Posted on 05/06/2003 3:57:15 PM PDT by blam
Computer error to blame for rapid fall of Soyuz
By Marcia Dunn in Star City, Russia
07 May 2003
A computer error is suspected of plunging the three spacemen who returned to Earth on Sunday into a descent that was so steep their tongues rolled back in their mouths and they could hardly breathe.
Their Soyuz spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan, 270 miles from its intended destination. The two US astronauts and one cosmonaut were returning after five months on board the International Space Station. The landing was the first since the Columbia space shuttle disaster in February.
One of the astronauts, Donald Pettit, the sickest and weakest upon return, said he did not mind having a few more hours alone with his crewmates after 161 days together in orbit. He had been warned about the "mob scene" and "hustle and bustle" awaiting him.
"I was actually relieved to ooze out of the spacecraft and lay on Mother Earth and have a solitude moment in which to get reacquainted," Pettit said yesterday.
After landing, all three were crawling for the first one and a half hours, said Nikolai Budarin, who opened the hatch and was the first one out. The transition to gravity was made all the more difficult by the ballistic descent. Pettit, Budarin and their commander, Kenneth Bowersox, withstood more than eight times the force of gravity on the way down, twice the usual amount for a Soyuz and three times that for a shuttle.
Russian space experts believe the problem was caused by software in the guidance computer installed in the new model Soyuz. It was the first time the modified spaceship had been used in re-entry. Nasa has been relying on the Soyuz since the shuttle fleet was grounded.
Hmm. Quite a test program.
And exactly what part of a computer is not designed, constructed, programmed or operated by humans?
It should be written:
It was the first time the modified spaceship had been tested in re-entry.
Sigh. Those were the days.
Who are calling a dimbulb? ;)
I am posting from my new G4 tower, running OS X, and using the Safari browser. You have never seen anything so beautiful.
But I agree those dopes in the commercials make Macs seem like idiot machines.
p.s. I didn't switch, I have always used and loved Macs. I just have to endure peecees at work.
15:23 06 May 03
NewScientist.com news service
A glitch in guidance software is thought to have caused an upgraded version of the Soyuz spacecraft to land 460 kilometres off course in Kazakhstan on Sunday.
The Russian spacecraft - bringing two astronauts and one cosmonaut back from the International Space Station (ISS) - re-entered Earth's atmosphere at a steeper angle than expected, causing the craft to decelerate at a higher rate and land 460 kilometres off course.
The steeper-than-normal re-entry angle would have caused the craft to encounter denser atmosphere and decelerate at twice the normal rate. The Soyuz touched down by parachute near the town of Turgai in south central Kazakhstan.
But the temporary loss of the spacecraft caused considerable concern among both Russian and US space officials. Although they knew the craft had landed off course and that radio contact had been lost, the crew was not known to be safe until rescue helicopters spotted them two-and-a-half hours later.
Upgraded software James Oberg, a veteran of the US space program and now an independent space analyst, says NASA believes the craft's upgraded software may have accidentally deactivated the system that keeps it oriented correctly.
"It's looking like a software error," Oberg told New Scientist. "That's based on the crews' account of how the computer mode changed without any input from them."
The Soyuz is the only way to carry astronauts to the ISS since the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on 1 February, which led to the grounding of NASA's shuttle fleet. This was the first landing by the new Soyuz TMA craft, which has more powerful flight computers, upgraded software, new soft-landing rockets and a larger cockpit.
Back-up system The computer system aboard each Soyuz is designed to automatically orient the craft so that it enters Earth's atmosphere at precisely the right angle. If this system should malfunction, it will switch to a less precise back-up orientation mechanism.
Yury Semenov, head of the Energia Space Corporation, which builds the Soyuz TMA, said a member of craft's three-person crew could have accidentally deactivated the orientation system. But Oberg's NASA sources did not suspect human error: "They have reviewed the accounts of what the crew did and see no incorrect actions," he says.
Shortly after the crew was picked up, Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian Space Agency, said an investigation had been launched to determine what went wrong.
Another Soyuz TMA is currently docked at the International Space Station (ISS) and is scheduled to return the current crew of two to Earth in October. But Oberg says it would be relatively simple to remotely update the software aboard this craft.
Will Knight
I understand. But try not to associate the idiots with the machines and the OS. If you get a chance to have a look at OS X, you'll see what I mean.
The longer I live, the more I begin to embrace my impending Old F*rthood.
You know you are approaching Old Farthood when you use a "*" to disguise fart!
LOL
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