STS 122, Colombus to the ISS |
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STS 122, Colombus to the ISS |
 Dec 12 2007, 08:16 PM
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#31
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 Director of Galilean Photography  Group: Members Posts: 896 Joined: 15-July 04 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 93  |
Well, no wonder they are having problems with fuel level sensors in the external tank. That giant spider is sucking out all the fuel! I for one welcome our new arachnid overlords!
-------------------- Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
-- "The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality. |
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Dec 13 2007, 02:07 PM
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#32
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Dec 31 2007, 02:13 PM
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#33
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Looks like this is gonna stretch on a bit; they've decided to replace a tank boundary connector.
Definitely an AC-capacitance system. Open shielding in these systems causes an off-scale high indication, which is completely anethemic to the intent of these sensors, since there would be no cutoff signal for the engines if the tank ran dry. (An open center conductor would cause an off-scale low indication, which would cause premature engine cutoff--also not good.) This is quite literally Monday-morning quarterbacking, but I have to wonder why they chose capacitive sensors for a discrete signal function. C-5 aircraft, which entered production in 1966, have tank low-level sensors as well, but they use thermistors--if the fuel's gone, they heat up & change their resistance, turning on a warning light. Guess that this might have been deemed too risky for LH2, but still... -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jan 12 2008, 03:52 PM
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#34
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 10 Joined: 17-November 07 From: in a IA corn field Member No.: 3963 |
Launch date set for Feb. 7th
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html Jan. 11 NASA Friday announced Feb. 7 as the target launch date for shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station and mid-March for the launch of Endeavour on STS-123. Liftoff of Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., will be at 2:47 p.m. EST. A decision by the Russian Federal Space Agency to move up its Progress launch from Feb. 7 to Feb. 5 enables both STS-122 and STS-123 to launch before the next Russian Soyuz mission in early April. This allows astronauts assigned to the space station's Expedition 16 crew to complete the tasks they have trained for, including support of the launch and docking of Jules Verne, the first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle. Targeting Feb. 7 also allows time to complete modifications to the engine cutoff sensor system that postponed two shuttle launch attempts in December. |
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Jan 12 2008, 05:14 PM
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#35
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Yes, and the solution to the ECO sensor problem? Solder the pin connectors! This is apparently a fix that people came up with for a very similar problem in Centaur upper stages nearly 40 years ago. It took this amount of time and effort for someone to check another program's Lessons Learned Book... *sigh*...
-the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Jan 12 2008, 05:32 PM
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#36
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I hear ya, but can't get too mad at them for it. Fuel quantity sucks!!!
There are a few avionics systems that are always very peculiar (in terms of design) to specific aerospace vehicles: G&C, and fuel quantity sensing systems are usually the biggies. This fact tends to channelize thinking when troubleshooting, since drawing analogies to equivalent systems on other platforms often isn't practical, at least down into minutae like connector designs. I just hope that it works. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Feb 7 2008, 11:14 AM
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#37
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 276 Joined: 11-December 07 From: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Member No.: 3978 |
With the launch of STS-122 approaching, I thought it right to ressurect this thread.
Weather is not looking too good but other than that, no technical faults to talk about.(30% chance for launch). Latest radar of the area--> http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=mlb...111&loop=no -------------------- |
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Feb 7 2008, 12:06 PM
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#38
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
QUOTE (dvandorn @ Jan 12 2008, 06:14 PM)  Yes, and the solution to the ECO sensor problem? Solder the pin connectors! This is apparently a fix that people came up with for a very similar problem in Centaur upper stages nearly 40 years ago. It took this amount of time and effort for someone to check another program's Lessons Learned Book... *sigh*... -the other Doug And what might happen if the solder cracks ?..... |
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Feb 7 2008, 01:27 PM
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#39
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Member Group: Members Posts: 276 Joined: 11-December 07 From: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Member No.: 3978 |
QUOTE (MahFL @ Feb 7 2008, 03:06 PM) And what might happen if the solder cracks ?..... May the Almighty forbid that! -------------------- |
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Feb 7 2008, 01:30 PM
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#40
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I think that's an issue that was sorted years ago. There is soldering on so many components of LV's - that I'm sure specific ways, means and methods for avoiding that problem have been addressed for decades.
Doug |
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Feb 7 2008, 03:27 PM
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#41
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I'm sure that they're using something radically different in composition then conventional solder. For example, high-temp connections such as jet engine thermocouples use silver solder; presumably there is a cryogenically-resistant equivalent, but don't know what it might be.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Feb 7 2008, 07:29 PM
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#42
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 562 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 221 |
I'm gonna be in the chat room if anyone is about for the launch
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Feb 7 2008, 07:50 PM
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#43
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
And away she goes
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Feb 7 2008, 07:56 PM
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#44
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
STUNNING ET sep shots - a whole swathe of back lit plasmarey, RCS-exhaustey lovely stuff.
It's been a long time, but Columbus is in space.
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Feb 7 2008, 08:13 PM
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#45
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 Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 27 Joined: 27-September 07 From: Tampere, Finland Member No.: 3919 |
Oh man... Sometimes I feel REALLY stupid...
 I tried to get NASA TV working via internet as usual when watching shuttle launches and there were some problems this time to see broadcast. I was like grrr....... Is it now just watching text-updates on spaceflightnow.com NO WAY! Still trying to resolve problem, no... no broadcast on my screen, T- 2minutes... shiteshiteshite....! Whattodoo?!?!? Then I got it. TELEVISION! (remember that old grey non-interactive box?). Quickly CNN. "T- 10seconds, 9,8..." phew! Oh man... I felt SOO stupid.  Nice launch anyway, and finally we Europeans have our own little module in space. And then we separate it as independent station and then we fly our own Hermes-shuttle there and... .... ...then I woke up and changed dry underwear.  No, really, great, this has been a long time coming, let's say half of my short but prosperous and impressive life. Over and out. -------------------- Spamming the Solar System with greetings since 1997!
(New Horizons, Huygens, Opportunity/Spirit, Deep Impact, Dawn, Phoenix, Selene... to name a few) :) |
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