not quite an Apollo 13 but depending on how things go a slow leak version of it is possible.

The robotic arm will aid the two Spacewalkers and it requires coolant but in the event that the other source of coolant failed they figure they can rapidly return the Spacewalker to safety before the need for coolant kicks in.

Their main concern is can the task be completed over the two planned Spacewalks or might it need a third,also they know the Spacesuits will get Toxins on them from these EVA's and they will have to go through a decontamination procedure once back in the airlock before they could enter the ISS
If the American section suffered a 2nd of the 'big 14' and had to shut down the crew of six could survive in the Russian section for six days and attempt further emergency EVA's before three would have to leave.
The remaining three would be a pointless exercise as no Science could take place.and it would without a miracle have to be abandoned shortly afterwards.



again all of that is the worst that could happen hopefully the best will happen:)

MIR remained manned for a long time after it had an onboard fire.
It also survived a resupply ship missing the docking port and crashing into a module forcing that module to be sealed and left for dead.

jumpguy wrote: »

You must mean 80,000 hours, 800,000 hours is over 90 years! :P

They most likely will make it look like a piece of cake,even if they have to make up some of the icing as they go along![the STS-125 Hubble repair EVA's were incredible for their ingenuity, I never miss an opportunity to mention that flight!:)]

It concentrated My mind though how terrible it would be if We did not have our little friend orbiting us and giving us a shining hello when it pass's:(

1st EVA has been deferred to Saturday at the same time as in a post above

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

NASA TV have given the time for the news briefing it will be 10PM in Ireland.
NASA TV link:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

There are usually many repeats of them afterwards.

Lol at the commentry on NASA TV which has just gone live

"Welcome folks,You will hear a lot of chat today which should give You a PHD in Fluid dynamics and Plumbing":)

They are running half an hour behind time still in the airlock making sure they do not get what would be called 'The bends' by deep Sea divers.

A PHD in six hours!!! an answer to My prayers:)

---

MC to Astronaut Tracey Caldwell Dyson: "Tracey You are passing over Your home town"
Tracey: "OH,Hi Mum and DAD"
So far so good at 2.50 PM.EVA official start time[judged by when the suits go to internal battery power] was at 1.27PM.
Just as i am typing Tracey is finding it difficult to press a release button.

Great shot here of Wheelock at the end of the Robotic arm with the grapple bar that will remove the failed pump Module.
Tracey can be seen at work at the disconections,Something of interest too is that both are wearing jet packs that in the unlikely event that they became untethered they could bring themselves back to the safety of the ISS.

The offending pump has now been removed and heading towards its grave on the ISS storage space,Tracey is working on get ahead tasks for the third EVA due Sunday,
So here is one for the Space historians.
Traceys Spacewalk last Friday was her rookie Spacewalk.
There was to have been a routine Spacewalk due for her on Thursday before this crisis.
So assuming the Sunday one goes ahead that will be three high stress Spacewalks in ten days!

Has a first time Spacewalker ever had to face being thrown in at the deep end like that before?:)

The third Spacewalk has been shifted to next Monday and a fourth one is to be added to tie up the lose ends.

http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp24/100811eva2/index5.html