FYI,

"Ouch! Solar Panel Ripped on Space Station - Astronauts stop
unfurling array; damage could delay construction plan"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21536374

: A giant solar wing ripped as it was being unfurled by astronauts
: aboard the international space station on Tuesday, creating another
: problem for NASA at the orbiting outpost.

: The astronauts immediately halted the wing extension when they
: spotted the damage. By then, the solar panel was already extended
: 90 feet of its 115 feet (27 of 35 meters).

: "It looks like the damage appeared fairly suddenly," Discovery
: commander Pamela Melroy reported.

: Space station commander Peggy Whitson said the sun angle prevented
: her and the others from seeing the 2.5-foot (75-centimeter) tear
: sooner.

: The torn solar wing can still provide power. NASA's bigger concern
: is the structural problem posed by a partially deployed panel.

: "It's serious, because combined with the rotary joint problems on
: the other end of the truss, this threatens the availability of
: enough electricity to operate the two new science labs," NBC News
: space analyst James Oberg said. "This is the worst possible
: combination of two independent problems."

: The damage was especially agonizing for the 10 space travelers
: because it came on the heels of an otherwise hugely successful day.
: Two of shuttle Discovery's crew had just wrapped up a seven-hour
: spacewalk and were still reveling in the smooth extension of the
: first of two retracted solar wings on a newly installed beam.

: During the spacewalk — the third of their mission — Scott
: Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock installed a massive beam holding a
: pair of solar wings, which were folded up like an accordion. It
: took three days to move the beam from one location on the space
: station to another 145 feet (44 meters) away and was considered one
: of the hardest construction jobs ever attempted in orbit.

: Parazynski also dealt with the other problem on the space station,
: inspecting one of two rotary joints that keep the station's solar
: panels turned toward the sun.

: Steel shavings were found during a spacewalk over the weekend in
: the joint on the right side of the station, and Parazynski was
: asked to look at the left joint for comparison. Everything inside
: that joint was shiny and looked pristine.

: Until NASA figures out what's grinding inside the gears and fixes
: it, the right joint will remain in a parked position as much as
: possible, limiting power collection.

: NASA plans to take a closer look at the malfunctioning joint during
: a spacewalk on Thursday, although that work might be upstaged by
: the solar wing trouble.

: At Mission Control's request, Whitson retracted the torn solar wing
: just a bit to ease tension on it. She said there appeared to be
: quite a lot of deformation to the entire area, with several
: sections bowed backward and kinked in various places.

: Suffredini said the wing can provide 97 percent power since the
: power line doesn't appear to be damaged. He said spacewalking
: astronauts could cut whatever might be snagging the solar wing,
: like a hinge, and possibly sew up the tear. For almost any repair,
: the wing probably would have to be retracted in order for the crew
: to reach the damage.

: "We have a lot of options. We're in a good config (configuration)
: to sit here and work through this problem," he said.

: Discovery's space station construction mission has already been
: extended a day because of the solar joint problem, with landing set
: for Nov. 7. Suffredini hinted that another two days could be added
: to the flight if the newest problem is deemed serious enough.

-----------

"NASA Ponders Space Station Troubles"
Space.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20071030/sc_space/nasapondersspacestatio
ntroubles;_ylt=AlOrF8J.LS4evUJ3vvG_7NEE1vAI

: There's trouble brewing in space, but NASA officials said today
: that they are confident astronaut crews aboard the International
: Space Station (ISS) will work through the difficulties ahead with
: mission control's help.

: A worrisome joint on the space station first complicated space
: shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission, which launched a week ago, but
: today a torn solar array has added to the headaches of NASA mission
: managers.

: Ripped wing

: Suffredini said engineers and mission managers are still heavily
: discussing a plan of action, but thinks repairing the solar wing
: will become priority number-one in the following days. He said the
: 2.5-foot (0.76-meter) rip in the 115-foot (35-meter) wing has not
: stopped the array's energy-gathering ability, as it is generating
: 97 percent of its fully deployed power.

: "We're in a very good configuration in terms of being able to sort
: this problem out," Suffredini said of the situation. "It doesn't
: have to look good, it just have to give us power. We need it out,
: and need about as much power as it provides today."

: He noted that mission managers' concerns regard the solar array's
: fragile state, which dockings and undockings of space shuttle and
: Soyuz spacecraft might aggravate.

: "Everything we do has an effect on every other part of the space
: station," Suffredini said, noting that only a fully-deployed array
: is known to be stable. Because the array fabric is electrically
: sensitive and difficult to reach with either the space shuttle or
: space station robotic arms, a fix would be extremely challenging,
: Suffredini noted.

: Astronauts aboard the orbital laboratory monitored the unfurling
: process following a seven-hour spacewalk today. The first pair of
: solar wings, known as 2B, deployed without incident from the
: freshly reattached Port 6 (P6) solar array truss. One of the 4B
: solar wings opposite of the 2B pair, however, ripped after
: unfurling 80 percent of the way along a mast-like post.

: Worrisome joint

: The ripped array came after spacewalker Dan Tani discovered
: metallic grit in starboard-side joint early Sunday morning. The
: mechanism, called the solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ), is used to
: gently orient the space station's solar panels toward the Sun.

: Astronauts aboard the space station determined the metallic grit
: was iron-containing, which Suffredini thinks is coming from steel
: in the mechanism — a likely sign of damage.

