US Spacesuits unusable

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120793,00.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA (search) ruled Monday that U.S. spacesuits
(search) on the international space station (search) are unusable and ordered
the crew to use Russian gear instead, adding considerable time and distance to
a critical spacewalk next month.



The crew wanted to wear American suits and go out the much closer American
hatch to get to a broken power supply unit on the exterior of the space
station, but a cooling problem with the outfits made that impossible.

The mid-June spacewalk involves replacing a power control and circuit breaker
box that last month shut down one of the gyroscopes that stabilize the space
station and keep it tilted in the right direction. Only two of the four U.S.
gyroscopes are working, the bare minimum; the first one shut down two years ago
and cannot be replaced until NASA's shuttles fly again.

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and astronaut Mike Fincke spent the past few days,
without success, trying to get water flowing properly to Padalka's American
spacesuit for cooling. They could not get a spare U.S. spacesuit to work,
either. So with only one good U.S. spacesuit on board, NASA managers decided to
use Russian suits and conduct the spacewalk from the Russian side of the
station.

The crewmen need to leave from the Russian side because the Russian spacesuits
are not compatible with communication equipment in the U.S. air lock.

The Russian hatch is about 80 feet from the bad circuit breaker, located on the
American side of the station. The U.S. hatch is 30 feet from the work site.

Fincke and Padalka will use an approximately 50-foot Russian-built telescoping
boom to get part way there, and will be on the lookout for antennas and other
protruding hazards.

"It's not as dangerous as a mine field by any means," Fincke said in an
interview with The Associated Press. "It's just going to take a fair amount of
time to get there and to come back."

NASA engineers, meanwhile, are trying to figure out what is wrong with the two
U.S. spacesuits, unused for more than a year. Replacement parts are limited
aboard the station because of the grounding of the shuttle fleet since last
year's Columbia disaster. A Russian cargo ship was scheduled to blast off
Tuesday, carrying much-needed supplies.

Until shuttle flights resume next spring, at the earliest, station astronauts
will likely be limited to four Russian spacesuits for outside work. Two are
brand new; one malfunctioned during a spacewalk by the previous crew in
February, but the cooling problem -- a crimped water line -- has since been
fixed.

Fincke and Padalka, one month into a six-month stay, already had two
Russian-based spacewalks on their schedule before a third was added to restore
the powerless gyroscope.

"We know that there's a feeling down below that maybe there are a lot of
problems up here, but to be honest with you, Gennady and I have talked about
this. We really don't see it the same way that perhaps people on the ground
do," Fincke said. Aside from the failed circuit breaker, the bad suits and some
burned-out lights, "We feel really comfortable. We really like this space
station. It is a masterpiece."



So why arent russian suits designed to communicate on the american side? This
story is a example of whats wrong with ISS and such issues will be a future
investigation when something bad happens....
HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Apart from the obvious inaccuracies that I'll get called a pedant for, I
feel that having two systems that are different may, in this instance be a
plus point. if the problem in US cooling systems is endemic, then taking
just one sort up there would have been a bad move. I'm sure it would not be
that difficult to make the two types of suit work comms wise with each other
at some point, both are fairly old tech these days though, and I'd have
thought someone down here was more than half way to a better one by now!

Brian

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"bob haller" wrote in message
...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120793,00.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA (search) ruled Monday that U.S. spacesuits
(search) on the international space station (search) are unusable and
ordered
the crew to use Russian gear instead, adding considerable time and
distance to
a critical spacewalk next month.



The crew wanted to wear American suits and go out the much closer American
hatch to get to a broken power supply unit on the exterior of the space
station, but a cooling problem with the outfits made that impossible.

The mid-June spacewalk involves replacing a power control and circuit
breaker
box that last month shut down one of the gyroscopes that stabilize the
space
station and keep it tilted in the right direction. Only two of the four
U.S.
gyroscopes are working, the bare minimum; the first one shut down two
years ago
and cannot be replaced until NASA's shuttles fly again.

