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  STS-117: Russian ISS computer crash

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Author Topic:   STS-117: Russian ISS computer crash
garymilgrom
Member

Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 06-14-2007 07:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for garymilgrom   Click Here to Email garymilgrom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is from CNN.com:
Space station oxygen, water computers fail
quote:
Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission -- or cutting it short.

Russian engineers aren't sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station.


Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-14-2007 08:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From Florida Today's Flame Trench:
Crashed ISS computers show signs of recovery
quote:
An all-night scramble to restore service to two critical Russian computer systems aboard the International Space Station is beginning to bear fruit, with the apparent partial restoration to the control and navigation computers needed to keep ISS stable.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-14-2007 08:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From Bill Harwood, CBS/SpaceflightNow.com:
8:22 AM, 6/14/07, Update: Russian computer system partially revived; troubleshooting continues
quote:
Engineers have re-established communications with at least one part of the space station's Russian guidance and command-and-control computers. They are receiving a full stream of telemetry and have been able to restore power to critical systems.

The navigation system and command computers feature three redundant data paths and only one path, or lane, has been re-established. Troubleshooting continues, but engineers have restored station power to systems in the Zvezda and Zarya modules. The crew's Soyuz lifeboat, which was put on internal power late Wednesday as a precaution, also was switched back to station power.


Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-14-2007 09:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As only a precaution, the STS-117 crew has been given the go ahead this morning to implement a plan (modified Group C power down) to reduce energy usage such that, if necessary, they can remain docked to the ISS for an additional day. Non-critical systems are being turned off as a result. For example, the crew will switch off printers when they are not in use. Currently, the shuttle has an energy margin of about 18 hours; mission managers hope to increase that to a full 24 hours.

For now, with only one of the three lanes of Russian computer control restored, the station’s U.S. control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion system providing backup.

Lunar rock nut
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Posts: 911
From: Oklahoma city, Oklahoma U.S.A.
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 06-14-2007 09:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lunar rock nut   Click Here to Email Lunar rock nut     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for the updates. I was somewhat confused after seeing the report at 7:00am cst top story on the today show nbc. The first report they gave was very vague but sensationalized.

Terry

rocketJoe
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Posts: 103
From: Huntsville, AL USA
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 06-14-2007 01:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rocketJoe   Click Here to Email rocketJoe     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From CNN website:
Atlantis is still docked at the space station, so the astronauts periodically fired its thrusters to help maintain the space station's position while the computers were down.

My question is if this computer problem had occurred during normal operation (i.e. without a docked shuttle to adjust the position), would it have been possible for the station to tumble out of control?

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-14-2007 01:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The shuttle's thrusters have been used only as a damper in response to movement introduced by docking and docked operations. The station's control moment gyros (CMGs), which are up and running, are the primary control system for the ISS under normal operations. The Russian thrusters are a back-up to the CMGs.

According to NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier, were the shuttle not there, they could use the Progress thruster to dampen movement and avoid oversaturation of the CMGs.

Edited by Robert Pearlman

Robert Pearlman
Editor

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From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-14-2007 01:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier provided an update on the situation during a 1:30 p.m. CDT media briefing:
  • Earlier this morning, ground controllers working with the crew aboard the station were able to get one lane (channel) on each of the two Russian computers running for a seven minute period.

  • During these seven minutes, controllers were able to reconfigure power management systems to allow for a much more stable situation aboard the Russian components of the station.

  • Trouble shooting continues; they expect computers will come up and down throughout the day and night, as well as the cosmonauts may be awake during their regularly scheduled sleep periods to coordinate with Russian communication ground passes.

