[FPSPACE] ISS crew to repair gyroscope?

[Zeger Nuyens]

> http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4235835&startrow=21&date=2004-04-23&do_alert=0


> ISS CREW TO REPAIR DEFECTIVE GYROSCOPE
>
> MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - Quite possibly, the International 
> Space Station's crew will have to perform EVA (Extra-Vehicular 
> Activity) for the sake of repairing the second defective gyroscope, a 
> high-ranking spokesman for the Russian mission control center said 
> here today.
>
> Unlike Russia's Mir station, ISS gyroscopes are located outside the 
> station on the US Unity module's external metal girder; that's why the 
> crew must perform a space walk in order to repair them, he explained.
>
> The ninth long-duration ISS expedition is to perform two space walks 
> in line with mission plans.
>
> It's hard to say whether the gyroscope will be repaired by Gennady 
> Padalka's crew because the situation is not critical, RIA Novosti's 
> interlocutor stressed.
>
> For his own part, a NASA spokesman told RIA Novosti that the entire 
> gyroscope didn't have to be replaced. The gyroscope's power-supply 
> unit must be replaced. That unit will be taken from another gyroscope, 
> which had stopped operating more than a year ago, he noted.
>
> Only two out of the station's four US-made gyroscopes are currently 
> functioning without a hitch. Meanwhile the ISS orbit will be adjusted 
> with the help of Russian-made attitude-control engines, which are 
> installed on the Russian module, and which fire a lot of fuel.
>


-- 

Zeger Nuyens
dokter.nuyens at pandora.be