Astronauts To Repair Cooling System On ISS 57
GWMAW writes "NASA Astronauts will conduct a spacewalk on Thursday to repair part of the cooling system of the International Space Station. The cooling system is essential for maintaining the temperature inside the station. There are two 'loops' in the system, one that uses water and draws heat from the inside of the station, and one uses ammonia and dumps the heat into space. Ammonia is used because it freezes at a much lower temperature than water. On Saturday the pump that controls the flow of ammonia through the system shut down."
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I'm sure you're just joking, but a lot of people have this misconception that space is cold.
The few particles floating around out there (background radiation included) is very cold yes, only a few degrees K. However, these particles are few and far between, and the actual vacuum of space has no temperature at all (although I'm not sure how to factor in virtual particles into this).
I believe that I read somewhere that floating unshielded through space, you are more likely to die from overheating, since you c
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From NASA article Staying Cool on the ISS [nasa.gov]:
Without thermal controls, the temperature of the orbiting Space Station's Sun-facing side would soar to 250 degrees F (121 C), while thermometers on the dark side would plunge to minus 250 degrees F (-157 C). There might be a comfortable spot somewhere in the middle of the Station, but searching for it wouldn't be much fun!
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Dear troll, it depends on whether you are on the light side or dark side. You'd be losing your heat via your body's radiation.
From NASA article Staying Cool on the ISS [nasa.gov]:
Without thermal controls, the temperature of the orbiting Space Station's Sun-facing side would soar to 250 degrees F (121 C), while thermometers on the dark side would plunge to minus 250 degrees F (-157 C). There might be a comfortable spot somewhere in the middle of the Station, but searching for it wouldn't be much fun!
Oh come off it GP is not trolling. Temperature is always a matter of perspective, even in the room where I am now. If your spacecraft decompressed you would feel cold because of adiabatic expansion. Stand or float in the sun and you will feel warm, but radiation would still be cooling you.
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Dear troller troll...
You cannot loose heat in the vacuum. So all your heat is stored inside the space suit and not going anywhere. So yes, you can only overheat.
In a mostly metallic structure, the hot side will irradiate the heat to all its body. So if not isolated, ALL ISS will be at +/- 121C.
The space is cold, but you cannot feel it, because there are (almost) no heat transference.
But if you touch, for example, an asteroid, all you heat will be quickly absorbed, and you will freeze to dead.
Re:Open a windows (Score:4, Informative)
Dear troller troll...
Reads almost as 'Dear tololololo'. Scary.
You cannot loose heat in the vacuum.
Maybe you cannot lose hear through convection but, in space, you can certainly loose heat by radiation. Deep space background is around 3K and a deep space radiative cooler is a very good and efficient way to cool something in space.
You cannot do any thermal analysis of an object in space without taking the radiative part into account.
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I think THE SUN would beg to differ...
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I think THE SUN would beg to differ...
Well actually the sun is the best example we have of nearby things losing heat by radiation.
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A vacuum has the temperature of the cosmic background radiation, which is about 2.7 kelvin, unless if you insulate your chamber by putting it in a Faraday cage.
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Why was it cold in Apollo 13 ? (Score:2)
An uninsulated space suit in a vacuum wouldn't feel very cold on the inside as long as the suit doesn't touch anything on the outside.
What were the physics involved in the Apollo 13 mission when they were getting very cold after turning off the heaters in the spacecraft, using the LEM as a lifeboat?
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An uninsulated space suit in a vacuum wouldn't feel very cold on the inside as long as the suit doesn't touch anything on the outside.
What were the physics involved in the Apollo 13 mission when they were getting very cold after turning off the heaters in the spacecraft, using the LEM as a lifeboat?
When it comes to using power, it is easier to heat something than to cool it. The apollo spacecraft was designed to be passively cool in the sense that it reflected enough of the sunlight striking it to need as small amount of heating from batteries to stay warm. If it had absorbed more heat from the sun it would have required active cooling which is very expensive in energy terms.
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That is not correct. Radiation fields have temperature. The cosmic background radiation has a blackbody temperature of about 2.7 kelvin. This is the effective temperature of the vacuum of space.
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Kinetic energy is not the only way to define temperature. Temperature is one of the defining quantities of a radiation field.
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I mean everyone up there's drinking the recycled pee of their crewmates.
Shhh! Don't tell kids who're aspiring Astronauts!
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For more giggles, watch last monday's The Daily Show.
The interview largely focuses on fecal decapitation in space ;-)
Re:Well that's nice (Score:4, Informative)
I mean everyone up there's drinking the recycled pee of their crewmates.
As are we all. Our water supply is finite too, you know.
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Reclaiming the water from your own urine isn't even that hard. It's a pretty basic wilderness survival skill, for that matter.
Re:Well that's nice (Score:5, Insightful)
I think its great that mundane repairs are being done on a real, fair dinkum space station, and there is nothing interesting to say about it.
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I know this is a kdawson story and all, but what is there really to discuss here? Okay, so a part in space broken down and will be repaired. Seems like a pretty routine thing to me. I can understand if this were some unorthodox procedure or novel technology that had never been tried before, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.
Back on topic: um... good luck guys!
That's exactly what I thought. There was a story that it was broken, no shit they're gonna fix it!
The press release. (Score:4, Informative)
Typical Slashdot, a bit behind. This is the press release they sent out on Tuesday.
Aug. 03, 2010
Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-107
NASA MOVES SPACE STATION REPAIR SPACEWALK TO FRIDAY, SETS BRIEFINGS
HOUSTON -- The first of two spacewalks by NASA astronauts to replace a
failed ammonia pump on the International Space Station has been
delayed by 24 hours to Friday, Aug. 6. A second spacewalk is planned
for Monday, Aug. 9, to complete the repairs.