: "The steel components are the bearings ... and gears," Suffredini
: said of devices in the SARJ, a motor-driven gear that looks similar
: to a Ferris wheel. He said twelve sliding clamps used to hold the
: 10-foot (3-meter) diameter wheel into place, called trundle bearing
: assemblies (TBAs), are suspect and would like to see astronauts
: inspect them during Thursday's 6.5-hour spacewalk.

: But Suffredini said the solar array rip will probably divert
: attention from such a focused inspection during the fourth of five
: STS-120 spacewalks.

: "I don't want to do any more damage to the array than has already
: been done," Suffredini said, and preventing it might mean delaying
: the launch of space shuttle Atlantis in early December, known as
: the STS-122 or 1E assembly mission.

------------

"Solar Wing Damage Adds to Space Station Troubles"
Reuters
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071030/sc_nm/space_shuttle_dc_46;_ylt=AjC
yUR.QKO76NX6IOJyy4EYE1vAI

: NASA's problems with the International Space Station's solar power
: wings multiplied on Tuesday after one panel ripped, threatening the
: structural integrity of the orbital outpost.

: The 2.5-foot (75-cm) tear reduced the wings' energy output by just
: a fraction but until NASA can anchor the panels, managers will not
: proceed with plans to launch Europe's long-delayed Columbus
: laboratory on December 6, space station program manager Mike
: Suffredini said.

: The problem surfaced at the end of an otherwise successful
: spacewalk by two shuttle Discovery astronauts to move a pair of the
: station's solar wing panels to the outermost end of the station's
: frame.

: To help stabilize the station, NASA locked the wings in place to
: prevent them from automatically tracking the sun for energy.

: "I don't want to do any more damage to the array than what's
: already been done," Suffredini told reporters.

: Managers previously deactivated automated operation of a second
: wing rotator after astronauts discovered metal shavings inside the
: joint.

: Engineers were assessing which side of the station's troubled power
: system to attack first. NASA already canceled plans for a spacewalk
: to test a shuttle heat shield repair technique so astronauts could
: instead inspect the joint where metal shavings were found on
: Sunday.

: That work might now be postponed in favor of fixing the tear in one
: of the left-side solar panels.

: "It's not a situation where anybody is particularly panicked," said
: Suffredini, adding that the fix might not be pretty.

: "All we need is power. It doesn't have to look good," he said.

: SCHEDULE SQUEEZE

: Video relayed from television cameras on the space station and
: shuttle Discovery showed a flap of the golden wing folded up and
: the panel's lower frame buckling.

: Station commander Peggy Whitson said the damage likely occurred as
: the folded-up blanket was being pulled out of its storage box.

: "We didn't abort because we didn't see the tear," Whitson radioed
: to ground controllers, explaining that the view was obstructed by
: sun glint and the station's robot arm.

: "Hey, no worries Peggy," replied astronaut Kevin Ford from Mission
: Control in Houston. "We had good video, too, and we were keeping
: our eye on it, so that's just the way it goes."

: NASA already faced a tight deadline to launch shuttle Atlantis
: between December 6 and 13 when sun angles were acceptable for the
: shuttle to berth at the orbital outpost. When managers decided to
: inspect the solar array joint during Thursday's spacewalk they
: added a day to what previously had been a 10-day visit at the
: station.

---------

"Panel on Space Station Solar Antenna (Panel) Rips"
AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071030/ts_alt_afp/usspaceshuttleiss_0710
30233241;_ylt=AuM1bksaInsJ2Q31Vf8Nn6ME1vAI

: NASA scientists were Tuesday examining the damage to a panel on a
: solar antenna on the International Space Station which ripped as it
: was repositioned by the crew of the shuttle Discovery.

: The edge of one of the 31 panels on the solar antenna tore just as
: the operation to redeploy the device -- directed by mission control
: back on Earth -- was almost complete, images carried live on NASA
: television showed.

: The solar antenna, which has wings measuring 76 meters (249 feet)
: when unfurled, was repositioned after astronauts earlier
: successfully installed a massive truss that is used to rotate the
: energy-generating solar arrays.

: Suffredini estimated the tear was about 90 centimeters, but said
: the solar antenna was providing about 97 percent of the energy it
: supplies to the space station.

: "That means that we have not damaged the feed wires. That's great
: news," he said.

: "So we have plenty of time to solve this problem ... we are
: tracking the sun ... so we are in a very good configuration in
: terms of being able to take some time to solve this problem," he
: added.

: The US space agency has started taking a series of photos of the
: solar panels to assess the scale of the damage and what repairs
: might be necessary. There was apparently no damage to the exterior
: cables between the panels.

: The status of the solar antenna, one of three on the orbiting space
: station, has taken on added importance after problems emerged with
: a rotary joint for another solar antenna recently installed on the
: ISS.

: The space station will need added electrical power for a European
: lab to be delivered in December and a Japanese lab due to be
: installed in 2008.

: The mishap with the antenna occurred after a successful spacewalk
: in which shuttle astronauts Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock
: finished the installation of the P6 truss with the help of robotic
: arms operated by colleagues aboard the shuttle and ISS, culminating
: a three-day effort.

: Lasting seven hours and eight minutes, it was the third of five
: scheduled space walks for the ambitious Discovery mission.

: The giant truss, a large 16-ton metal beam, was needed to deploy
: the solar antenna and had been stored on the top of the space
: station for seven years.

: NASA confirmed earlier on Tuesday it would extend Discovery's
: mission by one day to allow for a closer inspection of the flawed
: rotary joint that turns solar arrays aboard the space station.

: In a fourth space walk set for Thursday, astronauts will examine
: the rotary joint after having found small metal shavings and
: unusual wear in the joint in an earlier space walk on Sunday.

Mark Reiff