Shuttle Discovery

I'm watching NASA TV on the web at this very moment [smile]

Check out channel (whatever it may be where you are). MSNBC News. Very interesting program is on. Talking to some good ol` astronauts.

I am. I am so glad the space program is running again. Yay, a future with a purpose!

Delayed due to weather! Next ETA is 6:22 a.m.

Looks like they waved that one off too and are shooting for an opertunity tuesday.

Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission?

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Original post by Diodor Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission?

I think, if it lands, they acheived a space trip with a spaceshuttle without it blowing up.

Also, it is time they get rid of the space shuttle and came up with a better solution, since it took them 4 repairs to fix this one. I wouldn't sit comfortable in that thing while entering the atmosphere...

Toolmaker

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Original post by Diodor Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission?

They gave the people who were stuck on the space station some supplies didnt they?

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Original post by grekster Quote: Original post by Diodor Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission? They gave the people who were stuck on the space station some supplies didnt they?

Yay! But please help me out here - I'm just a casual space news reader. What has the space station achieved (or what will it achieve)?

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Original post by Diodor Quote: Original post by grekster Quote: Original post by Diodor Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission? They gave the people who were stuck on the space station some supplies didnt they? Yay! But please help me out here - I'm just a casual space news reader. What has the space station achieved (or what will it achieve)?

ISTR that one of the major things it does it to run scientific experiments which need to be conducted in zero gravity.

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Original post by grekster Quote: Original post by Diodor Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission? They gave the people who were stuck on the space station some supplies didnt they?

A big portion of the mission was repairing the station's gyroscopes. There are four, and at least two are required for stabilizing it. One of them had been faulty for months, and the other had died. If there are fewer than two operational gyroscopes, the station could have fallen out of geosynchronous orbit and would eventually crash back to Earth (over a period of days, though). They replaced both and rebooted the gyroscopes; now all four work.

I wish successful landing to the crew. And of course congratulations on well-done job.

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Original post by kSquared Quote: Original post by grekster Quote: Original post by Diodor Yay! By the way, what were the achievements of this mission? They gave the people who were stuck on the space station some supplies didnt they? A big portion of the mission was repairing the station's gyroscopes. There are four, and at least two are required for stabilizing it. One of them had been faulty for months, and the other had died. If there are fewer than two operational gyroscopes, the station could have fallen out of geosynchronous orbit and would eventually crash back to Earth (over a period of days, though). They replaced both and rebooted the gyroscopes; now all four work.

First, gyroscopes do not "keep station in space", second, it is not on geosynchronous orbit.

Gyroscopes have nothing to do with orbiting, heavy gyroscopes only control orientation. If gyroscopes break, station will start to somehow spin as result of little forces caused by air drag (there's some air at this altitude) But axis of station will probably remain pointing to center of Earth. Spinning ISS is indeed not a good thing; if station is unstable, it can spin up to the point of desintegration caused by centrifugal forces. (Though I would expect it to be designed so that can not happen; i would expect it to somehow oscilate and turn around a bit every time astronaut moves inside). Another bad thing is that in space, you can't enter spinning station even if it rotates slowly.
Though, for some months, thrusters could be used instead of hyroscopes.

Anyway, it's very good thing gyroscopes got replaced; my point is only that it is not some magical engines keeping station in orbit. Them just keep stuff in specific orientation.