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Space Station's Computers Up and Running

Posted on: Saturday, 16 June 2007, 06:00 CDT

By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON - Newly revived computers aboard the international space station could resume providing crucial functions - including the outpost's ability to orient itself and produce oxygen - on Saturday if they performed well overnight.

"If everything looks well, then I would expect we would slowly begin to activate the systems on board, including the attitude control systems," said Mike Suffredini, space station program manager.

The computers began to get up and running Friday after several stressed-filled days in which engineers weren't sure how to fix the problem.

The computers provide oxygen and maintain the space station's correct position in orbit, allowing it to point its solar arrays at the sun for power and shift orientation to avoid occasional large debris that comes flying through space.

The computer problem had raised the possibility the space station's three-person crew might have to abandon the outpost. NASA officials rejected such a scenario.

The solution came after Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov bypassed a power switch with a cable on each of the six processors that make up the two computers. That got four of the processors running.

"We feel like the computers are stable and back to normal," Suffredini said.

Engineers don't expect the other two processors to come back online. They will be replaced.

Suffredini said engineers were still trying to determine what prompted the power switch to cause the computers to fail.

For now, Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday. But Suffredini said NASA officials were still deciding whether to keep the shuttle at the station an extra day because of the computer problem.

During the failure, the shuttle's thrusters helped control the station's position. Some of Atlantis' lights, computers and cameras were turned off to save energy in case the shuttle had to stay an extra day.

NASA officials said the crew was never in danger of running out of oxygen, power or essentials.

The 11-day space station construction mission had already been extended by two days so a rip in the shuttle's thermal material could be fixed.

The failed computers were the latest technical glitch for the half-built, $100 billion outpost. A Russian oxygen machine and gyroscopes, which also control orientation, have previously failed.

The computer problem renewed criticism of the space station, which has been called an ill-conceived venture, as well as criticism of President Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration," which calls for finishing the space station in three years, grounding the space shuttles in 2010 and building next-generation vehicles to go to the moon and Mars.

"We're learning a great deal from the space station, and one of things we may be learning is we shouldn't have built this particular one," said Howard McCurdy, a space public policy expert at American University.

Two spacewalking Atlantis astronauts accomplished another critical task Friday: repairing a torn thermal blanket that helps protect the shuttle from heat on its return flight to Earth.

Danny Olivas used a medical stapler to successfully secure in place the 4-by-6-inch corner, and James Reilly installed an external valve.

During the nearly eight-hour spacewalk, astronauts also finished folding up a 115-foot solar wing on the space station. It took several days to put away the wing, which needed to be retracted to make way for a newly installed pair of power generating wings.

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Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Houston, Vladimir Isachenkov in Korolyov, Russia, and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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