ISS ammonia pump 'working well'
At those prices, we should hope so
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The ISS's new ammonia pump module is "working well", according to NASA, as the agency prepares to return the orbiting outpost to "normal configuration for standard operations by Thursday".
It took spacewalkers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Doug Wheelock three EVAs to swap out the failed unit, which died on 31 July and knocked out half of the station's cooling system.
NASA explains that this "Loop A" was repressurised on Monday and that a "quick data review of pump performance indicated no problems".
It adds: "To begin bringing the system fully back on line, Loop A was powered down Tuesday morning to allow Mission Specialist Shannon Walker to remove a contingency power jumper that had been routing cooling to systems from Loop B since July 31 when the pump module failed.
"Afterwards, flight controllers began the process of reactivating Loop A and the spare pump module to enable the continuation of systems reconfiguration. By 9:45 a.m. EDT* [13:45 GMT], the loop was up and running again."
Good news indeed, which just leaves the question: just how much did this plumbing job cost? Reg commenters have been pondering the matter, and one suggested: "Let's see, that's about 23 hours for two workers or 46 man hours. At the rate my plumber charges that would be $4600 plus parts. But I suppose the astronaut rate is a bit higher?"
Well yes, and one of the spacewalks was on a Sunday, which is going to up the rate a bit. In this case, though, since Caldwell Dyson and Wheelock were already on site, NASA didn't have to pay the call-out charge of $450m for an emergency space plumber shuttle launch. ®
Bootnote
* It's high time NASA stopped this irritating practice of using local timezones, especially its habit of switching between EDT or CDT or forgetting to mention which timezone it's referring to.
COMMENTS
NASA Timezones
It's because the typical American is too stupid to be able to convert from GMT.
The EDT/CDT thing is because NASA PAO is too stupid to remember if the particular event is in Houston time or KSC time. They do it all the time on NASA TV and yes, it's extremely irritating.
UTC not GMT?
I thought that there was typically a non-zero difference (in seconds) between GMT (average solar time at Grenwich) and UTC (adjusted atomic clock measurement)?
NASA should really use it whatever it's called though.
EDT/CDT Just use Zulu!
In Air Traffic Control, everyone around the world refers to 'Zulu time' (UTC), which helpfully enough is just GMT. Absolutely no idea why NASA don't do this as pretty much all other aerospace industry does and has done for years. From wikipedia:
"UTC is the time system used for many Internet and World Wide Web standards. In particular, the Network Time Protocol, which is designed to synchronise the clocks of many computers over the Internet (usually to that of a known accurate atomic clock), uses UTC.
Those who transmit on the amateur radio bands often log the time of their radio contacts in UTC, as transmissions can go worldwide on some frequencies.
UTC is also the time system used in aviation, Weather forecastings, flight plans, air traffic control clearances, and maps all use UTC (also colloquially referred to as "Zulu Time") to avoid confusion about time zones and daylight saving time."
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