April 2001

The International Space Station is taking delivery of its enormous robotic arm as we speak, brought up by the first visitors to the ISS since the Expedition Two crew arrived as reported last month. The US Space Shuttle Endeavour docked flawlessly on the 21^st April, carrying the arm and the Rafaello supply module that will deliver its cargo right up to the airlock of the ISS so saving everything from going through the shuttle's cramped interior and avoiding delays associated with equalising the pressure between the shuttle and the ISS. Arriving with it was Italy's Umberto Guidoni, the first European to visit the ISS.

The "Big Arm" itself is essential for completing the space station with. It's more of a massive crane than an arm and can manoeuvre items as large as the shuttle, avoiding the need for so many relatively hazardous spacewalks. Maintenance time is a big issue on the ISS, particularly since the US has announced cutbacks that may reduce the number of astronauts available. Officially called "Canadarm2" the arm is 1,645Kg of composites, motors and metalwork developed by the Canadian Space Agency. Canada has sent Chris Hadfield up on the shuttle to babysit the arm. It is 17.6 metres long with seven motorised joints and can move both ends independently. Either end can grab hold of a special spigot that provides power and communications to the arm. These spigots are placed at various strategic locations about the space station. This allows it to walk around the space station like a giant inchworm, inspecting the outside for possible problems using its built-in cameras.
Eventually, the whole thing will run up and down the length of the ISS on its own rails, and have what they call a 'Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator' on the end, which is a bit like a Swiss Army Knife gone wild (depicted in the artist's impression from NASA on the left here. However it should be able to install an airlock and new solar panel modules without these niceties.
But first it had to be assembled, a process which itself took over 7 hours, and further work is needed to entirely disconnect it from the shuttle. After that it'll be tested out by moving Rafaello around the space station. But once it's ready the task of building the space station will be faster and safer.

The Trials and Tribulations of Tito

Dennis Tito looks on track for his visit to the ISS on the 30^th April (he should launch on the 28^th April). He has even met with President Vladimir Putin, who wishes him luck now that Tito has passed his final cosmonaut's exam. Although he is now cleared with the necessary Russian authorities, NASA are still clearly not happy and drag their feet to the last. They have even refused to take a 1 ¼ ounce package up for Tito, prepaid at a cost of $12,800 per pound. The package contains Final Frontier beef jerky, which has flown on the shuttle before and is in the NASA samples store. The product is already flight approved and would be unlikely to get in the way in the event of an emergency.

Still, Tito - if not the jerky - will be on a Soyuz with experienced cosmonauts Yuri Baturin and Talgat Musabayev. Tito will be in a spare seat on the craft and will come down in the old Soyuz that the ISS uses as an emergency lifeboat. These can only stay in space for 6 months, and so have to be cycled on a regular basis. Hopefully we'll be able to make a full report in next month's Launchpad.

Where The Bucks Stop

NASA's side of the ISS budget is overblown by US$4 billion, and in the light of pressure from the new Bush administration are having to consider some substantial cutbacks. One of these is the Crew Return Vehicle, which was meant to return the crew of seven in an emergency. Without this, the ISS relies upon the Soyuz craft to get them home if everything goes pear-shaped. But a Soyuz only holds three people. Two Soyuz craft would increase expense as they need to be changed every 6 months; also there may not be enough room for them to remain docked. But with only one Soyuz the ISS can only allow a crew of three. Normal maintenance requires at least two people's time, so reducing the amount of time for experiments by 80%. Not a cost-effective cutback you may think, but you're not an American accountant working for NASA. If you are, please let me know the rationale behind that one. The same cutback also kills the Pluto Express mission, so we won't get to find out what sort of atmosphere Pluto has for another 120 years - it'll freeze solid before we can get anything there now.

India Gets A Rocket

At 1543hrs local time on 18^th April, India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle left Andhra Pradesh and spent the next 17 minutes climbing into orbit. After last month's failure where a faulty booster started to BBQ the rocket proper, this successful launch puts India up in geosynchronous orbit along with the US, Russia, the European Union and China. This gains India some fair international prestige, an independent launch capability, and a lucrative market for commercial satellite launches if they can keep costs down. India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called it a "Proud day for India" and we hope that the Indian government continues to feel that way when their scientists come to them at the next annual budget.

It's Twins!

I was going to say that another planet has been found in our solar system, but the facts are a little debatable ever since Christian Veillet and colleagues from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope spotted them (if you'll pardon the pun on the image on the left). For a start, there are two of them, closely orbiting one another, but hey we have this double planet called Pluto with a big moon called Charon, and there's this planet called Earth with an unusually large moon too. But the bodies are only a few hundred miles in diameter, again like Pluto, so some say they're too small to qualify as planets. Then they're rather a long way out, somewhat beyond Pluto in what is called the Kuiper Belt - the home of comets - estimated to contain over 70,000 icy bodies. But it could be argued that they are still part of our solar system. What I'm wondering is if "twin" planets like Pluto/Charon and these two (named 1998 WW 31) could be more common than many think.

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"Why does The Vatican have lightning rods?" - Anon.
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