Dextre, a large robotic manipulator to help with outside maintenence of the ISS was added in October of 2007. Credit: NASA
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Ten years ago, the first Expedition crew arrived at the International Space Station. Here’s a look back in time at how the station has changed and grown, and some of the people who were there to make it happen.
The configuration of the ISS when the first expedition crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000. Credit: NASA
Expedition Two crewmembers Yury Usachev (left), mission commander, Jim Voss, flight engineer, and Susan Helms, flight engineer, share a dessert in the Zvezda Service Module. Credit: NASAThis image was taken on April 21, 2001 during Expedition 2; the first large solar arrays were added during the STS-100 space shuttle mission. Credit: NASAThe Expedition Five crewmembers in the Destiny laboratory on the ISS. From the left are cosmonaut Valery Korzun, mission commander; astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, who became the ISS’s first science officer, and cosmonaut Sergei Treschev. Credit: NASAThe Microgravity Science Glovebox was added to the Destiny lab on the ISS during Expedition 5. Credit: NASAThe Expedition Six crew pose for a crew photo in the Zarya module on the ISS; Don Pettit (front), science officer; cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin (left back), flight engineer; and astronaut Ken Bowersox, mission commander. Credit: NASADuring Expedition 6, the space shuttle Columbia accident occurred, and the shuttle program was on hold. ISS astronauts Don Pettit (left) and Ken Bowersox had to do a variety of maintenance tasks outside the ISS that normally visiting shuttle crews would have taken care. Credit: NASA.It was rather lonely times for awhile on the ISS -- with no space shuttles flying, only two crewmembers were able to be on board the ISS. Here are Expedition 7's Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu. Credit: NASAThe Russian Soyuz vehicle serves as transportation and rescue vehicle for the ISS. Credit: NASANew Crew member? No, this is the European Matroshka-R Phantom experiment, which operated during Expedition 12 in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Matroshka, the name for the traditional Russian set of nestling dolls, is an antroph-amorphous model of a human torso designed for radiation studies. Credit: NASAStuff happens it space. During a spacewalk, Expedition 16 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin noticed damage to a multi-layer insulation (MLI) protective blanket on the Zarya module. The damage, he noted, was apparently from a micrometeoroid impact. The date the damage occurred is unknown but has had no impact to vehicle operations. Credit: NASA Shuttles returned to flight in July of 2005, and this is how the ISS looked when space shuttle Discovery visited, the first shuttle visit in over 2 years. Credit: NASAThe ISS as it looked in June of 2007, during the STS-117 mission. Credit: NASAThe backbone of the ISS is the huge truss, brought up to the ISS in smaller segments, which are still huge by themselves. Dave Williams, STS-118 mission specialist from Canada works outside the ISS, helping to attach the Starboard 5 (S5) segment, and works on the forward heat-rejecting radiator from the station's Port 6 (P6) truss. Credit: NASAA look inside the Harmony node that was brought to the ISS in on the STS-120 mission in 2007. Credit: NASSunita Williams, Expedition 15 flight engineer, works on a science experiment in April of 2007. Credit: NASABackdropped by the thin line of Earth's atmosphere and the blackness of space, a portion of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 20 crew member aboard the station. in May 2009. Credit: NASAA torn solar array panel in the ISS, which was installed during the STS-120 mission. See below for the repair job. Credit: NASAThe repaired solar array, fixed by STS-120 astronauts. Credit: NASAEuropean Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Hans Schlegel, STS-122 mission specialist, works on the new Columbus laboratory that was installed in February 2008. Credit: NASAAstronauts work on adding the Japanese logistics module-pressurized section in March of 2008 during the STS-123 mission. Credit: NASADextre, a large robotic manipulator to help with outside maintenence of the ISS was added in October of 2007. Credit: NASAA motley-looking crew of the Expedition 17 and 18 crewmembers in the Harmony node in Oct. 2008. Credit: NASAHere's how the ISS looked durng the STS-128 mission in September of 2009. Credit: NASADuring the STS-130 mission in Feb. 2010, the Cupola and Tranquility Node were added. The Cupola provides unprecidented views of Earth and space from the ISS. Credit: NASAHow the ISS looked during the STS-130 mission in February 2010. Credit: NASAThe Russian Mini Research Module was added in May of 2010 on STS-132. Credit: NASANASA astronauts Shannon Walker (left), Expedition 24/25 flight engineer; Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 23/24 flight engineer; and Doug Wheelock, Expedition 24 flight engineer and Expedition 25 commander, pose for photo in the Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM2) of the International Space Station. How the ISS looks today (as of this writing), and as it looked following the STS-132 mission in May of 2010. Credit: NASA
Ten years ago today US astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko arrived at the fledgling International Space Station, after launching in a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 31, 2000. This began a decade of continuous human habituation on board the station. The station’s first commander reflects on his mission and the past 10 years.