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and astronaut Mike Fincke spent the past few
days,
without success, trying to get water flowing properly to Padalka's
American
spacesuit for cooling. They could not get a spare U.S. spacesuit to work,
either. So with only one good U.S. spacesuit on board, NASA managers
decided to
use Russian suits and conduct the spacewalk from the Russian side of the
station.

The crewmen need to leave from the Russian side because the Russian
spacesuits
are not compatible with communication equipment in the U.S. air lock.

The Russian hatch is about 80 feet from the bad circuit breaker, located
on the
American side of the station. The U.S. hatch is 30 feet from the work
site.

Fincke and Padalka will use an approximately 50-foot Russian-built
telescoping
boom to get part way there, and will be on the lookout for antennas and
other
protruding hazards.

"It's not as dangerous as a mine field by any means," Fincke said in an
interview with The Associated Press. "It's just going to take a fair
amount of
time to get there and to come back."

NASA engineers, meanwhile, are trying to figure out what is wrong with the
two
U.S. spacesuits, unused for more than a year. Replacement parts are
limited
aboard the station because of the grounding of the shuttle fleet since
last
year's Columbia disaster. A Russian cargo ship was scheduled to blast off
Tuesday, carrying much-needed supplies.

Until shuttle flights resume next spring, at the earliest, station
astronauts
will likely be limited to four Russian spacesuits for outside work. Two
are
brand new; one malfunctioned during a spacewalk by the previous crew in
February, but the cooling problem -- a crimped water line -- has since
been
fixed.

Fincke and Padalka, one month into a six-month stay, already had two
Russian-based spacewalks on their schedule before a third was added to
restore
the powerless gyroscope.

"We know that there's a feeling down below that maybe there are a lot of
problems up here, but to be honest with you, Gennady and I have talked
about
this. We really don't see it the same way that perhaps people on the
ground
do," Fincke said. Aside from the failed circuit breaker, the bad suits and
some
burned-out lights, "We feel really comfortable. We really like this space
station. It is a masterpiece."



So why arent russian suits designed to communicate on the american side?
This
story is a example of whats wrong with ISS and such issues will be a
future
investigation when something bad happens....
HAVE A GREAT DAY!


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So why arent russian suits designed to communicate on the american side? This
story is a example of whats wrong with ISS and such issues will be a future
investigation when something bad happens....

Um...agreeably, this does sound like something that should be a simple fix. If
US and Russian spacecraft can communicate, EVA crews should be able to
communicate. But I understand why as both suits were designed at a time when
the two key partners in ISS were in competition in everything from space flight
to washing machines, and as no EVA's are planned to use both suits...

Anyway, off the "doom and gloom" end.

Were fresh US suit components delivered by STS 113, or a previous crew? Just
curious as to how long they've been up there. I know the Expedition 6 crew
conducted an EVA using the US suits.

Another question, how many cases on record are there of Shuttle-Era spacesuit
failures? I know on STS 5 they had problems with both suits that caused the EVA
to be canceled (which I guess would have had to happen here if there weren't
Russian suits available). I also recall reading that on either STS 103 or 109
(one of the later HST servicing flights) that two crew members on seperate EVA
teams had to swap suits basically due to a malfunction with one.

I don't remember any other Shuttle EVA's being called off or cut short due to
problems with US space suits.

-A.L.

Anyway, off the "doom and gloom" end.

Ahh poster here repeatedy talk of how dangerous spacewalks are. this one is
much worse because of the communication issue.

but seemingly few comments and no concern.

lets hope everythiung goes fine.

if your building a gazillion dollar station all parts should interface and
communicate well together
HAVE A GREAT DAY!

