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  #14  
Old September 14th 04, 11:52 PM
Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)
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"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...

Good comments, well said.


Jim, for one, you better than to toppost and to quote an entire article.

And you're probably in a better position than most to get the actual stats
like MTBF, etc.



"John Doe" wrote in message

...
And with all the years in service, you'd think Boeing would have

predicted
that a spark due to frayed wiring could cause a fuel tank to explode in

a
747
and prevent TWA800. Many unpredictable things do happen over time.

Systems that use liquids in 0g cannot really be tested on earth. They

are
tested and debugged while in orbit. And as time goes on, they discover

new
problems that crop up. That is what the space station is REALLY all

about.
Not
research on how to grow crystals, but how to make and maintain/fix

systems
that are in long term use.

They'll find the solution to elektron, and this event will contribute to

the
elektron maintenance manual, MTBF statistics and resupply requirements

over
the long term.

And if we had to go to mars today, I'd trust Elektron far more than some
newfangled USA (or other country) O2 generator that has not been tested

in
space yet. There have been enough failures of elektron to have a good

idea
of
how much and what maintenance will be required over a long period.