The AMS-02 will be mounted on the outside of the International Space Station's S3 Truss element. Image Credit: NASA
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The Principal Investigator (P.I.) for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS-02) experiment, Professor Samuel Ting, says that the experiment is already accruing data as it awaits its February 2011 launch date. Scheduled to fly aboard the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour, STS-134, AMS-02 will search through cosmic rays for exotic particles, antimatter and dark matter. The experiment will be mounted to the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and will require no spacewalks to attach. Continue reading “ISS Particle Detector Ready to Unveil Wonders of the Universe”
The ISS, from the shuttle mission in May 2010. Credit: NASA
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Last month the International Space Station partner agencies met to discuss the continuation of space station operations into the next decade and its use as a research laboratory. They also did a little forward thinking, and talked about some unique possibilities for the station’s future, including the potential for using the space station as a launching point to fly a manned mission around the Moon. I don’t know what our readers think, but my reactions is: this is just about the coolest idea I’ve heard in a long while! I’m having visions of a Star Trek-like space-dock, only on a smaller scale! In an article by the BBC’s Jonathan Amos, the partners said they want the ISS to become more than just a high-flying platform for doing experiments in microgravity, but also hope to see it become a testbed for the next-generation technologies and techniques needed to go beyond low-Earth orbit to explore destinations such as asteroids and Mars.
“We need the courage of starting a new era,” Europe’s director of human spaceflight, Simonetta Di Pippo, told the BBC News. For sending a mission to the Moon from the ISS, De Pippo said, “The idea is to ascend to the space station the various elements of the mission, and then try to assemble the spacecraft at the ISS, and go from the orbit of the space station to the Moon.”
One “next-generation” activity that is already planned is conducting a flight test of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine on the ISS, which is the new plasma–based space propulsion technology, that could get astronauts to destinations like Mars much quicker than conventional rockets. NASA has sign a commercial Space Act with the Ad Astra company (which is lead by former astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz).
But starting a Moon mission from the ISS is really a far-reaching, kind of “out-there” concept. It would be reminiscent of Apollo 8, and be the first of a new philosophy of using the station as a spaceport, or base-camp from where travelers start their journey. The propulsion system would be built at the station then launched from orbit, just like space travelers have dreamed for decades.
Of course, this is just an idea, and probably an expensive proposition, but isn’t it wonderful that the leaders of the space agencies are even thinking about it, much less talking about it?
Of course, doing zero-g experiments would always be the main focus of the ISS, but just think….
With this type of mission, the future of spaceflight actually be as Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield describes in the video below. “This is the great stepping off point of to the rest of the universe,” says Hadfield, who will be commanding an upcoming expedition on the ISS. “This is an important moment in the history of human exploration and human capability,… and the space station is a visible sign of the future to come.”
A previous Soyuz spacecraft leaving the ISS. Credit: NASA
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Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut were forced to call off their scheduled departure from the International Space Station because of a failure of the undocking system. Hooks on the space station’s Poisk module docking interface failed to release for the scheduled departure at 9:35 p.m. EDT Thursday, sending astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and Russia’s Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko back inside the ISS from the Soyuz, where they were strapped in, ready to return to Earth. NASA and the Russian Space Agency are hoping to try again, with the hatch closing at 6:45 pm EDT on Friday; undocking at 10:02 pm and landing in Kazakhstan at 1:22 am.
“The preliminary analysis, according to the technical commission, showed that a false signal appeared in the onboard computer system about the lack of a hermetic junction after closing the hatch on the station,” said Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov.
This type of undocking problem has never happened before and comes three months after a Russian Progress resupply vehicle had problems docking to the ISS when a transmitter for the manual rendezvous system accidently activated, overriding the usually reliable automated system.
In trouble shooting the problem, Expedition 25 flight engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin on board the station removed a cover from the docking mechanism and found a small gear floating away. But the station crew couldn’t confirm the object came from the docking system or had anything to do with the failure.
This time lapse footage was taken by astronaut Don Pettit — of Saturday Morning Science and the Zero-G coffee cup fame — during his time on the International Space Station. It shows Earth from day to night and back to day again. Pettit was on the ISS from November 23, 2002 to May 3, 2003, so he was in space when the Columbia accident happened. Pettit is one of the most interesting and quirkier astronauts and I hope he gets to return to the ISS. is scheduled to return to the ISS in 2011 (thanks to Ben H. for clarifying — see comments). This video provides some great views of Earth, especially at night, that can’t be captured with a regular video shot. Stunning.
