The Wire - bleak shuttle news; Opportunity's broken robot arm

Home

News

Home

News

News from Space

bleak shuttle news; Opportunity's broken robot arm

| Print |

E-mail

Written by staff
Wednesday, 14 December 2005
>worse and worse NASA was chagrined when, despite their best efforts to rectify the problem, their first post-Columbia shuttle launch experienced foam-shedding problems similar to those which led to Columbia’s destruction. Now new questions have been raised as to whether there was an abnormal buildup of gaseous oxygen in the engine compartment during take-off, according to a recent article in Florida Today. Of four sensors in the engine compartment, three showed normal oxygen levels, but the data from the fourth sensor was corrupt. However, two air samples automatically gathered from the compartment during launch revealed unnaturally high levels of oxygen in the compartment. While the odds are still on the side of bad data, the discovery of a new malfunction would be a grim revelation for the shuttle program; even if the anomaly is traced to sensor malfunctions, it still doesn’t leave us with a warm-and-fuzzy feeling. The next shuttle launch is tentatively scheduled for May 2006. >Opportunity to wander Martian desert with broken arm NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has been without the use of its robotic arm for several weeks, apparently due to a broken coil within one of the arm motors, according to recent NASA releases. Tests on Dec. 8 caused motion in the arm by increasing the voltage, and engineers are evaluating the arm’s condition and utility based on this new data. After nearly two Earth years on Mars, Opportunity has driven over four miles. Its twin rover, Spirit, continues to function fully.

< Prev		Next >

dig, dug

After a rough start, the Phoenix Mars Lander is successfully analyzing dirt samples dug up from...

clumping

While the robot arm on the Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully delivered dirt to the lander, at...

scoops and dumps

On June 2, NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft lifted its first scoop of Martian soil as a test of...

greetings from the Martian arctic

On May 25, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down in the Martian arctic in...

now with a pulsating carbon surface

Hidden right in the familiar Big Dipper, astronomers have discovered a new type of white dwarf...

ATV in space enounters rough patch

No, not an All Terrain Vehicle—an Automated Transfer Vehicle, which was launched by the...

and in this corner; taken too literally

and in this corner

Iran has launched a rocket into space from its own space center...

bright comet

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has probed the bright core of Comet 17P/Holmes, which...

extrasolar system

Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system,...

the goddess who flew to the moon

On Monday, Nov. 5, China’s Chang’e 1 satellite successfully entered lunar orbit, only...

walking; now with more black holes

walking

Space Shuttle astronauts recently completed installing a new solar power...

massive darkness

news from space

we’ll take two
The National Security Space Office has issued a...

the dark side of Iapetus

the dark side of Iapetus

“The side of Iapetus that faces forward in its...

burst; ion power

burst

A recently detected burst of radio waves has stumped scientists, who have...

hollow Mars

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the...

the Victoria era; the inconvenient polar ice

the Victoria era NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has descended into...

crashing in Kazakhstan

A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after...

aqua vitae

aqua vitae

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, while observing a young solar...

galactic dominion

As if detailed satellite maps of the Earth weren’t enough, or a virtual globe that you can...

Music
Seacoast CD bestsellers this week introducing The Buoy in Kittery Foreside; Funky Divas of Gospel and Rock My Soul Deerhunter; Hauschka; The Walkmen; Ocean a royal flush

Film
Student Bodies Quantum of Solace 976-EVIL

Boing Boing

NY Times: The Los Angeles of Ry Cooder and Mister Jalopy

Near The Burgess Shale

Homes with Tails: Homeowners providing their own fiber