  • Potential culprits: power quality, associated with the addition of new solar arrays; electromagnetic interference; software anomalies (in particular, the order in which the two computers are brought back online). They do plan to isolate the new arrays from the Russian segments to help diagnose the problem.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-15-2007 09:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From Bill Harwood, CBS/SpaceflightNow.com: 7:17 AM, 6/15/07, Update: Russian computers shut down again for more troubleshooting
quote:
Russian computers aboard the international space station failed to boot up properly early today even though they were cut off from U.S. solar array power. Engineers had speculated that some subtle change in the station's shared power grid, caused by the installation this week of a new solar array, might have triggered the Russian computer crashes that have crippled the space station. But analysis of the electricity flowing from the new array into the Russian segment of the lab complex did not reveal any obvious "smoking gun" and when the circuit was unplugged, the computers behaved much as they did Thursday.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-15-2007 12:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA space station manager Mike Suffredini offered an update to the situation during a morning briefing:
  • Overnight, the U.S. crew used an oscilloscope to measure the quality of the power flowing from the U.S. arrays to the Russian service module and their two primary computers. The quality was deemed fine, so it appears that the anomaly is not the result of the power source.

  • Even so, they disconnected the power from the U.S. segment to the Russian service module and the cosmonauts tried restarting the computers. They were able to get one of the six computer lanes (for command and control) to run for about three hours before shutting down the system as they moved out of range with Russian ground controllers. They were unable to get even one of the three attitude control computer lanes to operate reliably.

  • The Russians report that a secondary power supply to at least one, if not two computer lanes have failed hard but this is not, according to Suffredini, a serious concern as they do not need each of the three computer lanes on each system to be running.

  • Though it's circumstantial in it's nature, they have noticed that the first reported problems with the Russian computers coincide on the mission timeline with the addition of a connector during the first spacewalk that was added to feed power from S3/S4 truss to the S6 truss when it arrives. As that connector is not presently needed, they may ask today's spacewalking team (the same astronauts that made the first EVA) to go ahead and unhook the connector.

  • If that does not work, or if other troubleshooting techniques are equally unsuccessful, the first priority for NASA's ISS guidance, navigation and control (GNC) teams is to maintain attitude after the shuttle has departed. Under normal operations, the U.S. control moment gyros (CMGs) handle that job just fine but when disturbances are entered, such as by a shuttle undocking, the CMGs alone cannot overcome that momentum and can become saturated. As a result, under normal operations, when a shuttle undocks, the CMGs are taken offline, the station is allowed to enter free drift, the orbiter backs away and then the Russian computer-controlled thrusters dampen the motion before the CMGs are brought back online. If they cannot get the computers back online before the shuttle departs, NASA is looking at other options including using the Soyuz or Progress thrusters autonomously from the Russian computers.

  • Maintaining life support is not a high concern at this time as U.S. systems are able to manage CO2 scrubbing, oxygen supply and temperature control for both the U.S. and Russian segments.

  • If needed, NASA and Russia have agreed to move up the planned launch of the next Progress resupply ship from August to July 23. As a result, a planned ISS spacewalk may be postponed.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-15-2007 02:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
As that connector is not presently needed, they may ask today's spacewalking team (the same astronauts that made the first EVA) to go ahead and unhook the connector.
NASA has given the go ahead for Jim "JR" Reilly to disconnect the connector as part of his activities during the spacewalk, now underway.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-15-2007 04:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From Bill Harwood, CBS/SpaceflightNow.com: 4:55 PM, 6/15/07, Update: Station computers brought to life after impromptu repair
quote:
In a possible breakthrough, space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov used a jumper cable to bypass a suspect secondary power supply today and successfully activated four of six navigation and command computers that appeared to malfunction earlier this week, NASA officials said.

Details were not immediately clear, but two channels, or "lanes," in the Russian central command-and-control computer appeared to operate normally after the improvised power supply repair, along with two of three lanes making up the station's guidance and navigation computer, known collectively as the terminal computer.

"Fyodor, go ahead and activate central computer power one, two, three," ground control called. A few moments later, after reviewing diagnostic data, a controller (speaking through an interpreter) radioed: "Well, good news, it's good news that it's working."


And regarding today's EVA:
quote:
Earlier this afternoon, U.S. flight controllers told spacewalker James Reilly to disconnect a power cable in a newly installed solar array truss to help engineers determine whether the cable might have played a role inthe computer malfunctions earlier this week. The miscues began right around the time the cable was connected Monday.

But late today, astronaut Megan McArthur radioed the crew from Houston saying that might no longer be necessary.


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