Juggling Act Unfolds for Atlantis Astronauts

Jun 15, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Traci Watson

Ten humans in space had their hands full Thursday. They were preparing to fix a damaged spacecraft. They were struggling to fold balky solar panels. And they were trying, with little success, to recover from a major computer crash.

On the International Space Station, Russian computers that stopped working earlier in the week were revived briefly several times Thursday. They were not working as of Thursday evening.

If unsolved, the computer problems could force the eviction of the station's three residents, but space-station program manager Michael Suffredini said engineers have zeroed in on a suspected cause.

"I do fully expect we will sort this out over the next few days and be able to get back to normal operations," he said.

Meanwhile, the crew of space shuttle Atlantis, which is parked at the station, practiced the techniques to be used today to repair damage to the ship's heat shield.

During Atlantis' liftoff June 8, a corner of a heat-protection blanket pulled away from the shuttle's surface. That could lead to erosion of the spacecraft's structure during the shuttle's superheated dive through the Earth's atmosphere. The blanket will be reattached with a stapler by astronaut John "Danny" Olivas during a spacewalk scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET today.

Olivas' crewmates spent the day trying to get a pair of solar panels affixed to the station to fold into boxes so they can be moved later this year. The panels jammed continually, and Mission Control gave up by midafternoon. The work was put on hold until today, when Olivas and another spacewalker can help clear the jams.

By far the most serious problem was the meltdown of the computers in the station's Russian area. They were made by Daimler-Benz and funded by Europe as part of the funding agreements on the station.

Among other functions, they command rocket jets that help keep the station correctly pointed in orbit, which is crucial to keep the laboratory from getting too hot or too cold.

The job of orienting the station mainly falls to U.S. devices called gyroscopes, but the Russian jets are needed to adapt to major shocks such as the departure of the shuttle. They're also used if the station needs to move away from a piece of space debris.

The jets are unavailable while the computer system is down, so the Atlantis is the backup, for now. It can fire its thruster jets when the gyroscopes are inadequate. Once Atlantis leaves, the gyroscopes will have to keep the station stable if the computers won't work.

To buy more time to work out the computer problem, NASA officials may keep Atlantis docked there for an extra day, until Wednesday. The shuttle's visit to the station already has been extended from seven days to nine to accommodate the unexpected patching of the heat shield.

On Thursday, Mission Control asked the shuttle's crew to turn off unneeded systems, such as cameras and the fan in the shuttle's kitchen area, to conserve energy. That will give the ship an extra day in orbit before it runs out of fuel.

Suffredini said the problem may lie with solar panels installed Monday. The computers shut down after starting to receive power from the new panels. The computers are highly sensitive to slight fluctuations in voltage, he said, so the fresh power source may have caused problems. The crew planned to do some troubleshooting overnight to test that theory.

Because of the computer failure, the Russian machine for keeping carbon-dioxide levels low has been turned off. The U.S. carbon-dioxide system isn't designed to handle 10 people, so the carbon-dioxide level in the station and shuttle is rising.

Atlantis' commander was philosophical about the difficulties he and his crewmates face.

"There are challenges ... when you bring new pieces of hardware," said Frederick Sturckow. "This is just to be expected." (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.