Flight controllers and station managers made the decision Monday night
after reviewing proposed timelines, final procedures for the repair
work, and the results from a spacewalk dress rehearsal conducted in
the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston.
Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson
are scheduled to perform the spacewalks. The two NASA astronauts will
replace an ammonia coolant pump that failed July 31.
NASA Television coverage of both spacewalks will begin at 5 a.m. CDT.
Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson are expected to begin the spacewalks from
the Quest airlock at 5:55 a.m. Friday's spacewalk will be the fourth
for Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson's first.
Approximately two hours after the conclusion of each spacewalk, NASA
TV will broadcast a briefing from Johnson. The briefing participants
will be Mike Suffredini, International Space Station program manager;
Courtenay McMillan, Expedition 24 spacewalk flight director; and
David Beaver, Expedition 24 spacewalk officer.
Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations, and
should contact their preferred NASA center to confirm participation.
Johnson will operate a telephone bridge for reporters with valid
media credentials issued by a NASA center. Journalists planning to
use the service must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no
later than 15 minutes prior to the start of a briefing. Phone bridge
capacity is limited and will be available on a first-come,
first-serve basis.
Engineers and flight controllers continue to review data on the
failure, which resulted in the loss of one of two cooling loops
aboard the station. This caused a significant power down and required
adjustments to provide the maximum redundancy possible for station
systems. The systems are stable, and the six crew members aboard are
not in any danger.
Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson originally were scheduled to perform a
spacewalk to outfit the Russian Zarya module for future robotics work
and prepare the station for the installation of a new U.S. permanent
multipurpose module. However, because of the importance of restoring
redundancy to the station's cooling and power systems, the two new
spacewalks will be dedicated to the pump module replacement.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv [nasa.gov]
For more information about the station and the Expedition 24 crew,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station [nasa.gov]
-end-
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If this were a Russian failure they would have been out the airlock the same day. They're trained for that, in Russian they call it: .
I think a better question is: what is NASA going to do when the ISS sized vehicle they want to go to Mars in has a similar issue? Spend a few days worrying about it and calling back to Earth then go replace it with a spare and hope the spare doesn't break? Sooner or later they're going to have to break their addiction with resupply and ground based mission control. I sa
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OK, and? There's no particular need to rush, that's why they have redundant loops.
Yep - because that's pretty much all they can do. What els
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I *love* the "can't do" attitude of people today.
Learn how to live in space or go home.
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Had I said anything about "can't do", you'd have a point. And I notice you can't be bothered to either answer my questions or address my points.
And that's because you can't do either - because all you bring to the table is attitude and slogans.
Learn the difference between your fantasy world and the real one, or shut up.
I've lived in an environment much like ISS, I know how it feels when one of two systems your life depends on goes down - and what can and can't be done about it. I've lived through situatio
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"Making the ISS self sufficient for that long is essentially impossible on two grounds: First, it wasn't designed to be so. Second, we lack the experience to know what level of spares and maintenance are required."
If that's not a can't do attitude I don't know what is.
Go study the Russian program someday, you'll discover what a real space program looks like. It's not "prefab everything and don't do anything in space without a 12 point plan".
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No, it's a statement of fact on par with "the sun will rise in the East tomorrow". You mistake it for a "can't do attitude" because either you lack the intelligence or the education to understand this or because you're deliberately being obtu
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Wow, so you're really saying that it is *impossible* for the astronauts on the ISS to fix anything? Really? Can they even have a look at it and see what's wrong or is that impossible too?
Here's some raw attitude for you: fuck off.
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No, I'm saying it's essentially impossible to make it self sufficient for a year. How can you possibly get that I said it was impossible for them to fix anything from what I wrote?
Oh, never mind, I fully understand how you can do that now. You've abundantly and repeatedly displayed your ignorance. And now it appears that such ignorance is not willful, but that you revel in it.
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Nice use of the weasel word "essential" there.
I think you're essentially a self important asshole.
It Begins... (Score:2, Funny)
From the article: "[...] the Russian module of the system could take control for a period of time until repairs could be made."
Take control?... Open the pod bay doors!!!
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From the article: "[...] the Russian module of the system could take control for a period of time until repairs could be made."
Take control?... Open the pod bay doors!!!
No need for taking control, only for taking vodka! Russians use vodka in pipes, not ammonia. Much better!
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If somebody panics and takes off in a soyuz without the helmet for their pressure suit, and the docking port is stuffed, will they be able to get back in through an air lock? I suspect not, because the flow in those airlocks is very slow and you need to flood the lock in a minute or so. I don't think its going to work.
Also the Soviet explosive bolts leave much to be desired. You would look pretty silly with half your hatch blown off.
Litter box to the rescue (Score:4, Funny)
...CME radiation... (Score:2, Interesting)
...given the current geomagnetic storms, isn't this thursday a bad time to be outside in orbit?..
Re:...CME radiation... (Score:4, Informative)
The storm will be over hours before they're scheduled to go out. The last one will hit around midnight CDT, and they're going out just before 6 AM.
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Why is loops in quotes? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is loops in quotes? If the concept of a control loop is too complex/obscure for the slashdot crowd, just call it a sub-system a la Star Trek.
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Blantant slashdot troll... (Score:1, Funny)
Science: Astronauts To Repair Cooling System On ISS
When will Microsoft finally produce an internet server that doesn't need to be fixed all the time?
Coooling innnn Spaaaaace... (Score:1)
Good luck (Score:1)
OK, I just have to say it. (Score:2)
That is just *so* uncool.