Breakdown triggers shutdown in space
Source: Agencies |
August 2, 2010, Monday
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ONE of two cooling systems serving the International Space Station's United States, European and Japanese laboratories broke down, setting off a wave of equipment shutdowns to cut the amount of heat generated on board, NASA said yesterday.
The three Russian cosmonauts and three NASA astronauts aboard the station are not in any danger, NASA's flight controllers said. The crew, which was asleep at the time, were roused by alarms late on Saturday and immediately set to work powering down equipment to prevent the sole remaining cooling loop from overloading.
The shutdown, however, means that many systems aboard the station are now without working backups.
"It's pretty clear that we're going to want to have a course of action to take as quickly as possible. This is not something we want to linger over, said NASA spokesman Rob Navias at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The station, a US$100 billion project of 16 nations, has two ammonia-fed cooling loops to dissipate heat generated by equipment. One loop shut down after a power spike in a pump module, which is needed to funnel ammonia through the lines.
The loss of the cooling system triggered the shutdown of several pieces of equipment, including two of the station's four gyroscopes, which keep the complex properly orientated in orbit, one of two communications systems, one of two Global Positioning System systems, power converters and routers.
The three Russian cosmonauts and three NASA astronauts aboard the station are not in any danger, NASA's flight controllers said. The crew, which was asleep at the time, were roused by alarms late on Saturday and immediately set to work powering down equipment to prevent the sole remaining cooling loop from overloading.
The shutdown, however, means that many systems aboard the station are now without working backups.
"It's pretty clear that we're going to want to have a course of action to take as quickly as possible. This is not something we want to linger over, said NASA spokesman Rob Navias at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The station, a US$100 billion project of 16 nations, has two ammonia-fed cooling loops to dissipate heat generated by equipment. One loop shut down after a power spike in a pump module, which is needed to funnel ammonia through the lines.
The loss of the cooling system triggered the shutdown of several pieces of equipment, including two of the station's four gyroscopes, which keep the complex properly orientated in orbit, one of two communications systems, one of two Global Positioning System systems, power converters and routers.
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