Image above: Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock (right) and Tracy Caldwell Dyson work to replace a failed ammonia pump module outside of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV
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Overcoming a disappointing spacewalk last weekend, today astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson successfully removed the failed ammonia coolant pump module on the S1 truss of the International Space Station. But NASA managers said that at least two more EVAs will be required to complete all the repairs to the critical cooling system. Earlier, it was hoped that two spacewalks total would allow enough time, but it will take at least four. “There were a number of challenges in the first EVA that set us back, but as we looked closer at this, we were hedging our bets at how many EVAs we had ahead of us,” said Spacewalk officer David Beaver at a press briefing following the successful EVA today. “As we have done more and more work in laying this out in a stepwise fashion, it became clear to us early on that this was a much bigger set of EVAs than we originally made time for.”
He added that on orbit, the astronauts have stopped all research in order to save on the cooling system. The complex systems keeps the station from overheating and the six-member crew has relied on just one — instead of the usual two pumps –to handle the cooling ever since the one pump failed during a power surge on July 31.
“The system has been kind to us and we haven’t had any more failures,” Beaver said.
The spare pump will be installed on the S1 truss during a spacewalk that is now scheduled for Monday – originally it was set for Sunday, but NASA managers decided an extra day would help both the astronauts and the teams on the ground preparing for the EVAs.
Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson were able to close the quick disconnect valve for the final fluid connector for the failed ammonia pump module, and then detach the final fluid line from the failed ammonia pump module – which was the problem that couldn’t be overcome on the first spacewalk.
The two astronauts then extracted the pump module and stowed on another location on the truss, and Caldwell Dyson prepared the spare pump for installation on the next spacewalk on Monday.
The spacewalk lasted 7 1/2 hours, slightly shorter than Saturday’s eight-hour marathon, the longest EVA at the ISS without a space shuttle present. Wheelock and Dyson had to use decontamination procedures after the spacewalk just in case some ammonia leaked on their suits.
In response to the power-saving reconfiguration that has had to be done, the science team worked quickly to establish a plan to preserve experiment samples in the Japanese Experiment Module freezer. The on-orbit crew was able to transfer all the samples from the freezer in the Kibo laboratory to an operating freezer. No sciences samples were lost due to the pump module anomaly.
While the crew schedule has been interrupted to support the newly added spacewalks, the payload ground teams have been working closely with mission controllers to preserve and re-plan high priority activities. Other activities that can be rescheduled with little or no impact are being postponed to a later date.
Location of the pump module on the S-1 truss that failed. Credit: NASA
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*Updated at 11 pm CDT — dates have changed for EVAs.
Two spacewalks will be required to remove and replace a pump on a critical cooling system on the International Space Station, and NASA is hoping to have station astronauts and ground teams ready by Thursday, August 5 Friday, August 6 for the first EVA. The pump module failed over the weekend, prompting a shift to a backup system, while other systems were shut down as a precaution. The backup system is working perfectly, and having a second system failure is highly unlikely, but NASA does not like to operate on a “single-string” system without redundancy. “Having another failure would be a serious situation for the program that we want to avoid,” said ISS program manager Mike Suffredini.
Update:
NASA had originally scheduled the first EVA for Thursday, August 5 and the second for Sunday, but decided late Monday that they needed more time for both astronauts and ground crews to prepare. Now, the first spacewalk will be Friday morning, starting at 6:55 a.m. EDT, (1155 GMT) with the second EVA on Monday, August 9.
An EVA was already scheduled for August 5 for astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson to install part of a robotic crane and to prepare for a new module due to arrive in November aboard space shuttle Discovery. But that work will be postponed in order for the astronauts to do the priority fix.
“Typically, we allow two weeks to prepare for this type of EVA, but we decided to take advantage of having an EVA already scheduled, so this is a very aggressive approach,” said Flight Director Courtenay McMillan, who is leading the team supporting the spacewalk.
This type of EVA is part of what is called the “Big 14” set of contingency spacewalks that all ISS astronauts train for in the event of system failures like the one that happened on Saturday.
Suffredini said he is confident everyone can be ready. “The crew is in great spirits and are ready to do this,” he said. “These Big 14 EVA’s cover major systems repairs that an increment crew might have to do without the shuttle there. They train for both specific and generic spacewalks, and this particular one they have trained for. So they have some familiarity with the tasks they will be asked to do.”
Additionally all the operations teams have been working around the clock to prepare for the fix. “The ops team is full up for support,” Suffredini said. “If you were to go in the control room, it looks more like a shuttle flight is going on right now. We do train for these kinds of anomalies, and have been fortunate that we haven’t had to deal with anything like this before, but we have good plans in place.” Spare Pump Module, with grapple fixture. Credit: NASA
The pump — which was installed in October 2002 — failed Saturday night after a spike in electrical current tripped a circuit breaker. When the 350 kg (780-pound) pump failed, it shut down half of the station’s cooling system. Efforts to restart the pump, which feeds ammonia coolant into the cooling loops to maintain the proper temperature for the station’s electrical systems and avionics, were not successful. Suffredini said data suggests the motor is not frozen, as it did begin to pump when they did the restart, so that tells them there is likely a short in the electrical system.
