[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

Just saw an interesting (and disturbing) report on CNN. As y'all have probably heard, as soon as the new set of solar arrays was deployed and activated, the computers in the Russian segment of the ISS went offline. Attempts to reboot them and bring them back online have failed. The best they have done is establish "limited communication" with a couple of the "lanes" of communication between the computers (the main and terminal systems) on the Russian segment and the equipment they control, but that the communication is not trustworthy. They've now been shut down totally while ground experts study the problem.

According to the Russians, the best guess right now is that the new American solar arrays are generating an induced EM field that is blowing the Russian computers out of the water. There may be no choice but to leave the Russian segment without its main control systems until the computers can be replaced -- which is not a simple process.

This isn't a minor glitch, folks -- for one thing, there is apparently no way to use the Russian attitude control system without the computers. If for any reason the primary attitude control system -- the CMGs -- has to be taken offline (due to gyro saturation or any other reason), this would leave the entire complex uncontrolled in attitude. The Vozhduk (sp?) air regerator system is also controlled by the now-disabled computer system.

For me, this kind of thing is why you have to gain experience in deploying large structures in LEO before trying to send them elsewhere in the Solar System. Certainly the best American and Russian engineers never considered the possibility of induced EM fields from the solar arrays that could have such a devastating effect on the internal electronics. In my humble opinion, this is *exactly* the kind of learning experience that ISS must provide before humans can move out to the asteroids and planets. Let's just hope it's not a show-stopping lesson...

-the other Doug