'Elektron' repair fails

Good comments, well said.

"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.