The station’s crew worked with Mission Control to put the station in a stable configuration. The crew, which is in no danger, has resumed normal work activities and most of the systems are up and running. One freezer was shut down, but frozen specimens which are to be returned to Earth were transferred to another freezer.
McMillan said astronauts Cady Coleman and Sunny Williams are working today in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab — the big pool where astronauts train for EVAs — doing development runs for the emergency EVAs.
“They are doing the tasks that they forsee we’ll need to do, trying to work out details of the timeline,” she said. “And depending on how things go today we’ll see if we’ll be ready for the EVA.”
There are spare pump modules already on board the station, and Suffredini said that if more modules are needed, they can fit on board the Japanese HTV resupply vehicles or SpaceX’s cargo vehicle, and don’t need to be brought up by the space shuttle.
The International Space Station in 2010. Credit: NASA
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One of the International Space Station’s external cool system pumps quit working late Saturday, likely due to mechanical failure. This triggered subsequent shutdowns in other systems. Teams on the ground are working with the six astronauts on board the station to troubleshoot the issue, but it appears at least two spacewalks will be required to remove and replace the pump. NASA officials said the problem will have to be resolved quickly, as the cooling system is extremely important for all the station’s systems. This is a redundant system, so the backup loop is now cooling the station and the crew is in no danger, but NASA does not like to work any systems “single string,” i.e., with no backup.
NASA tried restarting the pump Sunday morning, but it did not work. There are two spare pumps on orbit. ISS astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson had been already scheduled to make a spacewalk on August 5 to install part of a robotic crane and to do preparation work get ready for a new module (the Permanent Logistics Module) that is due to arrive in November aboard space shuttle Discovery.
EVA teams are now looking at using the August 5 space walk for the first half of the repairs, followed by the second EVA on August 7 (Saturday). The spacewalks need special planning since the system is in a reduced power configuration. One of the radiators which allow for cooling on board the ISS. Credit: NASA
The space station features two independent coolant loops that use ammonia circulating through huge radiators to dissipate the heat generated by the station’s electronic systems, primarily from the labs. Each loop is fed by a large tank of ammonia that includes an internal bellows pressurized by nitrogen. That pressurization system allows the loops to handle the periodic expansion and contraction of the ammonia coolant due to temperature changes when the station goes from sunlight to shadow while in orbit.
Back in April a valve failed on the coolant system, but the teams were able to troubleshoot and fix the problem without a spacewalk.
A status update from NASA listed several other systems that required powerdowns to as a result of the cooling loop shutdown in order to thermally protect them:
Redundant power to four CQs (Crew Quarters), three in Node-2, one in Kibo JPM, with both fans in each CQ remaining functional but zero fault-tolerant (crew is still Go for CQ use). Due to loss of heater power, MBS (Mobile Base System), SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System), and SPDM (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator) are currently zero fault-tolerant. Communications systems, but there could be some issues with possible overheating. No video will be available fromNode-2, Node-3, the Columbus and Japanese modules.
A Russian spacewalker works outside the Pirs docking compartment after beginning the first Expedition 24 spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV
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Two Expedition 24 cosmonauts conducted a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station earlier today, outfitting the newest module for future dockings of Russian vehicles. Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko set up the Kurs automated rendezvous on the Rassvet module, which was delivered on the last space shuttle mission to the ISS. Additionally, the pair of spacewalkers routed and mated Command and Data Handling cables on the Zvezda and Zarya modules. While they also purposefully jettisoned an old camera, two other objects got loose and floated away from the astronauts. The objects are being tracked to make sure they will not pose a threat to the station later.
One was tentatively identified as a cable clamp, left outside the station from a previous Russian spacewalk, and the other object was not conclusively identified.
This was the 147th spacewalk at the ISS for station assembly and maintenance. This was Kornienko’s first spacewalk and Yurchikhin’s fourth. Yurchikhin’s first three spacewalks occurred when he was commander of Expedition 15 in 2007.
The camera that was tossed away was replaced, and the new camera will provide better television views of the final approach and docking of future European Automated Transfer Vehicles carrying cargo to the station.
Another spacewalk will take place next week, on August 5, with US astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson getting the chance to go outside. They will install a power cable to the Unity module in preparation for the installation of the Permanent Multipurpose Module during the STS-133 mission in November. A Portable Data Grapple Fixture will be installed on the Zarya module that will extend the reach of Canadarm2, the station’s robotic arm, and increase a spacewalker’s access for assembly or maintenance work. They also will jettison multi-layer insulation removed for the grapple fixture installation and will mate power connectors to Zarya.
