"rotational spin"...
really?
Russian space boffins have lost control of a Progress cargo capsule which had been due to deliver 6,000lb of supplies to the International Space Station. The crazy podule is spinning and tumbling in orbit above the Earth as controllers try to establish contact with it. Youtube video The Progress 59 space-mule lifted off …
"Uhh… control? We… umm… have optically acquired SAT-1 but it's… I guess, spinning in a non-rotational manner? Over."
"Signals, please clarify the axes of spin, over."
"Control, SAT-1 appears to be spontaneously and continually inverting it's own structure around a point we conjecture to be the center of mass. We can see containers and parcels from the cargo bay ejecting in all directions, over."
This post has been deleted by its author
This post has been deleted by its author
In the meantime, the Russians will try and reestablish contact. If they fail the Progress capsule will be allowed to fall back into the atmosphere and burn up with its cargoSo, if they can't get the capsule to accept commands, they'll allow it to continue as it is, which will eventually degrade into the atmosphere and burn up?
What would be the alternative to allowing it to continue if it won't take commands? Send a fighter up with anti-sat missiles to "decommission" the capsule?
A couple of points. AFAIK the Progress is the only way of re-fueling the ISS now that there are no more ATVs (Anyone feel free to correct me on this).
There is no hope in hell of another ATV mission. The production line has been closed, and for example some of the standard "off the shelf" components take 53 weeks to arrive after ordering. Add in Assembly, Integration and Test, and you'd be lucky to still remember this failure by the time it arrived!
There are a couple of extra ATV service modules, currently intended to be used on Orion test flights. The pressurised bits came from the Alenia production line which I think also makes the Cygnus pressurised container. A bodge job ATV might be possible in under a year, but you'd still need an Ariane 5 to launch it and the only way you'd free up one of them would be to pay a commercial payload a very large sum of money to delay...
True, though a couple of the second round bids for commercial resupply service contracts will have reboosts capability, one of which is partially based on the the ATV, granted how soon any could be ready is unknown. It would not be suprising if Siera Nenada and Lockheed Martin make some statements before the upcoming selection about how important it is their designs could offer redundancy in reboosting the station.
This post has been deleted by its author
The food, personal hygiene supplies and lots of other things are sent by each respective partner for their representatives on the ISS. As respect to the ISS all the partners seem to be cooperative and I suspect if the situation warranted it they would pool resources including food. But short of that they track their own. So NASA is not two shipments short, only one. And Russia is likely one short, unless this turns out to be less serious than it appears right now.
It was the geckos deciding they are no longer going to be confined to quarters and forced to make do with whatever knickknacks they could find for entertainment. They successfully stowed away on the Progress capsule but are still trying to work out the controls.
"Slow death from starvation in space prior to something similar happening on the way to Mars"
Or, y'know, if they get too hungry they could just pop out for a bite in the two Soyuz capsules docked to the station. Admittedly the cab fare back to the ISS is a bit steep, but there needs to be quite a few more failures before death by starvation is an issue.
I wonder if all 6 astronauts could ride back in one Soyuz. Is that an emergency option filed under Plan клоун автомобиль (kloun avtomobil')?
No, you can not get 6 people in a Solyuz, if you see what the inside with passengers looks like it is suprising three adults can fit in, even if they could rideing back without a seat you would likely get spinal damage. It is not an issue anyway since procedure is to keep enough vehicles everyone can leave if the need arises.