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Science Forum Index » Space - Station Forum » MSNBC.com (Oberg): Orbital repairmen will have to try again
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| Jim Oberg |
 Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 1:47 am |
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MSNBC.com (Oberg): Orbital repairmen will have to try again
Heavier-duty tools may be used to free jammed antenna on space station
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15988679/
By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC
Updated: 7:09 p.m. CT Dec 1, 2006
If at first you don't succeed in space, try, try again . with better
tools. That proverb with a twist applies to the struggle to free up a jammed
antenna on a cargo ship attached to the international space station.
Space station crew members tried unsuccessfully to yank the antenna loose
during a spacewalk last month - the same spacewalk that featured Russian
cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin's much-ballyhooed commercial golf shot. Although
Tyurin didn't need a second cut at the golf ball, he and NASA astronaut
Michael Lopez-Alegria will have to take another swing at getting the antenna
freed up, possibly in February. To make the job easier, a heavy-duty cutter
is being added to the manifest for next week's space shuttle mission.
The roots of the problem go back to October's automatic docking of the
unmanned Progress cargo ship: At the last moment, one of the craft's hinged
guidance antennas failed to retract as planned. Instead, it rammed into the
back end of the station and lodged itself under a handrail. The mechanical
linkup was still successful, and the supplies aboard the ship were later
transferred into the station.
................................
An artist's conception shows how two spacewalkers should be positioned at
the international space station's service module to free a stuck antenna.
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/163228main_Service_Module_diagram.jpg
NASA -- A picture taken by the international space station's spacewalkers -
and published here for the first time - shows the stuck antenna in detail,
with the dish beneath the handrail on the right edge of the image.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/061201/antenna2.standard.jpg
This may be the general purpose cutter tool:
on left side of
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/mirrors/images/images/pao/STS57/10073255.jpg |
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