(MasterShrink) writes:
Another question, how many cases on record are there of Shuttle-Era spacesuit
failures? I know on STS 5 they had problems with both suits that caused the EVA
to be canceled (which I guess would have had to happen here if there weren't
Russian suits available). I also recall reading that on either STS 103 or 109
(one of the later HST servicing flights) that two crew members on seperate EVA
teams had to swap suits basically due to a malfunction with one.

STS-109. Grunsfeld's suit had a water leak so they had to swap suits.

I don't remember any other Shuttle EVA's being called off or cut short due to
problems with US space suits.

STS-61 (also an HST service mission, those seem to been most of the
EVAs) had a communication failure (one suit could communicate to the
EVA partner, but not Mission Control, so they had to relay). I seem
to recall that it cut the EVA a bit short.

Note that the Russian suits have had their share of problems.

--
Richard W Kaszeta

http://www.kaszeta.org/rich

Ahh poster here repeatedy talk of how dangerous spacewalks are. this one is
much worse because of the communication issue.

but seemingly few comments and no concern.

lets hope everythiung goes fine.

if your building a gazillion dollar station all parts should interface and
communicate well together

Agreed, but it isn't that much riskier than any other ISS EVA.

The two crewmen will be using the same space suits, Russian built ones, so
communications won't be a problem. The added risk is the fact that the crew has
a farther trek to the area they plan to work, and then a further trip back.
Provided the crew has sufficient training to deal with this task, all should go
well.

Unless there is a serious space suit malfunction in the middle of the EVA in
which case, you pretty much immedietly have a bad day.

-A.L.

In article , says...
(MasterShrink) writes:

snip

I don't remember any other Shuttle EVA's being called off or cut short due to
problems with US space suits.

STS-61 (also an HST service mission, those seem to been most of the
EVAs) had a communication failure (one suit could communicate to the
EVA partner, but not Mission Control, so they had to relay). I seem
to recall that it cut the EVA a bit short.

Note that the Russian suits have had their share of problems.

Yep, in particular the last one attempted. That problem is actually
fixed, though. (At least supposedly.)

However, I feel I need to point out that the very first scheduled
Shuttle-based EVA, on STS-5, was canceled because of a failure in one of
the suits. That little plum went to the next crew.

Doug

(MasterShrink) wrote in message ...
So why arent russian suits designed to communicate on the american side? This
story is a example of whats wrong with ISS and such issues will be a future
investigation when something bad happens....

Um...agreeably, this does sound like something that should be a simple fix. If
US and Russian spacecraft can communicate, EVA crews should be able to
communicate.
Note the issue is not coms between the types of suits (since a 'mixed'
EVA was never on the table) but coms from the suits while in the
airlock.
But I understand why as both suits were designed at a time when
the two key partners in ISS were in competition in everything from space flight
to washing machines, and as no EVA's are planned to use both suits...

Once again if bob had his basic research, he would know the quest is
in fact designed to handle both kinds of suits, but not all the
required equipment is currently on the station.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/assembly/elements/airlock/index.html
http://www.spaceref.com/iss/elements/airlock.html

From what I recall it isn't just coms, but also the fluid/gas/power
hookups that are required before the suit goes on internal resources.
May be wrong here, since I can't find a reference offhand.

The more intersting lesson from this whole episode is that the EMU
pumps (whose failure caused the switch to orlan) are apperently not a
flight servicable item.

(MasterShrink) wrote in message
Unless there is a serious space suit malfunction in the middle of the EVA in
which case, you pretty much immedietly have a bad day.

-A.L.

Actually, the most recent orlan EVA had a serious suit malfunction
(complete loss of coolant flow) and the only effects were an EVA cut
short, and a hot, sweaty cosmonaut.

Actually, the most recent orlan EVA had a serious suit malfunction
(complete loss of coolant flow) and the only effects were an EVA cut
short, and a hot, sweaty cosmonaut.



If this occured during the upcoming many times longer walk crossing solar
panels and antennas would it of endangered the astronaut?
HAVE A GREAT DAY!